no shooting. let's see who's so interested in us.
can't be much of a crime, if all they got minding the area is a cocky kid.
jawing about it won't change it.
leave it here.
relax. i just want to ask them how the hunting is.
looks like you've had some luck. where's your guide?
you did real good.
my friend is right. supposed to have a licensed guide when you're on this land, too.
this was my roaming land, 'til the government took it over. only innuit can hunt here now, and tourists, like you.
according to tribal law, hunters passing through the land of another tribe can only take game to survive. they can eat the meat, but have to surrender the hides.
put him in your truck. smell of blood will attract the bears. let's go.
we'll get a head start before they go crying to the law.
you can pack out of here -- two, three days' hike along this river at most. weather should hold this early in the season.
hullo, sam. slow day?
just passing through.
needs patching.
sure have learned to worship the white man's god.
share some of that oil company money in your pocket and you can.
hard to work up an interest in politics, way we live. you're the first people we've seen in two weeks.
relax. one more day without drink won't kill you. right, sam?
can we buy the marshal some dinner?
had no choice.  . given the situation.
mitchell, look, it don't take three of us to wait for viking bob.
go ahead. take the jeep. i'll come to cache with bob when he gets here.
leave my traps. we'll tag up, couple days.
yep. afraid you have me at a disadvantage.
no big deal. we just got off on the wrong foot. what's your name?
new to the country, kid?
ecology. folks use that term for everything but what it means: who's eating who.
now, why don't you get around to saying what you want.
you wouldn't shoot anyone.
all this for laying traps on private land?
christ if i shouldn't know better than to step in soft earth. i've seen footprints in the tundra a hundred years old.
sam, give dixie here fifty bucks out of my kit, will you?
nice bluff the other day with the tranquilizer gun out your jeep window. see you again, maybe.
mind if i get some stuff from my kit?
sam, listen -- i shot to defend my man. other guy drew first.
i'll get loose before that plane comes.
bob! they got me on a murder charge!
a lot to ask, dragging him away from such a good-looking girl --
good idea. flying over mountains can give you some nasty surprises. go too low, one of the clouds might have a big rock inside it.
i don't want to hurt you, sam.
nothing personal.
some day you might have to face me without a gun.
does he have people?
send him down to her. there's money in my duffel bag, back at his cabin.
surviving is what i know --
how long have you been up north?
can't be. too keen a sense of this place in your pictures.
your people alaskan?
knew you had no native blood, even with your dark hair. blue eyes give you away. my wife had blue eyes.
she's dead.
had some good years. met her in '66. she showed up one day in coldfoot. no one knew her. one sunday morning, she marched into a bar and announced she was available as a wife to the highest bidder. didn't work out in three months, she'd return the money and leave, no hard feelings. my bid was eight thousand dollars. beautiful girl.
i was gone, in september, laying traplines. she went to our cache for some meat. got mauled by a bear. tore open her skull. -more-
what about you -- why come back? classy girl like you seems more suited to the finer things.
you should know something.
wasn't my intention to hurt wilder. i'm telling you the truth. i liked the man. i only meant to get loose.  to survive. your cheechako boyfriend better understand that. listen, i've got some money put away --
let me out and keep going. they catch us, they'll kill you.
they'll still catch us. all you're doing is pissing them off.
smart? sure. that's why i'm sitting in this plane and they're down there blowing me kisses.
been driving long?
that makes the flight more interesting.
see the blood? pack of wolves took down a moose. greedy, gut-ripping sons of bitches. i'd kill the last wolf on earth, right in front of the president of the u.s. stinking, cowardly predator, the wolf.
hunting and trapping was a damn fine life. me and mitchell, bob and lemalle, we were teams. i'd always go with mitchell. good man, mitchell. i'd let bob worry about goddamn lemalle. we'd hire a plane in october. on the way to a dirt airstrip somewhere, we'd drop supplies. we'd land, tell the pilot to come back for us a few days before christmas.
the idea was to get to the supplies before the bears did. along the route we'd set our traps. made our year's living in three months.
lot of times we didn't even have a landing strip. we'd set down on a plateau, like that one there. yeah, that one's easy; you could glide right in.
hope you got your money's worth on those lessons.
you got the belly to look me in the eye and pull the trigger?
i took the odds on getting down in one piece, and i made it. now we're in my territory.
you sound like the tourists. know-it-alls who read about survival in a magazine. fuck you. you won't make it off this mountain.
i'm not gonna carry you out of here.
look, take these cuffs off. we need to work together.
welcome to the environment, mr. ecology. out here, one mistake is all you get.
why in hell you care enough about me to die taking me in?
snow shelter. okay. you dig. i'll have a little sit-down.
even in the drifts, this snow's too powdery to make a shelter. when you're done jerking around, reach down the back of my coat.
still quite a hike to devil's cauldron. days. a long stretch to go without sleep, my friend. you can hide behind that pistol for now, but take your eyes off me long enough to sneeze --
ice is too thin -- you can see the water moving underneath.
we get wet, we freeze to death in a couple hours.
be my guest.
wait 'til i'm across!
most dangerous thing in the world: a regular joe, in over his head. you trying to prove how tough you are for me, or for yourself?
let's camp. there's grayling under this ice. i'll snare some for dinner.
pushing it is flat wrong. all you prove is your ignorance about breaking trail.
have to backtrack, find another way down.
going to be a bit of a challenge with handcuffs on.
better get into those trees before that squall blows down.
you talk about ecology -- there it is.
just gather birch. it'll smoke like hell, but it'll burn green.
i need your pocket knife. i have to eat, too.
damn lucky this storm didn't blow down when we were on those baldheaded mountains. it continues, we better stay put.
i'm still figuring: you're either real brave or real dumb.
where in hell meyerling dig you up?
sure. the people's friend. kiss your ass with precision if there's a vote in it.
always eat your meat raw when the weather's cold. does you more good, long as the entrails look clean.
sure love to know where you fit in up here.
you want to fool yourself about that bullshit job, fine. damn shame you have to drag your girlfriend along. you think a woman like that will be happy making moose stew for a man -more-
folks come to alaska for a real short list of reasons: money. adventure. solitude. those cover most everyone. but frontiers also draw another type of man. one with a demon in his gut. he comes to the edge of the world to face that demon, and lay it to rest.
yep. sometimes they do, but usually they end up crazy or dead.
there's a cabin, maybe twenty miles south of here.
there's a snowmobile. inside a day we could be on the yukon. i got money there. remember that five thousand? make it ten. be smart. take it and walk away.
crawls to solid ground. disoriented from the shock to his system, he rolls over to catch his breath.
nothing personal. just wanted to see what you'd do.
have to get these wet things off.
inside of three hours you'd be dragging my dead carcass.
if that means freeze my balls off, no thanks. i'll be okay.
told you i'm fine!
what?! fuck off. save yourself.
it's a spring day.
where's my elt?
you got one?
too bad. we'd be out of here in a few hours.
i'm surprised a flat-ender like you knows cold-weather remedies.
i'm hungry. go kill me some dinner.
hate to disappoint you.
used to see the natives eating roots when i was a kid in nome.
told that's what our old man was. planned on going to sea, me and bob, 'til i read jack london. started trapping when i was ten. mailed the furs to sears. eight bucks for a skunk, three for a muskrat. that was fine money.
you got a knack for seeing things the way you want to see them.
don't judge me. you're a joke, coming here from a fucked-up culture, telling us what to do!
all you do is keep folks from working the land, living like they're meant to. you don't understand shit! trappers, hunters -- we're part of the environment. who's protecting us? i've seen plenty like you. so -more-
i'm real sad you don't approve of me.
tell me what i should do, professor. you got all the answers. i shouldn't hunt? fine, i'll just phone up and have a salad delivered.
cowardly bastard. i'm in handcuffs and i still scare the piss out of you.
first you save my ass, now you want to kill me. make up your goddamn mind.
what makes you so sure my boys won't be waiting for us?
don't bet on it.
you don't know how true that is.
didn't mean it, you being a coward. you're a lot of things,
hell, i still get a knot in my gut every season, wondering how much longer i can go on. no 'home for retired trappers' that -more-
my wife used to go to chapel on sundays. see her friends, 'cause i was away so much. should've been home that day. she'd be getting dressed right about now.
talk to that good-looking girl of yours?
i'm sure she's fine. seemed like a clever kid.
you were real resourceful out there. got me thinking of this perimeter man, froze all his fingers one winter. so he hacked the tips off and sharpened the exposed bones. gets along better than ever. yeah, maybe i underestimated you.
you're damn lucky, glimpsing this country before it's ruined, gone for good. you saw wonders you'd only dreamed of. that alone makes you different than the sorry bastards back where you came from, because you have dreamt them.
remember that demon in the gut? sometimes it's nothing more than wondering if the so-called civilized life has bred the balls and brains out of you. that's what you want out of this, isn't it?
relax. i'll get loose in time.
guess someone should use them. open the bottom drawer in wilder's desk. my kit's in there. might as well unload everything.
lets us watch each other's backs over a wide area. only thing messed me up this time was getting arrested in the baths. elt was in my duffel bag, not around my neck where it should've been.
they haven't disappointed me yet.
flashbomb, eh?
could've told you no one would help.
maybe you can talk sense into your boyfriend.
you kill me, you sign your death warrant. and hers.
they know i'm here. i don't say something, they'll plow this town under. you willing to accept that responsibility?
bob?
relax. i got a nervous man here with a magnum up my nose.
i'm fine. look forward to seeing you.
snow's to their advantage, kid. you can't see them, but soon as that plane comes, they'll sure as hell know where we're going. wise up. take me to the yukon. i'll give you that money and guarantee you'll walk away.
the time has passed for men like them and me. i know it. but they're still fighting for survival, like cornered animals. that's why they'll kill you. -more-
at least your girl had the sense to jump ship. too bad she's the only one small enough to fit through that dumb waiter.
fifteen years on the trail with this man, i never saw him rise to anger.
your first kill. how does it taste?
sure, when you put a bullet in my back on the way out. easier for all involved.
you're quite a piece of work, meyerling. the tide changes, you ride right along with it.
wound's a through-and-through. missed my liver, i think.
like i said, i'd still be up on that mountain, frozen solid, it wasn't for you.
so they can patch me up and put me in a cage? forget it. meyerling's right -- i'm a dinosaur. greedy bastards like him, it's their turn with this land. put me in the woods, let me live or die on my own.
look down there, tell me what any of this matters. struggles of men get swallowed by the bigness. soon there won't be a trace of our troubles.  or us.
clutches the scrimshaw in his hand and closes his eyes.
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