The Call of the Wild: Selected Short Stories by Jack London

Chapter 23: An Odyssey in the North (6)
"He suggested: 'Let's go hunting.'

"I chimed in: 'Okay, let's go hunting.'

"He told Enka not to waste his energy, just stay by the fire. Then, the two of us set off. While he was looking for elk, I went to find the food that I had diverted. But I didn't want to I ate very little food to make them aware of my energy. He fell down many times that night before returning to our campsite. I faltered and tripped over my snowshoes. I pretended that I was as weak as he was when every step seemed like I was going to lose weight. We then ate moccasin boots for strength.

"That man is really extraordinary. Until the moment of his death, he still used his willpower to support his body. Only Enka can make him cry. I hope to see the moment of his death, and followed him the next day when he went hunting. Now and then he would lie down on the ground to rest for a while. He was nearly dead that night, but by the next morning he uttered a few feeble curses and went on .He looks like a drunkard. I have mistakenly thought he was going to die many times, but he survived the day. His willpower is unmatched. He relied on great willpower To keep his body from falling over. He caught two partridges, which can be eaten raw instead of roasted. If he ate them, he would save his life, but he did not want to do it. He turned and turned back to our camp, only because he had Enka in his heart. He crawled on his hands and knees in the snow, and he had no strength left to walk. I came to him and saw that death had appeared in his eyes. Even so, he can now escape the threat of death by eating the grouse. He threw the rifle aside, and took two grouse in his mouth, like a dog. I go Beside him, body is stiff. He can't figure out why I'm so strong, every time he stops to rest, he looks in my direction. I can see his lips moving, but no sound , he had already lost the strength to speak. He was indeed extraordinary, as I have just mentioned. I was a little bit sad, but everything I had been through before, how I was in that endless stretch of land on the coast of Russia The torment caused by hunger and severe cold in the forest came to my mind at this moment. What's more, I donated those priceless animal skins, kayaks, and jewels, all for Enka, so she didn't It is mine.

"Walking through the snow-covered forest, in the silence of the surroundings, we felt a certain heaviness, like a damp fog on the sea. Dreamy lights and shadows appeared in the sky, hanging over us. Around me, the past is reappearing. The yellow sandy beach of Akatun, the kayaks paddling quickly on the way home from fishing, and many houses located near the forest all appeared before my eyes. In addition, I also saw my and the ancestors of my wife Enka, who came to the chiefdom themselves and made many rules and regulations. Oh, and there was Yahi Nusi with his hair stained Yellow sand, the surface of the sand is still wet, and he is holding a spear in his hand, which is the one he broke off at the beginning. Enka's dark eyes appeared before my eyes again, and I understood that at a certain moment It's finally here.

"We were walking through the forest, as I have just mentioned. After that, we continued on, and then the smoke from the fire from the campfire got into our nostrils. Just then, I bent The waist snatched the two grouse from his mouth. He turned and rested for a moment, with surprise in his eyes. His hand resting on the bottom began to slowly fumble for the hunting knife hanging on his hip. I took his knife in his hand, and laughed at him. He couldn't figure it out by this time. So I pretended to be drinking from a black bottle, and pretended to put a lot of things in the snow. Eventually I replayed everything that happened on my wedding night in front of him. He understood me, even though I didn't say anything. But he wasn't afraid at all. He raised his lips in a slight sarcasm A smile, cold anger appeared in his eyes, and his strength seemed to recover a little, this was his reaction in front of the truth. He crawled slowly in the deep snow, which was already far away from the campsite. Closer. Once, he lay on the ground for a long time. I turned him over and looked into his eyes intently. His eyes were sometimes looking into the distance, and sometimes they were dim. When I put him After letting go, he began to move forward desperately. Finally, we reached the campfire. Enka came to him immediately. He moved his lips, but he couldn't make a sound. He wanted Enka to understand himself He pointed at me. For a long time after that, he lay silently in the snow. He is still lying there now.

"I kept silent until the grouse was cooked. Then I began to speak to her in her native language. She hadn't heard it in years. She straightened up just as I do now, her Eyes wide open, full of astonishment, she asked me where I had learned the language, and who I was.

"I replied: 'I am Nass.'

"She said: 'Nath? Are you Nath?' She crawled towards me, trying to get close to me, to get a good look at me.

"I replied: 'Yes, I am the chief Nas of Akatun. I am the only survivor of our family, and you are the only survivor of your family. In this respect, we are the same.'

"She let out a big laugh. I hope I'll never hear that laugh again, I can swear on everything I've seen and done. My heart goes cold for her laugh. Terrible, I sat alone on that quiet snowy night, with only death and that laughing woman by my side.

"I felt she was going mad, so I said to her, 'Come here! Come here! We'll leave here after we eat. We'll have a long way to go back to Akatun.'

"But she was still laughing, and while she was laughing, she covered her face with his yellow hair. At the end of the laugh, the sky seemed to be collapsing around our ears. When she saw me, she would It was such a reaction, which surprised me very much. I thought she would be so happy that she was going crazy, and everything that happened in the past would immediately revive in her memory.

"I took her hand tightly and said in a loud voice: 'There we go! Let's go quickly, the road we have to go is long and dark!'

"She finally stopped laughing weirdly, sat up and asked me: 'Where are you going?'

"I said, 'To Akatun.' I only hoped that she would look very happy at my answer. But she lifted her lips, and smiled a faint sarcasm, with cold anger Appearing in her eyes, it was no different from his previous reaction.

"She said: 'Okay, let's go, and we'll go back to Akhaton hand in hand. We'll live together in dirty thatched huts, we'll eat fish and fat, and we'll have a son—he'll call us Proud of him all our lives. We'll live happily ever after, the happiest, and we'll forget all the rest. It's good, it's good as hell. Well! We'll set off for Acre right now Tuen.'

"She gave a vicious grin while running her fingers through his yellow hair. That smug look didn't come into her eyes.

"I don't understand what makes her so weird, I just sit there and don't say a word. I think back to the night she was forcibly taken by him, she screamed and pulled his hair - now, But she was nostalgic for them and kept rubbing them. In addition, I also recalled that I had waited for so many years and paid so much. Then, just like him in the past, I forcibly grabbed her, Take it away. She backed away, resisting, like a mother cat who was forcibly taken away from her kitten, which was no different from her reaction that night. When we got to the other side of the campfire, I put the She let go, for now she was parted from him. She sat down and listened to me. I told her all that had happened to me, all that had happened to me in strange seas and countries, and that I had tried so hard to find her. All the strength, all the years I've been starving, and all the secret promises she showed me at the beginning, I told her. Well, I told her everything, even Including all the things that happened between me and him, and those things we experienced in our youth. While talking about these things, I noticed that the kind of dark eyes gradually appeared in her eyes, just like the morning A ray of sunshine, strong and touching. The pity in Enka's eyes, the tenderness and love of women, her heart and soul, are all in my eyes. Back then Enka ran to the beach, and then ran away with a smile Going back to my mother's house with the same look in my eyes makes me feel like a young man again. I don't panic anymore, I don't feel hungry, I don't wait like I used to. The moment finally arrives I feel like she is telling me to put my head on her chest so that all the experience will be erased from my memory. I see her open arms facing me, and I jump to her side .Suddenly, the fire of resentment rekindled in her eyes, and she reached out with her hand, all the way up to my waist. She stabbed me once, and then again, twice in total.

"She pushed me down into the snow and laughed coldly: 'Bastard!' She let out another burst of laughter, piercing the silence around her: 'Pig!' She returned to her dead body again.

"She stabbed me once, and again, as I mentioned earlier. However, she didn't kill me, because she was already exhausted by starvation. Still, I wanted to close My eyes, stay there, I want to sleep with the two of them forever. The reason why I have passed through countless strange journeys is because there is an intersection between my life and theirs. But I can't sleep with peace of mind , because I have been thinking about a debt.

"I carried myself through the long and icy walk with very little food. The Pali had eaten up all the food I had hidden in the shed because they couldn't hunt the elk. The same The same happened to the three white men who stayed in McQuarson. But when I passed there, I saw that they had turned into three corpses in the wooden house. Before they died, they had been starved to death. I I have forgotten everything that happened after that. At last I arrived here, and there was food and fire—a blazing fire.”

Having said these words, he leaned over the stove with an air of envy.The lamp cast his shadow on the wall, and that shadow seemed to play out all sorts of tragedies for a long time.

"But where's Enka?" Prince exclaimed, still deeply shaken by the sight.

"Enka? She didn't want to eat the grouse. She lay on the spot with her arms around his neck, her face completely hidden by his yellow hair. To keep her warm, I moved the fire closer to her, She crawled on to the other side. I started a fire on that side, too, but as she would not eat, I tried in vain. They lay till this moment in the snow."

Malmute?Gide asked, "Then what are your plans for the future?"

"I don't know either. I don't want to go back to that little Akatun and continue to live at the end of the world. But why do I need to live anymore? Captain Constantine will put handcuffs and fetters on me, and I can Choose to meet him. They will then tie a rope around my neck. That way, I can sleep peacefully. But... this is not such a good choice. In short, I myself can not say it clearly."

Prince said firmly, "Gide, but this is a murder case!"

"Keep your voice down!" Malmute?Gide responded in a serious tone, "There are many things that we cannot understand based on our IQ alone, and even our standards of justice cannot judge them. We can't say at all, here Who is the right party and who is the wrong party in this matter, not to mention, we don't even have the qualifications to judge which is right and which is wrong."

Nas moved closer to the stove again, shortening the distance from the stove again.It was very quiet.Countless scenes are constantly emerging in front of everyone's eyes.

(End of this chapter)