Chapter 17 Chapter 2 Gold Volcano

The carriage arrived at the hospital in a few minutes.The people in the car were carried into the ward where Chaben Rado lived before he recovered from his injury.In this way, the patient is not disturbed by other patients. Credit for this favor goes to Sammy Skin, who took the upper-echelon route to this end. "He's a Frenchman, almost a countryman," he said to Edith Egerton, "and I beg you to treat him as you did Ben, and I hope Dr. Piercox treats him as he treated Ben. " The doctor soon came to the new patient.The Frenchman was still awake, his eyes still closed.The doctor found that his pulse was very weak, his breathing was barely felt, and he found no wounds on his body, except that he was horribly emaciated from lack of food, fatigue, and poverty.There can be no doubt that the unfortunate man fell under that tree from exhaustion.If he lay there all night without help, he would freeze to death in the open place.

"The man is freezing," said Dr. Peelcox. We wrapped the patient in quilts and hot water bottles, let him drink some hot drinks, and rubbed his whole body to promote blood circulation.Everything that should be done has been done.Useless efforts will not bring him out of his stupor. Can this dying man be revived?The doctor declined to comment. Jacques Ledan was the name on all the letters in his wallet, signed by his mother.The last letter was from Nantes, five months ago.A mother writes to her son in Dawson City, Klondike.The reply she begged for may not have been sent. Ben and Sammy read the letters and hand them to Edith and Jane.They are all excited.The facial muscles of the men are tense as they try to hide their emotions; the girls, despite their willpower, let the tears of sympathy flow freely.Fiery maternal love is revealed between the lines in the letter.It was an endless stream of exhortations, caresses, and calls.I hope that Jacques will heal well, especially if he wants to go home and give up the adventure of chasing wealth, which is the wish of his mother far away.A mother will laugh at poverty if it is shared between mother and son.

In any event, the letters provide some useful information about their recipients.If he dies.His mother could be informed of the sad news. From these 20 letters, it can be generally known that Jacques Le Dan left Europe two years ago.He didn't come directly to the Klondike to work as a prospector.Registrations on several letters indicate that he first sought his fortune in the gold fields of Ontario and Columbia.Then, presumably attracted by the exciting news in the Dawson City papers, he joined the miners.Besides, he did not appear to be the owner of a plot of land, since he did not have any property certificates in his wallet, except for the letter he had just read, and no other papers.

There was one other thing, however, which was no longer in the wallet, but in the hands of Jane Egerton.She wasn't even going to tell her cousins ​​and friends about it.It was only when she was sleeping at night that she thought of this strange parchment, and after unfolding it under the light, she tried to figure it out like guessing a trace. It was indeed a map, as she had reckoned.The rather irregular curves of an ocean are drawn in pencil, into which a river with several tributaries flows.Judging by the normal direction on the map, the river appears to flow northwest.Is this the Yukon or its tributary, the Klondike?This assumption is untenable.According to the direction of the map, only the Arctic Ocean and a piece of land within the Arctic Circle can be drawn on the map.The red cross drawn at the intersection of the longitude of 136 degrees 15 seconds and an unnumbered parallel of latitude immediately caught Jane Egerton's attention.She tried unsuccessfully to solve the problem, for the latitude was unclear, and it was impossible to determine what part of North America was drawn on the map, especially where the mysterious cross marked it.

Is that where Jacques Ledan went?Or come back from there, fall a few kilometers from Dawson City and never get up again?It will never be known if the unfortunate Frenchman died before he came to his senses. Needless to say, Jacques Ledan's family had a certain status in society. He was not a worker.The smoothness of my mother's letters is proof.He fell to this point: lying in a hospital bed with nothing and miserably, had he experienced such a tortuous and unfortunate experience before? A few days later.Although Jacques Ledan received careful treatment, his condition did not improve.In order to answer the question, he could only spit out some unintelligible words intermittently.One has a right to doubt even his sanity.

On the matter, Dr. Peelcox said: "I am afraid that the patient's spirit has been greatly shaken. When his eyes were opened, I caught a vacant look which made me think." "His physical condition," asked Sammy Skin, "can't be improved?" "I think his physical condition is worse than his mental condition," the doctor declared clearly. Such a statement from the usually confident Dr. Piercox meant that there was little hope of curing Jacques Ledin. However, Ben Rado and Sammy Skin did not want to despair.Listen to them: Over time, there is bound to be a reaction.Even if Jacques Ledan cannot recover his health.At least he can regain his sanity, he can speak, and he can answer questions.

What happened a few days later proved them right.Is Dr. Piercox overly skeptical of the efficacy of medicines?The reaction that Ben Rado had been waiting for so anxiously began to emerge.Jacques Le's delirious condition was less absolute.His eyes stayed open longer.His more determined gaze scanned the strange room and the people gathered around him questioningly and wonderingly: the Doctor, Ben Rado, Sammy Skinner, Edith and Jane Egerton. Have the unfortunate people been saved? The doctor shook his head dejectedly.A physician is not deceived by false appearances.If his intelligence recovers, it will be closed forever.Those newly opened eyes will soon be lost forever.It is only life's last useless revolt against death.

Edith bent down and listened carefully to what Jacques Ledan was muttering in a very low, barely audible voice interrupted by sighs.She was answering questions that she guessed rather than understood: "You are in a hospital ward." "Where?" asked the patient, trying to lift himself up. "In Dawson City...6 days ago, someone found you passed out on the road...and sent you here." Jacques Ledin's eyelids drooped for a moment.The effort seemed to take all his strength.The doctor made him drink a few drops of blood-invigorating potion, blood appeared on his pale face, and he could speak again.

"Who are you?" he asked. "Canadian," replied Sammy Skin, "almost French. Believe us, we saved you." The patient gave a bleak smile, and his head sank back on the pillow.He probably knew that death was approaching, for great drops of tears oozed from his closed eyes and ran down his haggard cheeks.Following the doctor's advice, no other questions were asked of him.Best to let him rest.Someone was waiting by his bedside, and as soon as he gathered enough strength to speak, someone would answer him. During the next two days, Jacques Ledin's condition neither improved nor worsened.He was still so weak that one could fear that he would not be able to react.However, he was given ample rest and he was able to speak again and answer questions posed.It can be felt: He has a lot to say.

Slowly, people know the story of this Frenchman.On the one hand, he voluntarily said it when he was awake, and on the other hand, people were able to understand him when he was talking in his sleep.Still, certain circumstances in his life remain a mystery.What was he doing in the Klondike?Where did he come from before he passed out outside Dawson City?Where to go, nothing is known about these circumstances. Jacques Ledan was a Breton native of Nantes.He is forty-two years old, and he is physically strong; if it were not for the extreme lack of food, his health would not be so poor. His mother was a widow, and you dead were stockbrokers, bankrupt in risky speculation.My mother still lives in the city of Nantes, struggling day by day with growing poverty.

From childhood, Jacques Ledan had a soft spot for the sea.As he was about to pass his entrance examinations for the Naval Academy, a serious illness ended his sailing career at its infancy.After passing the required school age, he had to go to a merchant ship as a cadet pilot, and after a few visits to Melbourne, India and San Francisco, he was commissioned as a captain on an ocean-going vessel.It was in this capacity that he entered the Navy as Assistant Flag Officer. After three years in the military, he understood that he would never get the same promotion as his colleagues who graduated from the Borda Naval Academy unless there were special circumstances that would make a sailor stand out.He quit his job to seek a position on a merchant ship. The captain's seat was hard to come by, and he had to make do with being second-in-command on a sailing ship sailing to the southern seas. After another 4 years, he was 29 years old when his father died, leaving his mother almost impoverished.Jacques Ledan tried unsuccessfully to convert the mate's seat into the captain's.He had no money to contribute part of the capital of the ship he wanted to be captain, as people usually do, so he was always second in command.What a dim prospect lay before him!If this continues, how can he let his mother live a comfortable life even though she is not rich? The ship's voyages took him to Australia and California, where the gold fields attracted many immigrants.As usual, only a few people made their fortunes, and the majority encountered only bankruptcy and poverty there.Dazed by the example of the luckiest of men, Jacques Ledin decided to follow the perilous way of the gold digger. At that time, everyone's attention was just focusing on the gold mines in Dominion, before the discovery of the Klondike multiplied its rich gold mines.Canada also has gold mines in other, less distant, accessible areas, where the conditions are better, and the work isn't interrupted by the dreadful winters of the Yukon.This area is perhaps the most important gold mine: the King Mine produced 4.5 million francs worth of gold in two years.Jacques Le Dan entered the company to work. However, people who sell their mental or physical labor generally do not get rich.The dream of this brave but reckless Frenchman of quick fortune and fortune was not realized at sea, nor on land.A worker or employee is doomed to be mediocre all his life. At this time, people were talking about discoveries in the Yukon Valley.The name Klondike is as mind-boggling as names like California, Australia and the Transvaal of yore.A large crowd of miners was heading north, and Jacques Ledan was among them. While working in a mine in Ontario, he met Henry Brown, a Canadian of British origin.Both have the same ambitions, both anxious to succeed.It was this Henry Brown who made Jacques Ledan decide to leave his present post and devote himself to the futile prospect.The two came to Dawson City with what little savings they had. This time, they decided to work for themselves.They're smart enough to know not to do it in places that are too famous, like Bonanza, El Dorado, Sixty Mile River or Forty Mile River.And while land prices there haven't risen to mind-boggling levels, they're not going to find a place for a space there either.There are already million-dollar bids vying for gold there.It was necessary, therefore, to go farther, to Alaska or north of the Dominion, far from the great river, into those almost unexplored regions where a few daring prospectors discovered new gold deposits. .To go where no one has been.To discover a gold deposit that has no owner, whoever first occupies it will be the owner. Jacques Le Dan and Henry Brown thought so. There are no materials, no manpower, and the remaining money is enough to live for 18 months.So they left Dawson City.They eat what they hunt and venture into largely unknown regions beyond the Arctic Circle. Summer had just begun when Jacques Ledan hit the road, just six months before he was found dying outside Dawson City.Where did the two adventurers go?Have you reached the shore of the Arctic Ocean and the end of the land?After all this effort, have they found anything?Judging by the penniless condition of one of them, nothing was found.There is only one person left!On the way, they were attacked by the natives, and only Jacques Ledan survived, and all his things were thrown to the attackers.Henry Brown died under their clubs, and his bones now whiten the desolate region. This is the last situation that can be obtained.What's more, this painful story can only be heard intermittently when the patient is awake for a while.As Dr. Piercox had expected, his health grew weaker by the day. As for the results of their surveys, the areas they reached, and where they came from when they were attacked by the Indians, these secrets will probably be buried forever with the poor Frenchman. One document survives, however, which is indeed incomplete, but the end of this story may fill the gap.Jane often thinks about this document that no one knows but her.Its use will be determined in the future.If Jacques Ledin recovered, she would of course return the papers to him.But what if he dies? ... During this period, Jane stubbornly tried to solve this annoying mystery.There can be no doubt that the map shows the region where the Frenchman and his companions spent their last season.But which region is this?Where does the river represented by the curve drawn from southeast to northwest flow?Is this a tributary of the Yukon, the Koyukoc, or the Porcupine? One day, when Jane was alone with the patient, she held the map, presumably drawn by him, in front of his eyes.Jacques Ledan's eyes lit up, and he fixed his eyes on the red cross for a moment.It was this cross that greatly stimulated the curiosity of the female prospector.She was convinced that this marked the location of some discovery... But soon the patient pushed the map away from his eyes, closed his eyes again, and did not have a word to unravel this tantalizing mystery. Has he run out of strength to speak?Or, does he want to keep it a secret forever?Is there any hope of life left in the depths of the soul, which is about to leave the exhausted body?Perhaps the unfortunate man wanted to keep the price of so much effort?Perhaps he said to himself that he was going to see his mother and bring her the fortune he had won for her. Days passed again.It's the coldest time.The temperature dropped to minus 50 degrees Celsius several times.Outside, it's simply impossible to fight such bitter cold.The brothers were either in the hospital or in a hotel room.Sometimes, however, they wrap themselves in furs from head to toe and go to several playgrounds.There are quite few customers there.Most of the miners went to Day, Skagway or Vancouver before the severe cold came. Perhaps Hunter and Malone spent the winter in one of the aforementioned cities.What is certain is that no one has seen them since the Sishilihe disaster; besides, the victims of the earthquake have been identified and they are not among them. Nor could Sammy Skinn and Neruto hunt the bears that roamed the edge of Dawson City on these days of frequent blizzards.Like everyone else, he was forced to close himself almost completely, and the extremely low temperature caused the disease.Disease kills many people in the city every winter.There are not enough beds in the hospital to receive patients, and the wards that Jacques Ledan will soon vacate will be filled with patients immediately. Dr. Piercox tried to restore his strength, but failed.The medicine had lost its effect and his stomach could no longer take any food.It is evident that life leaves this exhausted organism day by day, hour by hour. On the morning of November 30, Jacques Ledan had a fit so severe that it was thought that he would not recover.He punched and kicked, and although he was weak, it was still hard to hold him down on the bed.He babbled like crazy, stammering the same words all the time without knowing it. "There!...volcano...eruption...gold...gold lava..." Then he cried out in despair: "Mother... Mother... Here it is!..." Gradually the commotion dies down, and the unfortunate suffers from exhaustion and faints.Only faint breathing indicated that he was still alive.Doctors don't think he can afford a second such attack. In the afternoon, Jane Egerton, who came to sit at the head of the patient's bed, felt that he was much calmer.It's even as if his sanity is completely clear.There is no doubt that his condition has improved greatly, and this is the flashback of his deathbed. Jacques Ledan opened his eyes again.His eyes were particularly focused on finding the girl's eyes.Clearly, he had something to say.He wants to talk.Jane bent down, trying to understand the barely intelligible words that were stammering from the dying man's lips. "The map..." said Jacques Ledin. "Here," Jane replied promptly, returning the document to its rightful owner. As he did the first time, he pushed the map away. "I'll give it to..." he murmured, "here... the Red Cross... a golden volcano..." "You give your map? . . . to whom?" "you……" "Give me?……" "Yes...provided...you are thinking of...my mother." "Your mother? . . . You want to entrust your mother to me?" "right……" "Don't worry. But what am I going to do with your map? I don't understand what it means." The dying man seemed to think for a while, and after a moment's silence he said: "Ben Rado..." "You want to see Mr. Rado?" "yes." A few minutes later, the engineer came to the patient's bedside.The patient signaled to Jane Edgerton that he wanted to speak to the engineer alone. Jacques Ledan groped for Ben Lado's hand and said: "I'm dying...I feel...life is leaving me..." "No, my friend," Ben Rado retorted, "we will save you." "I am dying," repeated Jacques Ledan, "come closer... You promised me... to take care of my mother... I trust you... Listen, and remember what I am going to say to you." He uttered the following words in a clear, fading voice, the voice of a man whose sanity has not been damaged, and who thinks perfectly clearly.He said to Ben Lado: "When you found me...I came back from far away...to the north...the richest gold deposits in the world...no need to dig...gold spewing out of the ground!...Yes !... There... I found a great mountain... a volcano rich in gold...Gold Volcano...Golden Mount..." "A gold volcano?" repeated Ben Rado in a voice of some disbelief. "You must believe me," said Jacques Ledin aloud, trying to raise his upper body on the bed, "you must believe me. If it is not for you, then it is for my mother... She should have a share of my inheritance... ...I climbed up that mountain...and went down into the crater of the extinct volcano...it was full of gold-bearing quartz, gold nuggets...just pick it up..." After this effort, the patient passed out again, from which he awoke a few minutes later.The first thing he looked for was an engineer. "Okay," he murmured, "you are here...by my side...you believe me...you are going there...over there...to the Gold Volcano..." His voice trailed off as he took Ben Rado by the hand and made him bend over. "The latitude is 68 degrees 37 seconds...the longitude is marked on the map..." "Where's the map?" Ben Rado asked. "Ask . . . Jane Egerton . . . " "Miss Egerton has a map of that area?" asked Ben Rado, who was greatly surprised. "Yes...I gave it to her...there...where the cross...was on a river...north of the Klondike...a volcano...the next eruption will spew gold...the lava is Gold dust...there...there...' Jacques Ledin, who was half-sitting up with the help of Bin Rado, pointed to the north with trembling fingers. His last words uttered from his bloodless lips: "Mother... Mother..." Then, with infinite tenderness, said: "Mother!" After the final convulsion, he died.