“If you're starving, why don't you kill
the dog?” he asked.
DeBar turned quickly, his white teeth
gleaming through his beard.
“Because he's the best friend I've got on
earth, or next to the best,” he said warmly. “He's starved with me through
thick and thin for ten years. He starved with me, and fought with me, and half
died with me, and he's going to live with me as long as I live. Would you eat
the flesh of your brother, Steele? He's my brother--the last that your glorious
law has left to me. Would you kill him if you were me?”
This 1946 novel was one of several Curwood centered
around the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I’ll admit I went into it expecting a
bit of a square read, but I was pleasantly surprised.
It is rife with good Northern scoutcraft and shot
through with striking examples of honor and duty and necessity in a harsh
landscape.
Admittedly not an A+ read, but an enjoyable one amongst
robust characters, nevertheless.
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