“The Heart of Dibji” is a latter day Northern for Charlton. Long after “Deep Freeze” in 1953, Charlton’s Haunted #2 (November 1971) offers us this tale, most likely written by Joe Gill. Artwork is by Fred Himes. It was reprinted in Scary Tales #14 (May 1978).
Once again we have the tale of the dishonest partner who is willing to kill for gold. Eric Hask is a murderer who plays the young Native man, Peter Blackwing along to locate a cave filled with gold nuggets. A US serviceman had holed up in the cave but couldn’t locate it again, and has told Hask of the wealth there. Blackwing is sure he knows where the cave is. For eight days they travel to the location.
Going along with the two men is Dibiji the half-Husky/half-Wolf dog. Peter treats it specially since he believes the spirit of his dead brother rests inside the heart of Dibiji. The dog shows incredible intelligence for a dog. Hask doesn’t like the animal and chides Peter for his beliefs.
Once the cave is found, the gold is quickly gathered. Filling sacks, the nuggets are loaded on the sled. Peter is bragging about Dibiji again. Hask asks him if the dog is smart enough to find his way back to the Native village. Of course, he is, says Peter.
Hask draws a gun and shoots him, no longer needing the man. Dibiji leaps at him but the gun warns him off. Hask rides off with the gold. Peter crawls to cave.
The weather turns ugly as Hask drives the dogs to the village. It gets colder and colder. Still he drives the animals. Eventually Dibiji brings the sled back to the cave, where Peter has bandaged his injured arm. Of Hask, there is no longer any worry. He has frozen to death on the back of the sled.
The Northern tale of partners on the trail, in which one abandons or murders the other is a classic trope. At first I thought the plot was borrowed from Westerns, but that doesn’t really jive with the dates. The first Western is usually considered The Virginian by Owen Wister (1902) but Jack London’s “To The Man on the Trail” was 1898. Was Jack London even the first? In this sense, the Northern is older than the Western. But what of tales of double-crossing partners? Jack London’s tale are never that simple. Stories like “The Unexpected” are much more multi-layered and intriguing.
The most famous film ever made on the gold fever and murder idea was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) with Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Bruce Bennett. It was directed by John Huston. The movie was based on the B. Traven book of 1927. This book isn’t really a Western but an adventure novel set in California.
No matter whether the betraying partner began in the Westerns or the Northerns, it remains a relatable plot – for who of us would not be tempted by all that wealth? The tale always ends badly for those who transgress the simple cooperation of the partnership. In many versions (especially in the horror comics like “The Heart of Dibiji”), that vengeance often takes a supernatural form.
