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87 Tom and Elmer Dive for the Gun —Just upriver from Dawson, May 30, 1903 Elmer, some things a man can ask only of a brother. Diving headlong into the Yukon is one, but that gun cost me so much, I had to ask. Fifty-five dollars and it fed us and half of Dawson all winter. So we each took turns in the water. Our ration, a big swallow of air before each blind grapple for the bottom. I hoped I could catch something, graze the edge of the barrel knock into the chunk of stock, but I knew that even feeling it, my breath might give out before my grip. When I came up to drink some air, you were wrapped in a wool blanket, looking plate-eyed into the water. As I heaved myself over the gunwale, you said, That was long, I wasn’t sure you were coming up, in a tone drier than we had been all morning. Even on that warm day, we shivered. The night before I couldn’t sleep for hope that my losses wouldn’t be so final. Without saying so, you told me to stop. The gun was gone. 88 Even if I drowned for trying, the river had it. We picked up the paddles, and with the current’s grace, dipped and pulled our tired selves back toward home. ...

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