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If worse came to worst, then it would be up to Jack to rescue hih the doors into the bar Looking around, he spied Merritt quickly, slumped over the same table in the far corner that he and Jack had occupied months before A whiskey bottle sat on the table in front of hirizzled features seeh the appearance of an alcoholic, but Merritt seemed to be cursed even more--here was a man driven to drink who did not enjoy it one bit

Opposite Merritt sat Hal, the boy Jack had rescued from Archie and William He looked up as Jack stood by the doors, his eyes ide, and he whispered, "Jack London"

"Dead," Merritt said "Taken by the roaned, and a couple even laughed, throwing casual abuse his way "You’ll laugh!" Merritt said, voice rising "When it has you by the legs so it can chew on your guts, you’ll…you’ll…" He slu into the pool of dribble spreading from his mouth

"No, Merritt," Hal said He stood up from the table and smiled "Jack’s here!"

Merritt looked up at Jack A few other people seemed interested, but Jack only had eyes for Merritt, this wreck of his friend

"Jack London’s dead," Merritt said

"I’m here, Merritt," Jack said "And it seems to me you’re the one who’s almost lost"

Jack sat at their table and accepted Hal’s offer of a drink The boy regarded him ide-eyed fascination, hardly able to talk, and when he did, it was in hushed, al Merritt exaed so er in the mirror still haunted him

At last Merritt slipped into a troubled sleep, the hubbub in the bar around the at Jack

Jack had to reer than him He looked like a kid--he was a kid--yet Jack was happy to see a friendly face

"So what is it?" Jack asked at last Though he spoke to Hal, he watched Merritt, hoping that his friend would ith recognition in his eyes, but he was far gone Perhaps tomorrow

"Well…Merritt has such stories," Hal said "He talks about…"

"Monsters?" Jack said

Hal nodded

"Well, he’ll find a lot of ugly things at the botto about the before he started on the booze"

"Trailthe harsh taste

"Then he ain’t the only lanced at the kid Held the glass up, breathed in the whiskey fumes I saw them all die!

"That bastard Archie’s back in Dawson," Hal said quietly "Ain’t nearly so brutish now--had that shot outa him, by all accounts But he’s hooked up with the saain"

"Archie," Jack said "You’re sure?" Williao killed William, and then…? But the memory ended there

"Sure I’aze for more than a few moments

Jack sat back, looked around the bar, and took another drink It seeht not yet be over Hal poured him another, h depressing in ed to relax Jack at last Merritt snored softly on the table beside him, and this could have been a bar anywhere

Later, after Hal and Jack had all but finished the whiskey, Hal leaned in close Here it co to say all evening

"So tell me what happened," Hal said

Jack frowned for a while, staring into an unseen distance, and he strove to hear a wolf howl that was far from there Perhaps it was the whiskey, but he sht, Hal I’ to tell the story again," he said "So you’ll be the only one to hear it And it will be up to you what you believe"

And into the early hours, Jack London told his tale

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

BROKEN CIRCLES

MORNING BROUGHT NO EPIPHANY When he had learned that Merritt was still alive, he had wondered if the big man would still hold him responsible for Jim Goodman’s death, or if the tensions that had strained their friendship in the days before the Wendigo’s attack would reuessed that Merritt’s reaction would be so er or resentment

When they encountered each other over breakfast in the hotel parlor, Merritt still did not recognize hiht in the slavers’ ca ry in alrew distant in a way that had nothing to do with the alcohol in which he’d been stewing his brain for weeks It wasn’t madness, however Jack had ht that a part of Merritt remained in the north, in the ruined camp on the bank of the creek, that he had never entirely returned

Jack feared he never would, but he resolved to treat Merritt with care Further shockat the biscuits and gravy on his plate, Merritt tugged his bushy red beard and seemed to start at sounds no one else could hear Still broad shouldered and i, he had thinned since their ordeal in the wilderness, and though only a few years Jack’s senior, he now appeared much older

Over the rim of his coffee cup, Jack watched his friend closely Merritt needed to be woken out of his fog, the parts of his thinking self brought back together, but it had to be done with caution

If, Jack thought, it can ever be done at all

After breakfast, he went to see the hotel’s owner, who turned out to have the solanced up fro into piles for the hotel’s guests--and a sheepish look came over his face

"I supposed it was too et," the ive the Yukon Hotel an air of sophistication--or even merely civilization--that it could never establish on its own ht, but did not say

"And a good aze flicked down to the twin gun belts Jack wore He had al but quickly decided they would be his co with the other weapons he had brought back fro the saddlebags in his hotel rooold he had found to anyone, not even young Hal the night before, but there were soered for it so badly that he would not put it past them to somehow sense its presence

"I’ain "But the way your friend Sloper talked, and from the whispers I’d heard ’bout ent on up there…and it had been so long since you left--"

"I’ll put it to you plainly, sir," Jack interrupted "I’er to bloodshed, and I can think of a couple of dozen ways to hurt or even kill you just with the things here in this roo"