Jan, the Unrepentant

by Jack London

　　Runs north of Fifty-three."Jan rolled over, clawing and kicking. He was fighting hand andfoot now, and he fought grimly, silently. Two of the three menwho hung upon him, shouted directions to each other, and strove tocurb the short, hairy devil who would not curb. The third manhowled. His finger was between Jan's teeth."Quit yer tantrums, Jan, an' ease up!" panted Red Bill, getting astrangle-hold on Jan's neck. "Why on earth can't yeh hang decentand peaceable?"But Jan kept his grip on the third man's finger, and squirmed overthe floor of the tent, into the pots and pans."Youah no gentleman, suh," reproved Mr. Taylor, his body followinghis finger, and endeavoring to accommodate itself to every jerk ofJan's head. "You hev killed Mistah Gordon, as brave and honorablea gentleman as ever hit the trail aftah the dogs. Youah amurderah, suh, and without honah.""An' yer no comrade," broke in Red Bill. "If you was, you'd hang'thout rampin' around an' roarin'. Come on, Jan, there's a goodfellow. Don't give us no more trouble. Jes' quit, an' we'll hangyeh neat and handy, an' be done with it.""Steady, all!" Lawson, the sailorman, bawled. "Jam his head intothe bean pot and batten down.""But my fingah, suh," Mr. Taylor protested."Leggo with y'r finger, then! Always in the way!""But I can't, Mistah Lawson. It's in the critter's gullet, andnigh chewed off as 't is.""Stand by for stays!" As Lawson gave the warning, Jan half liftedhimself, and the struggling quartet floundered across the tentinto a muddle of furs and blankets. In its passage it cleared thebody of a man, who lay motionless, bleeding from a bullet-wound inthe neck.All this was because of the madness which had come upon Jan--themadness which comes upon a man who has stripped off the raw skinof earth and grovelled long in primal nakedness, and before whoseeyes rises the fat vales of the homeland, and into whose nostrilssteals the whiff of bay, and grass, and flower, and new-turnedsoil. Through five frigid years Jan had sown the seed. StuartRiver, Forty Mile, Circle City, Koyokuk, Kotzebue, had marked hisbleak and strenuous agriculture, and now it was Nome that bore theharvest,--not the Nome of golden beaches and ruby sands, but theNome of '97, before Anvil City was located, or Eldorado Districtorganized. John Gordon was a Yankee, and should have knownbetter. But he passed the sharp word at a time when Jan's blood-shot eyes blazed and his teeth gritted in torment. And because ofthis, there was a smell of saltpetre in the tent, and one layquietly, while the other fought like a cornered rat, and refusedto hang in the decent and peacable manner suggested by hiscomrades."If you will allow me, Mistah Lawson, befoah we go further in thisrumpus, I would say it wah a good idea to pry this hyer varmint'steeth apart. Neither will he bite off, nor will he let go. Hehas the wisdom of the sarpint, suh, the wisdom of the sarpint.""Lemme get the hatchet to him!" vociferated the sailor. "Lemmeget the hatchet!" He shoved the steel edge close to Mr. Taylor'sfinger and used the man's teeth as a fulcrum. Jan held on andbreathed through his nose, snorting like a grampus. "Steady, all!Now she takes it!""Thank you, suh; it is a powerful relief." And Mr. Taylorproceeded to gather into his arms the victim's wildly waving legs.But Jan upreared in his Berserker rage; bleeding, frothing,cursing; five frozen years thawing into sudden hell. They swayedbackward and forward, panted, sweated, like some cyclopean, many-legged monster rising from the lower deeps. The slush-lamp wentover, drowned in its own fat, while the midday twilight scarcepercolated through the dirty canvas of the tent."For the love of Gawd, Jan, get yer senses back!" pleaded RedBill. "We ain't goin' to hurt yeh, 'r kill yeh, 'r anythin' ofthat sort. Jes' want to hang yeh, that's all, an' you a-messin'round an' rampagin' somethin' terrible. To think of travellin'trail together an' then bein' treated this-a way. Wouldn't'bleeved it of yeh, Jan!""He's got too much steerage-way. Grab holt his legs, Taylor, andheave'm over!""Yes, suh, Mistah Lawson. Do you press youah weight above, afterI give the word." The Kentuckian groped about him in the murkydarkness. "Now, suh, now is the accepted time!"There was a great surge, and a quarter of a ton of human fleshtottered and crashed to its fall against the side-wall. Pegs drewand guy-ropes parted, and the tent, collapsing, wrapped the battlein its greasy folds."Yer only makin' it harder fer yerself," Red Bill continued, atthe same time driving both his thumbs into a hairy throat, thepossessor of which he had pinned down. "You've made nuisanceenough a' ready, an' it'll take half the day to get thingsstraightened when we've strung yeh up.""I'll thank you to leave go, suh," spluttered Mr. Taylor.Red Bill grunted and loosed his grip, and the twain crawled outinto the open. At the same instant Jan kicked clear of thesailor, and took to his heels across the snow."Hi! you lazy devils! Buck! Bright! Sic'm! Pull 'm down!" sangout Lawson, lunging through the snow after the fleeing man. Buckand Bright, followed by the rest of the dogs, outstripped him andrapidly overhauled the murderer.There was no reason that these men should do this; no reason forJan to run away; no reason for them to attempt to prevent him. Onthe one hand stretched the barren snow-land; on the other, thefrozen sea. With neither food nor shelter, he could not run far.All they had to do was to wait till he wandered back to the tent,as he inevitably must, when the frost and hunger laid hold of him.But these men did not stop to think. There was a certain taint ofmadness running in the veins of all of them. Besides, blood hadbeen spilled, and upon them was the blood-lust, thick and hot."Vengeance is mine," saith the Lord, and He saith it in temperateclimes where the warm sun steals away the energies of men. But inthe Northland they have discovered that prayer is only efficaciouswhen backed by muscle, and they are accustomed to doing things forthemselves. God is everywhere, they have heard, but he flings ashadow over the land for half the year that they may not find him;so they grope in darkness, and it is not to be wondered that theyoften doubt, and deem the Decalogue out of gear.Jan ran blindly, reckoning not of the way of his feet, for he wasmastered by the verb "to live." To live! To exist! Buck flashedgray through the air, but missed. The man struck madly at him,and stumbled. Then the white teeth of Bright closed on hismackinaw jacket, and he pitched into the snow. To live! Toexist! He fought wildly as ever, the centre of a tossing heap ofmen and dogs. His left hand gripped a wolf-dog by the scruff ofthe back, while the arm was passed around the neck of Lawson.Every struggle of the dog helped to throttle the hapless sailor.Jan's right hand was buried deep in the curling tendrils of RedBill's shaggy head, and beneath all, Mr. Taylor lay pinned andhelpless. It was a deadlock, for the strength of his madness wasprodigious; but suddenly, without apparent reason, Jan loosed hisvarious grips and rolled over quietly on his back. Hisadversaries drew away a little, dubious and disconcerted. Jangrinned viciously."Mine friends," he said, still grinning, "you haf asked me to bepoliteful, und now I am politeful. Vot piziness vood you do mitme?""That's right, Jan. Be ca'm," soothed Red Bill. "I knowed you'dcome to yer senses afore long. Jes' be ca'm now, an' we'll do thetrick with neatness and despatch.""Vot piziness? Vot trick?""The hangin'. An' yeh oughter thank yer lucky stars for havin' aman what knows his business. I've did it afore now, more'n once,down in the States, an' I can do it to a T.""Hang who? Me?""Yep.""Ha! ha! Shust hear der man speak foolishness! Gif me a hand,Bill, und I vill get up und be hung." He crawled stiffly to hisfeet and looked about him. "Herr Gott! listen to der man! Hevood hang me! Ho! ho! ho! I tank not! Yes, I tank not!""And I tank yes, you swab," Lawson spoke up mockingly, at the sametime cutting a sled-lashing and coiling it up with ominous care."Judge Lynch holds court this day.""Von liddle while." Jan stepped back from the proffered noose."I haf somedings to ask und to make der great proposition.Kentucky, you know about der Shudge Lynch?""Yes, suh. It is an institution of free men and of gentlemen, andit is an ole one and time-honored. Corruption may wear the robeof magistracy, suh, but Judge Lynch can always be relied upon togive justice without court fees. I repeat, suh, without courtfees. Law may be bought and sold, but in this enlightened landjustice is free as the air we breathe, strong as the licker wedrink, prompt as--""Cut it short! Find out what the beggar wants," interruptedLawson, spoiling the peroration."Vell, Kentucky, tell me dis: von man kill von odder man, ShudgeLynch hang dot man?""If the evidence is strong enough--yes, suh.""An' the evidence in this here case is strong enough to hang adozen men, Jan," broke in Red Bill."Nefer you mind, Bill. I talk mit you next. Now von anodder dingI ask Kentucky. If Shudge Lynch hang not der man, vot den?""If Judge Lynch does not hang the man, then the man goes free, andhis hands are washed clean of blood. And further, suh, our greatand glorious constitution has said, to wit: that no man may twicebe placed in jeopardy of his life for one and the same crime, orwords to that effect.""Unt dey can't shoot him, or hit him mit a club over der headalongside, or do nodings more mit him?""No, suh.""Goot! You hear vot Kentucky speaks, all you noddleheads? Now Italk mit Bill. You know der piziness, Bill, und you hang me upbrown, eh? Vot you say?""'Betcher life, an', Jan, if yeh don't give no more trouble ye'llbe almighty proud of the job. I'm a connesoor.""You haf der great head, Bill, und know somedings or two. Und youknow two und one makes tree--ain't it?"Bill nodded."Und when you haf two dings, you haf not tree dings--ain't it?Now you follow mit me close und I show you. It takes tree dingsto hang. First ding, you haf to haf der man. Goot! I am derman. Second ding, you haf to haf der rope. Lawson haf der rope.Goot! Und tird ding, you haf to haf someding to tie der rope to.Sling your eyes over der landscape und find der tird ding to tieder rope to? Eh? Vot you say?"Mechanically they swept the ice and snow with their eyes. It wasa homogeneous scene, devoid of contrasts or bold contours, dreary,desolate, and monotonous,--the ice-packed sea, the slow slope ofthe beach, the background of low-lying hills, and over all thrownthe endless mantle of snow. "No trees, no bluffs, no cabins, notelegraph poles, nothin'," moaned Red Bill; "nothin' respectableenough nor big enough to swing the toes of a five-foot man clearo' the ground. I give it up." He looked yearningly at thatportion of Jan's anatomy which joins the head and shoulders."Give it up," he repeated sadly to Lawson. "Throw the rope down.Gawd never intended this here country for livin' purposes, an'that's a cold frozen fact."Jan grinned triumphantly. "I tank I go mit der tent und haf asmoke.""Ostensiblee y'r correct, Bill, me son," spoke up Lawson; "but y'ra dummy, and you can lay to that for another cold frozen fact.Takes a sea farmer to learn you landsmen things. Ever hear of apair of shears? Then clap y'r eyes to this."The sailor worked rapidly. From the pile of dunnage where theyhad pulled up the boat the preceding fall, he unearthed a pair oflong oars. These he lashed together, at nearly right angles,close to the ends of the blades. Where the handles rested hekicked holes through the snow to the sand. At the point ofintersection he attached two guy-ropes, making the end of one fastto a cake of beach-ice. The other guy he passed over to Red Bill."Here, me son, lay holt o' that and run it out."And to his horror, Jan saw his gallows rise in the air. "No! no!"he cried, recoiling and putting up his fists. "It is not goot! Ivill not hang! Come, you noddleheads! I vill lick you, alltogether, von after der odder! I vill blay hell! I vill doeferydings! Und I vill die pefore I hang!"The sailor permitted the two other men to clinch with the madcreature. They rolled and tossed about furiously, tearing up snowand tundra, their fierce struggle writing a tragedy of humanpassion on the white sheet spread by nature. And ever and anon ahand or foot of Jan emerged from the tangle, to be gripped byLawson and lashed fast with rope-yarns. Pawing, clawing,blaspheming, he was conquered and bound, inch by inch, and drawnto where the inexorable shears lay like a pair of giganticdividers on the snow. Red Bill adjusted the noose, placing thehangman's knot properly under the left ear. Mr. Taylor and Lawsontailed onto the running-guy, ready at the word to elevate thegallows. Bill lingered, contemplating his work with artisticappreciation."Herr Gott! Vood you look at it!"The horror in Jan's voice caused the rest to desist. The fallentent had uprisen, and in the gathering twilight it flapped ghostlyarms about and titubated toward them drunkenly. But the nextinstant John Gordon found the opening and crawled forth."What the flaming--!" For the moment his voice died away in histhroat as his eyes took in the tableau. "Hold on! I'm not dead!"he cried out, coming up to the group with stormy countenance."Allow me, Mistah Gordon, to congratulate you upon youah escape,"Mr. Taylor ventured. "A close shave, suh, a powahful closeshave."" Congratulate hell! I might have been dead and rotten and nothanks to you, you--!" And thereat John Gordon delivered himselfof a vigorous flood of English, terse, intensive, denunciative,and composed solely of expletives and adjectives."Simply creased me," he went on when he had eased himselfsufficiently. "Ever crease cattle, Taylor?""Yes, suh, many a time down in God's country.""Just so. That's what happened to me. Bullet just grazed thebase of my skull at the top of the neck. Stunned me but no harmdone." He turned to the bound man. "Get up, Jan. I'm going tolick you to a standstill or you're going to apologize. The restof you lads stand clear.""I tank not. Shust tie me loose und you see," replied Jan, theUnrepentant, the devil within him still unconquered. "Und afteras I lick you, I take der rest of der noddleheads, von after derodder, altogedder!"