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- Джек Лондон
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- Стр. 1/7
Bonfire
Day
had
broken
cold
and
grey
,
exceedingly
cold
and
grey
,
when
the
man
turned
aside
from
the
main
Yukon
trail
and
climbed
the
high
earth
-
bank
,
where
a
dim
and
little-travelled
trail
led
eastward
through
the
fat
spruce
timberland
.
It
was
a
steep
bank
,
and
he
paused
for
breath
at
the
top
,
excusing
the
act
to
himself
by
looking
at
his
watch
.
It
was
nine
o'clock
.
There
was
no
sun
nor
hint
of
sun
,
though
there
was
not
a
cloud
in
the
sky
.
It
was
a
clear
day
,
and
yet
there
seemed
an
intangible
pall
over
the
face
of
things
,
a
subtle
gloom
that
made
the
day
dark
,
and
that
was
due
to
the
absence
of
sun
.
This
fact
did
not
worry
the
man
.
He
was
used
to
the
lack
of
sun
.
It
had
been
days
since
he
had
seen
the
sun
,
and
he
knew
that
a
few
more
days
must
pass
before
that
cheerful
orb
,
due
south
,
would
just
peep
above
the
sky
-
line
and
dip
immediately
from
view
.
The
man
flung
a
look
back
along
the
way
he
had
come
.
The
Yukon
lay
a
mile
wide
and
hidden
under
three
feet
of
ice
.
On
top
of
this
ice
were
as
many
feet
of
snow
.
It
was
all
pure
white
,
rolling
in
gentle
undulations
where
the
ice-jams
of
the
freeze-up
had
formed
.
North
and
south
,
as
far
as
his
eye
could
see
,
it
was
unbroken
white
,
save
for
a
dark
hair-line
that
curved
and
twisted
from
around
the
spruce
-
covered
island
to
the
south
,
and
that
curved
and
twisted
away
into
the
north
,
where
it
disappeared
behind
another
spruce-covered
island
.
This
dark
hair-line
was
the
trail
--
the
main
trail
--
that
led
south
five
hundred
miles
to
the
Chilcoot
Pass
,
Dyea
,
and
salt
water
;
and
that
led
north
seventy
miles
to
Dawson
,
and
still
on
to
the
north
a
thousand
miles
to
Nulato
,
and
finally
to
St.
Michael
on
Bering
Sea
,
a
thousand
miles
and
half
a
thousand
more
.
But
all
this
--
the
mysterious
,
far-reaching
hairline
trail
,
the
absence
of
sun
from
the
sky
,
the
tremendous
cold
,
and
the
strangeness
and
weirdness
of
it
all
--
made
no
impression
on
the
man
.
It
was
not
because
he
was
long
used
to
it
.
He
was
a
new-comer
in
the
land
,
a
chechaquo
,
and
this
was
his
first
winter
.
The
trouble
with
him
was
that
he
was
without
imagination
.
He
was
quick
and
alert
in
the
things
of
life
,
but
only
in
the
things
,
and
not
in
the
significances
.
Fifty
degrees
below
zero
meant
eighty
odd
degrees
of
frost
.
Such
fact
impressed
him
as
being
cold
and
uncomfortable
,
and
that
was
all
.
It
did
not
lead
him
to
meditate
upon
his
frailty
as
a
creature
of
temperature
,
and
upon
man
's
frailty
in
general
,
able
only
to
live
within
certain
narrow
limits
of
heat
and
cold
;
and
from
there
on
it
did
not
lead
him
to
the
conjectural
field
of
immortality
and
man
's
place
in
the
universe
.
Fifty
degrees
below
zero
stood
for
a
bite
of
frost
that
hurt
and
that
must
be
guarded
against
by
the
use
of
mittens
,
ear-flaps
,
warm
moccasins
,
and
thick
socks
.
Fifty
degrees
below
zero
was
to
him
just
precisely
fifty
degrees
below
zero
.
That
there
should
be
anything
more
to
it
than
that
was
a
thought
that
never
entered
his
head
.
As
he
turned
to
go
on
,
he
spat
speculatively
.
There
was
a
sharp
,
explosive
crackle
that
startled
him
.
He
spat
again
.
And
again
,
in
the
air
,
before
it
could
fall
to
the
snow
,
the
spittle
crackled
.
He
knew
that
at
fifty
below
spittle
crackled
on
the
snow
,
but
this
spittle
had
crackled
in
the
air
.
Undoubtedly
it
was
colder
than
fifty
below
--
how
much
colder
he
did
not
know
.
But
the
temperature
did
not
matter
.
He
was
bound
for
the
old
claim
on
the
left
fork
of
Henderson
Creek
,
where
the
boys
were
already
.
They
had
come
over
across
the
divide
from
the
Indian
Creek
country
,
while
he
had
come
the
roundabout
way
to
take
a
look
at
the
possibilities
of
getting
out
logs
in
the
spring
from
the
islands
in
the
Yukon
.
He
would
be
in
to
camp
by
six
o'clock
;
a
bit
after
dark
,
it
was
true
,
but
the
boys
would
be
there
,
a
fire
would
be
going
,
and
a
hot
supper
would
be
ready
.
As
for
lunch
,
he
pressed
his
hand
against
the
protruding
bundle
under
his
jacket
.
It
was
also
under
his
shirt
,
wrapped
up
in
a
handkerchief
and
lying
against
the
naked
skin
.
It
was
the
only
way
to
keep
the
biscuits
from
freezing
.
He
smiled
agreeably
to
himself
as
he
thought
of
those
biscuits
,
each
cut
open
and
sopped
in
bacon
grease
,
and
each
enclosing
a
generous
slice
of
fried
bacon
.
He
plunged
in
among
the
big
spruce
trees
.
The
trail
was
faint
.
A
foot
of
snow
had
fallen
since
the
last
sled
had
passed
over
,
and
he
was
glad
he
was
without
a
sled
,
travelling
light
.
In
fact
,
he
carried
nothing
but
the
lunch
wrapped
in
the
handkerchief
.
He
was
surprised
,
however
,
at
the
cold
.
It
certainly
was
cold
,
he
concluded
,
as
he
rubbed
his
numbed
nose
and
cheek-bones
with
his
mittened
hand
.
He
was
a
warm-whiskered
man
,
but
the
hair
on
his
face
did
not
protect
the
high
cheek-bones
and
the
eager
nose
that
thrust
itself
aggressively
into
the
frosty
air
.
At
the
man
's
heels
trotted
a
dog
,
a
big
native
husky
,
the
proper
wolf-dog
,
grey-coated
and
without
any
visible
or
temperamental
difference
from
its
brother
,
the
wild
wolf
.
The
animal
was
depressed
by
the
tremendous
cold
.
It
knew
that
it
was
no
time
for
travelling
.
Its
instinct
told
it
a
truer
tale
than
was
told
to
the
man
by
the
man
's
judgment
.
In
reality
,
it
was
not
merely
colder
than
fifty
below
zero
;
it
was
colder
than
sixty
below
,
than
seventy
below
.
It
was
seventy-five
below
zero
.
Since
the
freezing-point
is
thirty-two
above
zero
,
it
meant
that
one
hundred
and
seven
degrees
of
frost
obtained
.
The
dog
did
not
know
anything
about
thermometers
.
Possibly
in
its
brain
there
was
no
sharp
consciousness
of
a
condition
of
very
cold
such
as
was
in
the
man
's
brain
.
But
the
brute
had
its
instinct
.
It
experienced
a
vague
but
menacing
apprehension
that
subdued
it
and
made
it
slink
along
at
the
man
's
heels
,
and
that
made
it
question
eagerly
every
unwonted
movement
of
the
man
as
if
expecting
him
to
go
into
camp
or
to
seek
shelter
somewhere
and
build
a
fire
.
The
dog
had
learned
fire
,
and
it
wanted
fire
,
or
else
to
burrow
under
the
snow
and
cuddle
its
warmth
away
from
the
air
.
The
frozen
moisture
of
its
breathing
had
settled
on
its
fur
in
a
fine
powder
of
frost
,
and
especially
were
its
jowls
,
muzzle
,
and
eyelashes
whitened
by
its
crystalled
breath
.
The
man
's
red
beard
and
moustache
were
likewise
frosted
,
but
more
solidly
,
the
deposit
taking
the
form
of
ice
and
increasing
with
every
warm
,
moist
breath
he
exhaled
.
Also
,
the
man
was
chewing
tobacco
,
and
the
muzzle
of
ice
held
his
lips
so
rigidly
that
he
was
unable
to
clear
his
chin
when
he
expelled
the
juice
.
The
result
was
that
a
crystal
beard
of
the
colour
and
solidity
of
amber
was
increasing
its
length
on
his
chin
.
If
he
fell
down
it
would
shatter
itself
,
like
glass
,
into
brittle
fragments
.
But
he
did
not
mind
the
appendage
.
It
was
the
penalty
all
tobacco
-
chewers
paid
in
that
country
,
and
he
had
been
out
before
in
two
cold
snaps
.
They
had
not
been
so
cold
as
this
,
he
knew
,
but
by
the
spirit
thermometer
at
Sixty
Mile
he
knew
they
had
been
registered
at
fifty
below
and
at
fifty-five
.
