THE WOOD-PILE
The Wood-pile was an institution almost as famous with the underworld as
Dawson itself. From St. Michael's to Frisco, and up and down the Yukon
River, its reputation held. At the mention of its name the pale and
sickly faces of the vicious became still paler and more sickly, when
they did not flush with angry hatred.
The Wood-pile was the prison, called so because the inmates, given hard
labour, worked out their debt to society by sawing wood. In cold
winter-weather--the winter of the sub-Arctic, with the thermometer forty
degrees below zero!--the process was no joke.
The great majority of the prisoners were United States citizens, in the
souls of whom many fourths of July had engendered a contempt for the
British uniform. To be herded by a yellow-leg with a rifle, and made to
saw wood to keep the oppressor warm, was a circumstance that rankled.
Five Ace Dan--called, for brevity's sake, Five Ace--was on the
Wood-pile.
One day Five Ace was taking a hand in a Poker game, and by some
mischance one of the other players detected him extracting a card from
his sleeve, and charged him with the offence. There was, of course, a
row, whereupon Five Ace drew a revolver, and pointed it at his
adversary, with the words--adorned with some special expletives,
"If I had you across the line I'd fill you full of holes."
Whereat the man addressed came back with the words, uttered with a leer
and a hiss,
"But we ain't: See!"
Five Ace was surely in hard luck, for a policeman heard the noise of the
row, and quickly gathered him in. Smoothbore gave him three months on
the Wood-pile, with a blue ticket at the end of that term. A blue ticket
meant that the authorities requested the recipient to leave the
country--an invitation rarely not taken advantage of! But Five Ace was
serving his term in the summer months, when fuel was not a pressing
necessity, and the number of prisoners was large. The stock employment
of the gang was drawing gravel from the banks of the Yukon and carrying
it in barrows to the quadrangle of the Barracks, or the road-bed of the
main street.
While climatic conditions were infinitely better during the summer
months than they were in winter, this was not an unmixed blessing to
Five Ace; for while the winter months were dark and drear and cold, the
coldness, darkness, and dreariness, together with the abundance of
clothing it was necessary for the prisoners to wear, made it hard for
their persons to be recognized by passers-by. On the other hand, during
the bright summer days, the situation was very embarrassing; and it is
easy to believe that any one holding strong ideas on the rights of man,
a true citizen, that is to say, of the United States, so imprisoned, was
ready for any desperate venture. If it came to the killing of a
yellow-leg or two--what matter? There were no greater or more glorious
people on God's green earth than the citizens of the United States! Five
Ace was quite ready to pose as a hero and martyr, when opportunity
served.
Long Shorty happened to be a friend of Five Ace Dan; not that he
consorted with tin-horns, but Dan hadn't always been what he was now,
and, anyway, there wasn't much harm in pulling off a trick once in a
while! The officials in this country were always robbing people, so why
should not he put in a hand?
One day, as Long Shorty was prospecting for recruits, he recognized Five
Ace among the gang employed in the gravel pit, and, quick as a flash,
the idea came that it would be well to have an ally among the prisoners.
How to get into communication with Five Ace was a matter demanding
consideration; it would not do to make a mess of things through any
little mistake at the beginning. So he walked away, pondering, and sat
down and reviewed the situation from afar; in other words, he watched
the prisoners and noted their movements. There were about eight in this
particular band, over whom stood a policeman. The process was for the
prisoners to file down to the shore of the river, fill their barrows,
and march back again. Each man returned to the spot he had left and
picked up the tools he had been working with.
The best means to get a word with Five Ace was by means of a note,
provided the note did not fall into the hands of the police! Long Shorty
soon came to his decision. The note must not be compromising. This is
what Long Shorty wrote,
"The Marmot has generally two entrances to his burrow, the yellow-leg
has only one. Some day soon something is going to happen, but in the
meantime the hunters with rifles would like to know if the yellow-legs
are wise to the game. Where the seed is sown there will the flower grow,
and I expect response to this where I sow it; at dinner-hour I will look
for it."
After setting down this on a piece of paper, Long Shorty, not a little
proud of his achievement, rumpled it up with another piece of blank
paper and enclosed a small piece of lead pencil. This was because
prisoners were not always allowed paper and pencil.
After the little parcel was ready Long Shorty walked down-stream to
where there was a canoe belonging to a man he knew. He borrowed the
craft and began poling up-stream towards the mouth of the Klondike.
He had noted that the site of Five Ace's labour was very near the river,
so that when he passed the spot he could have stepped on the tools with
which the convict worked.
A labourer toiling with pick and shovel first loosens the soil with the
pick and then uses the shovel. The astute mind of Long Shorty conceived
that if he dropped the paper close to where the hand of the toiler, as
he grasped the shovel, would be, events would work out--as they did.
Five Ace, on returning with the empty barrow, took up his pick and began
to work, and while he was scratching the ground in the leisurely manner
of the convict his eye saw the paper. He judged that its appearance was
possibly connected with Long Shorty, who was hanging about watching. So,
with the slyness proper to his fraternity, he took up the shovel and
managed to smuggle and hide away the parcel by slipping it down his
neck.
When Five Ace had an opportunity he read the missive, and his breast
swelled. Here was evidently an invitation for him to join a rising
against the oppressors! If successful it would mean that an honest
fellow could shoot down a black-leg and get away. Judge Lynch would sit
in the Yukon. By all means things must be kept quiet. Five Ace felt sure
he could get the other prisoners to turn against their guard when the
proper time came. One man might get shot; but if he were careful it need
not be himself.
Long Shorty had the idea that Five Ace Dan and his fellow prisoners
might, in the case of a rising outside, carry out some portion of a
general move by striking a blow within. On the other hand, while Five
Ace believed he was the child of a race of patriots and felt himself a
champion of liberty with a possibility of shining before posterity, his
first and foremost idea was always his own liberty!
He wrote a note and left it as directed, where Long Shorty secured it,
and this is what it said,
"The Beaver is working with no thought of danger. If his dam is broken
in spots he will fix it. To drive him out you must make a clean job. You
have friends who will help, but you must keep them posted."
Five Ace had evidently the same ideas as the leader of the insurrection,
that a sudden display of force, thousands strong, would make the
position at the Barracks untenable and force a surrender.
The following day Long Shorty replied,
"Many years ago the south face slid off the Dome and many ingins went to
the happy hunting-grounds. Some day something may slide off the Dome and
keep on going till it hits the Barracks and bumps it into the Klondike.
I will look out for things that are to happen, so that those in the
Barracks will know what to prepare for. In case they can help, I will
let them know."
All of which duly fell into the hands of Five Ace Dan, and conveyed to
him the true situation of affairs. Had it fallen into those of the
police it would have appeared as mere nonsense--the scribbling of some
prospector whose hardships had affected his reason. That is what Long
Shorty thought.