“There was no particularly easy way of getting at the two dogs, except from the other side of the pile.  But nobody was on that side—­everybody watching the ceremony, you see.  Even then everything might have been all right if the captain hadn’t thrown a club at the dogs.  That was what precipitated everything.  As I say, if the captain hadn’t thrown that club, nothing might have happened.

“The missionary had just reached the point where he was saying ’In sickness and in health,’ and ‘Till death us do part.’  And just then the captain threw the club.  I saw the whole thing.  It landed on Pee-lat, and at that instant the white brute jumped him.  The club caused it.  Their two bodies struck the box, and it began to slide, its lower end tilting down.  It was a long oblong box, and it slid down slowly until it reached the perpendicular, when it came down on the run.  The onlookers on that side the circle had time to get out from under.  Flush of Gold and the Count, on the opposite side of the circle, were facing the box; the missionary had his back to it.  The box must have fallen ten feet straight up and down, and it hit end on.

“Now mind you, not one of us knew that Dave Walsh was dead.  We thought he was on the Glendale, bound for Dawson.  The missionary had edged off to one side, and so Flush of Gold faced the box when it struck.  It was like in a play.  It couldn’t have been better planned.  It struck on end, and on the right end; the whole front of the box came off; and out swept Dave Walsh on his feet, partly wrapped in a blanket, his yellow hair flying and showing bright in the sun.  Right out of the box, on his feet, he swept upon Flush of Gold.  She didn’t know he was dead, but it was unmistakable, after hanging up two days on a timber jam, that he was rising all right from the dead to claim her.  Possibly that is what she thought.  At any rate, the sight froze her.  She couldn’t move.  She just sort of wilted and watched Dave Walsh coming for her!  And he got her.  It looked almost as though he threw his arms around her, but whether or not this happened, down to the deck they went together.  We had to drag Dave Walsh’s body clear before we could get hold of her.  She was in a faint, but it would have been just as well if she had never come out of that faint; for when she did, she fell to screaming the way insane people do.  She kept it up for hours, till she was exhausted.  Oh, yes, she recovered.  You saw her last night, and know how much recovered she is.  She is not violent, it is true, but she lives in darkness.  She believes that she is waiting for Dave Walsh, and so she waits in the cabin he built for her.  She is no longer fickle.  It is nine years now that she has been faithful to Dave Walsh, and the outlook is that she’ll be faithful to him to the end.”

Lon McFane pulled down the top of the blankets and prepared to crawl in.

“We have her grub hauled to her each year,” he added, “and in general keep an eye on her.  Last night was the first time she ever recognized me, though.”