Klondyke  Victims
(1970)

The two men sat huddled together close to their camp fire under the pine which was their only protection from the steadily falling snow. The sledge dogs were curled up a yard or so away, half buried in snow, all but one were sleeping: that one was the slowly dying "Carmen".

"Carmen won't last much longer, Jim", said Judd as he bit a piece of ice from between the dog's paw pads

"I know. She gets weaker every day, was the reply as Jim sipped at his steaming coffee.

"I'm turning in now", said Judd as he spat out the last lump of ice.

"I'll stoke up the fire", his companion replied. There was no sound but the howl of a hungry wolf somewhere out in the white open wastes.

Next morning a watery sun shone low over the eastern horizon. The snow was thick and soft after the night's fall. The dogs were asleep when Judd and Jim arose but the clatter of plates and smell of cooking soon brought them scampering from their sleeping places. Breakfast was soon over because the food was running low.

After breakfast the sleeping bags were rolled up and stacked on a sledge with the other small belongings of the travellers. The dogs were harnessed up and the party moved out. Several times the sledges got snowed up but somehow the two men managed to dig them out.

For days Jim and Judd struggled on through the same routine day after day, night after night, provisions running lower and lower unill one evening, as the two men sat trying to keep warm, Carmen let out a wail and was silent for ever. Judd jumped in the direction of the dogs and knew the worst straight away, even though he could only see a swirling mass of excited dogs having their best feed for weeks.

"I miss Carmen", he said.

"Me too".

"She was the most loyal dog I ever knew".

"Yep, I agree, said Jim with a slight catch in his voice and a hint of tears in his eyes. Next morning all that was left of Carmen was a few bones and a couple of handfuls of stiffened fur. but even these Jim religiously buried as if they were the remains of his own kin.

As the days went by these scenes became more frequent and after a while did not have such an emotional effect on Jim. This went on until one morning when the travellers awoke to find only two dogs left alive. They could not between them pull a sledge and so Judd and Jim collected all their belongings together and with the two dogs close by their heels set off walking. For hours they walked and covered miles of white glistening snow and then they successfully negotiated a hill hoping that from the top they could at least see a glimpse of civilisation, but all their hopes were demolished when from the top of the hill all they could see from horizon to horizon was icy barren wastes. Judd voiced the thoughts of them both -

"What is to become of us now?"

N. BRITTAIN.