October 30, 2022 • 42 mins
"To Build A Fire" by Jack London
A man strugles to survive a harsh cold
Author
Jack London - Jack London
Cast
D.E. Medus - Narrator - david.medusmedia.com
Music
Into the Unknown by Oddsprite
Art
Art for this episode includes modified versions of:
Photo by Mohammed Abdullah on Unsplash
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Hello and welcome to this podepisode 20. With Halloween
coming up, everyone is sharingspooky stories. I wish to share
with you a tale of terror. Itdoesn't involve monsters or
aliens or even murderers. Just asimple tale of a man against one
of his greatest foes. Nature.And this case, extreme cold. For
(00:31):
those of you who are new here,some episodes of meat as Potter
full cast affairs with Foley inmusic, sometimes I just want to
tell you a story like this one.Before we start, I'd like to
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from various listeners since thelast show. The only ones that
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even if they didn't leave amessage. All of the story folks
(01:41):
to build a fire by Jack London.Day had dawned cold and gray
when the man turned aside fromthe main Yukon trail. He climbed
the high Earth bank where alittle traveled trail led east
through the pine forest. It wasa high bank and a pause to
breathe at the top. He excusedthe act to himself by looking at
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his watch. It was nine o'clockin the morning. There was no sun
or promise of sun. Althoughthere was not a cloud in the
sky. It was a clear day.However, there seemed to be an
indescribable darkness over theface of things. That was because
the sun was absent from the sky.This factor did not worry the
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man he was not alarmed by thelack of sun. It had been days
since he had seen the sun. Themen looked along the way he had
come. The Yukon lay a mile wideand hidden under three feet of
ice on top of the ice, whereasmany feet of snow. It was all
pure white. North and South, asfar as I could see was an
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unbroken white. The one thingthat relieved the whiteness was
a thin dark line that curvedfrom the pine covered Islands to
the south. It curved into thenorth where it disappeared
behind another pine coveredIsland. This dark line was the
trail the main trail. It ledSouth 500 miles to the Chilkoot
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pass and salt water. It lednorth 75 miles to Dawson and
still further on to the north1000 miles to new lotto. And
finally, to St Michael on BeringSea 1000 miles and a half more.
But all this the distant trail,no sun in the sky, the great
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cold and the strangeness of itall had no effect on the man. It
was not because he was longfamiliar with it. He was a
newcomer in the land, and thiswas his first winter. The
trouble with him was that he isnot able to imagine. He was
quick and ready in the things oflife, but only in the things and
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not their meanings. 50 degreesbelow zero meant 80 degrees of
frost. Such facts told him thatit was cold and uncomfortable.
And that was all. It did notlead him to consider his
weakness as a creature affectedby temperature. Nor did he think
about man's general weakness,able to live only within a
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narrow limit of heat and cold.From there it did not lead him
to thoughts of Heaven and themeaning of a man's life. 50
degrees below zero meant a biteof frost that hurt and that must
be guarded against by the use ofmittens ear coverings, warm
moccasins and thick socks. 50degrees below zero was to him
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nothing more than 50 degreesbelow zero. That it should be
more important than that was athought that never entered his
head. As he turned to go, heforced some water from it. His
mouth as an experiment, therewas a sudden noise that
surprised him. He tried it againand again in the air before they
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could fall to the snow. Thedrops of water became ice that
broke with the noise. He knewthat at 50 below zero water from
the mouth made a noise when ithit the snow. But this had done
that in the air. Undoubtedly itwas colder than 50 below. But
exactly how much colder he didnot know. But the temperature
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did not matter. He was headedfor the old camp on Henderson
Creek, where the boys werealready they had come across the
mountain from the Indian CreekCountry. He had taken the long
trail to look at the possibilityof floating logs from the island
and the Yukon down the riverwhen the ice melted. He would be
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in camp by six o'clock thatevening. It would be a little
after dark, but the boys wouldbe there. A fire would be
burning, and a hot supper wouldbe ready. As he thought of
lunch, he pressed his handsagainst the package under his
jacket. It was also under hisshirt, wrapped in a
handkerchief, and lying forwarmth against his naked skin.
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Otherwise the bread wouldfreeze. He smiled contently to
himself as he thought of thosepieces of bread, each of which
enclosed a generous portion ofcooked meat.
He plunged among the big pinetrees. The trail was not well
marked here. several inches ofsnow had fallen since the last
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sled had passed. He was glad hewas without a sled. Actually, he
carried nothing but the lunchwrapped in the handkerchief. He
was surprised, however, at thecold. It certainly was cold he
decided as He rubbed his noseand face with his mittened hand.
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He had a good growth of hair onhis face, but it did not protect
his nose or the upper part ofhis face from the frosty air.
Following the man's heels was abig native dog, and was a wolf
dog gray coated and notnoticeably different from its
brother, the wild wolf. Theanimal was worried by the great
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cold. It knew that this was notime for traveling. Its own
feeling was closer to the truththan the man's judgment. And
reality it was not merely colderthan 50 below zero. It was
colder than 60 below than 70below. It was 75 below zero.
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Because the freezing point is 32above zero. It meant that there
were 107 degrees of frost. Thedog did not know anything about
temperatures, possibly and itsbrain there was no understanding
of a condition of very cold,such as was in the man's brain.
But the animals sense to thedanger. It's fear made it
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question eagerly every movementof the man as if it were
expecting him to go into a campor seek shelter somewhere and
build a fire. The dog hadlearned about fire and it wanted
fire. Otherwise it would digitself into the snow and find
the shelter from the cold air.The frozen moistness of its
breath had settled on its furand a fine powder of frost. The
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hair on the man's face wassimilarly frosted, but more
solidly. It took the form of iceand increased with every warm,
moist breath from his mouth.Also, the man had tobacco in his
mouth. The ice held his lips sotightly together that he could
not empty the juice from hismouth. The result was a long
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piece of yellow ice hanging fromhis lip. If he fell down, it
would break like glass into manypieces. He expected the ice
formed by the tobacco juice,having been out twice before
when it was very cold. But ithad not been as cold as this. He
knew. He continued through thelevel forest for several miles.
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Then he went down a bank to thefrozen path of a small stream.
This was Henderson Creek, and heknew he was 10 miles from where
the stream divided. He looked athis watch. It was 10 o'clock. He
was traveling at the rate offour miles an hour. Thus, he
figured that he would arrivewhere the stream divided at half
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past 12 He decided that he wouldeat lunch when he arrived there.
The dog followed again at hisheels and its tail hanging low
as the man started to walk alongthe frozen stream. The old sled
trail can be seen but it doesn'tinches of snow covered the marks
of the last sled. And a month noman had traveled up or down that
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silent Creek, the man wentsteadily ahead. He was not much
of a thinker. At that moment, hehad nothing to think about,
except that he would eat lunchat the streams divide. And then
at six o'clock, he would be inthe camp with the boys. There
was nobody to talk to, and hadthere been speech would have not
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been possible because of the icearound his mouth. Once in a
while, the thought repeateditself that it was very cold,
and that he had neverexperienced such cold as he
walked along and rubbed his faceand knows what the back of his
mitten hand. He did this withoutthinking, frequently changing
hands. But with all thisrubbing, the instant he stopped,
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his face and nose became numb,his face would surely be frozen.
He knew that he was sorry thathe had not worn the sort of nose
guard bud wore when it was cold.Such a guard passed across the
nose and covered the entireface. But it did not matter
much. He decided what was alittle frost, a bit painful.
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That was all. It was neverserious. Empty as the man's mind
was of thoughts, he was mostobservant. He noticed the
changes in the creek, the curbsand the bends, and he always
noted where he placed his feet.Once coming around the bend, he
moved suddenly to the side, likea frightened horse.
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He curved away from the placewhere he had been walking and
retracted his steps several feetalong the trail. He knew the
creek was frozen to the bottom.No Creek could contain water in
that winter. But he also knewthat there were streams of water
that came out of the hillsidesand ran under the snow and on
top of the ice of the creek. Heknew that even in the coldest
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winter the streams were neverfrozen. And he also knew their
danger. They hid pools of waterunder the snow that might be
three inches deep, or threefeet. Sometimes a skin of ice
half an inch thick covered themand in turn was covered by the
snow. Sometimes there were bothwater and thin ice. And when a
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man broke through, he could getvery wet. That was why he had
jumped away so suddenly, he hadfelt the ice move under his
feet. He had also heard thenoise of the snow covered ice
skin breaking and to get hisfeet wet in such a temperature
meant trouble and danger. At thevery least emit delay, because
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he would be forced to stop andbuild a fire. Only under its
protection could he bear hisfeet while he dried his socks
and moccasins. He stood andstudied the creek bottom and its
banks. He decided that theflowing stream of water came
from the right side. He thoughta while rubbing his nose and
face. Then he walked to theleft. He stepped carefully and
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tested the ice at each step.Once away from the danger, he
continued at his four mile pace.During the next two hours he
came to several similar dangers.Usually the snow above the pool
has sunken appearance. However,once again, he came near to
falling through the ice. Oncesince in danger, he made the dog
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go ahead, the dog did not wantto go. It hesitated until the
man pushed it forward. And thenit went quickly across the white
unbroken surface. Suddenly itfell through the ice, but
climbed out on the other sidewhich was firm. It had wet its
feet and legs. Almostimmediately the water on them
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turned to ice. The dog makequick efforts to get the ice off
his legs. Then it lay down inthe snow and began to bite out
the ice that had formed betweenits toes. The animal knew enough
to do this. To permit the eyesto remain would mean sore feet.
It did not know this. It merelyobeyed the command that arose
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from the deepest part of itsbeing. But the man knew these
things having learned them fromexperience. He removed the
mitten from his right hand andhelp the dog tear out the pieces
of ice. He did not bear hisfingers more than a minute and
was surprised to find that theywere numb. It certainly was
cold. He pulled on the mittenquickly and beat the hand across
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his breast. At 12 o'clock theday was at its brightest. Get
the sun did not appear in thesky at half past 12 on the
minute he arrived at the dividein the creek. He was pleased at
his rate of speed. If hecontinued he would certainly be
with the boys by six o'clockthat evening. He unbuttoned his
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jacket and shirt and pulledforth his lunch. The action took
no more than a quarter of aminute. Yet in that brief
moment. The numbness touched hisbare fingers he didn't not put
the mitten on, but insteadstruck his fingers against his
leg. Then he sat down on a snowcovered log to eat. The pain
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that followed the striking ofhis fingers against his legs
ceased so quickly that he wasfrightened. He had not time to
take a bite of his lunch. Hestruck them fingers repeatedly,
and returned them to the mitten.Then he bared the other hand for
the purpose of eating. He triedto make a mouthful, but the ice
around his mouth prevented him.Then he knew what was wrong. He
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had forgotten to build a fireand warm himself. He laughed at
his own foolishness. As helaughed he noted the numbness of
his bare fingers. Also, he notedthat the feeling which had first
come to his toes when he satdown was already passing away.
He wondered whether the toeswere warm or whether they were
numb. He moved them inside themoccasins and decided that they
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were numb. He pulled them at nonhurriedly and stood up. He was
somewhat frightened. He stampedforcefully until feeling
returned to his feet. Itcertainly was cold, was his
thought. That man from SilverCreek had spoken the truth when
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telling how cold is sometimesgotten in this country. And he
had laughed at him at the time.That showed one must not be too
sure of things.
There was no mistake about it.It was cold. And he walked a few
steps, stamping his feet andwaving his arms until reassured
by the returning warm. Then hetook some matches and proceeded
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to make a fire. And the bushesthe high water had left some
live sticks. From here, he gotwood for his fire. Working
carefully From a smallbeginning, he soon had a roaring
fire. Bending over the fire, hefirst melted the ice from his
face. With the protection of thefires warmed he ate his lunch.
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For the moment, the cold hadbeen forced away. The dog took
comfort in the fire lying atfull length close enough for
warmth and far enough away toescape being burned. When the
man had finished eating, hefilled his pipe with tobacco and
had a comfortable time with asmoke. Then he pulled on his
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mittens, settled his cap firmlyabout his ears and started along
the creek trail toward the left.The dog was sorry to leave and
look toward the fire. This mandid not know cold. Possibly none
of his ancestors had known cold,real cold. But the dog knew and
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all of his family do. And itknew that it was not good to
walk outside and such a fearfulcold. Who has the time to lie in
a hole in the snow and wait forthe awful cold to stop. There
was no real bond between the dogand the man. The one was the
slave of the other. The dog madeno effort to indicate its fears
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to the man. It was not concernedwith the well being of the man.
It was for its own sake thatlooked toward the fire. But the
man whistled and spoke to itwith the sound of the whip and
his voice. So the dog startedwalking close to the man's heels
and followed him along thetrail. The man put more tobacco
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in his mouth and started a newgrowth of yellow ice on his
face. Again, the moist breathquickly powdered the hair on his
face with white. He lookedaround. There did not seem to be
so many pools of water under thesnow on the left side of
Henderson Creek. And for half anhour the man saw no signs of
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any. And then it happened. At aplace where there were no signs
the man broke through. It wasnot deep. He was wet to the
knees before he got out of thewater to the firm's know. He was
angry and cursed his luckallowed. He had hoped to get
into the camp with the boys atsix o'clock and this would delay
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him an hour. Now he would haveto build a fire and dry his
moccasins and socks. This wasmost important at that low
temperature. He knew that much.So he turned aside to the bank,
which he climbed on top underseveral small pines. He found
some firewood which had beencarried there by the high water
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of last year that were sticksbut also some larger branches
and some dry grasses. He threwseveral large branches on top of
the snow. This served for afoundation and prevented the
young flame from dying in thewet snow. He made a flame by
touching a match to a smallpiece of tree bark that he took
from his pocket. This burnedeven better than paper, placing
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it on the foundation he fed theyoung flame with pieces of dry
grass, and with the smallest drysticks. He worked slowly and
carefully realizing his danger.Gradually, as the flame grew
stronger, he increased the sizeof his sticks with which he fed
it. He sat in the snow, pullingthe sticks from the bushes under
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the trees and feeding themdirectly to the flame. He knew
he must not fail. When is 75below zero, a man must not fail
in his first attempt to build afire. This is especially true
when his feet are wet. If hisfeet are dry, and he fails, he
can run along the trail for halfa mile to keep his blood moving.
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But the blood and wet feetfreezing cannot be kept moving
by running when it's 75 degreesbelow. No matter how fast he
runs, the wet feet will freezeeven harder. All this the man
knew. The old man on SilverCreek had told him about it. And
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now he was grateful for theadvice. Already, all feeling was
gone from his feet. To build thefire, he had been forced to
remove his mittens, and thefingers have quickly become
numb. His pace so four miles anhour had kept his heart pushing
the blood to all parts of hisbody. But the instant he
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stopped, the action of the heartslowed down.
He now received the full forceof the cold. The blood of his
body drew back from it. Theblood was alive, like the dog.
Like the dog, it wanted to hideand seek cover away from the
fearful cold. As long as hewalked four miles an hour, the
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blood rose to the surface. Butnow it sank down into the lowest
depths of his body. His feet andhands were the first to feel its
absence. His wet feet frozefirst, his bare fingers were
numb. Although they had not yetbegun to freeze, nose and face
were already freezing, while theskin of his body became cold as
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it lost its blood. But he wassafe. Toes and nose and face
would be only touched by thefrost. Because the fire was
beginning to burn with strength.He was feeding it with sticks
the size of his finger andanother minute he would be able
to feed it with larger branches.Then he could remove his wet
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moccasins and socks. While theydried, he could keep his naked
feet warm by the fire, rubbingthem first with snow. The fire
was a success. He was safe. Heremembered the advice of the old
man at soul for Creek andsmiled. The man had been very
serious when he said that no manshould travel alone in the
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country after 50 below zero.Well, here he was. He had had
the accident. He was alone, andhe had saved Himself. Those old
men were rather womanish hethought all A man must do is
keep his head and he was allright. A man who was a man could
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travel alone. But it wassurprising the rapidity of which
his face and nose were freezing.And he had not thought his
fingers could lose their feelingand so shorter time without
feeling they were because hefound it very difficult to make
them move together to grasp thestick. They seemed far from his
body and from him. When hetouched a stick, he had a look
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to see whether or not he washolding it. All of which
mattered little. There was afire promising life with every
dancing flame. He started tountie his moccasins. They were
coated with ice. The thick sockswere like iron, almost to the
knees. The moccasins stringswere like ropes of steel. For a
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moment, he pulled them with hisunfeeling fingers. Then
realizing the foolishness of it.He grasped his knife. But before
he could cut the strings, ithappened. It was his own fault.
Or instead his mistake. Heshould not have built the fire
under the pine tree. He shouldhave built it in an open space.
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It had been easier to pull thesticks from the brush and drop
them directly into the fire. Nowthe tree under which he had done
this carried a weight of snow onits branches. No wind had been
blowing for weeks and eachbranch was heavy with snow. Each
time he pulled a stick. He shookthe tree slightly. There had
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been just enough movement tocause the awful thing to happen.
High up in the tree one branchdropped. It's load of snow that
fell on the branches beneath.This process continued spreading
through the whole tree. The snowfell without warning upon the
man and the fire and the firewas dead. Where it had burned
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was a pile of fresh snow. Theman was shocked. It was like
hearing his own judgment ofdeath. For a moment he sat and
stared at the spot where thefire had been. And he grew very
calm. Perhaps the old man onSilver Creek was right. If he
had a companion on the trail, hewould be in no danger. Now, the
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companion could have built thefire. Now he must build the fire
again, and the second time, hemust not fail. Even if he
succeeded, he would be likely tolose some toes. His feet must be
badly frozen by now. And therewill be some time before a
second fire was ready. Such werehis thoughts. But he did not sit
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and think them. He was busy allthe time they were passing
through his mind. He made a newfoundation for the fire, this
time in an open space where notree would be above it. Next, he
gathered dry grasses and tinysticks. He could not bring his
fingers together to pull themout of the ground, but he was
able to gather them by thehandful.
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And this way, he also got manypieces that were undesirable,
but it was the best he could do.He worked carefully, even
collecting an arm full of thelarger branches to be used when
the fire gathered strength. Andall the while the dog sat and
watched him. There was anxiouslooking at ties, but it depended
on him as the fire provider, andthe fire was slow and coming.
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When all was ready, the manreached his pocket for the
second piece of tree bark. Heknew the bark was there,
although he could not feel itwith his fingers. He tried again
and again. But he could notgrasp it all the time. In his
mind. He knew that each instanthis feet were freezing. This
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thought alarmed him. But hefought past it and kept calm. He
pulled on his mittens with histeeth and began swinging his
arms. Then he beat his handswith all his strength against
suicides. He did this while hewas sitting down. Then he stood
up to do it. All the while thedog sat in the snow its tail
curled warmly over its feet, andit sharp wolf ears bent behind
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it as it looked at the man. Andthe man as he waved his arms and
hands looked with longing at thecreature that was warm and
secure, and the coveringprovided by nature. After a time
he began to notice some feelingsin his beaten fingers. The
feeling grew stronger until itbecame very painful. But the man
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welcome to the pain. He pulledthem in from his right hand and
grasped the tree bark in hispocket. The bear fingers were
quickly now again. Next, hebrought out a pack of matches.
But the awful cold had alreadydriven the life out of his
fingers and has ever to separateone match from the others the
whole pack fell in the snow. Hetried to pick it out of the snow
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but failed, the dead fingerscould neither touch nor hold.
Now he was very careful. Hedrove the thought of his
freezing feet and nose and facefrom his mind. He devoted his
whole soul to picking up thematches. He followed the
movement of his fingers with hiseyes, using his sense of sight
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instead of that of touch. Whenhe saw his fingers on each side
of the packet, he closed them.That is He willed to close them.
Because the fingers did notobey. He put the mitten on his
right hand and beat it fiercelyagainst his knee. Then, with
both mittened hands, he liftedup the pack of matches, along
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with much snow to the front ofhis jacket. But he had gained
nothing. After some struggling,he managed to get the pack
between his mittened hands. Inthis manner, he carried it to
his mouth. The eyes broke as heopened his mouth with a fierce
effort. He used his upper teethto rub against the pack in order
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to separate a single match. Hesucceeded and getting one which
he dropped on his jacket is goodcondition was no better. He
could not pick up the match.Then he thought how he might do
it. He picked up the match inhis teeth and drew it across his
leg 20 times he did this beforehe succeeded in lighting it. As
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it flamed he held it with histeeth to the tree bark. But the
burning smell went up his nosecausing him to cough. The match
fell into the snow and the flamedied. The old man on sulphur
Creek was right. He thought inthe moment of controlled despair
that followed. After 50 belowzero, a man should travel with a
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companion. He beat his hands butfailed to produce any feeling in
them. Suddenly, he buried bothhands, removing the mittens with
his teeth. He caught the wholepack of matches between his
hands, his arm muscles were notfrozen, and he was able to press
his hands tightly against thematches. Then he drew the whole
pack along his leg, it burstinto flame 70 matches at once.
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There was no wind to blow themout. He kept his head to one
side to escape the burning smelland held the flaming pack to the
tree bark. As he so held it, henoticed some feeling in his
hand. His flesh was burning, hecould smell it. The feeling
developed into pain, hecontinued to endure it. He held
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the flame of the matches to thebark that would not like readily
because his own burning handswere taking most of the flame.
Finally, when he could endure nomore, he pulled his hands apart,
the flaming matches fell intothe snow, but the tree bark was
burning.
He began laying dry grasses andthe tiniest sticks on the flame.
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He could not choose carefullybecause they must be pieces that
could be lifted between hishands. Small pieces of grass
stayed on the sticks, and he bidthem off as well as he could
with his teeth. He treated theflame carefully. It meant life
and it must not cease. The bloodhad left the surface of his
body, and he had now began toshake from the cold. A large
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piece of wet plant fell on alittle fire. He tried to push it
out from his fingers, hisshaking body made him push it
too far, and he scattered thelittle fire over a wide space.
He tried to push the burninggrasses and sticks together
again. Even with the strongeffort that he made, his
trembling fingers would not obeyand the sticks were hopelessly
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scattered. Each stick smoked alittle and died. The fire
provider had failed. As helooked about him, his eyes
noticed the dog sitting acrossthe ruins of the fire from him.
It was making uneasy movements,slightly lifting one foot and
then the other. The side of thedog put a wild idea into his
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head. He remembered a story of aman caught in a storm, who
killed an animal and shelteredhimself inside the dead body,
and thus was saved. He wouldkill the dog and bury his hands
in a warm body until the feelingreturned to them. And then he
could build another fire. Hespoke to the dog, calling it to
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him. But in his voice was astrange note of fear that
frightened the animal. It hadnever known the man to speak in
such a tone before something waswrong. And it's since danger. It
knew not what danger. Butsomewhere in its brain arose a
fear of the man. It flattened totears at the sound of the man's
voice. It's uneasy movement andthe liftings of its feet became
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more noticeable, but it wouldnot come to the human. He got
down on his hands and knees andwent to the dog. For this
unusual position again excitedfear and the animal moved away.
The man sat in the snow for amoment and struggled for
calmness. Then he pulled on hismittens using his teeth, and
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then he stood on his feet. Heglanced down to assure himself
that he was really standingbecause the lack of feeling his
feet gave him no relation to theearth. His position, however,
removed the fear from the dog'smind. When he commanded the dog
with his usual voice, the dogobeyed and came to him. As it
(33:56):
came within his reach, the manlost control. His arm stretched
out to hold the dog and heexperienced real surprise when
he discovered that his handscould not grasp. There was
neither bend nor feeling in thefingers. He had forgotten for
the moment that they were frozenand that they were freezing more
and more. All this had happenedquickly and before the animal
(34:18):
could escape he encircled itsbody with his arms. He sat down
in the snow and in this fashionheld the dog while It barked and
struggled. But it was all hecould do. Hold its body and
circled in his arms and sitthere. He realized that he could
not kill the dog. There was noway to do it. With his frozen
(34:40):
hands he could neither draw norhold his knife. nor could he
grasp the dog around the throat.He freed it and dashed wildly
away still barking. It's not 40feet away and observed him
curiously, with ears sharplybent forward. The man looked out
of his hands to locate them andfound them hanging on the ends
(35:03):
of his arms. He thought itcurious that it was necessary to
use his eyes to discover wherehis hands were. He began waving
his arms, beating the mittenhands against his sides. He did
this for five minutes. His heartproduced enough blood to stop
the shaking, but no feeling wascreated in his hands. A certain
(35:27):
fear of death came upon him. Herealized that it was no longer a
mere problem of freezing hisfingers and toes, or of losing
his hands or feet. Now, it was aproblem of life and death, with
the circumstances against him.The fear made him lose control
of himself, and he turned andran along the creek bed. On the
(35:50):
Old Trail, the dog joined himand followed closely behind him.
The man ran blindly in fear,such as he had never known in
his life. Slowly, as hestruggled through the snow, he
began to see things again, thebanks of the creek, the bear
trees and the sky.
The running made him feelbetter, he did not shake
(36:11):
anymore. Maybe if he continuedto run, his feet would stop
freezing. Maybe if he ran farenough, he would find the camp
and the boys. Without doubt, hewould lose some fingers and toes
and some of his face, but theboys would take care of him, and
save the rest of him when he gotthere. And at the same time,
(36:33):
there was another thought in hismind. That said he would never
get to the camp and the boys. Ittold him that it was too many
miles away, that the freezinghad to greatest art, and that he
would soon be dead. He pushedthis thought to the back of his
mind and refuse to consider it.Sometimes it came forward and
demand to be heard. As he pushedit away, he tried to think of
(36:56):
other things. It seemed strangeto him that he could run on feet
so frozen, that he could notfeel them when they struck the
earth and took the weight of hisbody. He seemed to be flying
above the surface, and to haveno connection with the earth.
His idea of running until hearrived at the camp with the
boys presented one problem. Helacked the endurance. Several
(37:22):
times he caught himself as hewas falling. Finally, he dropped
to the ground, unable to stophis fall. When he tried to rise,
he failed. He must sit and rest,he decided next time he would
merely walk and keep going. Ashe sat and regained his breath,
(37:44):
he noted that he was feelingwarm and comfortable. He was not
shaking, and it even seemed thata warm glow had come to his
body. And yet, when he touchedhis nose or face, there was no
feeling running would not bringlife to them, nor would it help
his hands or feet. Then thethought came to him that the
(38:06):
frozen portions of his body mustbe increasing. He tried to keep
this thought out of his mind andto forget. He knew that such
thoughts caused a feeling offrightened him, and he was
afraid of such feelings. But thethought returned and continued
until he could picture his bodytotally frozen. This was too
(38:29):
much. And he again ran wildlyalong the trail once he slowed
to a walk, but the thought thatthe freezing of his body was
increasing made him run again.And all the time the dog ran
with him at his heels. When hefell a second time, the dog
curled its tail over its feetand sat in front of him facing
(38:50):
him. Curiously eager. The warmthand security of the animal
angered him. He cursed it, andit flattened to tears. This
time, the shaking because of thecold began more quickly. He was
losing the battle with thefrost. It was moving into his
body from all sides. Thisthought drove him forward, but
(39:15):
he ran no more than 100 feetwhen he fell headfirst. It was
his last moment of fear. When hehad recovered his breath in his
control, he sat and thoughtabout meeting death with
dignity. However, the idea didnot come to him in exactly this
manner. His idea was that he hadbeen acting like a fool. He had
(39:38):
been running around like achicken with its head cut off.
He was certain to freeze in hispresent circumstances, and he
should accept it calmly. Withthis newfound peace of mind that
came the first sleepiness a goodidea he thought to sleep his way
to death. Freezing was as an Notas bad as people thought. There
(40:02):
were many worse ways to die. Hepictured the boys finding his
body the next day. Suddenly hesaw himself with them, coming
along on the trail and lookingfor himself. And still with
them. He came around a turn ofthe trail and found himself
lying in the snow. He did notbelong with himself anymore.
(40:25):
Even then, he was outside ofhimself, standing with the boys
and looking at himself in thesnow, and certainly was cold was
his thought. When he returned tothe United States, he could tell
the folks what real cold was.His mind went from this to the
fall of the old man at sulphurCreek. He could see him quite
(40:48):
clearly warm and comfortable andsmoking a pipe. You're right old
fellow. You're right. hemurmured to the Old Man of
sulfur Creek. Then the mandropped into what seemed to him
the most comfortable andsatisfying sleep he had ever
known.
(41:08):
The dogs that facing him andwaiting. The brief day ended in
a long evening. There are nosigns of a fire can be made.
Never in the dog's experiencehadn't known a man to sit like
that in the snow, and make nofire. As the evening grew
darker, its eager longing for afire mastered it. With much
(41:30):
lifting of its feet, it criedsoftly than it flattened its
ears, expecting the man's curse,but the man remained silent.
Later, the dog Howard loudly,and still later, it moved close
to the man and caught the smellof death. This made the animal
(41:50):
back away. A little longer, adelayed, howling at the stars
that leaped and danced and shonebrightly in the cold sky. Then
it turned and ran along thetrail towards the camp it knew
where there were the other foodproviders and fire providers
(42:16):
meet us pause and meet US mediaproduction. All rights reserved
unless otherwise stated. Ourmusic comes to us from odd
Sprite, you can hear more oftheir music at odds bright.com.
Remember, if it's more than 50below, travel with a buddy. Have
a good one, folks. We'll see younext time.
Hello and welcome to this podepisode 20. With Halloween
coming up, everyone is sharingspooky stories. I wish to share
with you a tale of terror. Itdoesn't involve monsters or
aliens or even murderers. Just asimple tale of a man against one
of his greatest foes. Nature.And this case, extreme cold. For
(00:31):
those of you who are new here,some episodes of meat as Potter
full cast affairs with Foley inmusic, sometimes I just want to
tell you a story like this one.Before we start, I'd like to
thank those who have donated tome this pod via boosts, the
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when listeners using a modernpodcast app like fountain or pod
(00:54):
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folks. We don't do sponsors. Wereceive all of our support from
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would like to return it. Wereceived quite a few Satoshis
(01:15):
from various listeners since thelast show. The only ones that
left messages are snoopersMaximus on fountain who said
love the stories and con onfountain who said Great show 100
emoji. We'd like to thankeverybody for their support,
even if they didn't leave amessage. All of the story folks
(01:41):
to build a fire by Jack London.Day had dawned cold and gray
when the man turned aside fromthe main Yukon trail. He climbed
the high Earth bank where alittle traveled trail led east
through the pine forest. It wasa high bank and a pause to
breathe at the top. He excusedthe act to himself by looking at
(02:05):
his watch. It was nine o'clockin the morning. There was no sun
or promise of sun. Althoughthere was not a cloud in the
sky. It was a clear day.However, there seemed to be an
indescribable darkness over theface of things. That was because
the sun was absent from the sky.This factor did not worry the
(02:30):
man he was not alarmed by thelack of sun. It had been days
since he had seen the sun. Themen looked along the way he had
come. The Yukon lay a mile wideand hidden under three feet of
ice on top of the ice, whereasmany feet of snow. It was all
pure white. North and South, asfar as I could see was an
(02:55):
unbroken white. The one thingthat relieved the whiteness was
a thin dark line that curvedfrom the pine covered Islands to
the south. It curved into thenorth where it disappeared
behind another pine coveredIsland. This dark line was the
trail the main trail. It ledSouth 500 miles to the Chilkoot
(03:17):
pass and salt water. It lednorth 75 miles to Dawson and
still further on to the north1000 miles to new lotto. And
finally, to St Michael on BeringSea 1000 miles and a half more.
But all this the distant trail,no sun in the sky, the great
(03:39):
cold and the strangeness of itall had no effect on the man. It
was not because he was longfamiliar with it. He was a
newcomer in the land, and thiswas his first winter. The
trouble with him was that he isnot able to imagine. He was
quick and ready in the things oflife, but only in the things and
(04:01):
not their meanings. 50 degreesbelow zero meant 80 degrees of
frost. Such facts told him thatit was cold and uncomfortable.
And that was all. It did notlead him to consider his
weakness as a creature affectedby temperature. Nor did he think
about man's general weakness,able to live only within a
(04:23):
narrow limit of heat and cold.From there it did not lead him
to thoughts of Heaven and themeaning of a man's life. 50
degrees below zero meant a biteof frost that hurt and that must
be guarded against by the use ofmittens ear coverings, warm
moccasins and thick socks. 50degrees below zero was to him
(04:47):
nothing more than 50 degreesbelow zero. That it should be
more important than that was athought that never entered his
head. As he turned to go, heforced some water from it. His
mouth as an experiment, therewas a sudden noise that
surprised him. He tried it againand again in the air before they
(05:10):
could fall to the snow. Thedrops of water became ice that
broke with the noise. He knewthat at 50 below zero water from
the mouth made a noise when ithit the snow. But this had done
that in the air. Undoubtedly itwas colder than 50 below. But
exactly how much colder he didnot know. But the temperature
(05:33):
did not matter. He was headedfor the old camp on Henderson
Creek, where the boys werealready they had come across the
mountain from the Indian CreekCountry. He had taken the long
trail to look at the possibilityof floating logs from the island
and the Yukon down the riverwhen the ice melted. He would be
(05:54):
in camp by six o'clock thatevening. It would be a little
after dark, but the boys wouldbe there. A fire would be
burning, and a hot supper wouldbe ready. As he thought of
lunch, he pressed his handsagainst the package under his
jacket. It was also under hisshirt, wrapped in a
handkerchief, and lying forwarmth against his naked skin.
(06:18):
Otherwise the bread wouldfreeze. He smiled contently to
himself as he thought of thosepieces of bread, each of which
enclosed a generous portion ofcooked meat.
He plunged among the big pinetrees. The trail was not well
marked here. several inches ofsnow had fallen since the last
(06:39):
sled had passed. He was glad hewas without a sled. Actually, he
carried nothing but the lunchwrapped in the handkerchief. He
was surprised, however, at thecold. It certainly was cold he
decided as He rubbed his noseand face with his mittened hand.
(06:59):
He had a good growth of hair onhis face, but it did not protect
his nose or the upper part ofhis face from the frosty air.
Following the man's heels was abig native dog, and was a wolf
dog gray coated and notnoticeably different from its
brother, the wild wolf. Theanimal was worried by the great
(07:20):
cold. It knew that this was notime for traveling. Its own
feeling was closer to the truththan the man's judgment. And
reality it was not merely colderthan 50 below zero. It was
colder than 60 below than 70below. It was 75 below zero.
(07:41):
Because the freezing point is 32above zero. It meant that there
were 107 degrees of frost. Thedog did not know anything about
temperatures, possibly and itsbrain there was no understanding
of a condition of very cold,such as was in the man's brain.
But the animals sense to thedanger. It's fear made it
(08:03):
question eagerly every movementof the man as if it were
expecting him to go into a campor seek shelter somewhere and
build a fire. The dog hadlearned about fire and it wanted
fire. Otherwise it would digitself into the snow and find
the shelter from the cold air.The frozen moistness of its
breath had settled on its furand a fine powder of frost. The
(08:27):
hair on the man's face wassimilarly frosted, but more
solidly. It took the form of iceand increased with every warm,
moist breath from his mouth.Also, the man had tobacco in his
mouth. The ice held his lips sotightly together that he could
not empty the juice from hismouth. The result was a long
(08:51):
piece of yellow ice hanging fromhis lip. If he fell down, it
would break like glass into manypieces. He expected the ice
formed by the tobacco juice,having been out twice before
when it was very cold. But ithad not been as cold as this. He
knew. He continued through thelevel forest for several miles.
(09:14):
Then he went down a bank to thefrozen path of a small stream.
This was Henderson Creek, and heknew he was 10 miles from where
the stream divided. He looked athis watch. It was 10 o'clock. He
was traveling at the rate offour miles an hour. Thus, he
figured that he would arrivewhere the stream divided at half
(09:37):
past 12 He decided that he wouldeat lunch when he arrived there.
The dog followed again at hisheels and its tail hanging low
as the man started to walk alongthe frozen stream. The old sled
trail can be seen but it doesn'tinches of snow covered the marks
of the last sled. And a month noman had traveled up or down that
(10:00):
silent Creek, the man wentsteadily ahead. He was not much
of a thinker. At that moment, hehad nothing to think about,
except that he would eat lunchat the streams divide. And then
at six o'clock, he would be inthe camp with the boys. There
was nobody to talk to, and hadthere been speech would have not
(10:22):
been possible because of the icearound his mouth. Once in a
while, the thought repeateditself that it was very cold,
and that he had neverexperienced such cold as he
walked along and rubbed his faceand knows what the back of his
mitten hand. He did this withoutthinking, frequently changing
hands. But with all thisrubbing, the instant he stopped,
(10:43):
his face and nose became numb,his face would surely be frozen.
He knew that he was sorry thathe had not worn the sort of nose
guard bud wore when it was cold.Such a guard passed across the
nose and covered the entireface. But it did not matter
much. He decided what was alittle frost, a bit painful.
(11:06):
That was all. It was neverserious. Empty as the man's mind
was of thoughts, he was mostobservant. He noticed the
changes in the creek, the curbsand the bends, and he always
noted where he placed his feet.Once coming around the bend, he
moved suddenly to the side, likea frightened horse.
(11:29):
He curved away from the placewhere he had been walking and
retracted his steps several feetalong the trail. He knew the
creek was frozen to the bottom.No Creek could contain water in
that winter. But he also knewthat there were streams of water
that came out of the hillsidesand ran under the snow and on
top of the ice of the creek. Heknew that even in the coldest
(11:51):
winter the streams were neverfrozen. And he also knew their
danger. They hid pools of waterunder the snow that might be
three inches deep, or threefeet. Sometimes a skin of ice
half an inch thick covered themand in turn was covered by the
snow. Sometimes there were bothwater and thin ice. And when a
(12:15):
man broke through, he could getvery wet. That was why he had
jumped away so suddenly, he hadfelt the ice move under his
feet. He had also heard thenoise of the snow covered ice
skin breaking and to get hisfeet wet in such a temperature
meant trouble and danger. At thevery least emit delay, because
(12:37):
he would be forced to stop andbuild a fire. Only under its
protection could he bear hisfeet while he dried his socks
and moccasins. He stood andstudied the creek bottom and its
banks. He decided that theflowing stream of water came
from the right side. He thoughta while rubbing his nose and
face. Then he walked to theleft. He stepped carefully and
(13:01):
tested the ice at each step.Once away from the danger, he
continued at his four mile pace.During the next two hours he
came to several similar dangers.Usually the snow above the pool
has sunken appearance. However,once again, he came near to
falling through the ice. Oncesince in danger, he made the dog
(13:23):
go ahead, the dog did not wantto go. It hesitated until the
man pushed it forward. And thenit went quickly across the white
unbroken surface. Suddenly itfell through the ice, but
climbed out on the other sidewhich was firm. It had wet its
feet and legs. Almostimmediately the water on them
(13:43):
turned to ice. The dog makequick efforts to get the ice off
his legs. Then it lay down inthe snow and began to bite out
the ice that had formed betweenits toes. The animal knew enough
to do this. To permit the eyesto remain would mean sore feet.
It did not know this. It merelyobeyed the command that arose
(14:03):
from the deepest part of itsbeing. But the man knew these
things having learned them fromexperience. He removed the
mitten from his right hand andhelp the dog tear out the pieces
of ice. He did not bear hisfingers more than a minute and
was surprised to find that theywere numb. It certainly was
cold. He pulled on the mittenquickly and beat the hand across
(14:27):
his breast. At 12 o'clock theday was at its brightest. Get
the sun did not appear in thesky at half past 12 on the
minute he arrived at the dividein the creek. He was pleased at
his rate of speed. If hecontinued he would certainly be
with the boys by six o'clockthat evening. He unbuttoned his
(14:48):
jacket and shirt and pulledforth his lunch. The action took
no more than a quarter of aminute. Yet in that brief
moment. The numbness touched hisbare fingers he didn't not put
the mitten on, but insteadstruck his fingers against his
leg. Then he sat down on a snowcovered log to eat. The pain
(15:08):
that followed the striking ofhis fingers against his legs
ceased so quickly that he wasfrightened. He had not time to
take a bite of his lunch. Hestruck them fingers repeatedly,
and returned them to the mitten.Then he bared the other hand for
the purpose of eating. He triedto make a mouthful, but the ice
around his mouth prevented him.Then he knew what was wrong. He
(15:34):
had forgotten to build a fireand warm himself. He laughed at
his own foolishness. As helaughed he noted the numbness of
his bare fingers. Also, he notedthat the feeling which had first
come to his toes when he satdown was already passing away.
He wondered whether the toeswere warm or whether they were
numb. He moved them inside themoccasins and decided that they
(15:58):
were numb. He pulled them at nonhurriedly and stood up. He was
somewhat frightened. He stampedforcefully until feeling
returned to his feet. Itcertainly was cold, was his
thought. That man from SilverCreek had spoken the truth when
(16:20):
telling how cold is sometimesgotten in this country. And he
had laughed at him at the time.That showed one must not be too
sure of things.
There was no mistake about it.It was cold. And he walked a few
steps, stamping his feet andwaving his arms until reassured
by the returning warm. Then hetook some matches and proceeded
(16:44):
to make a fire. And the bushesthe high water had left some
live sticks. From here, he gotwood for his fire. Working
carefully From a smallbeginning, he soon had a roaring
fire. Bending over the fire, hefirst melted the ice from his
face. With the protection of thefires warmed he ate his lunch.
(17:08):
For the moment, the cold hadbeen forced away. The dog took
comfort in the fire lying atfull length close enough for
warmth and far enough away toescape being burned. When the
man had finished eating, hefilled his pipe with tobacco and
had a comfortable time with asmoke. Then he pulled on his
(17:28):
mittens, settled his cap firmlyabout his ears and started along
the creek trail toward the left.The dog was sorry to leave and
look toward the fire. This mandid not know cold. Possibly none
of his ancestors had known cold,real cold. But the dog knew and
(17:51):
all of his family do. And itknew that it was not good to
walk outside and such a fearfulcold. Who has the time to lie in
a hole in the snow and wait forthe awful cold to stop. There
was no real bond between the dogand the man. The one was the
slave of the other. The dog madeno effort to indicate its fears
(18:12):
to the man. It was not concernedwith the well being of the man.
It was for its own sake thatlooked toward the fire. But the
man whistled and spoke to itwith the sound of the whip and
his voice. So the dog startedwalking close to the man's heels
and followed him along thetrail. The man put more tobacco
(18:32):
in his mouth and started a newgrowth of yellow ice on his
face. Again, the moist breathquickly powdered the hair on his
face with white. He lookedaround. There did not seem to be
so many pools of water under thesnow on the left side of
Henderson Creek. And for half anhour the man saw no signs of
(18:52):
any. And then it happened. At aplace where there were no signs
the man broke through. It wasnot deep. He was wet to the
knees before he got out of thewater to the firm's know. He was
angry and cursed his luckallowed. He had hoped to get
into the camp with the boys atsix o'clock and this would delay
(19:14):
him an hour. Now he would haveto build a fire and dry his
moccasins and socks. This wasmost important at that low
temperature. He knew that much.So he turned aside to the bank,
which he climbed on top underseveral small pines. He found
some firewood which had beencarried there by the high water
(19:35):
of last year that were sticksbut also some larger branches
and some dry grasses. He threwseveral large branches on top of
the snow. This served for afoundation and prevented the
young flame from dying in thewet snow. He made a flame by
touching a match to a smallpiece of tree bark that he took
from his pocket. This burnedeven better than paper, placing
(19:59):
it on the foundation he fed theyoung flame with pieces of dry
grass, and with the smallest drysticks. He worked slowly and
carefully realizing his danger.Gradually, as the flame grew
stronger, he increased the sizeof his sticks with which he fed
it. He sat in the snow, pullingthe sticks from the bushes under
(20:21):
the trees and feeding themdirectly to the flame. He knew
he must not fail. When is 75below zero, a man must not fail
in his first attempt to build afire. This is especially true
when his feet are wet. If hisfeet are dry, and he fails, he
can run along the trail for halfa mile to keep his blood moving.
(20:45):
But the blood and wet feetfreezing cannot be kept moving
by running when it's 75 degreesbelow. No matter how fast he
runs, the wet feet will freezeeven harder. All this the man
knew. The old man on SilverCreek had told him about it. And
(21:05):
now he was grateful for theadvice. Already, all feeling was
gone from his feet. To build thefire, he had been forced to
remove his mittens, and thefingers have quickly become
numb. His pace so four miles anhour had kept his heart pushing
the blood to all parts of hisbody. But the instant he
(21:26):
stopped, the action of the heartslowed down.
He now received the full forceof the cold. The blood of his
body drew back from it. Theblood was alive, like the dog.
Like the dog, it wanted to hideand seek cover away from the
fearful cold. As long as hewalked four miles an hour, the
(21:48):
blood rose to the surface. Butnow it sank down into the lowest
depths of his body. His feet andhands were the first to feel its
absence. His wet feet frozefirst, his bare fingers were
numb. Although they had not yetbegun to freeze, nose and face
were already freezing, while theskin of his body became cold as
(22:11):
it lost its blood. But he wassafe. Toes and nose and face
would be only touched by thefrost. Because the fire was
beginning to burn with strength.He was feeding it with sticks
the size of his finger andanother minute he would be able
to feed it with larger branches.Then he could remove his wet
(22:34):
moccasins and socks. While theydried, he could keep his naked
feet warm by the fire, rubbingthem first with snow. The fire
was a success. He was safe. Heremembered the advice of the old
man at soul for Creek andsmiled. The man had been very
serious when he said that no manshould travel alone in the
(22:56):
country after 50 below zero.Well, here he was. He had had
the accident. He was alone, andhe had saved Himself. Those old
men were rather womanish hethought all A man must do is
keep his head and he was allright. A man who was a man could
(23:18):
travel alone. But it wassurprising the rapidity of which
his face and nose were freezing.And he had not thought his
fingers could lose their feelingand so shorter time without
feeling they were because hefound it very difficult to make
them move together to grasp thestick. They seemed far from his
body and from him. When hetouched a stick, he had a look
(23:43):
to see whether or not he washolding it. All of which
mattered little. There was afire promising life with every
dancing flame. He started tountie his moccasins. They were
coated with ice. The thick sockswere like iron, almost to the
knees. The moccasins stringswere like ropes of steel. For a
(24:06):
moment, he pulled them with hisunfeeling fingers. Then
realizing the foolishness of it.He grasped his knife. But before
he could cut the strings, ithappened. It was his own fault.
Or instead his mistake. Heshould not have built the fire
under the pine tree. He shouldhave built it in an open space.
(24:31):
It had been easier to pull thesticks from the brush and drop
them directly into the fire. Nowthe tree under which he had done
this carried a weight of snow onits branches. No wind had been
blowing for weeks and eachbranch was heavy with snow. Each
time he pulled a stick. He shookthe tree slightly. There had
(24:52):
been just enough movement tocause the awful thing to happen.
High up in the tree one branchdropped. It's load of snow that
fell on the branches beneath.This process continued spreading
through the whole tree. The snowfell without warning upon the
man and the fire and the firewas dead. Where it had burned
(25:16):
was a pile of fresh snow. Theman was shocked. It was like
hearing his own judgment ofdeath. For a moment he sat and
stared at the spot where thefire had been. And he grew very
calm. Perhaps the old man onSilver Creek was right. If he
had a companion on the trail, hewould be in no danger. Now, the
(25:39):
companion could have built thefire. Now he must build the fire
again, and the second time, hemust not fail. Even if he
succeeded, he would be likely tolose some toes. His feet must be
badly frozen by now. And therewill be some time before a
second fire was ready. Such werehis thoughts. But he did not sit
(26:04):
and think them. He was busy allthe time they were passing
through his mind. He made a newfoundation for the fire, this
time in an open space where notree would be above it. Next, he
gathered dry grasses and tinysticks. He could not bring his
fingers together to pull themout of the ground, but he was
able to gather them by thehandful.
(26:27):
And this way, he also got manypieces that were undesirable,
but it was the best he could do.He worked carefully, even
collecting an arm full of thelarger branches to be used when
the fire gathered strength. Andall the while the dog sat and
watched him. There was anxiouslooking at ties, but it depended
on him as the fire provider, andthe fire was slow and coming.
(26:53):
When all was ready, the manreached his pocket for the
second piece of tree bark. Heknew the bark was there,
although he could not feel itwith his fingers. He tried again
and again. But he could notgrasp it all the time. In his
mind. He knew that each instanthis feet were freezing. This
(27:13):
thought alarmed him. But hefought past it and kept calm. He
pulled on his mittens with histeeth and began swinging his
arms. Then he beat his handswith all his strength against
suicides. He did this while hewas sitting down. Then he stood
up to do it. All the while thedog sat in the snow its tail
curled warmly over its feet, andit sharp wolf ears bent behind
(27:36):
it as it looked at the man. Andthe man as he waved his arms and
hands looked with longing at thecreature that was warm and
secure, and the coveringprovided by nature. After a time
he began to notice some feelingsin his beaten fingers. The
feeling grew stronger until itbecame very painful. But the man
(27:56):
welcome to the pain. He pulledthem in from his right hand and
grasped the tree bark in hispocket. The bear fingers were
quickly now again. Next, hebrought out a pack of matches.
But the awful cold had alreadydriven the life out of his
fingers and has ever to separateone match from the others the
whole pack fell in the snow. Hetried to pick it out of the snow
(28:19):
but failed, the dead fingerscould neither touch nor hold.
Now he was very careful. Hedrove the thought of his
freezing feet and nose and facefrom his mind. He devoted his
whole soul to picking up thematches. He followed the
movement of his fingers with hiseyes, using his sense of sight
(28:41):
instead of that of touch. Whenhe saw his fingers on each side
of the packet, he closed them.That is He willed to close them.
Because the fingers did notobey. He put the mitten on his
right hand and beat it fiercelyagainst his knee. Then, with
both mittened hands, he liftedup the pack of matches, along
(29:04):
with much snow to the front ofhis jacket. But he had gained
nothing. After some struggling,he managed to get the pack
between his mittened hands. Inthis manner, he carried it to
his mouth. The eyes broke as heopened his mouth with a fierce
effort. He used his upper teethto rub against the pack in order
(29:24):
to separate a single match. Hesucceeded and getting one which
he dropped on his jacket is goodcondition was no better. He
could not pick up the match.Then he thought how he might do
it. He picked up the match inhis teeth and drew it across his
leg 20 times he did this beforehe succeeded in lighting it. As
(29:48):
it flamed he held it with histeeth to the tree bark. But the
burning smell went up his nosecausing him to cough. The match
fell into the snow and the flamedied. The old man on sulphur
Creek was right. He thought inthe moment of controlled despair
that followed. After 50 belowzero, a man should travel with a
(30:11):
companion. He beat his hands butfailed to produce any feeling in
them. Suddenly, he buried bothhands, removing the mittens with
his teeth. He caught the wholepack of matches between his
hands, his arm muscles were notfrozen, and he was able to press
his hands tightly against thematches. Then he drew the whole
pack along his leg, it burstinto flame 70 matches at once.
(30:37):
There was no wind to blow themout. He kept his head to one
side to escape the burning smelland held the flaming pack to the
tree bark. As he so held it, henoticed some feeling in his
hand. His flesh was burning, hecould smell it. The feeling
developed into pain, hecontinued to endure it. He held
(31:00):
the flame of the matches to thebark that would not like readily
because his own burning handswere taking most of the flame.
Finally, when he could endure nomore, he pulled his hands apart,
the flaming matches fell intothe snow, but the tree bark was
burning.
He began laying dry grasses andthe tiniest sticks on the flame.
(31:21):
He could not choose carefullybecause they must be pieces that
could be lifted between hishands. Small pieces of grass
stayed on the sticks, and he bidthem off as well as he could
with his teeth. He treated theflame carefully. It meant life
and it must not cease. The bloodhad left the surface of his
body, and he had now began toshake from the cold. A large
(31:44):
piece of wet plant fell on alittle fire. He tried to push it
out from his fingers, hisshaking body made him push it
too far, and he scattered thelittle fire over a wide space.
He tried to push the burninggrasses and sticks together
again. Even with the strongeffort that he made, his
trembling fingers would not obeyand the sticks were hopelessly
(32:05):
scattered. Each stick smoked alittle and died. The fire
provider had failed. As helooked about him, his eyes
noticed the dog sitting acrossthe ruins of the fire from him.
It was making uneasy movements,slightly lifting one foot and
then the other. The side of thedog put a wild idea into his
(32:28):
head. He remembered a story of aman caught in a storm, who
killed an animal and shelteredhimself inside the dead body,
and thus was saved. He wouldkill the dog and bury his hands
in a warm body until the feelingreturned to them. And then he
could build another fire. Hespoke to the dog, calling it to
(32:50):
him. But in his voice was astrange note of fear that
frightened the animal. It hadnever known the man to speak in
such a tone before something waswrong. And it's since danger. It
knew not what danger. Butsomewhere in its brain arose a
fear of the man. It flattened totears at the sound of the man's
voice. It's uneasy movement andthe liftings of its feet became
(33:14):
more noticeable, but it wouldnot come to the human. He got
down on his hands and knees andwent to the dog. For this
unusual position again excitedfear and the animal moved away.
The man sat in the snow for amoment and struggled for
calmness. Then he pulled on hismittens using his teeth, and
(33:35):
then he stood on his feet. Heglanced down to assure himself
that he was really standingbecause the lack of feeling his
feet gave him no relation to theearth. His position, however,
removed the fear from the dog'smind. When he commanded the dog
with his usual voice, the dogobeyed and came to him. As it
(33:56):
came within his reach, the manlost control. His arm stretched
out to hold the dog and heexperienced real surprise when
he discovered that his handscould not grasp. There was
neither bend nor feeling in thefingers. He had forgotten for
the moment that they were frozenand that they were freezing more
and more. All this had happenedquickly and before the animal
(34:18):
could escape he encircled itsbody with his arms. He sat down
in the snow and in this fashionheld the dog while It barked and
struggled. But it was all hecould do. Hold its body and
circled in his arms and sitthere. He realized that he could
not kill the dog. There was noway to do it. With his frozen
(34:40):
hands he could neither draw norhold his knife. nor could he
grasp the dog around the throat.He freed it and dashed wildly
away still barking. It's not 40feet away and observed him
curiously, with ears sharplybent forward. The man looked out
of his hands to locate them andfound them hanging on the ends
(35:03):
of his arms. He thought itcurious that it was necessary to
use his eyes to discover wherehis hands were. He began waving
his arms, beating the mittenhands against his sides. He did
this for five minutes. His heartproduced enough blood to stop
the shaking, but no feeling wascreated in his hands. A certain
(35:27):
fear of death came upon him. Herealized that it was no longer a
mere problem of freezing hisfingers and toes, or of losing
his hands or feet. Now, it was aproblem of life and death, with
the circumstances against him.The fear made him lose control
of himself, and he turned andran along the creek bed. On the
(35:50):
Old Trail, the dog joined himand followed closely behind him.
The man ran blindly in fear,such as he had never known in
his life. Slowly, as hestruggled through the snow, he
began to see things again, thebanks of the creek, the bear
trees and the sky.
The running made him feelbetter, he did not shake
(36:11):
anymore. Maybe if he continuedto run, his feet would stop
freezing. Maybe if he ran farenough, he would find the camp
and the boys. Without doubt, hewould lose some fingers and toes
and some of his face, but theboys would take care of him, and
save the rest of him when he gotthere. And at the same time,
(36:33):
there was another thought in hismind. That said he would never
get to the camp and the boys. Ittold him that it was too many
miles away, that the freezinghad to greatest art, and that he
would soon be dead. He pushedthis thought to the back of his
mind and refuse to consider it.Sometimes it came forward and
demand to be heard. As he pushedit away, he tried to think of
(36:56):
other things. It seemed strangeto him that he could run on feet
so frozen, that he could notfeel them when they struck the
earth and took the weight of hisbody. He seemed to be flying
above the surface, and to haveno connection with the earth.
His idea of running until hearrived at the camp with the
boys presented one problem. Helacked the endurance. Several
(37:22):
times he caught himself as hewas falling. Finally, he dropped
to the ground, unable to stophis fall. When he tried to rise,
he failed. He must sit and rest,he decided next time he would
merely walk and keep going. Ashe sat and regained his breath,
(37:44):
he noted that he was feelingwarm and comfortable. He was not
shaking, and it even seemed thata warm glow had come to his
body. And yet, when he touchedhis nose or face, there was no
feeling running would not bringlife to them, nor would it help
his hands or feet. Then thethought came to him that the
(38:06):
frozen portions of his body mustbe increasing. He tried to keep
this thought out of his mind andto forget. He knew that such
thoughts caused a feeling offrightened him, and he was
afraid of such feelings. But thethought returned and continued
until he could picture his bodytotally frozen. This was too
(38:29):
much. And he again ran wildlyalong the trail once he slowed
to a walk, but the thought thatthe freezing of his body was
increasing made him run again.And all the time the dog ran
with him at his heels. When hefell a second time, the dog
curled its tail over its feetand sat in front of him facing
(38:50):
him. Curiously eager. The warmthand security of the animal
angered him. He cursed it, andit flattened to tears. This
time, the shaking because of thecold began more quickly. He was
losing the battle with thefrost. It was moving into his
body from all sides. Thisthought drove him forward, but
(39:15):
he ran no more than 100 feetwhen he fell headfirst. It was
his last moment of fear. When hehad recovered his breath in his
control, he sat and thoughtabout meeting death with
dignity. However, the idea didnot come to him in exactly this
manner. His idea was that he hadbeen acting like a fool. He had
(39:38):
been running around like achicken with its head cut off.
He was certain to freeze in hispresent circumstances, and he
should accept it calmly. Withthis newfound peace of mind that
came the first sleepiness a goodidea he thought to sleep his way
to death. Freezing was as an Notas bad as people thought. There
(40:02):
were many worse ways to die. Hepictured the boys finding his
body the next day. Suddenly hesaw himself with them, coming
along on the trail and lookingfor himself. And still with
them. He came around a turn ofthe trail and found himself
lying in the snow. He did notbelong with himself anymore.
(40:25):
Even then, he was outside ofhimself, standing with the boys
and looking at himself in thesnow, and certainly was cold was
his thought. When he returned tothe United States, he could tell
the folks what real cold was.His mind went from this to the
fall of the old man at sulphurCreek. He could see him quite
(40:48):
clearly warm and comfortable andsmoking a pipe. You're right old
fellow. You're right. hemurmured to the Old Man of
sulfur Creek. Then the mandropped into what seemed to him
the most comfortable andsatisfying sleep he had ever
known.
(41:08):
The dogs that facing him andwaiting. The brief day ended in
a long evening. There are nosigns of a fire can be made.
Never in the dog's experiencehadn't known a man to sit like
that in the snow, and make nofire. As the evening grew
darker, its eager longing for afire mastered it. With much
(41:30):
lifting of its feet, it criedsoftly than it flattened its
ears, expecting the man's curse,but the man remained silent.
Later, the dog Howard loudly,and still later, it moved close
to the man and caught the smellof death. This made the animal
(41:50):
back away. A little longer, adelayed, howling at the stars
that leaped and danced and shonebrightly in the cold sky. Then
it turned and ran along thetrail towards the camp it knew
where there were the other foodproviders and fire providers
(42:16):
meet us pause and meet US mediaproduction. All rights reserved
unless otherwise stated. Ourmusic comes to us from odd
Sprite, you can hear more oftheir music at odds bright.com.
Remember, if it's more than 50below, travel with a buddy. Have
a good one, folks. We'll see younext time.
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