The Golden Volcano by Jules Verne

Author:Jules Verne
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-06-18T04:57:00+00:00

S U M M Y SKIM'S CART stopped at the door of the hospital that afternoon. The man it was carrying was brought into one of the wards containing about thirty beds and placed in the adjoining office, which Ben Raddle had occupied during his convalescence.

In this small room, the sick man would not be disturbed by the proximity of the other patients. Summy Skim had gone to see the sister superior.

"He's a Frenchman," he told her, "almost a fellow countryman. What you did for Ben, I'm asking you now to do for him, and I hope Dr. Pilcox will cure him just as he healed my cousin."

Sisters Martha and Madeleine had echoed his request, and soon Dr. Pilcox was at Jacques Laurier's bedside.'

Ben Raddle, informed of the situation by Neluto, hurried to the hospital and was present at the doctor's first visit.

The Frenchman had not regained consciousness and his eyes were still closed. Dr. Pilcox found his pulse very weak and his breathing barely perceptible. He found no wounds on the man's body, which was terribly emaciated by deprivation, fatigue, and misery. The unfortunate fellow had probably dropped from exhaustion under the tree where Skim came across him. It was likely, too, that he was suffering from congestion, due to the cold, after a night in the open with no one to help him.

"This man is half frozen," said the doctor.

He was wrapped in blankets, given hot drinks, and massaged to restore circulation. Everything that could be done was done, but all efforts to bring him out of his weakened state and revive his spirits were in vain.

It was not a corpse that Skim had brought back, but would the poor man recover? Dr. Pilcox refused to offer an opinion on that question.

Jacques Laurier-that was the name on the letters found in his wallet. The most recent one, dated five months earlier, had been mailed from Nantes. A mother was writing to her son in Dawson City, Klondike, and waiting for a reply, which perhaps he had not yet sent.

Skim and Raddle read the letters, which provided a few details about their recipient. If he did not survive, they would surely have to write to his poor mother and tell her that she would never see him again.

What could be established from this collection of four letters was that Jacques Laurier had left Europe two years earlier, but he had not gone directly to the Klondike to work as a prospector. Some of the addresses indicated that he must have tried his luck first on the gold fields of Ontario and British Columbia. Then, attracted no doubt by the amazing news published in the Dawson City newspapers, he had joined the throng of miners. He apparently did not own a claim, since there was no deed of ownership in his wallet, but along with the letters there was one document in particular that attracted Raddle's attention.

It was a rough map, drawn in pencil, whose irregularly traced lines marked out a stream flowing west with several tributaries running into it.

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