diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597-8.txt | 6962 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 131944 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 380827 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597-h/28597-h.htm | 7083 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597-h/images/f000.jpg | bin | 0 -> 88452 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597-h/images/f010.jpg | bin | 0 -> 44994 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597-h/images/f104.jpg | bin | 0 -> 45092 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597-h/images/f222.jpg | bin | 0 -> 62029 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597.txt | 6962 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28597.zip | bin | 0 -> 131901 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
13 files changed, 21023 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28597-8.txt b/28597-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3f8674 --- /dev/null +++ b/28597-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6962 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man to His Mate, by J. Allan Dunn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Man to His Mate + +Author: J. Allan Dunn + +Illustrator: Stockton Mulford + +Release Date: April 24, 2009 [EBook #28597] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN TO HIS MATE *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Janes, Suzanne Lybarger, Pilar Somoza +Fernández and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +A MAN TO HIS MATE + + +[Illustration: The sea struck the opposite rail with a roar] + + + + +A Man to His Mate + +_by_ + +J. ALLAN DUNN + + +AUTHOR OF +Jim Morse--Adventurer, Turquoise Canyon, +Dead Man's Gold, etc. + + +_Illustrated by_ +STOCKTON MULFORD + + +INDIANAPOLIS +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1920 +THE FRANK A. MUNSEY COMPANY + +COPYRIGHT 1920 +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + +_Printed in the United States of America_ + + +PRESS OF +BRAUNWORTH & CO. +BOOK MANUFACTURERS +BROOKLYN. N. Y. + + + + +_To_ +J. E. DE RUYTER, ESQUIRE +this yarn is affectionately and +appreciatively dedicated + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I BLIND SAMSON 1 + +II A DIVIDED COMPANY 25 + +III TARGET PRACTISE 47 + +IV THE BOWHEAD 73 + +V RAINEY SCORES 82 + +VI SANDY SPEAKS 96 + +VII RAINEY MAKES DECISION 117 + +VIII TAMADA TALKS 132 + +IX THE POT SIMMERS 151 + +X THE SHOW-DOWN 163 + +XI HONEST SIMMS 186 + +XII DEMING BREAKS AN ARM 210 + +XIII THE RIFLE CARTRIDGES 230 + +XIV PEGGY SIMMS 241 + +XV SMOKE 266 + +XVI THE MIGHT OF NIPPON 277 + +XVII MY MATE 293 + +XVIII LUND'S LUCK 332 + + + + +A Man to His Mate + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BLIND SAMSON + + +It was perfect weather along the San Francisco water-front, and Rainey +reacted to the brisk touch of the trade-wind upon his cheek, the breeze +tempering the sun, bringing with it a tang of the open sea and a hint of +Oriental spices from the wharves. He whistled as he went, watching a +lumber coaster outward bound. The dull thump of a heavy cane upon the +timbered walk and the shuffle of uncertain feet warned him from +blundering into a man tapping his way along the Embarcadero, a giant who +halted abruptly and faced him, leaning on the heavy stick. + +"Matey," asked the giant, "could you put a blind man in the way of +finding the sealin' schooner _Karluk_?" + +The voice fitted its owner, Rainey thought--a basso voice tempered to +the occasion, a deep-sea voice that could bellow above the roar of a +gale if needed. For all his shoregoing clothes and shuffle, the man was +certainly a sailor, or had been. All the skin uncovered by cloth or hair +was weathered to leather, the great hands curled in as if they clutched +an invisible rope. He wore dark glasses with side lenses, over which +heavy brows projected in shaggy wisps of red hair. + +Blind as the man proclaimed himself with voice and action, Rainey sensed +something back of those colored glasses that seemed to be appraising +him, almost as if the will of the man was peering, or listening, focused +through those listless sockets. A kind of magnetism, not at all +attractive, Rainey decided, even as he offered help and information. + +"You're not fifty yards from the _Karluk_," Rainey replied. "But you're +bound in the wrong direction. Let me put you right. I'm going that way +myself." + +"That's kind of ye, matey," said the other. "But I picked ye for that +sort, hearin' you whistlin' as you came swingin' along. Light-hearted, I +thinks, an' young, most likely; he'll help a stranded man. Give me the +touch of yore arm, matey, an' I'll stow this spar of mine." + +He swung about, slinging the curving handle of the stick over his right +elbow as the fingers of his left hand placed themselves on Rainey's +proffered arm. Strong fingers, almost vibrant with a force manifest +through serge and linen. Fingers that could grip like steel upon +occasion. + +Rainey wonderingly sized up his consort. The stranger's bulk was +enormous. Rainey was well over the average himself, but he was only a +stripling beside this hulk, this stranded hulk, of manhood. And, for all +the spectacled eyes and shuffling feet, there was a stamp of coordinated +strength about the giant that bespoke the blind Samson. Given eyes, +Rainey could imagine him agile as a panther, strong as a bear. + +His weight was made up of thews and sinews, spare and solid flesh +without an ounce of waste, upon a mighty skeleton. His face was +heavy-bearded in hair of flaming, curling red, from high cheek-bones +down out of sight below the soft loose collar of his shirt. The bridge +of his glasses rested on the outcurve of a nose like the beak of an +osprey, the ends of the wires looped about ears that lay close to the +head, hairy about the inner-curves, lobeless, the tips suggesting the +ear-tips of a satyr. + +Mouth and jaw were hidden, but the beard could not deny the bold +projection of the latter. About thirty, Rainey judged him. Buffeted by +time and weather, but in the prime of his strength. + +"Snow-blinded, matey," said the man. "North o' Point Barrow, a year an' +more ago. Brought me up all standin'. What are you? Steamer man? Purser, +maybe?" + +"Newspaperman," answered Rainey. "Water-front detail. For the _Times_." + +"You don't say so, matey? A writer, eh?" + +Again Rainey felt the tug of that something back of the dark lenses, +some speculation going on in the man's mind concerning him. And he felt +the firm fingers contract ever so slightly, sinking into the muscles of +his forearm for a second with a hint of how they could bruise and +paralyze at will. Once more a faint sense of revulsion fought with his +natural inclination to aid the handicapped mariner, and he shook it off. + +"The _Karluk_ sails to-morrow," he said. + +"Aye, so--so they told me, matey. You've bin aboard?" + +"I had a short talk with Captain Simms when she docked. Not much of a +yarn. She didn't have a good trip, you know." + +"Why, I didn't know. But--hold hard a minnit, will ye? You see, Simms is +an old shipmate of mine. He don't dream I'm within a hundred miles o' +here. Aye, or a thousand." He gave a deep-chested chuckle. "Now, then, +matey, look here." + +Rainey was anchored by the compelling grip. They stood next to the slip +in which the sealer lay. The _Karluk's_ decks were deserted, though +there was smoke coming from the galley stovepipe. + +"Simms is likely to be aboard," went on the other. "Ye see, I know his +ways. An' I've come a long trip to see him. Nigh missed him. Only got in +from Seattle this mornin'. He ain't expectin' me, an' it's in my mind to +surprise him. By way of a joke. I don't want to be announced, ye see. +Just drop in on him. How's the deck? Clear?" + +"No one in sight," said Rainey. + +"Fine! Mates an' crew down the Barb'ry Coast, I reckon. Sealers have +liberties last shore-day. Like whalers. I've buried a few irons myself, +matey, but I'll never sight the vapor of a right whale ag'in. Stranded, +I am. So you'll do me a favor, matey, an' pilot me down into the cabin, +if so be the skipper's there. If he ain't, I'll wait for him. I've got +the right an' run o' the _Karluk's_ cabin. I know ev'ry inch of her. +You'll see when we go aboard. Let's go." + +Rainey led him down the gangway to the deck of the sealer, still +cluttered a bit with unstowed gear. Once on board, the blind man seemed +to walk with assurance, guiding himself with touches here and there that +showed his familiarity with the vessel's rig. And he no longer shuffled, +but walked lightly, grinning at Rainey through his beard, with one blunt +forefinger set to his mouth as he approached the cabin skylight, lifted +on the port side. Through it came the murmur of voices. The blind man +nodded in satisfaction and widened his grin with a warning "hush-h" to +his guide. + +"We'll fool 'em proper," he lipped rather than uttered. + +The companion doors were closed, but they opened noiselessly. The stairs +were carpeted with corrugated rubber that muffled all sound. Two men sat +at the cabin table, leaning forward, hands and forearms outstretched, +fingering something. One Rainey recognized as the captain, Simms--a +heavy, square-built man, gray-haired, clean-shaven, his flesh tanned, +yet somehow unhealthy, as if the bronze was close to tarnishing. There +were deep puffs under the gray tired eyes. + +The other was younger, tall, nervously active, with dark eyes and a dark +mustache and beard, the latter trimmed to a Vandyke. Between them was a +long slim sack of leather, a miner's poke. It was half full of something +that stuffed its lower extremity solid, without doubt the same substance +that glistened in the mouth of the sack and the palms of the two +men--gold--coarse dust of gold! + +Rainey felt himself thrust to one side as the blind man straddled across +the bottom of the companionway, towering in the cabin while he thrust +his stick with a thump on the floor and thundered, in a bellow that +seemed to fill the place and come tumbling back in deafening echo: + +"_Karluk_ ahoy!" + +The face of Captain Simms paled, the tan turned to a sickly gray, and +his jaw dropped. Rainey saw fear come into his eyes. His companion did +not stir a muscle except for the quick shift of his glance, but went on +sitting at the table, the gold in one palm, the fingers of his other +hand resting on the grains. + +"Jim Lund!" gasped the captain hoarsely. + +"That's me, you skulking sculpin? Thought I was bear meat by this, +didn't you, blast yore rotten soul to hell! But I'm back, Bill Simms. +Back, an' this time you don't slip me!" + +Jim Lund's face was purple-red with rage, great veins standing out upon +it so swollen that it seemed they must surely burst and discharge their +congested contents. Out of the purpling flesh his scarlet hair curled in +diabolical effect. His teeth gleamed through his beard, strong, yellow, +far apart. He looked, Rainey thought, like a blind Berserker, restrained +only by his affliction. + +"You left me blind on the floe, Bill Simms!" he roared. "Blind, in a +drivin' blizzard with the ice breakin' up! If I didn't have use for +yore carcass I'd twist yore head from yore scaly body like I'd pull up a +carrot." + +Lund's fingers opened and closed convulsively. Before Rainey the vision +of the threatened crime rose clear. + +"I looked for you, Jim," pleaded the captain, and to Rainey his words +lacked conviction. "I didn't know you were blind. I heard you shout just +before the blizzard broke loose." + +Lund answered with an inarticulate roar. + +"And there's others present, Jim. I can explain it to you when we're by +ourselves. When you're a mite calmer, Jim." + +Lund banged his stick down on the table with a smashing blow that made +the man with the Vandyke beard, still silent, keenly observant, draw +back his arm with a catlike swiftness that only just evaded the stroke. +The heavy wood landed fairly on the filled half of the poke and caused +some of the gold to leap out of the mouth. + + +[Illustration: "What's that I hit?" asked Lund] + + +"What's that I hit?" asked Lund. "Soft, like a rat." He lunged forward, +felt for the poke, and found it, lifted it, hefted it, his forehead +puckered with deep seams, discovered the open end, poured out some of +the colors on one palm, and used that for a mortar, grinding at the +grains with his finger for a pestle, still weighing the stuff with a +slight up-and-down movement of his hand. + +He nodded as he slipped the poke into a side pocket, and the cabin grew +very silent. Lund's face was grimly terrible. Rainey could have gone +when the blind man reached for the gold and left the ladder clear. He +had meant to go at the first opportunity, but now he was held fascinated +by what was about to happen, and Lund stepped back across the +companionway. + +"So," said Lund, his deep voice muffled by some swift restraint. "You +found it. And yo're going back after more?" His forehead was still +creased with puzzlement. "Wal, I'm going with ye, eyes or no eyes, an' +I'll keep tabs on ye, Bill Simms, by day and night. You can lay to that, +you slimy-hearted swab!" + +His voice had risen again. Rainey saw the sweat standing out on the +captain's forehead as he answered: + +"Of course you'll come, Jim. No need for you to talk this way." + +"No need to talk! By the eternal, what I've got to say's bin steamin' in +me for fourteen months o' blackness, an' it's comin' out, now it's +started! Who's this man, who was talkin' with ye when I come aboard?" + +He wheeled directly toward the man with the Vandyke, who still sat +motionless, apparently calm, looking on as if at a play that might turn +out to be either comedy or tragedy. + +"That's Doctor Carlsen. He's to be surgeon this trip, Jim," said Simms +deprecatingly, though he darted a look at Rainey half suspicious, half +resentful. + +Rainey, on the hint, turned toward the ladder quietly enough, but Lund +had nipped him by the biceps before Rainey had taken a step. + +"You'll stay right here," said Lund, "while I tell you an' this Doc +Carlsen what kind of a man Simms is, with his poke full of gold and me +with the price of my last meal spent two hours ago. I won't spin out the +yarn. + +"I rescued an Aleut off a bit of a berg one time. There warn't much of +him left to rescue. Hands an' feet an' nose was frozen so he lost 'em, +but the pore devil was grateful, an' he told me something. Told about an +island north of Bering Strait, west of Kotzebue Sound, where there was +gold on the beach richer and thicker than it ever lay at Nome. I makes +for it, gits close enough for my Aleut to recognize it--it ain't an easy +place to forget for one who has eyes--an' then we're blown south, an' we +git into ice an' trouble. The Aleut dies, an' I lose my ship. But I was +close enough to get the reckonin' of that island. + +"Finally I land at Seattle, broke. I meet up with the man they call +Hardluck Simms. Also they called him Honest Simms those days. Some said +his honesty accounted for his hard luck. I like him, an' I finally tell +him about my island. I put up the reckonin', an' he supplies the +_Karluk_, grub, an' crew. + +"Simms' luck is still ag'in' him. The _Karluk_ gits into ice, gits +nipped an' carried north, 'way north, with wind an' current, frozen +tight in a floe. It looks like we've got to winter there. Mind ye, I've +given Honest Simms the reckonin' of the island. We go out on the ice +after bear, though the weather's threatenin', for we're short of meat. +An' we kill a Kadiak bear. Me--I'll never stand for the shootin' of +another bear if I can stop it. + +"I've bin havin' trouble with my eyes. Right along. I'm on the floe not +eighty yards from Simms. No, not sixty! It was me killed the bear, an' +we're goin' back to the schooner for a sled. I stayed behind to bleed +the brute. All of a sudden, like it always hits you, snow-blindness gits +me, an' I shouts to Honest Simms. I'm blind, with my eyeballs on fire, +an' the fire burnin' back inter my brain. + +"Along comes a Point Arrow blister. That's a gale that breeds an' bursts +of a second out of nowhere. It gathers up all the loose snow an' ice +crystals an' drives 'em in a whirlwind. Presently the wind starts the +ice to buckin' an' tremblin' like a jelly under you, splitting inter +lanes. You lose yore direction even when you got eyes. I'm left in it by +that bilge-blooded skunk, blind on the rockin', breakin' floe, while he +scuds back to the schooner with his men. That's Honest Simms! Jim Lund's +left behind but Honest Simms has the position of the island." + +"I didn't hear you call out you were blind, Lund. The wind blew your +words away. I didn't know but what you were as right as the rest of us. +The gale shut us all out from each other. We found the schooner by sheer +luck before we perished. We looked for you--but the floe was broken up. +We looked--" + +"Shut up!" bellowed Lund. "You sailed inside of twenty-four hours, +Honest Simms. The natives told me so later, when I could understand talk +ag'in. D'ye know what saved me? The bear! I stumbled over the carcass +when I was nigh spent. I ripped it up and clawed some of the warm guts, +an' climbed inside the bloody body an' stayed there till it got cold an' +clamped down over me. Waitin' for you to come an' git me, Honest Simms! + +"That bear was bed and board to me until the natives found it, an' me in +it, more dead than alive. Never mind the rest. I get here the day before +you start back for more gold. + +"An' I'm goin' with you. But first I'm goin' to have a full an' fair +accountin' o' what you got already. I've got this young chap with me, +an' he'll give me a hand to'ard a square deal." + +Lund propelled Rainey forward a few steps and then loosened his grip. +The captain of the _Karluk_ appealed to him directly. + +"You're with the _Times_," he said. All through the talk Rainey was +conscious of the gaze of Doctor Carlsen, whose dark eyes appeared to be +mocking the whole proceedings, looking on with the air of a man watching +card-play with a prevision of how the game will come out. + +"Mr. Lund is unstrung," said the captain. "He is under the delusion that +we deliberately deserted him and, later, found the gold he speaks of. +The first charge is nonsense. We did all that was possible in the +frightful weather. We barely saved the ship. + +"As for the gold, we touched on the island, and we did some prospecting, +a very little, before we were driven offshore. The dust in the poke is +all we secured. We are going back for more, quite naturally. I can prove +all this to you by the log. It is manifestly not doctored, for we +imagined Mr. Lund dead. If we had been able to work the beach +thoroughly, nothing would tempt me into going back again to add to even +a moderate fortune." + +Lund had been standing with his great head thrust forward as if +concentrating all his remaining senses in an attempt to judge the +captain's talk. The doctor sat with one leg crossed, smoking a +cigarette, his expression sardonic, sphinxlike. To Rainey, a little +bewildered at being dragged into the affair, and annoyed at it, Captain +Simms' words rang true enough. He did not know what to say, whether to +speak at all. Lund supplied the gap. + +"If that ain't the truth, you lie well, Simms," he said. "But I don't +trust ye. You lie when you say you didn't hear me call out I was blind. +Sixty yards away, I was, an' the wind hadn't started. I was afraid--yes, +afraid--an' I yelled at the top of my lungs. An' you sailed off inside +of twenty-four hours." + +"Driven off." + +"I don't believe ye. You deserted me--left me blind, tucked in the +bloody, freezin' carcass of a bear. Left me like the cur you are. Why, +you--" + +The rising frenzy of Lund's voice was suddenly broken by the clear note +of a girl's voice. One of two doors in the after-end of the main cabin +had opened, and she stood in the gap, slim, yellow-haired, with gray +eyes that blazed as they looked on the little tableau. + +"Who says my father is a cur?" she demanded. "You?" And she faced Lund +with such intrepid challenge in her voice, such stinging contempt, that +the giant was silenced. + +"I was dressing," she said, "or I would have come out before. If you say +my father deserted you, you lie!" + +Captain Simms turned to her. Doctor Carlsen had risen and moved toward +her. Rainey wished he was on the dock. Here was a story breaking that +was a _saga_ of the North. He did not want to use it, somehow. The +girl's entrance, her vivid, sudden personality forbade that. He felt an +intruder as her eyes regarded him, standing by Lund's side in apparent +sympathy with him, arrayed against her father. And yet he was not +certain that Lund had not been betrayed. The remembrance of the first +look in the captain's face when he had glanced up from handling the gold +and seen Lund was too keen. + +"Go into your cabin, Peggy," said the captain. "This is no place for +you. I can handle the matter. Lund has cause for excitement; but I can +satisfy him." + +Lund stood frozen, like a pointer on scent, all his faculties united in +attention toward the girl. To Rainey he seemed attempting to visualize +her by sheer sense of hearing, by perceptions quickened in the blind. +The doctor crossed to the girl and spoke to her in a low voice. + +Lund spoke, and his voice was suddenly mild. + +"I didn't know there was a lady present, miss," he said. "Yore father's +right. You let us settle this. We'll come to an agreement." + +But, for all his swift change to placability, there was a sinister +undertone to his voice that the girl seemed to recognize. She hesitated +until her father led her back into the cabin. + +"You two'll sit down?" said the doctor, speaking aloud for the first +time, his voice amiable, carefully neutral. "And we'll have a drop of +something. Mr. Lund, I can understand your attitude. You've suffered a +great deal. But you have misunderstood Captain Simms. I have heard about +this from him, before. He has no desire to cheat you. He is rejoiced to +see you alive, though afflicted. He is still Honest Simms, Mr. Lund. + +"I haven't your name, sir," he went on pleasantly, to Rainey. "The +captain said you were a newspaperman?" + +"John Rainey, of the _Times_. I knew nothing of this before I came +aboard." + +"And you will understand, of course, what Mr. Lund overlooked in his +natural agitation, that this is not a story for your paper. We should +have a fleet trailing us. We must ask your confidence, Mr. Rainey." + +There was a strong personality in the doctor, Rainey realized. Not the +blustering, driving force of Lund, but a will that was persistent, +powerful. He did not like the man from first appearances. He was too +aloof, too sardonic in his attitudes. But his manner was friendly +enough, his voice compelling in its suggestion that Rainey was a man to +be trusted. Captain Simms came back into the cabin, closing the door of +his daughter's room. + +"We are going to have a little drink together," said the doctor. "I +have some Scotch in my cabin. If you'll excuse me for a moment? Captain, +will you get some glasses, and a chair for Mr. Lund?" + +The captain looked at Rainey a little uncertainly, and then at Lund, +whose aggressiveness seemed to have entirely departed. It was Rainey who +got the chair for the latter and seated himself. He would join in a +friendly drink and then be well shut of the matter, he told himself. + +And he would promise not to print the story, or talk of it. That was +rotten newspaper craft, he supposed, but he was not a first-class man, +in that sense. He let his own ethics interfere sometimes with his pen +and what the paper would deem its best interests. And this was a whale +of a yarn. + +But it was true that its printing would mean interference with the +_Karluk's_ expedition. And there was the girl. Rainey was not going to +forget the girl. If the _Karluk_ ever came back? But then she would be +an heiress. + +Rainey pulled himself up for a fool at the way his thoughts were racing +as the doctor came back with a bottle of Scotch whisky and a siphon. The +captain had set out glasses and a pitcher of plain water from a rack. + +"I imagine you'll be the only one who'll take seltzer, Mr. Rainey," said +the doctor pleasantly, passing the bottle. "Captain Simms, I know, uses +plain water. Siphons are scarce at sea. I suppose Mr. Lund does the +same. And I prefer a still drink." + +"Plain water for mine," said Lund. + +"We're all charged," said the doctor. "Here's to a better +understanding!" + +"Glad to see you aboard, Mr. Rainey," said the captain. + +Lund merely grunted. + +Rainey took a long pull at his glass. The cabin was hot, and he was +thirsty. The seltzer tasted a little flat--or the whisky was of an +unusual brand, he fancied. And then inertia suddenly seized him. He lost +the use of his limbs, of his tongue, when he tried to call out. He saw +the doctor's sardonic eyes watching him as he strove to shake off a +lethargy that swiftly merged into dizziness. + +Dimly he heard the scrape of the captain's chair being pushed back. From +far off he heard Lund's big voice booming, "Here, what's this?" and the +doctor's cutting in, low and eager; then he collapsed, his head falling +forward on his outstretched arms. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A DIVIDED COMPANY + + +It was not the first time that Rainey had been on a ship, a sailing +ship, and at sea. Whenever possible his play-hours had been spent on a +little knockabout sloop that he owned jointly with another man, both of +them members of the Corinthian Club. While the _Curlew_ had made no +blue-water voyages, they had sailed her more than once up and down the +California coast on offshore regattas and pleasure-trips, and, lacking +experience in actual navigation, Rainey was a pretty handy sailorman for +an amateur. + +So, as he came out of the grip of the drug that had been given him, +slowly, with a brain-pan that seemed overstuffed with cotton and which +throbbed with a dull persistent ache--with a throat that seemed to be +coated with ashes, strangely contracted--a nauseated stomach--eyes that +saw things through a haze--limbs that ached as if bruised--the sounds +that beat their way through his sluggish consciousness were familiar +enough to place him almost instantly and aid his memory's flickering +film to reel off what had happened. + +As he lay there in a narrow bunk, watching the play of light that came +through a porthole beyond his line of vision, noting in this erratic +shuttling of reflected sunlight the roll and pitch of cabin walls, +listening to the low boom of waves followed by the swash alongside that +told him the _Karluk_ was bucking heavy seas, a slow rage mastered him, +centered against the doctor with the sardonic smile and Captain Simms, +who Rainey felt sure had tacitly approved of the doctor's actions. + +He remembered Lund's exclamation of, "Here, what's this?"--the question +of a blind man who could not grasp what was happening--and acquitted +him. + +They had deliberately kidnapped him, shanghaied him, because they did +not choose to trust him, because they thought he might print the story +of the island treasure beach in his paper, or babble of it and start a +rush to the new strike of which he had seen proof in the gold dust +streaming from the poke. + +He had been willing to suppress the yarn, Rainey reflected bitterly, his +intentions had been fair and square in this situation forced upon him, +and they had not trusted him. They were taking no chances, he thought, +and suddenly wondered what position the girl would take in the matter. +He could not think of her approving it. Yet she would naturally side +with her father, as she had done against Lund's accusations. And Rainey +suspected that there was something back of Lund's charge of desertion. +The girl's face, her graceful figure, the tones of her voice, clung in +his still palsied recollection a long time before he could dismiss it +and get round to the main factor of his imprisonment--_what were they +going to do with him?_ + +There was a fortune in sight. For gold, men forget the obligations of +life and law in civilization; they revert to savage type, and their +minds and actions are swayed by the primitive urge of lust. Treachery, +selfishness, cruelty, crime breed from the shining particles even before +they are in actual sight and touch. + +Rainey knew that. He had read many true yarns that had come down from +the frozen North, in from the deserts and the mountains, tales of the +mining records of the West. + +He mistrusted the doctor. The man had drugged him. He was a man whose +profession, where the mind was warped, belittled life. Captain Simms had +been charged with leaving a blind man on a broken floe. Lund was the +type whose passions left him ruthless. The crew--they would be bound by +shares in the enterprise, a rough lot, daring much and caring little for +anything beyond their own narrow horizons. The girl was the only +redeeming feature of the situation. + +Was it because of her--it might be because of her special +pleading--that they had not gone further? Or were they still fighting +through the heads, waiting until they got well out to sea before they +disposed of him, so there would be no chance of his telltale body +washing up along the coast for recognition and search for clues? He +wondered whether any one had seen him go aboard the _Karluk_ with +Lund--any one who would remember it and mention the circumstance when he +was found to be missing. + +That might take a day or two. At the office they would wonder why he +didn't show up to cover his detail, because he had been steady in his +work. But they would not suspect foul play at first. He had no immediate +family. His landlady lodged other newspapermen, and was used to their +vagaries. And all this time the _Karluk_ would be thrashing north, well +out to sea, unsighted, perhaps, for all her trip, along that coast of +fogs. + +Rainey had disappeared, dropped out of sight. He would be a front-page +wonder for a day, then drop to paragraphs for a day or so more, and +that would be the end of it. + +But they had made him comfortable. He was not in a smelly forecastle, +but in a bunk in a cabin that must open off the main room of the +schooner. Why had they treated him with such consideration? He dozed +off, for all his wretchedness, exhausted by his efforts to untangle the +snarl. When he awoke again his mouth was glued together with thirst. + +The schooner was still fighting the sea--the wind, too, Rainey +fancied--sailing close-hauled, going north against the trade. He fumbled +for his watch. It had run down. His head ached intolerably. Each hair +seemed set in a nerve center of pain. But he was better. + +Back of his thirst lay hunger now, and the apathy that had held him to +idle thinking had given way to an energy that urged him to action and +discovery. + +As he sat up in his bunk, fully clothed as he had come aboard, the door +of his cabin opened and the doctor appeared, nodded coolly as he saw +Rainey moving, disappeared for an instant, and brought in a draft of +some sort in a long glass. + +"Take this," said Carlsen. "Pull you together. Then we'll get some food +into you." + +The calm insolence of the doctor's manner, ignoring all that had +happened, seemed to send all the blood in Rainey's body fuming to his +brain. He took the glass and hurled its contents at Carlsen's face. The +doctor dodged, and the stuff splashed against the cabin wall, only a few +drops reaching Carlsen's coat, which he wiped off with his handkerchief, +unruffled. + +"Don't be a damned fool," he said to Rainey, his voice irritatingly +even. "Are you afraid it's drugged? I would not be so clumsy. I could +have given you a hypodermic while you slept, enough to keep you +unconscious for as many hours as I choose--or forever. + +"I'll mix you another dose--one more--take it or leave it. Take it, and +you'll soon feel yourself again after Tamada has fed you. Then we'll +thrash out the situation. Leave it, and I wash my hands of you. You can +go for'ard and bunk with the men and do the dirty work." + +He spoke with the calm assumption of one controlling the schooner, +Rainey noted, rather as skipper than surgeon. But Rainey felt that he +had made a fool of himself, and he took the second draft, which almost +instantly relieved him, cleansing his mouth and throat and, as his +headache died down, clearing his brain. + +"Why did you drug me?" he demanded. "Pretty high-handed. I can make you +pay for this." + +"Yes? How? When? We're well off Cape Mendocino, heading nor'west or +thereabouts. Nothing between us and Unalaska but fog and deep water. +Before we get back you'll see the payment in a different light. We're +not pirates. This was plain business. A million or more in sight. + +"Lund nearly spilled things as it was, raving the way he did. It's a +wonder some one didn't overhear him with sense enough to tumble. + +"We didn't take any chances. Rounded up the crew, and got out. The man +who's made a gold discovery thinks everybody else is watching him. It's +a genuine risk. If they followed us, they'd crowd us off the beach. I +don't suppose any one has followed us. If they have, we've lost them in +this fog. + +"But we didn't take any risks after Lund's blowing off. He might have +done it ashore before you brought him aboard. I don't think so. But he +might. And so might you, later." + +"I'd have given you my word." + +"And meant to keep it. But you'd have been an uncertain factor, a weak +link. You might have given it away in your sleep. You heard enough to +figure the general locality of the island when Lund blurted it out. You +knew too much. Suppose the _Karluk_ fought up to Kotzebue Bay and found +a dozen power-vessels hanging about, waiting for us to lead them to the +beach? And we'd have worried all the way up, with you loose. You're a +newspaperman. The suppression of this yarn would have obsessed you, lain +on your reportorial conscience. + +"I don't suppose your salary is much over thirty a week, is it? Now, +then, here you are in for a touch of real adventure, better than +gleaning dock gossip, to a red-blooded man. If we win--and you saw the +gold--_you_ win. We expect to give you a share. We haven't taken it up +yet, but it'll be enough. More than you'd earn in ten years, likely, +more than you'd be apt to save in a lifetime. We kidnapped you for your +own good. You're a prisoner _de luxe_, with the run of the ship." + +"I can work my passage," said Rainey. He could see the force of the +doctor's argument, though he didn't like the man. He didn't trust the +doctor, though he thought he'd play fair about the gold. But it was +funny, his assuming control. + +"Yachted a bit?" asked Carlsen. + +"Yes." + +"Can you navigate?" + +Rainey thought he caught a hint of emphasis to this question. + +"I can learn," he said. "Got a general idea of it." + +"Ah!" The doctor appeared to dismiss the subject with some relief. +"Well," he went on, "are you open to reason--and food? I'm sorry about +your friends and folks ashore, but you're not the first prodigal who has +come back with the fatted calf instead of hungry for it." + +"That part of it is all right," said Rainey. There was no help for the +situation, save to make the most of it and the best. "But I'd like to +ask you a question." + +"Go ahead. Have a cigarette?" + +Rainey would rather have taken it from any one else, but the whiff of +burning tobacco, as Carlsen lit up, gave him an irresistible craving for +a smoke. Besides, it wouldn't do for the doctor to know he mistrusted +him. If he was to be a part of the ship's life, there was small sense +in acting pettishly. He took the cigarette, accepted the light, and +inhaled gratefully. + +"What's the question?" asked Carlsen. + +"You weren't on the last trip. You weren't in on the original deal. But +I find you doing all the talking, making me offers. You drugged me on +your own impulse. Where's the skipper? How does he stand in this matter? +Why didn't he come to see me? What is your rating aboard?" + +"You're asking a good deal for an outsider, it seems to me, Rainey. I +came to you partly as your doctor. But I speak for the captain and the +crew. Don't worry about that." + +"And Lund?" Rainey could not resist the shot. He had gathered that the +doctor resented Lund. + +Carlsen's eyes narrowed. + +"Lund will be taken care of," he said, and, for the life of him, Rainey +could not judge the statement for threat or friendly promise. "As for my +status, I expect to be Captain Simms' son-in-law as soon as the trip is +over." + +"All right," said Rainey. Carlsen's announcement surprised him. Somehow +he could not place the girl as the doctor's fiancée. "I suppose the +captain may mention this matter," he queried, "to cement it?" + +"He may," replied Carlsen enigmatically. "Feel like getting up?" + +Rainey rose and bathed face and hands. Carlsen left the cabin. The main +room was empty when Rainey entered, but there was a place set at the +table. Through the skylight he noted, as he glanced at the telltale +compass in the ceiling, that the sun was low toward the west. + +The main cabin was well appointed in hardwood, with red cushions on the +transoms and a creeping plant or so hanging here and there. A canary +chirped up and broke into rolling song. It was all homy, innocuous. Yet +he had been drugged at the same table not so long before. And now he was +pledged a share of ungathered gold. It was a far cry back to his desk in +the _Times_ office. + +A Japanese entered, sturdy, of white-clad figure, deft, polite, +incurious. He had brought in some ham and eggs, strong coffee, sliced +canned peaches, bread and butter. He served as Rainey ate heartily, +feeling his old self coming back with the food, especially with the +coffee. + +"Thanks, Tamada," he said as he pushed aside his plate at last. + +"Everything arright, sir?" purred the Japanese. + +Rainey nodded. The "sir" was reassuring. He was accepted as a somebody +aboard the _Karluk_. Tamada cleared away swiftly, and Rainey felt for +his own cigarettes. He hesitated a little to smoke in the cabin, +thinking of the girl, wondering whether she was on deck, where he +intended to go. Some one was snoring in a stateroom off the cabin, and +he fancied by its volume it was Lund. + +It was a divided ship's company, after all. For he knew that Lund, +handicapped with his blindness, would live perpetually suspicious of +Simms. And the doctor was against Lund. Rainey's own position was a +paradox. + +He started for the companionway, and a slight sound made him turn, to +face the girl. She looked at him casually as Rainey, to his annoyance, +flushed. + +"Good afternoon," said Rainey. "Are you going on deck?" + +It was not a clever opening, but she seemed to rob him of wit, to an +extent. He had yet to know how she stood concerning his presence aboard. +Did she countenance the forcible kidnapping of him as a possible +tattler? Or--? + +"My father tells me you have decided to go with us," she said, +pleasantly enough, but none too cordially, Rainey thought. + +"Doctor Carlsen helped me to my decision." + +She did not seem to regard this as a thrust, but stood lightly swaying +to the pitch of the vessel, regarding him with grave eyes of appraisal. + +"You have not been well," she said. "I hope you are better. Have you +eaten?" + +Rainey began to think that she was ignorant of the facts. And he made up +his mind to ignore them. There was nothing to be gained by telling her +things against her father--much less against her fiancée, the doctor. + +"Thank you, I have," he said. "I was going to look up Mr. Lund." + +The sentence covered a sudden change of mind. He no longer wanted to go +on deck with the girl. They were not to be intimates. She was to marry +Carlsen. He was an outsider. Carlsen had told him that. So she seemed to +regard him, impersonally, without interest. It piqued him. + +"Mr. Lund is in the first mate's cabin," said the girl, indicating a +door. "Mr. Bergstrom, who was mate, died at sea last voyage. Doctor +Carlsen acts as navigator with my father, but he has another room." + +She passed him and went on deck. Carlsen was acting first mate as well +as surgeon. That meant he had seamanship. Also that they had taken in no +replacements, no other men to swell the little corporation of +fortune-hunters who knew the secret, or a part of it. It was unusual, +but Rainey shrugged his shoulders and rapped on the door of the cabin. + +It took loud knocking to waken Lund. At last he roared a "Come in." + +Rainey found him seated on the edge of his bunk, dressed in his +underclothes, his glasses in place. Rainey wondered whether he slept in +them. Lund's uncanny intuition seemed to read the thought. He tapped the +lenses. + +"Hate to take them off," he said. "Light hurts my eyes, though the optic +nerve is dead. Seems to strike through. How're ye makin' out?" + +Rainey gave Lund the full benefit of his blindness. The giant could not +have known what was in the doctor's mind, but he must have learned +something. Lund was not the type to be satisfied with half answers, and +undoubtedly felt that he held a proprietary interest in the _Karluk_ by +virtue of his being the original owner of the secret. Rainey wondered +if he had sensed the doctor's attitude in that direction, an attitude +expressed largely by the expression of Carlsen's face, always wearing +the faint shadow of a sneer. + +"You know they drugged me," Rainey ended his recital of the interview he +had had with the doctor. + +"Knockout drops? I guessed it. That doctor's slick. Well, you've not +much fault to find, have ye? Carlsen talked sense. Here you are on the +road to a fortune. I'll see yore share's a fair one. There's plenty. It +ain't a bad billet you've fallen into, my lad. But I'll look out for ye. +I'm sort of responsible for yore trip, ye see, matey. And I'll need ye." + +He lowered his voice mysteriously. + +"Yo're a writer, Mister Rainey. You've got brains. You can see which way +a thing's heading. You've heard enough. I'm blind. I've bin done dirt +once aboard the _Karluk_, and I don't aim to stand for it ag'in. And I +had my eyes, then. No use livin' in a rumpus. Got to keep watch. Got to +keep yore eyes open. + +"And I ain't got eyes. You have. Use 'em for both of us. I ain't asking +ye to take sides, exactly. But I've got cause for bein' suspicious. I +don't call the skipper _Honest_ Simms no more. And I ain't stuck on that +doctor. He's too bossy. He's got the skipper under his thumb. And +there's somethin' funny about the skipper. Notice ennything?" + +"Why, I don't know him," said Rainey. "He doesn't look extra well, what +I've seen of him. Only the once." + +"He's logey," said Lund confidentially. "He ain't the same man. Mebbe +it's his conscience. But that doctor's runnin' him." + +"He's going to marry the captain's daughter," said Rainey. + +"Simms' daughter? Carlsen goin' to marry her? Ump! That may account for +the milk in the cocoanut. She's a stranger to me. Lived ashore with her +uncle and aunt, they tell me. Carlsen was the family doctor. Now she's +off with her father." + +His face became crafty, and he reached out for Rainey's knee, found it +as readily as if he had sight, and tapped it for emphasis. + +"That makes all the more reason for us lookin' out for things, matey," +he went on, almost in a whisper. "If they've played me once they may do +it ag'in. And they've got the odds, settin' aside my eyes. But I can +turn a trick or two. You an' me come aboard together. You give me a +hand. Stick to me, an' I'll see you git yore whack. + +"I'll have yore bunk changed. You'll come in with me. An' we'll put one +an' one together. We'll be mates. Treat 'em fair if they treat us fair. +But don't forget they fixed yore grog. I had nothin' to do with that. I +may be stranded, but, if the tide rises--" + +He set the clutch of his powerful fingers deep into Rainey's leg above +the knee with a grip that left purple bruises there before the day was +over. + +"We two, matey," he said. "Now you an' me'll have a tot of stuff that +ain't doped." + +He moved about the little cabin with an astounding freedom and +sureness, chuckling as he handled bottle and glasses and measured out +the whisky and water. + +"W'en yo're blind," he said, ramming his pipe full of black tobacco, +"they's other things comes to ye. I know the run of this ship, +blindfold, you might say. I c'ud go aloft in a pinch, or steer her. More +grog?" + +But Rainey abstained after the first glass, though Lund went on lowering +the bottle without apparent effect. + +"So yo're a bit of a sailor?" the giant asked presently. "An' a scholar. +You can navigate, I make no doubt?" + +"I hope to get a chance to learn on the trip," answered Rainey. "I know +the general principles, but I've never tried to use a sextant. I'm going +to get the skipper to help me out. Or Carlsen." + +"Carlsen! What in hell does a doctor know about navigation?" demanded +Lund. + +Rainey told him what the girl had said, and the giant grunted. + +"I have my doubts whether they'll ever help ye," he said. "Wish I could. +But it 'ud be hard without my eyes. An' I've got no sextant an' no book +o' tables. It's too bad." + +His disappointment seemed keen, and Rainey could not fathom it. Why had +both Lund and Carlsen seemed to lay stress on this matter? Why was the +doctor relieved and Lund disappointed at his ignorance? + +As they came out of the stateroom together, later, Lund reeking of the +liquor he had absorbed, though remaining perfectly sober, his hand laid +on Rainey's shoulder, perhaps for guidance but with a show of +familiarity, Rainey saw the girl looking at him with a glance in which +contempt showed unveiled. It was plain that his intimacy with Lund was +not going to advance him in her favor. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TARGET PRACTISE + + +The _Karluk_ was an eighty-five-ton schooner, Gloster Fisherman type, +with a length of ninety and a beam of twenty-five feet. Her enormous +stretch of canvas, spread to the limit on all possible occasions by +Captain Simms, was offset by the pendulum of lead that made up her keel, +and she could slide through the seas at twelve knots on her best point +of sailing--reaching--the wind abaft her beam. + +After Rainey had demonstrated at the wheel that he had the mastery of +her and had shown that he possessed sea-legs, a fair amount of seacraft +and, what the sailors did not possess, initiative, Captain Simms +appointed him second mate. + +"We don't carry one as a rule," the skipper said. "But it'll give you a +rating and the right to eat in the cabin." He had not brought up the +subject of Rainey's kidnapping, and Rainey let it go. There was no use +arguing about the inevitable. The rating and the cabin fare seemed +offered as an apology, and he was willing to accept it. + +Carlsen acted as first mate, and Rainey had to acknowledge him +efficient. He fancied the man must have been a ship's surgeon, and so +picked up his seamanship. After a few days Carlsen, save for taking noon +observations with the skipper and working out the reckoning, left his +duties largely to Rainey, who was glad enough for the experience. A +sailor named Hansen was promoted to acting-quartermaster, and relieved +Rainey. Carlsen spent most of his time attendant on the girl or chatting +with the hunters, with whom he soon appeared on terms of intimacy. + +The hunters esteemed themselves above the sailors, as they were, in +intelligence and earning capacity. The forecastlemen acted, on occasion, +as boat-steerers and rowers for the hunters, each of whom had his own +boat from which to shoot the cruising seals. + +There were six hunters and twelve sailors, outside of a general +roustabout and butt named "Sandy," who cleaned up the forecastle and the +hunters' quarters, where they messed apart, and helped Tamada, the cook, +in the galley with his pots and dishes. But now there was no work in +prospect for the hunters, and they lounged on deck or in the 'midship +quarters, spinning yarns or playing poker. They were after gold this +trip, not seals. + +"'Cordin' to the agreement," Lund said to Rainey, "the gold's to be +split into a hundred shares. One for each sailorman, an' they chip in +for the boy. Two for the hunters, two for the cook, four for Bergstrom, +the first mate, who died at sea. Twenty for 'ship's share.' Fifty shares +to be split between Simms an' me." + +"What's the 'ship's share'?" asked Rainey. + +"Represents capital investment. Matter of fact, it belongs to the gal," +said Lund. "Simms gave her the _Karluk_. It's in her name with the +insurance." + +"Then he and his daughter get forty-five shares, and you only +twenty-five?" + +"You got it right," grinned Lund. "Simms is no philanthropist. It wa'n't +so easy for me to git enny one to go in with me, son. I ain't the first +man to come trailin' in with news of a strike. An' I had nothin' to show +for it. Not even a color of gold. Nothin' but the word of a dead Aleut, +my own jedgment, an' my own sight of an island I never landed on. Matter +of fact, Honest Simms was the only one who didn't laff at me outright. +It was on'y his bad luck made him try a chance at gold 'stead of keepin' +after pelts. + +"An' we had a hard an' tight agreement drawn up on paper, signed, +witnessed an' recorded. 'Course it holds him as well as it holds me, but +he gits the long end of _that_ stick. W'en I read, or got it read to me, +in the Seattle _News-Courier_, that the _Karluk_ was listed as 'Arrived' +in San Francisco, it was all I could do to git carfare an' grub money. +If I hadn't bin blind, an' some of 'em half-way human to'ards a man with +his lights out, I'd never have raised it. I'd have got here someways, +matey, if I'd had to walk, but I'd have got here a bit late. Then I'd +have had to wait till Simms got back ag'in--an' mebbe starved to death. + +"But I'm here an' I've got some say-so. One thing, you're goin' to git +Bergstrom's share. I don't give a damn where the doctor comes in. If he +marries the gal he'll git her twenty shares, ennyway. Though he ain't +married her yet. And I ain't through with Simms yet," he added, with an +emphasis that was a trifle grim, Rainey thought. + +"The crew, hunters an' sailors, don't seem over glad to see me back," +Lund went on. "Mebbe they figgered their shares 'ud be bigger. Mebbe the +doc's queered me. He's pussy-footin' about with 'em a good deal. But +I'll talk with you about that later. It's me an' you ag'in' the rest of +'em, seems to me, Rainey. The doc's aimin' to be the Big Boss aboard +this schooner. He's got the skipper buffaloed. But not me, not by a +jugful." + +He slammed his big fist against the side of the bunk so viciously that +it seemed to jar the cabin. The blow was typical of the man, Rainey +decided. He felt for Lund not exactly a liking, but an attraction, a +certain compelled admiration. The giant was elemental, with a driving +force inside him that was dynamic, magnetic. What a magnificent pirate +he would have made, thought Rainey, looking at his magnificent +proportions and considering the crude philosophies that cropped out in +his talk. + +"I'm in life for the loot of it, Rainey," Lund declared. "Food an' drink +to tickle my tongue an' fill my belly, the woman I happen to want, an' +bein' able to buy ennything I set my fancy on. The answer to that is +Gold. With it you can buy most enny thing. Not all wimmen, I'll grant +you that. Not the kind of woman I'd want for a steady mate. Thet's one +thing I've found out can't be bought, my son, the honor of a good +woman. An' thet's the sort of woman I'm lookin' for. + +"I reckon yo're raisin' yore eyebrows at that?" he challenged Rainey. +"But the other kind, that'll sell 'emselves, 'll sell you jest as +quick--an' quicker. I'd wade through hell-fire hip-deep to git the right +kind--an' to hold her. An' I'll buck all hell to git what's comin' to me +in the way of luck, or go down all standin' tryin'. This is my gold, an' +I'm goin' to handle it. If enny one tries to swizzle me out of it I'm +goin' to swizzle back, an' you can lay to that. Not forgettin' them that +stands by me." + +Between Lund and Simms there existed a sort of armed truce. No open +reference was made to the desertion of Lund on the floe. But Rainey knew +that it rankled in Lund's mind. The five, Peggy Simms, her father, +Carlsen, Lund and Rainey, ostensibly messed together, but Rainey's +duties generally kept him on deck until Carlsen had sufficiently +completed his own meal to relieve him. By that time the girl and the +captain had left the table. + +Lund invariably waited for Rainey. Tamada kept the food hot for them. +And served them, Lund making good play with spoon or fork and a piece of +bread, the Japanese cutting up his viands conveniently beforehand. + +To Rainey, Tamada seemed the hardest worked man aboard ship. He had +three messes to cook and he was busy from morning until night, +efficient, tireless and even-tempered. The crew, though they +acknowledged his skill, were Californians, either by birth or adoption, +and the racial prejudice against the Japanese was apparent. + +A week of good wind was followed by dirty weather. The _Karluk_ proved a +good fighter, though her headway was materially lessened by contrary +wind and sea, and the persistence and increasing opposition of the storm +seemed to have a corresponding effect upon Captain Simms. + +He grew daily more irritable and morose, even to his daughter. Only the +doctor appeared able to get along with him on easy terms, and Rainey +noticed that, to Carlsen, the skipper seemed conciliatory even to +deference. + +Peggy Simms watched her father with worried eyes. The curious, tarnished +look of his tanned skin grew until the flesh seemed continually dry and +of an earthy color; his lips peeled, and more than once he shook as if +with a chill. + +On the eleventh day out, Rainey went below in the middle of the +afternoon for his sea-boots. The gale had suddenly strengthened and, +under reefs, the _Karluk_ heeled far over until the hissing seas flooded +the scuppers and creamed even with the lee rail. In the main cabin he +found Simms seated in a chair with his daughter leaning over him, +speaking to her in a harsh, complaining voice. + +"No, you can't do a thing for me," he was saying. "It's this sciatica. +I've got to get Carlsen." + +As Rainey passed through to his own little stateroom neither of them +noticed him, but he saw that the captain was shivering, his hands +picking almost convulsively at the table-cloth. + +"Where's Carlsen, curse him!" Rainey heard through his cabin partition. +"Tell him I can't stand this any longer. He's got to help me. Got to. +_Got to._" + +As Rainey appeared, walking heavily in his boots, the girl looked up. +Her father was slumped in his chair, his face buried on his folded arms. +The girl glanced at him doubtfully, apparently uncertain whether to go +herself to find Carlsen or stay with her father. + +"Anything I can do, Miss Simms? Your father seems quite ill." + +The hesitation of the girl even to speak to him was very plain to +Rainey. Suddenly she threw up her chin. + +"Kindly find Doctor Carlsen," she ordered, rather than requested. "Ask +him to come as soon as he can. I--" She turned uncertainly to her +father. + +"Can I help you to get him into the cabin?" asked Rainey. + +She thanked him with lips, not eyes, and he assisted her to shift the +almost helpless man into his room and bunk. He was like a stuffed sack +between them, save that his body twitched. While Rainey took most of the +weight, he marveled at the strength of the slender girl and the way in +which she applied it. Simms seemed to have fainted, to be on the verge +of unconsciousness or even utter collapse. Rainey felt his wrist, and +the pulse was almost imperceptible. + +"I'll get the doctor immediately," he said. + +She nodded at him, chafing her father's hands, her own face pale, and a +look of anxious fear in her eyes. + +"Mighty funny sort of sciatica," Rainey told himself as he hurried +forward. He knew where Carlsen was, in the hunters' cozy quarters, +playing poker. From the chips in front of him he had been winning +heavily. + +"The skipper's ill," said Rainey. "No pulse. Almost unconscious." + +Carlsen raised his eyebrows. + +"Didn't know you were a physician," he said. "Just one of his spells. +I'll finish this hand. Too good to lay down. The skipper can wait for +once." + +The hunters grinned as Carlsen took his time to draw his cards, make his +bets and eventually win the pot on three queens. + +"I wonder what your real game is?" Rainey asked himself as he affected +to watch the play. According to his own announcement Carlsen was +deliberately neglecting the father of the girl he was to marry and at +the same time slighting the captain to his own men. Carlsen drew in his +chips and leisurely made a note of the amount. + +"Quite a while yet to settling-day," he said to the players. "Luck may +swing all round the compass before then, boys. All right, Rainey, you +needn't wait." + +Rainey ignored the omitted "Mister." He held the respect of the sailors, +since he had shown his ability, but he knew that the hunters regarded +him with an amused tolerance that lacked disrespect by a small margin. +To them he was only the amateur sailor. Rainey fancied that the doctor +had contributed to this attitude, and it did not lessen his score +against Carlsen. + +The captain did not make his appearance for that day, the next, or the +next. The men began to roll eyes at one another when they asked after +his health. Carlsen kept his own counsel, and Peggy Simms spent most of +her time in the main cabin with her eyes always roving to her father's +door. Rainey noticed that Tamada brought no food for the sick man. +Carlsen was the apparent controller of the schooner. Lund was quick to +sense this. + +"We got to block that Carlsen's game," he said to Rainey. "There's a +nigger in the woodpile somewhere an' you an' me got to uncover him, +matey, afore we reach Bering Strait, or you an' me'll finish this trip +squattin' on the rocks of one of the Four Mountain Islands makin' faces +at the gulls. + +"I wish you c'ud git under the skin of that Jap. No use tryin' to git in +with the crew or the hunters. They're ag'in' both of us--leastwise +the hunters are. The hands don't count. They're jest plain hash." + +Lund spoke with an absolute contempt of the sailors that was +characteristic of the man. + +"You think they'd put a blind man ashore that way?" asked Rainey. + +"Carlsen would. In a minnit. He'd argy that you c'ud look out for me, +seein' as we are chums. As for you, you've bin useful, but you can't +navigate, an' you've helped train Hansen to yore work. You were in the +way at the start, an' he'd jest as soon git rid of you that road as enny +other. He don't intend you to have Bergstrom's share, by a jugful." + +Lund grinned as he spoke, and Rainey felt a little chill raise +gooseflesh all over his body. It was not exactly fear, but-- + +"They don't look on us two as _mascots_," went on Lund. "But to git back +to that Jap. Forewarned is forearmed. He ain't over an' above liked, but +they've got used to him goin' back an' forth with their grub, an' they +sort of despise him for a yellow-skinned coolie. + +"Now Tamada ain't no coolie. I know Japs. He's a cut above his job. +Cooks well enough for a swell billet ashore if he wanted it. An' there +ain't much goin' on that Tamada ain't wise to. See if you can't get next +to him. Trubble is he's too damn' neutral. He knows he's safe, becoz +he's cook an' a damn' good one. But he's wise to what Carlsen's playin' +at. + +"Carlsen don't care for man, woman, God, or the devil. Neither do I," he +concluded. "An' I've got a card or two up my sleeve. But I'd sure like +to git a peep at what the doc's holdin'." + +The storm blew out, and there came a spell of pleasant weather, with the +_Karluk_ gliding along, logging a fair rate where a less well-designed +vessel would barely have found steerage way, riding on an almost even +keel. Simms was still confined to his cabin, though now his daughter +took him in an occasional tray. + +Except for observations and the details of navigation, Carlsen left the +schooner to Rainey. They were well off the coast, out of the fogs, +apparently alone upon the lonely ocean that ran sparkling to the far +horizon. It was warm, there was little to do, the sailors, as well as +the hunters, spent most of their time lounging on the deck. + +Save at meal-times, Carlsen, for one who had announced himself as an +accepted lover, neglected the girl, who had devoted herself to her +father. Yet she seldom went into her cabin, never remained there long, +and time must have hung heavily on her hands. A girl of her spirit must +have resented such treatment, Rainey imagined, but reminded himself it +was none of his business. + +Lund hung over the rail, smoking, or paced the deck, always close to +Rainey. The manner in which he went about the ship was almost uncanny. +Except that his arms were generally ahead of him when he moved, his +hands, with their woolly covering of red hair, lightly touching boom or +rope or rail, he showed no hesitation, made no mistakes. + +He no longer shuffled, as he had on shore, but moved with a pantherlike +dexterity, here and there at will. When the breeze was steady he would +even take the wheel and steer perfectly by the "feel of the wind" on his +cheek, the slap of it in the canvas, or the creak of the rigging to tell +him if he was holding to the course. And he took an almost childish +delight in proclaiming his prowess as helmsman. + +The booms were stayed out against swinging in flaws and the roll of the +sea, and Lund strode back and forth behind Rainey, who had the wheel. +The hunters were grouped about Carlsen, who, seated on the skylight, was +telling them something at which they guffawed at frequent intervals. + +"Spinnin' them some of his smutty yarns," growled Lund, halting in his +promenade. "Bad for discipline, an' bad for us. He's the sort of +fine-feathered bird that wouldn't give those chaps a first look ashore. +Gittin' in solid with 'em that way is a bad steer. You can't handle a +man you make a pal of, w'en he ain't yore rank." + +"Carlsen's slack, but he's a good sailorman," said Rainey casually. + +"Damn' sight better sailorman than he is doctor," retorted Lund. "Hear +him the other mornin' w'en I asked him if he c'ud give me somethin' to +help my eyes hurtin'? 'I'm no eye specialist,' sez he. 'Try some boracic +acid, my man.' I wouldn't put ennything in my eyes _he'd_ give me, you +can lay to that. He'd give me vitriol, if he thought I'd use it. I +wouldn't let him treat a sick cat o' mine. He's the kind o' doctor that +uses his title to give him privileges with the wimmin. I know his sort." + +Rainey wondered why Lund had asked Carlsen for a lotion if he did not +mean to use it, but he did not provoke further argument. Lund was going +on. + +"He don't do the skipper enny good, thet's certain." + +"Captain Simms seems to believe in him," answered Rainey. He wondered +how much of Carlsen's increasing dominance over the skipper Lund had +noticed. + +"Simms is Carlsen's dog!" exploded Lund. "The doc's got somethin' on +him, mark me. Carlsen's a bad egg an', w'en he hatches, you'll see a +buzzard. An' you wait till he's needed as a doctor on somethin' that +takes more'n a few kind words or a lick out a bottle." + +There was a stir among the hunters. Lund turned his spectacled eyes in +their direction. + +"What are they up to now?" he queried. "Goin' to play poker? Wish I had +my eyes. I'd show 'em how to read the pips." + +Hansen came aft, offering to take the wheel. + +"They bane goin' to shute at targets," he said. "Meester Carlsen he put +up prizes. For rifle an' shotgun. Thought you might like to watch it, +sir." + +Rainey gave over the spokes and went to the starboard rail with Lund, +watching the preparations between fore and main masts for the +competition, and telling Lund what was happening. Carlsen gave out some +shotgun cartridges from cardboard boxes, twelve to each of the six +hunters. + +"Hunters pay for their own shells," said Lund. "But they buy 'em from +the ship. Mate's perkisite. They usually have some shells on hand for +the rifles, but the paper cases o' the shotgun cartridges suck up the +damp an' they keep better in the magazine in the cabin. What they +shootin' at? Bottles?" + +Sandy, the roustabout, had been requisitioned to toss up empty bottles, +and those who failed cursed him for a poor thrower. A hunter named +Deming made no misses, and secured first prize of ten dollars in gold, +with a man named Beale scoring two behind him, and getting half that +amount from Carlsen. + +Then came the test with the rifles. The weapons were all of the same +caliber, well oiled, and in perfect condition. As Lund had said, each of +the hunters had a few shells in his possession, but they lacked the +total of six dozen by a considerable margin. + +Carlsen went below for the necessary ammunition while the target was +completed and set in place. A keg had been rigged with a weight +underslung to keep it upright, and a tin can, painted white, set on a +short spar in one end of the keg. A light line was attached to a bridle, +and the mark lowered over the stern, where it rode, bobbing in the tail +of the schooner's wake, thirty fathoms from the taffrail where the crowd +gathered. + +Carlsen, returning, ordered Hansen to steer fine. He gave each +competitor a limit of ten seconds for his aim, contributing an element +of chance that made the contest a sporting one. Without the counting, +each would have deliberately waited for the most favorable moment when +the schooner hung in the trough and the white can was backed by green +water. As it was, it made a far-from-easy mark, slithering, lurching, +dipping as the _Karluk_ slid down a wave or met a fresh one, the can +often blurred against the blobs of foam. + +More bullets hit the keg than the can, and Carlsen was often called upon +as umpire. But the tin gradually became ragged and blotched where the +steel-jacketed missiles tore through. Beale and Deming both had five +clean, undisputed hits, tying for first prize. Beale offered to shoot it +off with six more shells apiece, and Deming consented. + +"Can't be done," declared Carlsen. "Not right now, anyway. I gave out +the last shell there was in the magazine. If there are any more the +skipper's got them stowed away, and I can't disturb him." + +"Derned funny," said Deming, "a sealer shy on cartridges! Lucky we ain't +worryin' about thet sort of a cargo." + +"Probably plenty aboard somewhere," said Carlsen, "but I don't know +where they are. Sorry to break up the shooting. You boys have got me +beaten on rifles and shotguns," he went on, producing from his hip +pocket a flat, effective-looking automatic pistol of heavy caliber. "How +are you on small arms?" + +The hunters shook their heads dubiously. + +"Never use 'em," said Deming. "Never could do much with that kind, +ennyhow. Give me a revolver, an' I might make out to hit a whale, if he +was close enough, but not with one o' them." + +"Not much difference," said, Carlsen. "Any of you got revolvers?" + +No one spoke. It was against the unwritten laws of a vessel for pistols +to be owned forward of the main cabin. Beale finally answered for the +rest. + +"Nary a pistol, sir." + +"Then," said Carlsen, "I'll give you an exhibition myself. Any bottles +left? Beale, will you toss them for me?" + +There were eight shots in the automatic, and Carlsen smashed seven +bottles in mid-air. He missed the last, but retrieved himself by +breaking it as it dipped in the wake. The hunters shouted their +appreciation. + +"Break all of 'em?" Lund asked Rainey. "Enny bottles left at all?" + +He walked toward the taffrail, addressing Carlsen. + +"Kin you shoot by _sound_ as well as by sight, Doc?" he challenged. + +"I fancy not," said Carlsen. + +"If I had my eyes I'd snapshoot ye for a hundred bucks," said Lund. "As +it is, I might target one or two. Rainey, have some one run a line, +head-high, an' fix a bottle on it, will ye? I ain't got a gun o' my own, +Doc," he continued, "will you lend me yours?" Carlsen filled his clip +and Lund turned toward Rainey, who was rigging the target. + +"I'll want you to tap it with a stick," he said. "Signal-flag staff'll +do fine." + +Rainey got the slender bamboo and stood by. Lund felt for the cord, +passed his fingers over the suspended bottle and stepped off five paces, +hefting the automatic to judge its balance. + +"Ruther have my own gun," he muttered. "All right, tetch her up, +Rainey." + +Rainey tapped the bottle on the neck and it gave out a little tinkle, +lost immediately in the crash of splintering glass as the bottle, hit +fairly in the torn label, broke in half. + +"How much left?" asked Lund. "Half? Tetch it up." + +Again he fired and again the bullet found the mark, leaving only the +neck of the bottle still hanging. Lund grinned. + +"Thet's all," he said. "Jest wanted to show ye what a blind man can do, +if he's put to it." + +There was little applause. Carlsen took his gun in silence and moved +forward with the hunters and the onlookers, disappearing below. Rainey +took the wheel over from Hansen and ordered him forward again. + +"Given 'em something to talk about," chuckled Lund. "Carlsen wanted to +show off his fancy shootin'. Wal, I've shown 'em I ain't entirely +wrecked if I ain't carryin' lights. An' I slipped more'n one over on +Carlsen at that." + +Rainey did not catch his entire meaning and said nothing. + +"Did you get wise to the play about the shells?" asked Lund. "A smart +trick, though Deming almost tumbled. Carlsen got those dumb fools of +hunters to fire away every shell they happened to have for'ard. If the +magazine's empty, I'll bet Carlsen knows where they's plenty more +shells, if we ever needed 'em bad. But now those rifles an' shotguns +ain't no more use than so many clubs--_not to the hunters_. An' he's +found out they ain't got enny pistols. _He's_ got one, an' shows 'em how +straight he shoots, jest in case there should be enny trubble between +'em. Plays both ends to the middle, does Carlsen. Slick! But he ain't +won the pot. They's a joker in this game. Mebbe he holds it, mebbe not." + +He nodded mysteriously, well pleased with himself. + +"Don't suppose _you_ brought a gun along with ye?" he asked Rainey. +"Might come in handy." + +"I wasn't expecting to stay," Rainey replied dryly, "or I might have." + +Lund laughed heartily, slapping his leg. + +"That's a good un," he declared. "It would have bin a good idea, though. +It sure pays to go heeled when you travel with strangers." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BOWHEAD + + +Captain Simms appeared again in the cabin and on deck, but he was not +the same man. His illness seemed to have robbed him permanently of what +was left him of the spring of manhood. It was as if his juices had been +sucked from his veins and arteries and tissues, leaving him flabby, +irresolute, compared to his former self. Even as Lund shadowed Rainey, +so Simms shadowed Carlsen. + +The fine weather vanished, snuffed out in an hour and, day after day, +the _Karluk_ flung herself at mocking seas that pounded her bows with +blows that sounded like the noise of a giant's drum. The sun was never +seen. Through daylight hours the schooner wrestled with the elements in +a ghastly, purplish twilight, lifting under double reefs over great +waves that raised spuming crests to overwhelm her, and were ridden down, +hissing and roaring, burying one rail and covering the deck to the +hatches with yeasty turmoil. + +The _Karluk_ charged the stubborn fury of the gale, rolling from side to +side, lancing the seas, gaining a little headway, losing leeway, +fighting, fighting, while every foot of timber, every fathom of rope, +groaned and creaked perpetually, but endured. + +To Rainey, this persistent struggle--as he himself controlled the +schooner, legs far astride, his oilskins dripping, his feet awash to the +ankles, spume drenching and whipping him, the wind a lash--brought +exultation and a sense of mastery and confidence such as he had never +before held suggestion of. To guide the ship, constantly to baffle the +sea and wind, the turbulence, buffeting bows and run and counter, +smashing at the rudder, leaping always like a pack of yapping +hounds--this was a thing that left the days of his water-front detail +far behind. + +And then he had thought himself in the whirl of things! Even as Simms +seemed to be declining, so Rainey felt that he was coming into the +fulness of strength and health. + +Lund was ever with him. Sometimes the girl would come up on deck in her +own waterproofs and stand against the rail to watch the storm, silent as +far as the pair were concerned. And presently Carlsen would come from +below or forward and stand to talk with her until she was tired of the +deck. + +They did not seem much like lovers, Rainey fancied. They lacked the +little intimacies that he, though he made himself somewhat of an +automaton at the wheel, could not have failed to see. If the girl +slipped, Carlsen's hand would catch and steady her by the arm; never go +about her waist. And there was no especial look of welcome in her face +when the doctor came to her. + +Carlsen seldom took over the wheel. Rainey did more than his share from +sheer love of feeling the control. But one day, at a word from the +girl, Carlsen and she came up to Rainey as he handled the spokes. + +"I'll take the wheel a while, Rainey," said the doctor. + +Rainey gave it up and went amidships. Out of the tail of his eye he +could see that the girl was pleading to handle the ship, and that +Carlsen was going to let her do so. + +Rainey shrugged his shoulders. It was Carlsen's risk. It was no child's +play in that weather to steer properly. The _Karluk_, with her narrow +beam, was lithe and active as a great cat in those waves. It took not +only strength, but watchfulness and experience to hold the course in the +welter of cross-seas. + +Lund, whose recognition of voices was perfect, moved amidships as soon +as Carlsen and Peggy Simms came aft. There was no attempt at disguising +the fact that the schooner's afterward was a divided company and, save +for the fact of his blindness tempering the action, the manner of Lund's +showing them his back and deliberately walking off would have been a +deliberate insult. + +Not to the girl, Rainey thought. At first he had considered Lund's +character as comparatively simple--and brutal--but he had qualified +this, without seeming consciousness, and he felt that Lund would never +deliberately insult a woman--any sort of woman. He was beginning to feel +something more than an admiration for Lund's strength; a liking for the +man himself had, almost against his will, begun to assert itself. + +They stood together by the weather-rail. It was still Rainey's +deck-watch, and at any moment Carlsen might relinquish the wheel back to +him as soon as the girl got tired. Suddenly shouts sounded from forward, +a medley of them, indistinct against the quartering wind. Sandy, the +roustabout, came dashing aft along the sloping deck, catching clumsily +at rail and rope to steady himself, flushed with excitement, almost +hysterical with his news. + +"A bowhead, sir!" he cried when he saw Rainey. "And killers after him! +Blowin' dead ahead!" + +Beyond the bows Rainey could see nothing of the whale, that must have +sounded in fear of the killers, but he saw half a dozen scythe-like, +black fins cutting the water in streaks of foam, all abreast, their high +dorsals waving, wolves of the sea, hunting for the gray bowhead whale, +to force its mouth open and feast on the delicacy of its living tongue. +So Lund told him in swift sentences while they waited for the whale to +broach. + +"Ha'f the time the bowheads won't even try an' git away," said Lund. +"Lie atop, belly up, plain jellied with fear while the killers help +'emselves. Ha'f the bowheads you git have got chunks bitten out of their +tongues. If they're nigh shore when the killers show up the whales'll +slide way out over the rocks an' strand 'emselves." + +Rainey glanced aft. Sandy had carried his warning to Carlsen and the +girl, and now was craning over the lee rail, knee-deep in the wash, +trying to see something of the combat. Peggy Simms' lithe figure was +leaning to one side as she, too, gazed ahead, though she still paid +attention to her steering and held the schooner well up, her face bright +with excitement, wet with flying brine, wisps of yellow hair streaming +free in the wind from beneath the close grip of her woolen +tam-o'-shanter bonnet of scarlet. Carlsen was pointing out the racing +fins of the killers. + +"Bl-o-ows!" started the deep voice of a lookout, from where sailors and +hunters had grouped in the bows to witness this gladiatorial combat +between sea monsters, staged fittingly in a sea that was running wild. +Rainey strained his gaze to catch the steamy spiracle and the outthrust +of the great head. + +"_Bl-o-ows!_" The deep voice almost leaped an octave in a sudden shrill +of apprehension. Other voices mingled with his in a clamor of dismay. + +"Look out! Oh, look out! Dead ahead!" + +The enormous bulk of the whale had appeared, not to spout, but to lie +belly up, rocking on the surface with fins outspread, paralyzed with +terror, directly in the course of the _Karluk_, while toward it, intent +only on their blood lust, leaped the killers, thrusting at its head as +the schooner surged down. In that tremendous sea the impact would be +certain to mean the staving in of something forward, perhaps the +springing of a butt. + +"Hard a lee!" yelled Rainey. "Up with her! Up!" + +It was desire to vent his own feelings, rather than necessity for the +command, that made Rainey yell the order, for he could see the girl +striving with the spokes, Carlsen lending his strength to hers. The +sheets were well flattened, the wind almost abeam, and there was no need +to change the set of fore and main. + +Forward, the men jumped to handle the headsails. The _Karluk_ started to +spin about on its keel, instinct to the changing plane of the rudder. +But the waves were running tremendously high, and the wind blowing with +great force, the water rolling in great mountains of sickly greenish +gray, topped with foam that blew in a level scud. + +As the schooner hung in a deep trough, the wind struck at her, bows on. +With the gale suddenly spilled out of them, the topsails lashed and +shivered, and the fore broke loose with the sharp report of a gunshot +and disappeared aft in the smother. + +Rainey saw one huge billow rising, curving, high as the gaff of the +main, it seemed to him, as he grasped at the coil of the main halyards. +Down came the tons of water, booming on the deck that bent under the +blow, spilling in a great cataract that swashed across the deck. + +His feet were swept from under him, for a moment he seemed to swing +horizontal in the stream, clutching at the halyards. The sea struck the +opposite rail with a roar that threatened to tear it away, piling up and +then seething overboard. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RAINEY SCORES + + +With it went a figure. Rainey caught sight of a ghastly face, a mouth +that shouted vainly for help in the pandemonium, and was instantly +stoppered with strangling brine, pop-eyes appealing in awful fright as +Sandy was washed away in the cascade. The halyards were held on the pin +with a turn and twist that Rainey swiftly loosened, lifting the coil +free, making a fast loop, and thrusting head and arms through it as he +flung himself after the roustabout. + +Even as he dived he heard the bellow of Lund, knowing instinctively the +peril of the schooner by its actions, though ignorant of the accident. + +"Back that jib! Back it, blast yore eyes! Ba-ck--" + +Then Rainey was clubbing his way through the race of water to where he +glimpsed an upflung arm. Sandy was in oilskins and sea-boots, he had +hardly a chance to save himself, however expert. And it flashed over +Rainey's mind that, like many sailors, the lad had boasted that he could +not swim. His boots would pull him under as soon as the force of the +waves, that were tossing him from crest to crest, should be suspended. +Rainey himself was borne on their thrust, clogged by his own equipment, +linked to life only by the halyard coil. + +A great bulk wallowed just before him, the helpless body of the bowhead +whale, the killers darting in a mad mêlée for its head. Then a figure +was literally hurled upon the slippery mass of the mammal, its gray +belly plain in the welter, a living raft against which the waves broke +and tossed their spray. + +Clawing frantically, Sandy clutched at the base of the enormous pectoral +fin, clinging with maniacal strength, mad with fear. Striking out to +little purpose, save to help buoy himself, blinded by the flying scud +and broken crests, Rainey felt himself upreared, swept impotently on and +slammed against the slimy hulk, just close enough to Sandy to grasp him +by the collar, as the whale, stung by a killer's tearing at its oily +tongue, flailed with its fin and the two of them slid down its body, +deep under water. + +Rainey fought against the suffocation and the fierce desire to gasp and +relieve his tortured lungs. The lad's weight seemed to be carrying him +down as if he was a thing of lead, but Rainey would not relax his grip. +He could not. He had centered all his energy upon the desire to save +Sandy, and his nerve centers were still tense to that last conscious +demand. + +There came a swift, painful constriction of his chest that his failing +senses interpreted only as the end of things. Then his head came out +into the blessed air and he gulped what he could, though half of it was +water. + +The _Karluk_ was into the wind and they were in what little lee there +was, dragging aft at the end of the halyards, being fetched in toward +the rail by the mighty tugs of Lund, a weird sight to Rainey's smarting +eyes as he caught sight of the giant, with red hair uncovered, his beard +whipping in the wind, his black glasses still in place, making some sort +of a blessed monster out of him. + +Rainey had his left fist welded to the line, his right was set in +Sandy's collar, and Sandy's death clutch had twined itself into Rainey's +oilskins, though the lad was limp, and his face, seen through the watery +film that streamed over it, set and white. + +A dozen arms shot down to grasp him. He felt the iron grip of Lund upon +his left forearm, almost wrenching his arm from its socket as he was +inhauled, caught at by body and legs and deposited on the deck of the +schooner, that almost instantly commenced to go about upon its former +course. Again he heard the bellow of the blind giant, as if it had been +a continuation of the order shouted as he had gone overboard. + +"Ba-ack that jib to win'ard! Ba-ck it, you swabs!" + +The _Karluk_ came about more smartly this time, swinging on the upheaval +of a wave and rushing off with ever-increasing speed. Lund bent over +him, asking him with a note that Rainey, for all his exhaustion, +interpreted as one of real anxiety: + +"How is it with you, matey? Did ye git lunged up?" + +Rainey managed to shake his head and, with Lund's boughlike arm for +support, got to his feet, winded, shaken, aching from his pounding and +the crash against the whale. + +"Good man!" cried Lund, thwacking him on the shoulder and holding him up +as Rainey nearly collapsed under the friendly accolade. + +Sandy was lying face down, one hunter kneeling across him, kneading his +ribs to bellows action, lifting his upper body in time to the pressure, +while another worked his slack arms up and down. + +"I tank he's gone," said Hansen. "Swallowed a tubful." + +"That was splendid, Mr. Rainey! Wonderful! It was brave of you!" + +Peggy Simms stood before Rainey, clinging to the mainstays, a different +girl to the one that he had known. Her red lips were apart, showing the +clean shine of her teeth, above her glowing cheeks her gray eyes +sparkled with friendly admiration, one slender wet hand was held out +eagerly toward him. + +"Why," said Rainey, in that embarrassment that comes when one knows he +has done well, yet instinctively seeks to disclaim honors, "any one +would have done that. I happened to be the only one to see it." + +"I'm not so sure of that," replied the girl, and Rainey thought her lip +curled contemptuously as she glanced toward Carlsen at the wheel. Yet +Carlsen, he fancied, had full excuse for not having made the attempt, +busied as he had been adding needed strength to the wheel. + +"Oh, it was not what he did, or failed to do," said the girl, and this +time there was no mistaking the fact that she emphasized her voice with +contempt and made sure that it would carry to Carlsen. "He said it +wasn't worth while." + +Her eyes flashed and then she made a visible effort to control herself. +"But it was very brave of you, and I want to ask your pardon," she +concluded, with the crimson of her cheeks flooding all her face before +she turned away, and made abruptly for the companion. + +A little bewildered, the touch of her slim but strong fingers still +sensible to his own, Rainey went to the wheel. + +"Shall I take it over, Mr. Carlsen?" he asked. "It's my watch." + +Carlsen surveyed him coolly. Either he pretended not to have heard the +girl's innuendo or it failed to get under his skin. + +"You'd better get into some dry togs, Rainey," he said. "And I'll +prescribe a stiff jorum of grog-hot. Take your time about it." Rainey, +conscious of a wrenched feeling in his side, a growing nausea and +weakness, thanked him and took the advice. Half an hour later, save for +a general soreness, he felt too vigorous to stay below, and went on deck +again. Sandy had been taken forward. He encountered the hunter, Deming, +and asked after the roustabout. + +"Born to be hanged," answered the hunter with more friendliness than he +had ever exhibited. "They pumped it out of him, and got his own pump to +workin'. He'll be as fit as a fiddle presently. Asking for you." + +"I'll see him soon," said Rainey, and again offered relief to Carlsen, +which the doctor this time accepted. + +"Miss Simms misunderstood me, Rainey," he said easily. "My intent was, +that Sandy could never stay on top in those seas, and that it was idle +to send a valuable man after a lout who was as good as dead. If it +hadn't been for the whale you'd never have landed him. And the killers +got the whale," he added, with his cynical grin. + +So he had overheard. Rainey wondered whether the girl would accept the +amended statement if it was offered. At its best interpretation it was +callous. + +When Hansen took over the watch Rainey went below to Sandy. Lund had +disappeared, but he found the giant in the triangular forecastle by +Sandy's bunk. + +"That you, Rainey?" Lund asked as he heard the other's tread. Then he +dropped his voice to a whisper: + +"The lad's grateful. Make the most of it. If he wants to spill +ennything, git all of it." + +But Sandy seemed able to do nothing but grin sheepishly. He was half +drunk with the steaming potion that had been forced down him. + +"I'll see you later, Mister Rainey," he finally stammered out. "See you +later, sir. You--I--" + +Lund suddenly nudged Rainey in the ribs. + +"Never mind now," he whispered. + +A sailor had come into the forecastle with an extra blanket for Sandy, +contributed from the hunters' mess. + +"That's all right, Sandy," said Rainey. "Better try to get some sleep." + +The roustabout had already dropped off. The seaman touched his temple in +an old-fashioned salute. + +"That was a smart job you did, sir," he said to Rainey. + +The latter went aft with Lund through the hunters' quarters. They were +seated under the swinging lamp which had been lit in the gloom of the +gale, playing poker, as usual. But all laid down their cards as Rainey +appeared. + +"Good work, sir!" said one of them, and the rest chimed in with +expressions that warmed Rainey's heart. He felt that he had won his way +into their good-will. They were human, after all, he thought. + +"Glad to have you drop in an' gam a bit with us, or take a hand in a +game, sir," added Deming. + +Rainey escaped, a trifle embarrassed, and passed through the alley that +went by the cook's domain into the main cabin. Tamada was at work, but +turned a gleam of slanting eyes toward Rainey as they passed the open +door. The main cabin was empty. + +"Come into my room," suggested Lund. "I want to talk with you." + +He stuffed his pipe and proffered a drink before he spoke. + +"Best day's work you've done in a long while, matey," he said quietly. +"Take Deming's offer up, an' mix in with them hunters. An' pump thet +kid, Sandy. Pump him dry. He'll know almost as much as Tamada, an' he'll +come through with it easier." + +"Just what are you afraid of?" asked Rainey. + +"Son," said Lund simply, "I'm afraid of nothing. But they're primed for +somethin', under Carlsen. We'll be makin' Unalaska ter-morrer or the +next day. Here's hopin' it's the next. An' we've got to know what to +expect. Did you know that the skipper has had another bad spell?" + +"No. When?" + +"Jest a few minnits ago. Cryin' for Carlsen like a kid for its nurse an' +bottle. The doc's with him now. An' I'm beginnin' to have a hunch what's +wrong with him. Here's somethin' for you to chew on: Inside of +forty-eight hours there's goin' to be an upset aboard this hooker an' +it's up to me an' you to see we come out on top. If not--" + +He spread out his arms with the great, gorilla-like hands at the end of +them, in a gesture that supplanted words. Beyond any doubt Lund expected +trouble. And Rainey, for the first time, began to sense it as something +approaching, sinister, almost tangible. + +"You drop in on the hunters an' have a little game of poker ter-night," +said Lund emphatically. + +"I haven't got much money with me," said Rainey. + +"Money, hell!" mocked Lund. "They don't play for money. They play for +shares in the gold. They've got the big amount fixed at a million, each +share worth ten thousand. 'Cordin' to the way things stand at present, +you've got forty thousand dollars' worth in chips to gamble with. Put it +up to 'em that way. I figger they'll accept it. If they don't, wal, +we've learned something. An' don't forget to git next to Sandy." + +A good deal of this was enigmatical to Rainey, but there was no +mistaking Lund's tremendous seriousness and, duly impressed, Rainey +promised to carry out his suggestions. + +As he crossed the main cabin to go to his own room, Carlsen came out of +the skipper's. He did not see Rainey at first and was humming a little +air under his breath as he slipped a small article into his pocket. His +face held a sneer. Then he saw Rainey, and it changed to a mask that +revealed nothing. His tune stopped. + +"I hear the captain's sick again," said Rainey. "Not serious, I hope." + +Carlsen stood there gazing at him with his look of a sphinx, his eyes +half-closed, the scoffing light showing faintly. + +"Serious? I'm afraid it is serious this time, Rainey. Yes," he ended +slowly. "I am inclined to think it is really serious." He turned away +and rapped at the door of the girl's stateroom. In answer to a low reply +he turned the handle and went in, leaving Rainey alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SANDY SPEAKS + + +The next morning Rainey, going on deck to relieve Hansen at eight bells, +in the commencement of the forenoon watch, found Lund in the bows as he +walked forward, waiting for the bell to be struck. The giant leaned by +the bowsprit, his spectacled eyes seeming to gaze ahead into the gray of +the northern sky, and it seemed to Rainey as if he were smelling the +wind. The sun shone brightly enough, but it lacked heat-power, and the +sea had gone down, though it still ran high in great billows of dull +green. There was a bite to the air, and Rainey, fresh from the warm +cabin, wished he had brought up his sweater. + +Lightly as he trod, the giant heard him and instantly recognized him. + +"How'd ye make out with the hunters last night?" he queried. "I turned +in early." + +"We had quite a session," said Rainey. "They got me in the game, all +right." + +"Enny objections 'bout yore stakin' yore share in the gold?" + +"Not a bit. I fancy they thought it a bit of a joke. More of one after +we'd finished the game. I lost two thousand seven hundred dollars," he +added with a laugh. "No chips under a dollar. Sky limit. And Deming had +all the luck, and a majority of the skill, I fancy." + +"Don't seem to worry you none." + +"Well, it was sort of ghost money," laughed Rainey. + +"You've seen the color of it," retorted Lund. "Hear ennything special?" + +"No." Rainey spoke thoughtfully. "I had a notion I was being treated as +an outsider, though they were friendly enough. But, somehow I fancy they +reserved their usual line of talk." + +"Shouldn't wonder," grunted Lund. "Seen Sandy yet?" + +"I haven't had a chance. I imagined it would be best not to be seen +talking to him." + +"Right. Matey, things are comin' to a head. There's ice in the air. I +can smell it. Feel the difference in temperature? Ice, all right. An' +that means two things. We're nigh one of the Aleutians, an' Bering +Strait is full of ice. Early, a bit, but there's nothin' reg'lar 'bout +the way ice forms. I've got a strong hunch something'll break before we +make the Strait. + +"There's one thing in our favor. Yore savin' Sandy has set you solid +with the hunters. They won't be so keen to maroon you. An' they'll think +twice about puttin' me ashore blind. I used to git along fine with the +hunters. All said an' done, they're men at bottom. Got their hearts +gold-plated right now. But--" + +He seemed obsessed with the idea that the crew, with Carlsen as prime +instigator, had determined to leave them stranded on some volcanic, +lonely barren islet. Rainey wondered what actual foundations he had for +that theory. + +"The sailors--" he started. + +"Don't amount to a bunch of dried herrin'. A pore lot. Swing either way, +like a patent gate. I ain't worryin' about them. I'm goin' to git my +coffee. I was up afore dawn, tryin' to figger things out. You git to +Sandy soon's you can, matey." And Lund went below. + +Rainey saw nothing more of him until noon, at the midday meal. And he +found no chance to talk with Sandy. He noticed the boy looking at him +once or twice, wistfully, he thought, and yet furtively. A thickening +atmosphere of something unusual afoot seemed present. And the actual +weather grew distinctly colder. He had got his sweater, and he needed +it. The sailors had put on their thickest clothes. Carlsen did not +appear during the morning, neither did the hunters. Nor the girl. + +At noon Carlsen came up to take his observation. He said nothing to +Rainey, but the latter noticed the doctor's face seemed more sardonic +than usual as he tucked his sextant under his arm. + +With Hansen on deck they all assembled at the table with the exception +of the captain. Tamada served perfectly and silently. The doctor +conversed with the girl in a low voice. Once or twice she smiled across +the table at Rainey in friendly fashion. + +"Skipper enny better?" asked Lund, at the end of the meal. + +Carlsen ignored him, but the girl answered: + +"I am afraid not." It was not often she spoke to Lund at all, and Rainey +wondered if she had experienced any change of feeling toward the giant +as well as himself. + +Carlsen got up, announcing his intention of going forward. Lund nodded +significantly at Rainey as if to suggest that the doctor was going to +foregather with the hunters, and that this might be an opportunity to +talk with Sandy. + +"Goin' to turn in," he said. "Eyes hurt me. It's the ice in the wind." + +"Is there ice?" Peggy Simms asked Rainey as Lund disappeared. Carlsen +had already vanished. + +"None in sight," he answered. "But Lund says he can smell it, and I +think I know what he means. It's cold on deck." + +The girl went to the door of her own room and then hesitated and came +back to the table where Rainey still sat. He had four hours off, and he +meant to make an opportunity of talking to the roustabout. + +"Mr. Carlsen told me he expects to sight land by to-morrow morning," she +said. "Unalaska or Unimak, most likely. How is the boy you saved?" + +She seemed so inclined to friendliness, her eyes were so frank, that +Rainey resolved to talk to her. He held a notion that she was lonely, +and worried about her father. There were pale blue shadows under her +eyes, and he fancied her face looked drawn. + +"May I ask you a question?" he asked. + +"Surely." + +"Just why did you beg my pardon? And, I may be wrong, but you seemed to +make a point of doing so rather publicly." + +She flushed slowly, but did not avoid his gaze, coming over to the table +and standing across from him, her fingers resting lightly on the +polished wood. + +"It was because I thought I had misunderstood you," she said. "And I +have thought it over since. I do not think that any man who would risk +his life to save that lad could have joined the ship with such motives +as you did. I--I hope I am not mistaken." + +Rainey stared at her in astonishment. + +"What motives?" he asked. "Surely you know I did not intend to go on +this voyage of my own free will?" + +The changing light in her eyes reminded Rainey of the look of her +father's when he was at his best in some time of stress for the +schooner. They were steady, and the pupils had dilated while the irises +held the color of steel. There was something more than ordinary feminine +softness to her, he decided. She sat down, challenging his gaze. + +"Do you mean to tell me," she asked, "that you did not use your +knowledge of this treasure to gain a share in it, under a covert threat +of disclosing it to the newspaper you worked for?" + +It was Rainey's turn to flush. His indignation flooded his eyes, and the +girl's faltered a little. His wrath mastered his judgment. He did not +intend to spare her feelings. What did she mean by such a charge? She +must have known about the drugging. If not--she soon would. + +"Your fiancé, Mr. Carlsen, told you that, I fancy," he said, "if you did +not evolve it from your own imagination." Now her face fairly flamed. + +"My fiancé?" she gasped. "Who told you that?" + +"The gentleman himself," answered Rainey. + +"Oh!" she cried, closing her eyes, her face paling. + +"The same gentleman," went on Rainey vindictively, "who put chloral in +my drink and deliberately shanghaied me aboard the _Karluk_, so that I +only came to at sea, with no chance of return. He, too, was afraid I +might give the snap away to my paper, though I would have given him my +word not to. He told me it was a matter of business, that he had +kidnapped me for my own good," he went on bitterly, recalling the talk +with Carlsen when he had come out of the influence of the drug. "You +don't have to believe me, of course," he broke off. + +"I don't think you are quite fair, Mr. Rainey," the girl answered. "To +me, I mean. I will give you _my_ word that I knew nothing of this. I--" +She suddenly widened her eyes and stared at him. "Then--my father--he?" + +Rainey felt a twinge of compassion. + +"He was there when it happened," he said. "But I don't know that he had +anything to do with it. Mr. Carlsen may have convinced him it was the +only thing to do. He seems to have considerable influence with your +father." + + +[Illustration: "The same gentleman who put chloral in my drink"] + + +"He has. He--Mr. Rainey, I have begged your pardon once; I do so again. +Won't you accept it? Perhaps, later, we can talk this matter out. I am +upset. But--you'll accept the apology, and believe me?" + +She put out her hand across the table and Rainey gripped it. + +"We'll be friends?" she asked. "I need a friend aboard the _Karluk_, Mr. +Rainey." + +He experienced a revulsion of feeling toward her. She was undoubtedly +plucky, he thought; she would stand up to her guns, but she suddenly +looked very tired, a pathetic figure that summoned his chivalry. + +"Why, surely," he said. + +They relinquished hands slowly, and again Rainey felt something more +than her mere grasp lingering, a slight tingling that warmed him to +smile at her in a manner that brought a little color back to her cheeks. + +"Thank you," she said. + +He watched her close the door of her cabin behind her before he +remembered that she had not denied that she was to marry Carlsen. But he +shrugged his shoulders as he started to smoke. At any rate, he told +himself, she knows what kind of a chap he is--in what he calls business. + +Presently he thought he heard her softly sobbing in her room, and he got +up and paced the cabin, not entirely pleased with himself. + +"I was a bit of a cad the way I went at her," he thought, "but that chap +Carlsen sticks in my gorge. How any decent girl could think of mating up +with him is beyond me--unless--by gad, I'll bet he's working through her +father to pull it off! For the gold! If he's in love with her he's got a +damned queer way of not showing it." + +The door from the galley corridor opened, and a head was poked in +cautiously. Then Sandy came into the cabin. + +"Beg pardon, Mister Rainey, sir," said the roustabout, "I was through +with the dishes. I wanted to have a talk with yer." His pop-eyes roamed +about the cabin doubtfully. + +"Come in here," said Rainey, and ushered Sandy into his own quarters. + +"Now, then," he said, established on the bunk, while Sandy stood by the +partition, slouching, irresolute, his slack jaw working as if he was +chewing something, "what is it, my lad?" + +"They'd kick the stuffin' out of me if they knew this," said Sandy. +"I've bin warned to hold my tongue. Deming said he'd cut it out if I +chattered. An' he would. But--" + +"But what? Sit down, Sandy; I won't give you away." + +"You went overboard after me, sir. None of them would. I've heard what +Mr. Carlsen said, that I didn't ermount to nothin'. Mebbe I don't, but +I've got my own reasons for hangin' on. Me, of course I don't ermount to +much. Why would I? If I ever had mother an' father, I never laid eyes on +'em. I've made my own livin' sence I was eight. I've never 'ad enough +grub in my belly till I worked for Tamada. The Jap slips me prime +fillin'. He's only a Jap, but he's got more heart than the rest o' that +bloody bunch put tergether." + +Rainey nodded. + +"Tell me what you know, quickly. You may be wanted any minute." + +The words seemed to stick in the lad's dry throat, and then they came +with a gush. + +"It's the doc! It's Carlsen who's turned 'em into a lot of bloody +bolsheviks, sir. Told 'em they ought to have an ekal share in the gold. +Ekal all round, all except Tamada--an' me. I don't count. An' Tamada's a +Jap. The men is sore at Mr. Lund becoz he sez the skipper left him +be'ind on the ice. Carlsen's worked that up, too. Said Lund made 'em all +out to be cowards. 'Cept Hansen, that is. He don't dare say too much, or +they'd jump him, but Hansen sort of hints that Cap'n Simms ought to have +gone back after Lund, could have gone back, is the way Hansen put it. So +they're all goin' to strike." + +Rainey's mind reacted swiftly to Sandy's talk. It seemed inconceivable +that Carlsen would be willing to share alike with the hunters and the +crew. Sandy's imagination had been running wild, or the men had been +making a fool of him. The girl's share would be thrown into the common +lot. And then flashed over him the trick by which Carlsen had disposed +of all the ammunition in the hunters' possession. He had a deeper scheme +than the one he fed to the hunters, and which he merely offered to serve +some present purpose. Rainey's jaw muscles bunched. + +"Go on, Sandy," he said tersely. + +"There ain't much more, sir. They're goin' to put it up to Lund. First +they figgered some on settin' him ashore with you an' the Jap. That's +what Carlsen put up to 'em. But they warn't in favor of that. Said Lund +found the gold, an' ought to have an ekal share with the rest. An' +they're feelin' diff'runt about you, sir, since you saved me. Not becoz +it was me, but becoz it was what Deming calls a damn plucky thing to +do." + +"How did you learn all this?" demanded Rainey. + +"Scraps, sir. Here an' there. The sailors gams about it nights when +they thinks I'm asleep in the fo'c's'le. An' I keeps my ears open when I +waits on the hunters. But they ain't goin' to give you no share becoz +you warn't in on the original deal. But they ain't goin' to maroon you, +neither, unless Lund bucks an' you stand back of him." + +"How about Captain Simms?" + +"Carlsen sez he'll answer for him, sir. He boasts how he's goin' to +marry the gal. That'll giv' him three shares--countin' the skipper's. +The men don't see that, but I did. He's a bloody fox, is Carlsen." + +"When's this coming off?" asked Rainey. + +"Quick! They're goin' to sight land ter-morrer, they say. I heard that +this mornin'. I hid in my bunk. It heads ag'inst the wall of the +hunters' mess an', if it's quiet, you can hear what they say. + +"They ain't goin' in to Bering Strait through Unimak Pass. They're goin' +in through Amukat or Seguam Pass. An' they'll put it up to Lund an' the +skipper somewheres close by there. An' that's where you two'll get put +off, if you don't fall in line." + +"All right, Sandy. You're smarter than I thought you were. Sure of all +this?" + +"I ain't much to look at, sir, but I ain't had to buck my own way +without gittin' on ter myself. You won't give me away, though? They'd +keelhaul me." + +"I won't. You cut along. And if we happen to come out on top, Sandy, +I'll see that you get a share out of it." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"I'll come out with you," said Rainey. "If any one comes in before you +get clear, I'll give you an order. I sent for you, understand." + +But Sandy got back into the galley without any trouble. Rainey began to +pace the cabin again, and then went back into his own room to line the +thing up. Lund was asleep, but he would waken him, he decided, filled +with admiration at the blind man's sagacity and the way he had foreseen +the general situation. + +There was not much time to lose. He did not see what they could do +against the proposition. He was sure that Lund would not consent to it. +And he might have some plan. He had hinted that he had cards up his +sleeve. + +What Carlsen's ultimate plans were Rainey did not bother himself with. +That it meant the fooling of the whole crew he did not doubt. He +intended eventually to gather all the gold. And the girl--she would be +in his power. But perhaps she wanted to be? Rainey got out of his blind +alley of thought and started into the main cabin to give Lund the news. + +The girl was coming out of her father's room. + +"Any better?" asked Rainey. + +"No. I can't understand it. He seems hardly to know me. Doctor Carlsen +came along because of father's sciatica, but--there's something +else--and the doctor can't help it any. I can't quite understand--" + +She stopped abruptly. + +"Have you known the doctor long?" asked Rainey. + +"For a year. He lives in Mill Valley, close to my uncle. I live with my +father's brother when father is at sea. But this time I wanted to be +near him. And the doctor--" + +Again she seemed to be deliberately checking herself from a revelation +that wanted to come out. + +"Did he practise in Mill Valley? Or San Francisco?" asked Rainey, +remembering Lund's outburst against Carlsen's professional powers. + +"No, he hasn't practised for some years. That was how it happened he was +able to go along. Of course, father promised him a certain share in the +venture. And he was a friend." + +She trailed off in her speech, looking uncertainly at Rainey. The latter +came to a decision. + +"Miss Simms," he said, "are you going to marry Doctor Carlsen?" + +Suddenly Rainey was aware that some one had come into the cabin. It was +Carlsen, now swiftly advancing toward him, his face livid, his mouth +snarling, and his black eyes devilish with mischief. + +"I'll attend to this end of it," he said. "Peggy, you had better go in +to your father. I'll be in there in a minute. He's a pretty sick man," +he added. + +His snarl had changed to a smile, and he seemed to have swiftly +controlled himself. The girl looked at both of them and slowly went into +the captain's room. Carlsen wheeled on Rainey, his face once more a mask +of hate. + +"I'll put you where you belong, you damned interloper," he said. "What +in hell do you mean by asking her that question?" + +"That is my business." + +"I'll make it mine. And I'll settle yours very shortly, once and for +all. I suppose you're soft on the girl yourself," he sneered. "Think +yourself a hero! Do you think she'd look at you, a beggarly news-monger? +Why, she--" + +"You can leave her out of it," said Rainey, quietly. "As for you, I +think you're a dirty blackguard." + +Carlsen's hand shot back to his hip pocket as Rainey's fist flashed +through the opening and caught him high on the jaw, sending him +staggering back, crashing against the partition and down into the +cushioned seat that ran around the place. + +But his gun was out. As he raised it Rainey grappled with him. Carlsen +pulled trigger, and the bullet smashed through the skylight above them, +while Rainey forced up his arm, twisting it fiercely with both hands +until the gun fell on the seat. + +Simultaneously the girl and Lund appeared. + +"Gun-play?" rumbled the giant. "That'll be you, Carlsen! You're too fond +of shooting off that gat of yores." + +Rainey had stepped back at the girl's exclamation. Carlsen recovered his +gun and put it away, while Peggy Simms advanced with blazing eyes. + +"You coward!" she said. "If I had thought--oh!" + +She made a gesture of utter loathing, at which Carlsen sneered. + +"I'll show you whether I'm a coward or not, my lady," he said, "before I +get through with all of you. And I'll tell you one thing: The captain's +life is in my hands. And he and I are the only navigators aboard this +vessel, except a fool of a blind man," he added, as he strode to the +door of Simms' cabin, turned to look at them, laughed deliberately in +their faces, and shut the door on them. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RAINEY MAKES DECISION + + +"Well?" asked Lund, "what are you goin' to do about it, Rainey? Stick +with me, or line up with the rest of 'em, work yore passage, an' thank +'em for nothing when they divvy the stuff an' leave you out? You've got +to decide one way or the other damn' quick, for the show-down's on the +program for ter-morrer." + +"You haven't said outright what you are going to do yourself," replied +Rainey. "As for me, I seem to be between the devil and the deep sea. +Carlsen has got some plan to outwit the men. It's inconceivable that +he'll be willing to give them equal shares. And he has no use for me." + +"You ought to have grabbed that gun of his before he did," said Lund. +"He'll put you out of the way if he can, but, now his temper's b'iled +over a bit, he'll not shoot you. Not afore the gold's in the hold. One +thing, he knows the hunters wouldn't stand for it. They've got dust in +their eyes right now--gold-dust, chucked there by Carlsen, but if he'd +butchered you he'd likely lose his grip on 'em. I think he would. I +don't believe yo're in enny danger, Rainey, if you want to buckle in an' +line up with the crowd. + +"As for me," he went on, his voice deepening, "I'm goin' to tell 'em to +go plumb to hell. I'll tell Carlsen a few things first. Equal shares! A +fine bunch of socialists they are! Settin' aside that Carlsen's bullin' +'em, as you say. Equal? They ain't my equal, none of 'em, man to man. +All men are born free an' equal, says the Constitution an' by-laws of +this country of ours. Granted. But they don't stay that way long. +They're all lined up to toe the mark on the start, but watch 'em +straggle afore they've run a tenth of the distance. + +"I found this gold, an' they didn't. I don't have to divvy with 'em, +an' I won't. A lot of I. W. W.'s, that's what they are, an' I'll tell +'em so. More'n that, if enny of 'em thinks he's my equal all he's got to +do is say so, an' I'll give him a chance to prove it. Feel those arms, +matey, size me up. Man to man, I c'ud break enny of 'em in half. Put me +in a room with enny three of 'em, an' the door locked, an' one 'ud come +out. That 'ud be me." + +This was not bragging, not blustering, but calm assurance, and Rainey +felt that Lund merely stated what he believed to be facts. And Rainey +believed they were facts. There was a confident strength of spirit aside +from his physical condition that emanated from Lund as steam comes from +a kettle. It was the sort of strength that lies in a steady gale, a wind +that one can lean against, an elastic power with big reserves of force. +But the conditions were all against Lund, though he proceeded to put +them aside. + +"Man to man," he repeated, "I c'ud beat 'em into Hamburg steak. An' I've +got brains enough to fool Carlsen. I've outguessed him so far." + +"He's got the gun," warned Rainey. + +"Never mind his gun. I ain't afraid of his gun." He nodded with such +supreme confidence that Rainey felt himself suddenly relegating the +doctor's possession of the gun to the background. "If his gun's the only +thing trubblin' you, forget it. You an' me got to know where we stand. +It's up to you. I won't blame you for shiftin' over. An' I can git along +without you, if need be. But we've got along together fine; I've took a +notion to you. I'd like to see you get a whack of that gold, an' all the +devils in hell an' out of it ain't goin' to stop me from gittin' it!" + +He talked in a low voice, but it rumbled like the distant roar of a +bull. Rainey looked at the indomitable jaw that the beard could not +hide, at the great barrel of his chest, the boughlike arms, the swelling +thighs and calves, and responded to the suggestion that Lund could rise +in Berserker rage and sweep aside all opposition. + +It was absurd, of course; his next thought adjusted the balance that had +been weighed down by the compelling quality of the man's vigor but, for +the moment, remembering his earlier simile, Lund appeared a blind Samson +who, by some miracle, could at the last moment destroy his enemies by +pulling down their house--or their ship--about them. + +"Carlsen says that the skipper's life is in his hands," he said, still +evading Lund's direct question. "What do you make of that?" + +"I don't know what to make of it," answered Lund. "If it is, God help +the skipper! I reckon he's in a bad way. Ennyhow, he's out of it for the +time bein', Rainey. I don't think he'll be present at the meetin' if +he's that ill. Carlsen speaks for him. Count Simms out of it for the +present." + +"There's the girl," said Rainey. "I don't believe she wants to marry +Carlsen." + +"If she does," said Lund, "she ain't the kind we need worry about. +Carlsen 'ud marry her if he thought it was necessary to git her share by +bein' legal. He may try an' squeeze her to a wedding through the +skipper. Threaten to let her dad die if she don't marry him, likely'll +git the skipper to tie the knot. It 'ud be legal. But if you're +interested about the gal, Rainey, an' I take it you are, I'm tellin' you +that Carlsen'll marry her if it suits his book. If it don't, he won't. +An', if he wins out, he'll take her without botherin' about prayer-books +an' ceremonies. I know his breed. All men are more or less selfish an' +shy on morals, in streaks more or less wide, but that Carlsen's just +plain skunk." + +"The men wouldn't permit that," said Rainey tersely. "If Carlsen started +anything like that I'd kill him with my own hands, gun or no gun. And +any white man would help me do it." + +"You would, mebbe," said Lund, nodding sagely. "You'd have a try at it. +But you don't know men, matey, not like I do. This ship's got a skipper +now. A sick one, I grant you. But so far he's boss. An' he's the gal's +father. All's usual an' reg'lar. But you turn this schooner into a +free-an'-easy, equal shares-to-all, go-as-you-please outfit, let 'em git +their claws on the gold, an' be on the way home to spend it--for +Carlsen'll let 'em go that far afore he pulls his play, whatever it +is--an' discipline will go by the board. + +"Grog'll be served when they feel like it, they'll start gamblin', some +of 'em'll lose all they got. There'll be sore-heads, an' they'll +remember there's a gal in the after-cabin, which won't be the +after-cabin enny more, for they'll all have the run of it, bein' equal; +then all hell's goin' to break loose, far's that gal's concerned. + +"A bunch of men who've bin at sea for weeks, half drunk, crazy over +havin' more gold than they ever dreamed of, or havin' gambled it away. +Jest a bunch of beasts, matey, whenever they think of that gal. They'll +be too much for Carlsen to handle--an'"--he tapped at Rainey's +knee--"Carlsen don't think enough of enny woman to let her interfere +with his best interests." + +Rainey's jaw was set and his fists clenched, his blood running hot and +fast. His imagination was instinct to conjure up full-colored scenes +from Lund's suggestions. + +"You mean--" he began. + +"Under his hide, when there ain't nothin' to hinder him, a man's plain +animal," said Lund. "What do these water-front bullies know about a good +gal--or care? They only know one sort. Ever think what happened to a +woman in privateer days when they got one aboard, alone, on the high +seas? Why, if they pushed Carlsen, he'd turn her over to 'em without +winkin'." + +"You hinted I was different," said Rainey. "How about you, Lund, how +would you act?" + +"If Carlsen wins out, I'd be chewin' mussels on a rock, or feedin' +crabs," said Lund simply. "I'm no saint, but, so long as I can keep +wigglin', there ain't enny hunter or seaman goin' to harm a decent gal. +That's another way they ain't my equal, Rainey. Savvy? Nor is Carlsen. +There ain't enough real manhood in that Carlsen to grease a skillet. How +about it, Rainey; are you lined up with me?" + +"Just as far as I can go, Lund. I'm with you to the limit." + +Lund brought down his hand with a mighty swing, and caught at Rainey's +in mid-air, gripping it till Rainey bit his lips to repress a cry of +pain. + +"You've got the guts!" cried the giant, checking the loudness of his +voice abruptly. "I knew it. It ain't all goin' to go as they like it. +Watch my smoke. Now, then, keep out of Carlsen's way all you can. He may +try an' pick a row with you that'll put you in wrong all around. Go easy +an' speak easy till land's sighted. If you ain't invited to this +I. W. W. convention, horn in. + +"Carlsen'll try an' keep you on deck, I fancy. Don't stay there. Turn +the wheel over to Sandy if you have to. I'll insist on havin' you +there. That'll be better. They'll probably have some fool agreement to +sign. Carlsen would do that. Make 'em all feel it's more like a bizness +meetin'. They'll love to scrawl their names an' put down their marks. +I'll have to have you there to read it over to me; savvy?" + +"What do you think Carlsen's game is, if it goes through?" + +"He's fox enough to think up a dozen ways. Run the schooner ashore +somewhere in the night. Wreck her. Git 'em in the boats with the gold. +Inside of a week, Deming an' one or two others would have won it all. +Then--he'd have the only gun--he'd shoot the lot of 'em an' say they +died at sea. He ain't got enny more warm blood than a squid. Or he might +land, and accuse 'em all of piracy. What do we care about his plans? He +ain't goin' to put 'em over." + +Rainey had to relieve Hansen. He left Lund primed for resistance against +Carlsen, against all the crew, if necessary, resolved to save the girl, +but, as Lund stayed below and the time slid by, his confidence oozed out +of him, and the odds assumed their mathematical proportion. + +What could they do against so many? But he held firm in his +determination to do what he could, to go down with the forlorn hope, +fighting. Blind as he was, Lund was the better man of the two of them, +Rainey felt; it was better to attempt to seize the horns of the dilemma +than weakly to give way and, with Lund killed, or marooned, try +single-handed to protect Peggy Simms against the horrors that would come +later. + +He did not believe himself in love with her. The environment had not +been conducive to that sort of thing. But the thought of her, their +hands clasped, her eyes appealing, saying she needed a friend aboard the +_Karluk_; the young clean beauty of her, nerved him to stand with Lund +against the odds. Lund was fighting for his rights, for his gold, but he +had said that he would not see a decent girl harmed as long as he could +wiggle. Rough sea-bully as the giant was, he had his code. Rainey +tingled with contempt of his own hesitancy. + +The _Karluk_ was bowling along northward toward landfall and the crisis +between Lund and Carlsen at good speed. The weather had subsided and the +half gale now served the schooner instead of hindering her. Rainey +turned over the wheel to a seaman and paced the deck. The bite in the +air had increased until even the smart walk he maintained failed to +circulate the blood sufficiently to keep his fingers from becoming +benumbed, so that he had to beat his arms across his chest. + +It was well below the freezing point. If they had been sailing on fresh +water, instead of salt, he fancied that the rigging would have been +glazed where the spray struck it. As it was, the canvas seemed to him +stiffer than usual, and there was a whitish haze about the northern +horizon that suggested ice. + +The tall, olive-tinted seas ranged up in dissolving hills, the wind's +whistle was shrill in the rigging. Over the mainmast a gray-breasted +bird with wide, unmoving pinions hung without apparent motion, its ruby +eyes watching the ship, as if it was a spy sent out from the Arctic to +report the adventurous strangers about to dare its dangers. + +As the day passed to sunset the gloom quickly deepened. The sun sank +early into banks of leaden clouds, and the _Karluk_ slid on through the +seething seas in a scene of strange loneliness, save for the suspended +albatross that never varied its position by an inch or by a flirt of its +plumes. + +Rainey felt the dreary suggestion of it all as he walked up and down, +trying to evolve some plan. Lund's mysterious hints were unsatisfactory. +He could not believe them without some basis, but the giant would never +go further than vague talk of a "joker" or a card up his sleeve. And +they would need more than one card, Rainey thought. + +He wondered whether they could win over Hansen, who had spoken for Lund +against the skipper. And had then kept his counsel. But he dismissed +Hansen as an ally. The Scandinavian was too cautious, too apt to +consider such things as odds. Sandy was useless, aside from his +good-will. He was cowed by Deming, scared of Carlsen, too puny to do +more than he had done, given them warning. + +Tamada? Would he fight for the share of gold he expected to come to him? +Lund had described him as neutral. But, if he knew that he was to be +left out of the division? It was not likely that he would be called to +the conference. The Japanese undoubtedly knew the racial prejudice +against him, a prejudice that Rainey considered short-sighted, taking +some pains to show that he did not share it. At any rate, Tamada might +provide him with a weapon, a sharp-bladed vegetable knife if nothing +better. + +But, if it came to downright combat, they must be overwhelmed. Carlsen's +gun again assumed proper proportions. Lund might not be afraid of it, +but Rainey was, very frankly. He should have snatched it from the cabin +cushions. But Tamada? He could not dismiss Tamada as an important +factor. There was no question to Rainey but that Tamada was, by caste, +above his position as sealer's cook. It was true that a Japanese +considered no means menial if they led to the proper end. + +Was that end merely to gain possession of his share of the gold, or did +Tamada have some deeper, more complicated reason for signing on to run +the galley of the _Karluk_? Somehow Rainey thought there was such a +reason. He treated Tamada with a courtesy that he had found other +Japanese appreciated, and fancied that Tamada gradually came to regard +him with a certain amount of good-will. But it was hard to determine +anything that went on back of those unfathomable eyes, or to read +Tamada's face, smooth and placid as that of an ivory image. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TAMADA TALKS + + +Tamada's galley was as orderly and efficient as the operating-room of a +first-class hospital. And Tamada at his work had all the deftness and +some of the dignity of a surgeon. There was no wasted move, there was no +litter of preparation, every article was returned to its specified place +as soon as used, and every implement and utensil was shining and +spotless. + +It was an hour from the third meal of the day. Tamada was juggling the +food for three messes, and he was doing it with the calm precision of +one who has every detail well mapped out and is moving on schedule. The +boy Sandy was not there, probably engaged in laying the table for the +hunters' mess, Rainey imagined. + +Tamada regarded him with eyes that did not lack a certain luster, as a +sloeberry might hold it, but which, beneath their hooded lids, revealed +neither interest, nor curiosity, nor friendliness. They belonged in his +unwrinkled face, they were altogether neutral. Yet they seemed covertly +to suggest to Rainey that they might, on occasion, flame with wrath or +hatred, or show the burning light of high intelligence. Seldom, he +thought, while their gaze rested on him impassively, would they soften. + +"Tamada," he queried, "you think I am your friend, that I would rather +help you than otherwise?" + +"I think that--yes?" answered the Japanese without hesitation and +without servility. And his eyes slowly searched Rainey's face with +appraising pertinacity for a second or two. His English, save for the +oddness of his idioms and a burr that made _r's_ of most his _l's_, and +sometimes reversed the process, was almost perfect. His vocabulary +showed study. "You are not hating me because you are Californian and I +Japanese," he said. "I know that." + +There was little time to spare, and there was likelihood of +interruption, so Rainey plunged into his subject without introduction. + +"They promised you a share of this treasure, Tamada?" he asked. + +"They promised me that, yes." + +"They do not intend to give it to you." There was a tiny, dancing +flicker in the dark eyes that died like a spark in the night air. Rainey +recalled Lund's opinion that little went on that Tamada did not know. +"You may have guessed this," he hurried on, "but I am sure of it. I, +too, am promised some of the gold, but they do not intend to give it to +me. They will offer Mr. Lund only a small portion of what was originally +arranged, the same amount as the rest of them are to get. He will refuse +that to-morrow, when a meeting is to be called. Then there will be +trouble. I shall stand with Mr. Lund. If we win you will get your share, +whether you help us or not. If you help us I can promise you at least +twice the amount you were to get." + +"How can I help you? If this is to be talked over at a meeting I shall +not be allowed to be present. If trouble starts it will do so +immediately. Mr. Lund"--he called it Rund--"is not patient man. What can +I do? How can I help you?" + +Rainey was nonplused. He had seized the first opportunity +of sounding the Japanese, and he had nothing outlined. + +"I do not know," he said. "I must talk that over with Mr. Lund. I wanted +to know if you would be on our side." + +"Mr. Lund will not want me to help you. He does not like color of my +skin, he does not like Japanese because he thinks they make too good +living in California, and making more money than some of his countrymen. +I do not think it help you for me to join. I do not see how you can win. +If you can show some way out I will do what I can. But I like to see way +out." + +He mollified the bald acknowledgment of his neutrality with a little bow +and a hissing-in breath. Back of it all was a will that was inflexible, +thought Rainey. + +"If we lose, you lose," he went on lamely. He had come on a fool's +errand, he decided. + +"I think I shall get my money," said Tamada, and something looked out of +his eyes that betrayed a purpose already gained, Rainey fancied, as a +chess player might gain assurance of victory by the looking ahead to all +conceivable moves against him, and providing a counter-play that would +achieve the game. It was borne in upon him that Tamada had resources he +could not fathom. The Oriental gave a swift smile, that held no mirth, +no friendship, rather, a sardonic appreciation of the situation, without +rancor. + +"They are very foolish," he said. "They make me cook, they eat what I +serve. They say Tamada is very good cook. But he is Jap, damn him. +Suppose I put something in that food, that they would not taste? I could +send them all to sleep. I could kill them. I could do it so they never +suspect, but would go to their beds--and never get up from them. It +would be very easy. Yet they trust me." + +The statement was so matter-of-fact that Rainey felt his horror gather +slowly as he stared at the impassive Oriental. + +"You would do that? What good would it do you? You would have to kill +them all, or the rest would tear you apart. And if you murdered the +whole ship where would you be? You talk as if you were a little mad. +Suppose I told Carlsen of this?" + +Tamada was smiling again. He seemed to know that Rainey was in no +position to betray him--if he wished to do so. + +"I did not say I would do it. And, except under certain circumstances, +it do me little good. I do not expect to do it. But it would be easy. +Yet, as you say, it would not help you to kill only few, those who will +be at the meeting, for example, even if I wish to do. No, I do not see +way out. If, at any time there should seem way out and I can help you, I +will." + +He turned abruptly to a simmering pot and rattled the lid. The hunter, +Deming, stuck his head in at the door. + +"Smells good," he said. "Evening, Mr. Rainey." + +He seemed disposed to linger, and Rainey, not to excite suspicion toward +himself or Tamada, went back on deck. What did Tamada mean by "except +under certain circumstances"? he asked himself. For one thing he felt +sure that Tamada had some basis for his expression that he expected to +get his money. _He knew something_. Was it merely the Oriental method of +_jiu-jitsu_, practised mentally as well as physically, the belief in a +seemingly passive resistance against circumstances, waiting for some +move that, by its own aggressiveness, would give him an opening for a +trick that would secure him the advantage? What could one Japanese hope +to do against the crowd? + +A thought suddenly flashed over Rainey. Was Tamada in league with +Carlsen? Had he mistaken his man? Did Carlsen plan to have Tamada +undertake a wholesale poisoning to secure the gold himself, providing +the drugs? Was it a friendly hint from the Japanese? + +Still mulling over it he went down to supper. The girl was not present. +Carlsen appeared in an unusual mood. + +"I was a bit hasty, Rainey," he said, with all appearance of sincerity. +"I've been worried a bit over the skipper. He's in a bad way. + +"Forget what happened, if you can. I apologize. Though I still think +your interference in my private affairs unwarranted. I'll call it +square, if you will." + +He nodded across the table at Rainey, saving the latter a reply which he +was rather at a loss how to word. Amenities from Carlsen were likely a +Greek gift. And Carlsen rattled on during the meal in high good spirits, +rallying Rainey about his poker game with the hunters, joking Lund about +his shooting, talking of the landfall they expected the next day. + +To Rainey's surprise Lund picked up the talk. There was a subtle, +sardonic flavor to it on both sides and, once in a while, as Tamada, +like an animated sphinx, went about his duties, Rainey saw the eyes of +Carlsen turned questioningly upon the giant as if a bit puzzled +concerning the exact spirit of his sallies. + +Rainey admired while he marveled at the sheer skill of Lund in this sort +of a fencing bout. He never went far enough to arouse Carlsen's +suspicions, yet he showed a keen sense of humorous appreciation of +Carlsen's half-satirical sallies that, in the light of Sandy's +revelation, showed the doctor considered himself the master of the +situation, the winner of a game whose pieces were already on the board, +though the players had not yet taken their places. Yet Rainey fancied +that Carlsen qualified his dismissal of Lund as a "blind fool" before +they rose from the table, without disturbing his own equanimity as the +craftier of the two. + +Later, when his watch was ended and he was closeted with Lund in the +latter's cabin, the giant promptly quashed all discussion of Tamada's +attitude. + +"I'll put no trust in any slant-eyed, yellow-skinned rice-eater," he +announced emphatically. "They're against us, race an' religion. They +want California, or rather, the Pacific coast, an' they think they're +goin' to git it. They're no more akin to us than a snake is a cousin to +an eel. They're not of our breed, an' you can't mix the two. I'll have +no deal with Tamada, beyond gettin' dope out of him. If he helped us it +'ud be only to further his own ends. Not that he can do much--unless--" + +He lowered his voice to a husky whisper. + +"There's one thing may slip in our gold-gettin', matey," he said--"the +Japanese. I doubt if this island is set down on American or British +charts. But I'll bet it is on the Japanese. I don't know as any nation +has openly claimed it, but it's a sure thing the Japs know of its +existence. They don't know of the gold, or it wouldn't be there. +Rightly, the island may belong to Russia, but, since the war, Russia's +in a bad way, an' ennything loose from the mainland'll be gobbled by +Japan. + +"What the Japs grab they don't let go of. On general principles they +patrol the west side of Bering Strait. If one of their patrols sees us +we'll be inside the sealin' limit, an' they'll have right of search. +They'd take it, ennyway, if they sighted us. They go by _power_ of +search, not right. They won't find enny pelts on us, we've got hunters +aboard, we're pelagic sealers, they won't be able to hang up enny +clubbin' of herds on us. + +"But, if they should suspicion us of gittin' gold off enny island they +c'ud trump up to call theirs, if they found gold on us at all, it 'ud be +all off with us an' the _Karluk_. We'd be dumped inside of some Jap +prison an' the schooner confiscated. + +"An', if things go right with us, an' we ever sight the smoke of a Jap +gunboat comin' our way, the first thing I'll be apt to do will be to +scrag Tamada or he'll blow the whole proposition, whether we've got the +gold aboard or not. Even if he didn't want to tell becoz of his own +share, they'd git it out of him what we was after." + +Did this, wondered Rainey, explain Tamada's "certain circumstances"? Was +he calculating on the arrival of a Japanese patrol? Had he already +tipped off to his consul in San Francisco the purpose of the expedition, +sure of a reward equal to what his share would have been? If so, Rainey +had made a muddle of his attempt to sound Tamada. He felt guilty, glad +that Lund could not see his face, and he dropped the subject abruptly. + +Lund seemed to know that something was amiss. + +"Nervous, Rainey?" he asked. "That's becoz you've not bin livin' a man's +life. All yore experience has bin second-hand, an' you've never gone +into a rough-an'-tumble, I take it. You'll make out all right if it +comes to that at all. Yo're well put up, an' you've got solid of late. +Now yo're goin' to git a taste of life in the raw. Not story-book stuff. +It's strong meat sometimes, an' liable to turn some people's stomachs. +I've got an appetite for it, an' so'll you have, after a bit. + +"Ever play much at cards?" he went on. "Play for yore last red when you +don't know where to turn for another, an' have all the crowd thinkin' +yo're goin' broke as they watch the play? An' then you slap down a card +they've all overlooked an' larf in the other chap's face? + +"That's what I'm goin' to do with Carlsen. I've got that kind of a card, +matey, an' I ain't goin' to spoil my fun by tellin' even you what it is, +though yo're my partner in this gamble. It's a trump, an' Carlsen's +overlooked it. He figgers he's stacked the deck an' fixed it so's he +deals himself all the winnin' cards. But there's one he don't know is +there becoz he's more of a blind fool than I am, is Doctor Carlsen." + +Lund chuckled hugely as he mixed himself some whisky and water. Rainey +refused a drink. Lund was right, he was nervous, bothering over what the +outcome might be, and how he might handle himself. He was not at all +sure of his own grit. + +Lund had hit the nail on the head. All his experience had lain in +listening to the stories of others and writing them down. He did not +know whether he would act in a manner that would satisfy himself. There +was a nasty doubt as to his own prowess and his own courage that kept +cropping up. And that state of mind is not a pleasant one. + +"All be over this time ter-morrer," put in Lund, "so far as our bisness +with Carlsen is concerned. You git all the sleep you can ter-night, +Rainey. An' don't you worry none about that gal. She's a damn' sight +more capable of lookin' after herself than you imagine. You ain't +counted her in as bein' more than a clingin' vine proposition. Not that +she could buck it on her own, but she's no fool, an' I bet she's game. + +"Soft on her?" he challenged unexpectedly. + +"I haven't thought of her in that way," Rainey answered, a bit shortly. + +"Ah!" the giant ejaculated softly. "You haven't? Wal, mebbe it's jest as +well." + +Rainey took that last remark up on deck and pondered over it in the +middle watch, but he could make nothing out of it. Yet he was sure that +Lund had meant something by it. + +In the middle of the night the cold seemed to concentrate. Rainey had +found mittens in the schooner's slop-chest, and he was glad of them at +the wheel. The sailors, with but little to do, huddled forward. One man +acted as lookout for ice. The smell of this was now unmistakable even to +Rainey's inexperience. On certain slants of wind a sharper edge would +come that bit through ordinary clothes. It was, he thought, as if some +one had suddenly opened in the dark the doors of an enormous +refrigerator. He knew what that felt like, and this was much the same. + +The weather was still clearing. In the sky of indigo the stars were +glittering points, not of gold, but steel, hard and cold. Ahead, the +northern lights were projected above the horizon in a low arch of +quivering rose. And, out of the north, before the wind, the sea advanced +in the long, smooth folds of a weighty swell over which the _Karluk_ +wore her way into the breeze, clawing steadily on to the Aleutians and a +passage through to Bering Strait. + +At two bells the hunters began to come on deck for a breath or so of +fresh air after the closeness of their quarters, as they invariably did +following a poker session. They did not come aft or give any greeting to +Rainey, but walked briskly about in couples, discussing something that +Rainey did not doubt was the next day's meeting. Doubtless, in the +confidence of their numbers, they considered it a mere formality. Lund +would take what they offered--or nothing. And Carlsen had guaranteed the +skipper's signature to an agreement. + +They got their lungs recharged with good air, and then the cold drove +them below, and Rainey, with the length of the schooner between him and +the watch, was practically alone. He went over and over the situation +as a squirrel might race around the bars of his revolving cylinder, and +came to only one conclusion, the inevitable one, to let the matter +develop itself. Lund's winning card he had bothered about until his +brain was tired. The only thing he got out of all his fussing was the +one new thought that seemed to fly out at a tangent and mock him. + +If Carlsen was deposed, and the skipper continued ill--to face the worst +but still plausible--if Carlsen, being deposed, refused to act, and the +skipper was too sick to leave his room--who was going to navigate the +schooner? Not a blind man. And Rainey couldn't learn navigation in a +day. There was more to it in these perilous seas than mere reckoning. +Ice was ahead. + +What could Lund make of that? Supposing that card of his did win, how +could they handle the schooner? He, in his capacity of eyes for Lund, +would be about as competent as a poodle trying to lead a blind pedler +out of a maze. + +The lookout broke in on his mulling over with a sudden shout. + +"_Ice! Ice!_ Close on the starboard bow!" + +Rainey put the helm over, throwing the _Karluk_ on the opposite tack. + +The berg slipped by them, not as he had imagined it, a thing of +sparkling minarets and pinnacles, but a hill of snow that materialized +in the soft darkness and floated off again to dissolution like the ghost +of an island, leaving behind the bitter chill of death, rising and +falling until, in a moment, it was gone, with its threat of shipwreck +had the night been less clear. + +Five times before eight bells the cry came from forward, and the heaps +of shining whiteness would take form, gather a certain sharpness of +outline, and go past the beam with the seas surging about them and +breaking with a hollow boom upon their cavernous sides. And this was in +the open sea. Lund had suggested that the strait would be full of ice. +Rainey felt his sailing experience, that he came to be rather proud of, +pitifully limited and inadequate in the face of coming conditions. + +When he turned in at last, despite his determination to follow Lund's +admonition concerning sleep, it would not come to him. Hansen had taken +over the deck stolidly enough, with no show of misgivings as to his +ability to handle things, but his words had not been cheering to Rainey. + +"Plenty ice from now on, Mr. Rainey. Now we bane goin' to have one hard +yob on our hands, by yiminy, you an' me!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE POT SIMMERS + + +Rainey was awakened at half past seven by the swift rush of men on deck +and a confused shouting. The sun was shining brightly through his +porthole and then it became suddenly obscured. He looked out and saw a +turreted mass of ice not half a cable's length away from the schooner, +water cascading all over its hills and valleys, that were distinct +enough, but so smoothed that the truth flashed over him. Here was a berg +that had suddenly turned turtle and exposed its greater, under-water +bulk to the air. + +About it the sea was dark and vivid blue, and the berg sparkled in the +sun with prismatic reflections that gave all the hues of the rainbow to +its prominences, while the bulk glowed like a fire opal. Between it and +the schooner the sea ran in a lasher of diminishing turmoil. Hansen had +carelessly sailed too close. The momentum of the _Karluk_ and its slight +wave disturbance must have sufficed to upset the equilibrium of the +berg, floating with only a third of its bulk above the water. And the +displacement had narrowly missed the schooner's side. + +He got a cup of coffee after dressing warmly, and went up. Carlsen and +the girl had preceded him and were gazing at the iceberg. The doctor +seemed to be in the same rare vein of humor as overnight. Lund stood at +the rail with his beak of a nose wrinkled, snuffing toward the icy crags +that were spouting a dazzle of white flame, set about with smaller, +sudden flares of ruby, emerald and sapphire. + +"Close shave, that, Rainey," called Carlsen. "She turned turtle on us." + +"Too close to be pleasant," said Rainey, and went to the wheel. The girl +had given him a smile, but he marked her face as weary from +sleeplessness and strain. Rainey left the spokes in charge of Hansen for +a minute--Hansen stolid and chewing like an automaton, undisturbed by +the incident now it had passed--and asked the girl how her father was. + +"I am afraid--" she began, then glanced at Carlsen. + +"He is not at all well," said the doctor, facing Rainey, his face away +from the girl. As he spoke he left his mouth open for a moment, his +tongue showing between his white teeth, in a grin that was as mocking as +that of a wolf, mirthless, ruthless, triumphant. And for a fleeting +second his eyes matched it. + +Rainey restrained a sudden desire to smash his fist into that sardonic +mask. This was the day of Carlsen's anticipated victory, the first of +his calculated moves toward check-mate, and he was palpably enjoying it. + +"Not--at--all--well," repeated Carlsen slowly. "He needs something to +bring him out of himself, as he now is. A little excitement. Yet he +should not be crossed in any way. We shall see." + +He shifted his position and looked at the girl much as a wolf, not +particularly hungry, might look at a tethered lamb. His tongue just +touched the inner edges of his lips. It was as if the wolf had licked +his chops. + +"Carlsen would be a bad loser," Lund had once said, "and a nasty winner. +He'd want to rub it in as soon as he knew he had you beat." + +Rainey gripped the spokes hard until he felt the pressure of his bones +against the wood. Carlsen's attitude had had one good effect. His +nervousness had disappeared, and a cold rage taken its place. He could +cheerfully have attempted to throttle Carlsen without fear of his gun. +For that matter, he had faced the pistol once and come off best. What a +fool he had been, though, to let Carlsen regain his automatic! Now he +was anxious for the landfall, keen for the show-down. + +Far on the horizon, northward, he sighted glimmering flashes of milky +whiteness that came and went to the swing of the schooner. This could +not be land, he decided, or they would have announced it. It was ice, +pack-ice, or floes. He tried to recollect all that he had heard or read +of Arctic voyages, and succeeded only in comprehending his own +ignorance. Of the rapidly changing conditions the commonest sailor +aboard knew more than he. Blind Lund, sniffing to windward, smelled and +heard far more than he could rightfully imagine. + +Tamada appeared and announced breakfast. + +"You'll be coming later, Rainey?" asked Carlsen. "You and Lund?" + +He started for the companionway and the girl followed. As she passed the +wheel Rainey spoke to her: + +"I am sorry your father is worse, Miss Simms," he said. + +She looked at him with eyes that were filled with sadness, that seemed +liquid with tears bravely held back. + +"I am afraid he is dying," she answered in a low voice. "Thank you, for +you sympathy. I--" + +She stopped at some slight sound that Rainey did not catch. But he saw +the face of Carlsen framed in the shadow of the companion, his mouth +open in the wolf grin, and the man's eyes were gleaming crimson. He held +up a hand for the girl. She passed down without taking it. + +Lund came over to Rainey. + +"Clear weather, they tell me?" he said. "That's unusual. Fog off the +Aleutians three hundred an' fifty days of the year, as a rule. Soon as +we sight land, which'll be Unalaska or thereabouts, he'll have the +course changed. There's a considerable fleet of United States revenue +cutters at Unalaska, an' Carlsen won't pull ennything until we're well +west of there. He's pretty cocky this mornin'. Wal, we'll see." + +There had always been a certain rollicking good-humor about Lund. This +morning he was grim, his face, with its beak of a nose and aggressive +chin beneath the flaming whiskers, and his whole magnificent body gave +the impression of resolve and repressed action. Rainey fancied +whimsically that he could hear a dynamo purring inside of the giant's +massiveness. He had seen him in open rage when he had first denounced +Honest Simms, but the serious mood was far more impressive. + +The big man stepped like a great cat, his head was thrust slightly +forward, his great hands were half open. One forgot his blindness. +Despite the unsightly black lenses, Lund appeared so absolutely prepared +and, in a different way, fully as confident as Carlsen. A certain +audacious assurance seemed to ooze out of him, to permeate his +neighborhood, and a measure of it extended to Rainey. + +"We'll sight Makushin first," muttered Lund, as if to himself. + +"Makushin?" + +"Volcano, fifty-seven hundred feet high. Much ice in sight?" + +Rainey described the horizon. + +"All fresh-water ice," said Lund. "An' melting." + +"Melting? It must be way below freezing," said Rainey. Lund chuckled. + +"This ain't cold, matey. Wait till we git _north_. Never saw it lower +than five above in Unalaska in my life. It's the rainiest spot in the +U. S. A. Rains two days out of three, reg'lar. This ice is comin' out of +the strait. Sure sign it's breakin' up. The winter freeze ain't due for +six weeks yet." + +Carlsen, before he went below, had sent a man into the fore-spreaders, +and now he shouted, cupping his hands and sounding his news as if it had +been a call to arms. + +"_Land-ho!_" + +"What is it?" called Rainey back. + +"High peak, sir. Dead ahead! Clouds on it, or smoke." + +He came sliding down the halyards to the deck as Lund said: "That'll be +Makushin. Now the fun'll commence." + +From below the sailors off watch came up on deck, and the hunters, the +latter wiping their mouths, fresh from their interrupted breakfast, all +crowding forward to get a glimpse of the land. Rainey kept on the +course, heading for the far-off volcano. Minutes passed before Carlsen +came on deck. He had not hurried his meal. + +"I'll take her over, Rainey," he said briefly. + +Rainey and Lund were barely seated before the heeling of the schooner +and the scuffle of feet told of Lund's prophesied change of course. +Rainey looked at the telltale compass above his head. + +"Heading due west," he told Lund. + +"West it is," said the giant. "More coffee, Tamada. Fill your belly, +Rainey. Get a good meal while the eatin' is good." + +Although it was Hansen's watch below, Rainey found him at the wheel +instead of the seaman he had left there. Carlsen came up to him smiling. + +"Better let Hansen have the deck, Mr. Rainey," he said. "We're going to +have a conference in the cabin at four bells, and I'd like you to be +present." + +"All right, sir," Rainey answered, getting a thrill at this first actual +intimation of the meeting. Hansen, it seemed, was not to be one of the +representatives of the seamen. And Carlsen had been smart enough to +forestall Lund's demand for Rainey by taking some of the wind out of the +giant's sails and doing the unexpected. Unless the hunters had suggested +that Rainey be present. But that was hardly likely, considering that he +was to be left out of the deal. + +"In just what capacity are you callin' this conference?" Lund asked, +when Carlsen notified him in turn. "The skipper ain't dead is he?" + +"I represent the captain, Lund," replied the doctor. "He entirely +approves of what I am about to suggest to you and the men. In fact I +have his signature to a document that I hope you will sign also. It will +be greatly to your interest to do so. I am in present charge of the +_Karluk_." + +"You ain't a reg'lar member of this expedition," objected Lund stolidly. +"Neither am I a member of the crew, just now. But the skipper's my +partner in this deal, signed, sealed and recorded. Afore I go to enny +meetin' I'd like to have a talk with him personally. Thet's fair enough, +ain't it?" + +Several of the hunters had gathered about, and Lund's question seemed a +general appeal. Carlsen shrugged his shoulders. + +"If you had your eyesight," he said almost brutally, "you could soon see +that the skipper was in no condition to discuss matters, much less be +present." + +"Here's my eyesight," countered Lund. "Mr. Rainey here. Let him see the +skipper and ask him a question or two." + +"What kind of question? I'm asking as his doctor, Lund." + +"For one thing if he's read the paper you say he signed. I want to be +sure of that. An' I don't make it enny of yore bizness, Carlsen, what I +want to say to my partner, by proxy or otherwise. Second thing, I'd like +to be sure he's still alive. As for yore standin' as his doctor, all +I've got to say is that yo're a damned pore doctor, so fur as the +skipper's concerned, ennyway." + +The two men stood facing each other, Carlsen looking evilly at the +giant, whose black glasses warded off his glance. It was wasting looks +to glare at a blind man. Equally to sneer. But the bout between the two +was timed now, and both were casting aside any veneer of diplomacy, +their enmity manifesting itself in the raw. The issue was growing tense. + +Rainey fancied that Carlsen was not entirely sure of his following, and +relied upon Lund's indignant refusal of terms to back up his plans of +getting rid of him decisively. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SHOW-DOWN + + +"Rainey can see the skipper," said Carlsen carelessly. + +"All right," said Lund. "Will you do that, Rainey? Now?" And Rainey had +a fleeting fancy that the giant winked one of his blind eyes at him, +though the black lenses were deceiving. + +He went below immediately and rapped on the door, a little surprised to +see the girl appear in the opening. He had expected to find the skipper +alone, and he was pretty sure that Carlsen had also expected this. The +drawn expression of her face, the strained faint smile with which she +greeted him, the hopeless look in her eyes, startled him. + +"I wanted to see your father," he said in a low voice. + +She told him to enter. + +Captain Simms was lying in his bunk, apparently fully dressed, with the +exception of his shoes. His cheeks had sunken, dark hollows showed under +his closed eyes, the bones of his skull projected, and his flesh was the +color of clay. Rainey believed that he was in the presence of death +itself. He looked at the girl. + +"He is in a stupor," she said. "He has been that way since last night, +following a collapse. I can barely find his pulse, but his breath shows +on this." + +She produced a small mirror, little larger than a dollar, and held it +before her father's lips. When she took it away Rainey saw a trace of +moisture. + +"Carlsen can not rouse him?" he asked. + +"Can not--or will not," she answered in a voice that held a hard quality +for all its despondency. Rainey glanced at the door. It was shut. + +"What do you mean by that?" he asked, speaking low. + +She looked at him as if measuring his dependency. + +"I don't know," she answered dully. "I wish I did. Father's illness +started with sciatica, through exposure to the cold and damp. It was +better during the time the _Karluk_ was in San Francisco though he had +some severe attacks. He said that Doctor Carlsen gave him relief. I know +that he did, for there were days at first when father had to stay in bed +from the pain. It was in his left leg, and then it showed in frightful +headaches, and he complained of pain about the heart. But he was bent on +the voyage, and Doctor Carlsen guaranteed he could pull him through. +But--lately--the doctor has seemed uncertain. He talks of perverted +nerve functions, and he has obtained a tremendous influence over father. + +"You heard what he said when--the night he tried to shoot you? You see, +I am trusting you in all this, Mr. Rainey. I _must_ trust some one. If I +don't I can't stand it. I think I shall go mad sometimes. The doctor has +changed. It is as if he was a dual personality--like Jekyll and +Hyde--and now he is always Hyde. It is the gold that has turned his +brain, his whole behavior from what he was in California before father +returned and he learned of the island. He said last night that he could +save father or--or--that he would let father die. I told him it was +sheer murder! He laughed. He said he would save him--for a price." + +She stopped, and Rainey supplied the gap, sure that he was right. + +"If you would marry him?" + +The girl nodded. "Father will do anything he tells him. I sometimes +think he tortures father and only relieves him when father promises what +he wants. Otherwise I could not understand. Last night father asked me +to do this thing. Not because of any threat--he did not seem conscious +of anything underhanded. He told me he looked upon the doctor as a son, +that it would make him happy for me to marry him--now. That he would +perform the ceremony. That he did not think he would live long and he +wanted to see me with a protector. + +"It was horrible. I dare not hint anything against the doctor. It brings +on a nervous attack. Last night my refusal caused convulsions, and +then--the collapse! What can I do? If I made the sacrifice how can I +tell that Doctor Carlsen could--_would_ save him? What shall I do?" + +She was in an agony of self-questioning, of doubt. + +"To see him lie there--like that. I can not bear it." + +"Miss Simms," said Rainey, "your father is not in his right mind or he +would see Carlsen as you do, as I do. Carlsen's brain is turned with the +lure of the gold. If he marries you, I believe it is only for your +share, for what you will get from your father. It can not be right to do +a wrong thing. No good could come from it. But--something may happen +this morning--I can not tell you what. I do not know, except that Lund +is to face Carlsen. It may change matters." + +"Lund," she said scornfully. "What can he do? And he accused my father +of deserting him. I--" + +A knock came at the door, and it started to open. Carlsen entered. + +"Ah," he said. "I trust I have not disturbed you. I had no idea I should +interrupt a tête-á-tête. Are you satisfied as to the captain's +condition, Mr. Rainey?" + +Rainey looked the scoffing devil full in his eyes, and hot scorn mounted +to his own so swiftly that Carlsen's hand fell away from the door jamb +toward his hip. Then he laughed softly. + +"We may be able to bring him round, all right again, who knows?" he +said. + +Rainey went on deck, raging but impotent. He told Lund briefly of the +talk between him and Peggy Simms, and described the general symptoms of +the skipper's strange malady. It was nine o'clock, an hour to the +meeting. He went down to his own room and sat on the bunk, smoking, +trying to piece up the puzzle. If Carlsen was a potential murderer, if +he intended to let Simms die, why should he want to marry the girl? He +thought he solved that issue. + +As his wife Carlsen would retain her share. If he gave her up, it would +go into the common purse. But, if he expected to trick the men out of it +all, that would be unnecessary. Did he really love the girl? Or was his +lust for gold mingled with a passion for possession of her? He might +know that the girl would kill herself before she would submit to +dishonor. Perhaps he knew she had the means! + +One thing became paramount. To save Peggy Simms. Lund might fight for +the gold; Rainey would battle for the girl's sanctity. And, armed with +that resolve, Rainey went out into the main cabin. + +Carlsen took the head of the table. Lund faced him at the other end. All +six of the hunters, as privileged characters, were present, but only +three of the seamen, awkward and diffident at being aft. The nine, with +Rainey, ranged themselves on either side of the table, five and five, +with Rainey on Lund's right. + +Tamada had brought liquor and glasses and cigars, and gone forward. The +door between the main cabin and the corridor leading to the galley was +locked after him by Deming. The girl was not present. Yet her share was +an important factor. + +Lund sat with folded arms, his great body relaxed. Now that the table +was set, the cards all dealt, and the first play about to be made, the +giant shed his tenseness. Even his grim face softened a trifle. He +seemed to regard the affair with a certain amount of humor, coupled with +the zest of a gambler who loves the game whether the stakes are for +death or dollars. + +Carlsen had a paper under his hand, but deferred its reading until he +had addressed the meeting. + +"A ship," he said, "is a little community, a world in itself. To its +safety every member is a necessity, the lookout as much as the man at +the wheel, the common seaman, the navigator. And, when a ship is engaged +in a certain calling, those who are hired as experts in that line are +equally essential with the rest." + +"All the way from captain to--cook?" drawled Lund. + +"Each depends upon his comrade's fulfilment of duty," went on Carlsen. +"So an absolute equality is evolved. Each man's responsibility being +equal, his reward should be also equal. It seems to me that this status +of affairs is arrived at more naturally aboard the _Karluk_ than it +might be elsewhere. We are a small company, and not easily divided. The +will of the majority may easily become that of all, may easily be +applied. + +"Payment for all services comes on this voyage from an uncertain amount +of gold that Nature, Mother of us all, and therefore intending that all +her children shall share her heritage, has washed up on a beach from +some deep-sea vein and thus deposited upon an uncharted, unclaimed +island. It is discovered by an Indian, the discovery is handed on to +another." + +"Meanin' me." Lund seemed to be enjoying himself. Despite the fact that +Carlsen was presiding and most evidently assumed the attributes of +leader, despite the fact that ten of the twelve at the table were +arrayed against him, with the rest of the seamen behind them, Lund was +decidedly enjoying himself. + +To Rainey, the matter of the gold was but a mask for the license that +would inevitably be manifested in such a crude democracy if it was +established, a license that threatened the girl, now, he imagined, +watching her father, the captain of the vessel, tottering on the verge +of death. His pulses raced, he longed for the climax. + +"This gold," went on Carlsen, "is not a commodity made in a factory, +obtained through the toil of others, through the expenditure of +capital. If it were, it would not alter the principle of the thing. It +is of nature's own providing for those of her sons who shall find it and +gather it. Sons that, as brothers, must willingly share and share +alike." + +Lund yawned, showing his strong teeth and the red cavern of his mouth. +The hunters gazed at him curiously. The seamen, lacking initiative, +lacking imagination, a crude collection of water-front drifters, more or +less wrecked specimens of humanity who went to sea because they had no +other capacity--were apathetic, listening to Carlsen with a sort of awe, +a hypnosis before his argument that street rabble exhibit before the +jargon of a soap-box orator. + +Carlsen promised them something, therefore they followed him. But the +hunters, more independent, more intelligent, seemed expecting an +outburst from Lund and, because it was not forthcoming, they were a +little uneasy. + +"Share and share alike," said Lund. "I've got yore drift, Carlsen. Let's +get down to brass tacks. The idea is to divvy the gold into equal +parts, ain't it? How does she split? There's twenty-five souls aboard. +Does that mean you split the heap into a hundred parts an' each one gits +four?" + +"No." It was Deming who answered. "It don't. The Jap don't come in, for +one." + +"A cook ain't a brother?" + +"Not when he's got a yellow skin," answered Deming. "We'll take up a +collection for Sandy. Rainey ain't in on the deal. We split it just +twenty-two ways. What have you got to say about it?" + +His tone was truculent, and Carlsen did not appear disposed to check +him. He appeared not quite certain of the temper of the hunters. Deming, +like Rainey, evidently chafed under the preliminaries. + +"You figger we're all equal aboard," said Lund slowly, "leavin' out Mr. +Rainey, Tamada an' Sandy. You an' me, an' Carlsen an' Harris there"--he +nodded toward one of the seaman delegates who listened with his slack +mouth agape, scratching himself under the armpit--"are all equal?" + +Deming cast a glance at Harris and, for just a moment, hesitated. + +Harris squirming under the look of Deming, which was aped by the sudden +scrutiny of all the hunters, found speech: "How in hell did you know I +was here?" he demanded of Lund. "I ain't opened my mouth yit!" + +"That ain't the truth, Harris," replied Lund composedly. "It's allus +open. But if you want to know, I smelled ye." + +There was a guffaw at the sally. Carlsen's voice stopped it. + +"I'll answer the question, Lund. Yes, we're all equal. The world is not +a democracy. Harris, so far, hasn't had a chance to get the equal share +that belongs to him by rights. That's what I meant by saying that the +_Karluk_ was a little world of its own. We're all equal on board." + +"Except Rainey, Tamada an' Sandy. Seems to me yore argumint's got holes +in it, Carlsen." + +"We are waiting to know whether you agree with us?" replied Carlsen. His +voice had altered quality. It held the direct challenge. Lund accepted +it. + +"I don't," he answered dryly. "There ain't enny one of you my equal, an' +you've showed it. There ain't enny one of you, from Carlsen to Harris, +who'd have the nerve to put it up to me alone. You had to band together +in a pack, like a flock of sheep, with Carlsen for sheepherder. _I'm +talking_," he went on in a tone that suddenly leaped to thunder. "None +of you have got the brains of Carlsen, becoz he had to put this scheme +inter yore noddles. Deming, you think yo're a better man than Harris, +you know damn' well you play better poker than the rest, an' you agreed +to this becoz you figger you'll win most of the gold afore the v'yage is +over. The rest of you suckers listened becoz some one tells you you are +goin' to get more than what's rightly comin' to you. + +"This gold is mine by right of discovery. I lose my ship through bad +luck, an' I make a deal whereby the skipper gets the same as I do, an' +the ship, which is the same as his daughter, gets almost as much. You +men were offered a share on top of yore wages if you wanted to take the +chance--two shares to the hunters. It was damned liberal, an' you +grabbed at it. I got left on the ice, blind on a breakin' floe, an' you +sailed off an' grabbed a handful or so of gold, enough to set you crazy. + +"What in blazes would you know what to do with it, enny of you? Spill it +all along the Barb'ry Coast, or gamble it off to Deming. Is there one of +you 'ud have got off thet floe an', blind as I was, turned up ag'in? Not +one of ye. An' when I _did_ show you got sore becoz you'd figgered there +'ud be more with me away. + +"A fine lot of skunks. You can take yore damned bit of paper an' light +yore pipes with it, for all of me. To hell with it! + +"_Shut up_!" His voice topped the murmurs at the table. Rainey saw +Carlsen sitting back with his tongue-tip showing in a grin, tapping the +table with the folded paper in one hand, the other in his lap, leaning +back a little. He was like a man waiting for the last bet to be made +before he exposed the winning hand. + +"As for bein' equal, I've told you Carlsen's got the brains of you all. +The skipper's dyin', Carlsen expects to marry his gal. An' he figgers +thet way on pullin' down three shares to yore one. You say Rainey ain't +in on the deal. He's as much so as Carlsen. Carlsen butts in as a doctor +an' a fine job he's made of it. Skipper nigh dead. A hell of a doctor! +Smoke up, all of you." + +Carlsen sat quiet, sometimes licking his lips gently, listening to Lund +as he might have listened to the rantings of a melodramatic actor. But +Rainey sensed that he was making a mistake. He was letting Lund go too +far. The men were listening to Lund, and he knew that the giant was +talking for a specific purpose. Just to what end he could not guess. +The big booming voice held them, while it lashed them. + +"Equal to me? Bah! I'm a _man_. Yo're a lot of fools. Talk about me +bein' blind. It was ice-blink got me. Then ophthalmy matterin' up my +eyes. It's gold-blink's got you. Yo're cave-fish, a lot of blind +suckers." + +He leaned over the table pointing a massive square finger, thatched with +red wool, direct at Carlsen, as if he had been leveling a weapon. + +"Carlsen's a fake! He's got you hipped. He thinks he's boss, becoz he's +the only navigator of yore crowd. I ain't overlooked that card, Carlsen. +That ain't the only string he's got on ye. Nor the three shares he +expects to pull down. He made you pore suckers fire off all your shells; +he found out you ain't got a gun left among you that's enny more use +than a club. He's got a gun an' he showed you how he could use it. He's +sittin' back larfin' at the bunch of you!" + +The men stirred. Rainey saw Carlsen's grin disappear. He dropped the +paper. His face paled, the veins showed suddenly like purple veins in +dirty marble. + +"I've got that gun yet, Lund," he snarled. + +Lund laughed, the ring of it so confident that the men glanced from him +to Carlsen nervously. + +"Yo're a fake, Carlsen," he said. "And I've got yore number! To hell +with you an' yore popgun. You ain't even a doctor. I saw real doctors +ashore about my eyes. Niphablepsia, they call snow-blindness. I'll bet +you never heard of it. Yo're only a woman-conning dope-shooter! Else +you'd have known that niphablepsia ain't _permanent_! I've bin' gettin' +my sight back ever sence I left Seattle. An' now, damn you for a moldy +hearted, slimy souled fakir, stand up an' say yo're my equal!" + +He stood up himself, towering above the rest as they rose from their +chairs, tearing the black glasses from his eyes and flinging them at +Carlsen, who was forced to throw up a hand to ward them off. Rainey got +one glimpse of the giant's eyes. They were gray-blue, the color of +agate-ware, hard as steel, implacable. + +Carlsen swept aside the spectacles and they shattered on the floor as he +leaped up and the automatic shone in his hand. Lund had folded his arms +above his great chest. He laughed again, and his arms opened. + +In an instant Rainey caught the object of Lund's speech-making. He had +done it to enrage Carlsen beyond endurance, to make him draw his gun. +Giant as he was, he moved with the grace of a panther, with a swiftness +too fast for the eye to register. Something flashed in his right hand, a +gun, that he had drawn from a holster slung over his left breast. + +The shots blended. Lund stood there erect, uninjured. A red blotch +showed between Carlsen's eyes. He slumped down into his chair, his arms +clubbing the table, his gun falling from his nerveless hand, his +forehead striking the wood like the sound of an auctioneer's gavel. Lund +had beaten him to the draw. + +Lund, no longer a blind Samson, with contempt in his agate eyes, +surveyed the scattering group of men who stared at the dead man dully, +as if gripped by the exhibition of a miracle. + +"It's all right, Miss Simms," he said. "Jest killed a skunk. Rainey, git +that gun an' attend to the young lady, will you?" + +The girl stood in the doorway of her father's cabin, her face frozen to +horror, her eyes fixed on Lund with repulsion. As Rainey got the +automatic, slipped it into his pocket, and went toward her, she shrank +from him. But her voice was for Lund. + +"You murderer!" she cried. + +Lund grinned at her, but there was no laughter in his eyes. + +"We'll thrash that out later, miss," he said. "Now, you men, jump +for'ard, all of you. Deming, unlock that door. _Jump!_ Equals, are you? +I'll show you who's master on this ship. Wait!" + +His voice snapped like the crack of a whip and they all halted, save +Deming, who sullenly fitted the key to the lock of the corridor +entrance. + +"Take this with you," said Lund, pointing to Carlsen's sagging body. +"When you git tired of his company, throw him overboard. Jump to it!" + +The nearest men took up the body of the doctor and they all filed +forward, silently obedient to the man who ordered them. + +"They ain't all whipped yit," said Lund. "Not them hunters. They're +still sufferin' from gold-blink, but I'll clean their eyesight for 'em. +Look after the lady an' her father, Rainey." + +Tamada entered as if nothing had happened. He carried a tray of dishes +and cutlery that he laid down on the table. + +"Never mind settin' a place for Carlsen, Tamada," said Lund. "He's lost +his appetite--permanent." The Oriental's face did not change. + +"Yes, sir," he answered. + +The girl shuddered. Rainey saw that Lund was exhilarated by his +victory, that the primitive fighting brute was prominent. Carlsen had +tried to shoot first, goaded to it; his death was deserved; but it +seemed to Rainey that Lund's exhibition of savagery was unnecessary. But +he also saw that Lund would not heed any protest that he might make, he +was still swept on by his course of action, not yet complete. + +"I'll borrow Carlsen's sextant," said Lund. "Nigh noon, an' erbout time +I got our reckonin'." He went into the doctor's cabin and came out with +the instrument, tucking it under his arm as he went on deck. + +Tamada went stolidly on with his preparations. He paused at the little +puddle of blood where Carlsen's head had struck the table, turned, and +disappeared toward his galley, promptly emerging with a wet cloth. + +The girl put her hands over her eyes as Tamada methodically mopped up +the telltale stains. + +"The brute!" she said. Then took away her hands and extended them toward +Rainey. + +"What will he do with my father?" she said. "He thinks that dad deserted +him. And the doctor, who might have saved him, is dead. My God, what +shall I do? What shall I do?" + +Rainey found himself murmuring some attempts at consolation, a defense +of Lund. + +"You too?" she said with a contempt that, unmerited as it was, stung +Rainey to the quick. "You are on his side. Oh!" + +She wheeled into her father's room and shut the door. Rainey heard the +click of the bolt on the other side. Tamada was going on with his +table-laying. Rainey saw that he had left Carlsen's place vacant. He +listened for a moment, but heard nothing within the skipper's cabin. The +swift rush of events was still a jumble. Slowly he went up the +companionway to the deck. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HONEST SIMMS + + +Lund greeted Rainey with a curt nod. Hansen was still at the helm. The +crew on duty were standing about alert, their eyes on Lund. They had +found a new master, and they were cowed, eager to do their best. + +"It ain't noon yet," said Lund. "I hardly need to shoot the sun with the +land that close." + +Rainey looked over the starboard bow to where a series of peaks and +lower humps of dark blue proclaimed the Aleutian island bridge +stretching far to the west. + +"I'll show this crew they've got a skipper aboard," said Lund. "How's +the cap'en?" + +Rainey told him. + +"We'll see what we can do for him," said Lund. "He's better off without +that fakir, that's a cinch. Called me a murderer," he went on with a +good-humored laugh. "Got spunk, she has. And she's a trim bit. A slip of +a gal, but she's game. An' good-lookin' eh, Rainey?" + +He shot a keen glance at the newspaperman. + +"You're in her bad hooks, too, ain't ye? We'll fix that after a bit. She +don't know when she's well off. Most wimmin don't. An' she's the sort +that needs handlin' right. She's upset now, natural, an' she hates me." + +He smiled as if the prospect suited him. A suspicion leaped into +Rainey's brain. Lund had said he would not see a decent girl harmed. But +the man was changed. He had fought and won, and victory shone in his +eyes with a glitter that was immune from sympathy, for all his air of +good-nature. + +He had said that a man under his skin was just an animal. His appraisal +of the girl struck Rainey with apprehension. "To the victor belong the +spoils." Somehow the quotation persisted. What if Lund regarded the girl +as legitimate loot? He might have talked differently beforehand, to +assure himself of Rainey's support. + +And Rainey suddenly felt as if his support had been uncalled upon, a +frail reed at best. Lund had not needed him, would he need him, save as +an aid, not altogether necessary, with Hansen aboard, to run the ship? + +He said nothing, but thrust both hands into the side pockets of the +pilot coat he had acquired from the ship's stores. The sudden touch of +cold steel gave him new courage. He had sworn to protect the girl. If +Lund, seeming more like a pirate than ever, with his cold eyes sweeping +the horizon, his bulk casting Rainey's into a dwarf's by comparison, +attempted to harm Peggy Simms, Rainey resolved to play the part of +champion. + +He could not shoot like Lund, but he was armed. There were undoubtedly +more cartridges in the clip. And he must secure the rest from Carlsen's +cabin immediately. + +The sun reached its height, and Lund busied himself with his sextant. +Rainey determined to ask him to teach him the use of it. His consent or +refusal would tell him where he stood with Lund. + +He felt the mastery of the man. And he felt incompetent beside him. +Carlsen had been right. A ship at sea was a little world of its own, and +Lund was now lord of it. A lord who would demand allegiance and enforce +it. He held the power of life and death, not by brute force alone. He +was the only navigator aboard, with the skipper seriously ill. As such +alone he held them in his hand, once they were out of sight of land. + +"Hansen," said Lund, "Mr. Rainey'll relieve you after we've eaten. Come +on, Rainey. You ain't lost yore appetite, I hope. Watch me discard that +spoon for a knife an' fork. I don't have to play blind man enny longer." + +Food did not appeal to Rainey. He could not help thinking of the spot +under the cloth where Tamada had wiped up the blood of the man just +killed by Lund, sitting opposite him, making play for a double helping +of victuals. + +It was Lund's apparent callousness that affected him more than his own +squeamishness. He could not regret Carlsen's death. With the doctor +alive, his own existence would have been a constant menace. But he was +not used to seeing a killing, though, in his water-front detail, he had +not been unacquainted with grim tragedies of the sea. + +It was Lund's demeanor that gripped him. The giant had dismissed Carlsen +as unceremoniously as he might have flipped the ash from a cigar, or +tossed the stub overside. + +"I've got to tackle those hunters," Lund said. "I expect trouble there, +sooner or later. But I'm goin' to lay down the law to 'em. If they come +clean, well an' good, they git their original two shares. If not, they +don't get a plugged nickel. An' Deming's the one who'll stir up the +trouble, take it from me. Tell Hansen to turn in his watch-off, I shan't +take a deck for a day or two, you'll have to go on handlin' it between +you. I've got to make my peace with the gal, an' do what I can with the +skipper." + +"She'll not make peace easily. But the skipper's in a bad way." + +Lund lit his pipe. + +"I'd jest as soon it was war. I don't see as we can help the skipper +much 'less we try reverse treatment of what Carlsen did. If we knew what +that was? If he gits worse she'll let us know, I reckon. Mebbe you can +suggest somethin'?" + +Rainey shook his head. + +"I suppose she can do more than any of us," he said. + +Lund nodded, then whistled to Tamada, leaving the cabin. + +"Take a bottle of whisky to the hunters' mess, with my compliments. +That'll give 'em about three jolts apiece," he said to Rainey. "Long as +we've won out we may as well let 'em down easy. But they'll work for +their shares, jest the same. A drink or two may help 'em swaller what +I'm goin' to give 'em by way of dessert in the talkin' line. See you +later." + +Rainey took the dismissal and went up to the relief of Hansen. He did +not mention what had happened until the Scandinavian referred to it +indirectly. + +"They put the doc overboard, sir, soon's Mr. Lund an' you bane go +below." + +It seemed a summary dismissal of the dead, without ceremony. Yet, for +the rite to be authentic, Lund must have presided, and the sea-burial +service would have been a mockery under the circumstances. It was the +best thing to have done, Rainey felt, but he could not avoid a mental +shiver at the thought of the man, so lately vital, his brain alive with +energy, sliding through the cold water to the ooze to lie there, sodden, +swinging with the sub-sea currents until the ocean scavengers claimed +him. + +"All right, Hansen," he said in answer, and the man hurried off after +his extra detail. + +Lund came up after a while, and Rainey told him of the fate of Carlsen's +body. + +"I figgered they'd do about that," commented Lund. "They savvied he'd +aimed to make suckers out of 'em, an' they dumped him. But they ain't on +our side, by a long sight. Not that I give a damn. If they want to sulk, +let 'em sulk. But they'll stand their watches, an', when we git to the +beach, they'll do their share of diggin'. If they need drivin', I'll +drive 'em. + +"That Deming is a better man than I thought. He's the main grouch among +'em. Said if I hadn't had a gun he'd have tackled me in the cabin. Meant +it, too, though I'd have smashed him. He's sore becoz I said he warn't +my equal. I told him, enny time he wanted to try it out, I'd accommodate +him. He didn't take it up, an' they'll kid him about it. He'll pack a +grudge. I ain't afraid of their knifin' me, not while the skipper's +sick. They need me to navigate." + +"This might be a good chance for me to handle a sextant," suggested +Rainey casually. + +Lund shook his head, smiling, but his eyes hard. + +"Not yet, matey," he said. "Not that I don't trust you, but for me to be +the only one, jest now, is a sort of life insurance that suits me to +carry. They might figger, if you was able to navigate, that they c'ud +put the screws on you to carry 'em through, with me out of the way. I +don't say they could, but they might make it hard for you, an' you ain't +got quite the same stake in this I have." + +Here was cold logic, but Rainey saw the force of it. Hansen came up +early to split the watch and put their schedule right again, and Lund +went below with Rainey. Lund ordered Tamada to bring a bottle and +glasses, and they sat down at the table. Rainey needed the kick of a +drink, and took one. + +As Lund was raising his glass with a toast of "Here's to luck," the +skipper's door opened and the girl appeared. She looked like a ghost. +Her hair was disheveled and her eyes stared at them without seeming +recognition. But she spoke, in a flat toneless voice. + +"My father is dead! I--" she faltered, swayed, and seemed to swoon as +she sank toward the floor. Rainey darted forward, but Lund was quicker +and swooped her up in his arms as if she had been a feather, took her to +the table, set her in a chair, dabbled a napkin in some water and +applied it to her brows. + +"Chafe her wrists," he ordered Rainey. "Undo that top button of her +blouse. That's enough; she ain't got on corsets. She'll come through. +Plumb worn out. That's all." + +He handled her, deftly, as a nurse would a child. Rainey chafed the +slender wrists and beat her palms, and soon she opened her eyes and +sighed. Then she pulled away from Lund, bending over her, and got to her +feet. + +"I must go to my father," she said. "He is dead." + +They followed her into the cabin, and Lund bent over the bunk. + +"Looks like it," he whispered to Rainey. Then he tore open the skipper's +vest and shirt and laid his head on his chest. The girl made a faint +motion as if to stop him, but did not hinder him. She was at the end of +her own strength from weariness and worry. Lund suddenly raised his +head. + +"There's a flutter," he announced. "He ain't gone yit. Get Tamada an' +some brandy." + +The Japanese, by some intuition, was already on hand, and produced the +brandy. Rainey poured out a measure. The captain's teeth were tightly +clenched. Lund spraddled one great hand across his jaws, pressing at +their junction, forcing them apart, firmly, but gently enough, while +Rainey squeezed in a few drops of brandy from the corner of his soaked +handkerchief. Lund stroked the sick man's throat, and he swallowed +automatically. + +"More brandy," ordered Lund. + +With the next dose there came signs of revival, a low moan from the +skipper. The girl flew to his side. Tamada, standing by with the +bottle, stepped forward, handed the brandy to Rainey, and rolled up the +lid of an eye, looking closely at the pupil. + +"I study medicine at Tokio," he said. + +"Why didn't ye say so before?" demanded Lund. It did not occur to any of +them to doubt Tamada's word. There was an air of professional assurance +and an efficiency about him that carried weight. "What can you do for +him? There's a medicine chest in Carlsen's room." + +"I was hired to cook," said Tamada quietly. "I should not have been +permit to interfere. It is not my business if a white man makes a fool +of himself. Now we want morphine and hypodermic syringe." + +Tamada rolled up the captain's sleeve. The flesh, shrunken, pallid, was +closely spotted with dot-like scars that showed livid, as if the captain +had been suffering from some strange rash. + +Lund whistled softly. Rainey, too, knew what it meant. The skipper had +been a veritable slave to the drug. Carlsen had administered it, +prescribed it, used it as a means to bring Simms under his subjection. +The girl looked strangely at Tamada. + +"Would he have taken that for sciatica?" she asked. + +"I think, perhaps, yes. Injection over muscle gives relief. Sometimes +makes cure. But Captain Simms take too much. Suppose this supply cut off +very suddenly, then come too much chills, maybe collapse, maybe--" The +girl clutched his arm. + +"You meant more than you said. It might mean death?" + +"I don't know," replied Tamada gravely. "Perhaps, if now we have +morphine, presently we give him smaller dose every time, it will be all +right." He lifted up the sick man's hand and examined the nails +critically. They were broken, brittle. + +Rainey had gone to Carlsen's room in search of the drug and the +injecting needle. + +"How much d'ye suppose he took at once?" Lund asked the Japanese in a +low voice. + +"Fifteen grains, I think. Maybe more. Too much! Always too much drug in +his veins. Much worse than opium for man." + +"Carlsen's work," growled Lund. "Increased the stuff on him till he +couldn't do without it. Made him a slave to dope an' Carlsen his boss. +He deserved killin' jest for that, the skunk." + +Rainey frantically searched through the medicine chest and, finding only +five tablets marked _Morphine 1 gr._ in a bottle, sought elsewhere in +vain. And he could find no needle. But he ran across some automatic +cartridges and put them in his pockets before he hurried back. + +"This is not enough," said Tamada. "And we should have needle. But I +dissolve these in galley." And he hurried out. The girl had slipped down +on her knees beside the bed, holding her father's hand against her lips, +her eyes closed. She seemed to be praying. + +Rainey and Lund looked at each other. Rainey was trying to recall +something. It came at last, the memory of Carlsen slipping something in +his pocket as he had come out of the captain's room. That had been the +hypodermic case! As the thought lit up' his eyes he saw a flash in +Lund's. + +"Carlsen had the morphine on him," said Lund in a whisper, not to +disturb the girl. + +"And the needle!" said Rainey. "What if?" He raced out of the cabin +forward, passing Tamada, coming out of the galley with the dissolved +tablets in a glass that steamed with hot water. Swiftly he told his +suspicions. + +"They may have searched him first," he said, and went on to the hunters' +cabin. They were seated about their table, talking. On seeing Rainey +they stopped abruptly and viewed him suspiciously. Deming rose. + +"What's the idea?" he asked and his tone was not friendly. + +Rainey hurriedly explained. Deming shrugged his shoulders. + +"They sewed him up in canvas in the fo'k'le," he said indifferently. +"None of us went through him. I think they made the kid do the job." + +Rainey found Sandy in his bunk, asleep, trying to get one of the catnaps +by which he made up his lack of definitely assigned rest. The roustabout +woke with a shudder, flinching under Rainey's hand. + +"They made me do it," he said in answer. "None of 'em 'ud touch it till +I had it sewed in an old staysail, an' a boatkedge tied on for weight. I +didn't go inter his pockets. I was scared to touch it more'n I had to." + +"Is that the truth, Sandy? I don't care what you took besides this +little case and a bottle of tablets. You can keep the rest." + +"It's the bloody truth, Mister Rainey, s'elp me," whined Sandy. And the +truth was in his shifty eyes. + +Rainey went back with his news. He imagined that the five grains would +prove temporarily sufficient. And they could put in for Unalaska. There +were surgeons there with the revenue fleet. He thought there was +probably a hospital. + +They would have to explain Carlsen's death. They would be asked about +the purpose of the voyage, the crew examined. It might mean detention, +the defeat of the expedition, the very thing that Lund had feared, the +following of them to the island. He wondered how Lund would take to the +plan. + +He found that Tamada had administered the morphine. Already the +beneficial results were apparent. The dry, frightfully sallow skin had +changed and Simms was breathing freely while Tamada, feeling his pulse, +nodded affirmatively to the girl's questioning glance. + +"Got it?" asked Lund. + +Rainey gave the result of his search. + +"We'll have to put in to Unalaska," he said. "There are doctors there." +The girl turned toward Lund. He smiled at the intensity of her gaze and +pose. + +"I play fair, Miss Peggy," he said. "Rainey, change the course." + +Peggy Simms seized Lund's great paw in both her hands, and, for the +first time, the tears overflowed her eyes. The _Karluk_ came about as +Rainey reached the deck and gave his orders. Then he returned to the +cabin. The captain had opened his eyes. + +"Peggy!" he murmured. "Carlsen, where is he? Lund! Good God, Lund, you +can see?" + +"Keep quiet as you can," said Tamada. Something in his voice made the +skipper shift his look to the Japanese. + +"Where's Carlsen?" he asked again. + +"He can't come now," said Tamada. + +Under the urge of the drug the skipper's brain seemed abnormally clear, +his intuition heightened. + +"Carlsen's dead?" he asked. Then, shifting to Lund. "You killed him, +Jim?" + +Lund nodded. + +"How much morphine did you give me?" + +"Five grains." + +"It's not enough. It won't last. _There isn't any more?_" he flashed +out, with sudden energy, trying to raise himself. + +"We're puttin' in for Unalaska, Simms," said Lund. + +"How far?" + +"'Bout seventy miles." + +"Then it's too late. Too late. The pain's shifted of late--to my heart. +It'll get me presently." + +The girl darted a look of hate at Lund, an accusation that he met +composedly, swift as the change had come from the almost reverence with +which she had clasped his hand. + +"I'll be gone in an hour or two," said the skipper. "Got to talk while +this lasts. Jim--about leavin' you that time. I could have come back. I +had words about it--with Hansen. He knows. But the gale was bad, an' the +ice. It wasn't the gold, Jim. I swear it. I had the ship an' crew to +look out for. An' Peggy, at home. + +"I might have gone back sooner, Jim, I'll own up to that. But it wasn't +the gold that did it. An'--I didn't hear what you shouted, Jim. The +storm came up. We were frozen by the time we found the ship. Numb. + +"Then, then; oh, God, my heart!" He sat upright, clutching at his chest, +his face convulsed with spasms of pain. Tamada got some brandy between +the chattering teeth. Sweat poured out on the skipper's forehead, and he +sank back, exhausted but temporarily relieved. The girl wiped his brows. + +"It'll get me next attack," he said presently in a weak voice. "Jim, +this trouble hit me the day after we left the floe. Not sciatica, at +first, but in the head. I couldn't think right. I was just numb in the +brain. An' when it cleared off, it was too late. The ice had closed. We +couldn't go back. I read up in my medical book, Jim, later, when the +sciatica took me. + +"Had to take to my bunk. Couldn't stand. I had morphine, an' it relieved +me. Took too much after a while. Had to have it. Got better in San +Francisco for a bit. Then Carlsen prescribed it. Morphine was my boss, +an' then Carlsen, he was boss of the morphine. Seemed like--seemed +like--_More brandy, Tamada_." + +His voice was weaker when he spoke again. They came closer to catch his +whispers. + +"Carlsen--mind wasn't my own. Peggy--I wasn't in my right mind, +honey. Not when--Carlsen--he was angel when he gave me what I +wanted--devil--when he wouldn't. Made me--do things. But he's dead. And +I'm going. Never reach Unalaska. Peggy--forgive. Meant for +best--but--not in right mind. Jim--it wasn't the gold. Not Peggy's +fault--anyway." + +"She'll get hers, Simms," said Lund. "Yours too." + +The skipper's eyes closed and his frame settled under the clothes. The +girl flung herself on the bed in uncontrollable weeping. Lund raised his +eyebrows at Tamada, who shrugged his shoulders. + +"Better get out o' here," whispered Lund. He and Rainey went out +together. In a few minutes Tamada joined them, his face sphinxlike as +ever. + +"He is dead," he said. + +Rainey and Lund went on deck. The schooner thrashed toward the volcano, +the bearing-mark for Unalaska, hidden behind it. They paced up and down +in silence. + +"I guess he was 'Honest Simms,' after all," said Lund at last. "The gal +blames me for the morphine, but Carlsen never meant him to live. She'll +see that after a bit, mebbe." + +Rainey glanced at him curiously. He was getting fresh lights on Lund. + +Then the girl appeared, pale, composed, coming straight up to Lund, who +halted his stride at sight of her. + +"Will you change the course, Mr. Lund?" she said. + +He looked at her in surprise. + +"Father spoke once more. After you left. He does not want you to go on +to Unalaska. He said it would mean a rush for the gold; perhaps you +would have to stay there. He does not want you to lose the gold. He +wants me to have my share. He made me promise. And he wants--he +wants"--she bit her lip fiercely in repression of her feelings--"to be +buried at sea. That was his last request." + +She turned and looked over the rail, struggling to wink back her tears. +Rainey saw the giant's glance sweep over her, full of admiration. + +"As you wish, Miss Peggy," he said. "Hansen, 'bout ship. Hold on a +minnit. How about you, Miss Peggy? If you want to go home, we can find +ways at Unalaska. I play fair. I'll bring back yore share--in full." + +"I am not thinking about the gold," the girl said scornfully. "But I +want to carry out my father's last wishes, if you will permit me. I +shall stay with the ship. Now I am going back to him. You--you"--she +quelled the tremble of her mouth, and her chin showed firm and +determined--"you can arrange for the funeral to-morrow at dawn, if you +will. I want him to-night." + +Her face quivered piteously, but she conquered even that and walked to +the companionway. + +"Game, by God, game as they make 'em!" said Lund. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +DEMING BREAKS AN ARM + + +Rainey, dozing in his bunk, going over the sudden happenings of the day, +had placed Carlsen's automatic under his pillow after loading it. He +found that it lacked four shells of full capacity, the two that Lund had +fired at his bottle target, the one fired by Carlsen at Rainey, and the +last ineffective shot at Lund, a shot that went astray, Rainey decided, +largely through Lund's _coup-de-theatre_ of tearing off his glasses and +flinging them at the doctor. + +The dynamo that he had idly fancied he could hear purring away inside of +Lund was apparent with vengeance now, driving with full force. That was +what Lund would be from now on, a driver, imperative, relentless, +overcoming all obstacles; as he had himself said, selfish at heart, keen +for his own ends. + +Rainey was neither a weakling nor a coward, but he shrank from open +encounter with Lund, and knew himself, without fear, the weaker man. The +challenge of Lund, splendidly daring any one of them to come out against +him alone, and challenging them _en masse_, had found in Rainey an +acknowledgment of inferiority that was not merely physical. + +Lund knew far more than he did about the class of men that made up the +inhabitants of the _Karluk_. Rainey had once fondly hugged the delusion +that he knew something of the nature of those who "went down to the sea +in ships." + +Now he knew that his ignorance was colossal. Such men were not complex, +they moved by instinct rather than reason, they were not guided by +conscience, the values of right and wrong were not intuitive with them, +muscle rather than mind ruled their universe. + +Yet Rainey could not solve them, and Lund knew them as one may know a +favorite book. + +Lund had brains, cunning, brute force that commanded a respect not all +bred of being weaker. In a way he was magnificent. And Rainey vaguely +heralded trouble when Captain Simms was at last given to the deep. He +felt certain that the hunters under Deming were hatching something but, +in the main, his mental prophecy of trouble coming was connected with +the girl. + +Lund had shown no disrespect to her, rather the opposite. But the girl +showed hatred of Lund and, in minor measure, of Rainey. Some of this +would die out, naturally. Rainey intended to attempt an adjustment in +his own behalf. But he held the feeling that Lund would not tolerate +this hatred against him on the part of the girl. Such scorn would arouse +something in the giant's nature, something that would either strike +under the lash, or laugh at it. + +Dimly, Rainey saw these things as the giant gropings of sex, not as he +had known it, surrounded by conventionalities, by courtesies of +twentieth-century veneering, but a law, primitive, irresistible, +sweeping away barriers and opposition, a thing bigger even than the lust +of gold; the lure of woman for man, and man for woman. + +Both Lund and the girl, he felt, would have this thing in greater +measure than he would. He shared his life with too many things, with +books, with amusements, with the social ping-pong of the level in which +he ordinarily moved. + +There had been once a girl, perhaps there still was a girl, whom Rainey +had known on a visit to the camp-palace of a lumber king, high in the +Sierras, a girl who rode and hunted and lived out-of-doors, and yet +danced gloriously, sang, sewed and was both feminine and masculine, a +maddening latter-day Diana, who had swept Rainey off his feet for the +time. + +But he had known that he was not up to her standards, that he was but a +paper-worm, aside from his lack of means. That latter detail would, he +knew, have bothered him far more than her. But she announced openly that +she would only mate with a man who had lived. He rather fancied that it +had been a challenge--one he had not taken up. The matrix of his own +life just then was too snug a bed. Well, he was living now, he told +himself. + +On the border of dreams he was brought back by a strange noise on deck, +a rush of feet, many voices, and topping them all, the bellow of Lund, +roaring, not for help, but in challenge. + +Rainey, half asleep, jumped from his bunk and rushed out of the room. He +had no doubt as to what had happened; the hunters had attacked Lund! +And, unused to the possession of firearms, still drowsy, he forgot the +automatic, intent upon rallying to the cry of the giant. As he made for +the companionway, the girl came out of her father's room. + +"What is it?" she cried. + +"Lund--hunters!" Rainey called back as he sped up the stairs. He thought +he heard a "wait" from her, but the stamping and yelling were loud in +his ears, and he plunged out on deck. As he emerged he saw the stolid +face of Hansen at the wheel, his pale blue eyes glancing at the set of +his canvas and then taking on a glint as they turned amidships. + +Lund looked like a bear surrounded by the dog-pack. He stood upright +while the six hunters tore and smashed at him. Two had caught him by the +middle, one from the front and one from the rear, and, as the fight +raged back and forth, they were swung off their feet, bludgeoned and +kicked by Lund to stop them getting at the gun in its holster slung +under his coat close to his armpit. + +Lund's arms swung like clubs, his great hands plucked at their holds, +while he roared volleys of deep-sea, defiant oaths, shaking or striking +off a man now and then, who charged back snarlingly to the attack. + +Brief though the fight had been when Rainey arrived, there was ample +evidence of it. Clothes were torn and faces bloody, and already the men +were panting as Lund dragged them here and there, flailing, striking, +half-smothered, but always coming up from under, like a rock that +emerges from the bursting of a heavy wave. + +And the voice of the combat, grunts and snarls, gasping shouts and +broken curses, was the sound of ravening beasts. So far as Rainey could +vision in one swift moment before he ran forward, no knives were being +used. + +A hunter lunged out heavily and confidently to meet him as the others +got Lund to his knees for a fateful moment, piling on top of him, +bludgeoning blows with guttural cries of fancied victory. + +Rainey's man struck, and the strength of his arm, backed by his hurling +weight, broke down Rainey's guard and left the arm numb. The next +instant they were at close quarters, swinging madly, rife with the one +desire to down the other, to maim, to kill. A blow crashed home on +Rainey's cheek, sending him back dazed, striking madly, clinching to +stop the piston-like smashes of the hunter clutching him, trying to +trip him, hammering at the fierce face above him as they both went down +and rolled into the scuppers, tearing at each other. + +He felt the man's hands at his throat, gradually squeezing out sense and +breath and strength, and threw up his knee with all his force. It struck +the hunter fairly in the groin, and he heard the man groan with the +sudden agony. But he himself was nearly out. The man seemed to fade away +for the second, the choking fingers relaxed, and Rainey gulped for air. +His eyes seemed strained from bulging from their sockets in that fierce +grip, and there was a fog before them through which he could hear the +roar of Lund, sounding like a siren blast that told he was still +fighting, still confident. + +Then he saw the hunter's face close to his again, felt the whole weight +of the man crushing him, felt the bite of teeth through cloth and flesh, +nipping down on his shoulder as the man lay on him, striving to hold him +down until he regained the strength that the blow in the groin had +temporarily broken down. + +For just a moment Rainey's spirit sagged, his own strength was spent, +his will sapped, his lungs flattened. For a moment he wanted to lie +there--to quit. + +Then the hunter's body tautened for action, and, at the feel, Rainey's +ebbing pride came surging back, and he heaved and twisted, clubbing the +other over his kidneys until the roll of the schooner sent them +twisting, tumbling over to the lee once more. + +He felt as if he had been fighting for an hour, yet it had all taken +place during the leap of the _Karluk_ between two long swells that she +had negotiated with a sidelong lurch to the cross seas and wind. + +Rainey came up uppermost. The hunter's head struck the rail heavily. His +shoulder was free, but he could see ravelings of his coat in the other's +teeth. The pain in his shoulder was evident enough, and the sight of the +woolly fragments maddened him. The tactics of boyish fights came back +to him, and he broke loose from the arms that hugged him, hitched +forward until he sat on the hunter's chest, set a knee on either bicep +and battered at the other's face as it twisted from side to side +helplessly, making a pulp of it, keen to efface all semblance of +humanity, a brute like the rest of them, intent upon bruising, on +blood-letting, on beating all resistance down to a quivering, +spirit-broken mass. + +The hunter lay still beneath him at last, his nerve centers shattered by +some blow that had short-circuited them, and Rainey got wearily to his +feet. The hunter's thumbs had pressed deep on each side of his neck, and +his head felt like wood for heaviness, but shot with pain. The vigor was +out of him. He knew he could not endure another hand-to-hand battle with +one of the crowd still raging about Lund, who was on his feet again. + +Rainey saw his face, one red mask of blood and hair, with his agate eyes +flaring up with the glory of the fight. He roared no longer, saving his +breath. Hands clutched for him and fists fell, a man was tugging at each +knee of his legs, set far apart, sturdy as the masts themselves. + +Lund's arm came up, lifting a hunter clean from the deck, shook him off +somehow, and crashed down. One of the men tackling his legs dropped +senseless from the buffet he got on the side of his skull, and Lund's +kick sent him scudding across the deck, limp, out of the fight that +could not last much longer. + +All this came as Rainey, still dazed, helped himself by the skylight +toward the companion, going as fast as he could to get his gun. If he +did not hurry he was certain they would kill Lund. No man could +withstand those odds much longer. + +And, Lund killed, hell would break loose. It would be his turn next, and +the girl would be left at their mercy. The thought spurred him, cleared +his throbbing head, jarred by the smashes of his still senseless +opponent who would be coming to before long. + +Then he saw the girl, standing by the rail, not crouching, as he had +somehow expected her to be, shutting out the sight of the fight with +trembling hands, but with her face aglow, her eyes shining, watching, as +a Roman maid might have watched a gladiatorial combat; thrilled with the +spectacle, hands gripping the rail, leaning a little forward. + +She did not notice Rainey as he crept by Hansen, still guiding the +schooner, holding her to her course, imperturbable, apparently careless +of the issue. As he staggered down the stairs the line of thought he had +pursued in his bunk, broken by the noise of the fight and his +participation, flashed up in his brain. + +This was sex, primitive, predominant! The girl must sense what might +happen to her if Lund went down. She had no eyes for Rainey, her soul +was up in arms, backing Lund. The shine in her eyes was for the strength +of his prime manhood, matched against the rest, not as a person, an +individual, but as an embodiment of the conquering male. + +He got the gun, and he snatched a drink of brandy that ran through his +veins like quick fire, revivifying him so that he ran up the ladder and +came on deck ready to take a decisive hand. + +But he found it no easy matter to risk a shot in that swirling mass. +They all seemed to be arm weary. Blows no longer rose and fell. Lund was +slowly dragging the dead weight of them all toward the mast. The two men +on the deck still lay there. Rainey's opponent was trying to get up, +wiping clumsily at the blood on his face, blinded. + +The girl still stood by the rail. Back of the wrestling mass stood the +seamen, offering to take no part, their arms aswing like apes, their +dull faces working. Tamada stood by the forward companion, his arms +folded, indifferent, neutral. + + +[Illustration: Then he saw the girl standing by the rail] + + +All this Rainey saw as he circled, while the mass whirled like a +teetotum. The action raced like an overtimed kinetoscopic film. A man +broke loose from the scrimmage, on the opposite side from Rainey, who +barely recognized the disheveled figure with the bloody, battered face +as Deming. The hunter had managed to get hold of Lund's gun. Rainey's +aim was screened by a sudden lunge of the huddle of men. He saw Lund +heave, saw his red face bob up, mouth open, roaring once more, saw his +leg come up in a tremendous kick that caught Deming's outleveling arm +close to the elbow, saw the gleam of the gun as it streaked up and +overboard, and Deming staggering back, clutching at his broken limb, +cursing with the pain, to bring up against the rail and shout to the +seamen: + +"Get into it, you damned cowards! Get into it, and settle him!" + +Even in that instant the sarcasm of the cry of "cowards" struck home to +Rainey. The next second the girl had jumped by him, a glint of metal in +her hand as she brought it out of her blouse. This time she saw him. +"Come on!" she cried. And darted between the fighters and the storming +figure of Deming, who tried to grasp her with his one good arm, but +failed. + +Rainey sped after her just as Lund reached the mast. The girl had a +nickeled pistol in her hand and was threatening the sullen line of +irresolute seamen. Rainey with his gun was not needed. He heard Lund +shout out in a triumphant cry and saw him battering at the heads of +three who still clung to him. + +All through the fight Lund had kept his head, struggling to the purpose +he had finally achieved, to reach the mast-rack of belaying pins, seize +one of the hardwood clubs and, with this weapon, beat his assailants to +the deck. + +He stood against the mast, his clothes almost stripped from him, the +white of his flesh gleaming through the tatters, streaked with blood. +Save for his eyes, his face was no longer human, only a mass of flayed +flesh and clotted beard. But his eyes were alight with battle and then, +as Rainey gazed, they changed. Something of surprise, then of delight, +leaped into them, followed by a burning flare that was matched in those +of the girl who, with Rainey herding back the seamen, had turned at +Lund's yell of victory. + +Lund took a lurching step forward over the prone bodies of the men on +the deck, that was splotched with blood. + +"By God!" he said slowly, his arms opening, his great fingers outspread, +his gaze on the girl, "by God!" + +The girl's face altered. Her eyes grew frightened, cold. The retreating +blood left her cheeks pale, and she wheeled and fled, dodging behind +Tamada, who gave way to let her pass, his ivory features showing no +emotion, closing up the fore companionway as Peggy Simms dived below. + +Lund did not follow her. Instead, he laughed shortly and appeared to see +Rainey for the first time. + +"Jumped me, the bunch of 'em!" he said, his chest heaving, his breath +coming in spurts from his laboring lungs. "Couldn't use my gun. But I +licked 'em. Damn 'em! _Equals?_ Hell!" + +He seemed to have a clear recollection of the fight. He smiled grimly at +Deming, who glared at him, nursing his broken arm, then glanced at the +man that Rainey had mastered. + +"Did him up, eh? Good for you, matey! You didn't have to use your gun. +Jest as well, you might have plugged me. An' the gal had one, after +all." + +He seemed to ruminate on this thought as if it gave him special cause +for reflection. + +"Game!" he said. "Game as they make 'em!" + +He surveyed the rueful, groaning combatants with the smile of a +conqueror, then turned to the seamen. + +"Here, you!" he roared, and they jumped as if galvanized into life by +the shout. "Chuck a bucket of water over 'em! Chuck water till they git +below. Then clean the decks. Off-watch, you're out of this. Below with +you, where you belong. Jump! + +"They all fought fair," he went on. "Not a knife out. Only Deming there, +when he knew he was licked, tried to git my gun. Yo're yeller, Deming," +he said, with contempt that was as if he had spat in the hunter's face. +"I thought you were a better man than the rest. But you've got yores. +Git down below an' we'll fix you up." + +He strode over to Hansen, stolid at the wheel. + +"Wal, you wooden-faced squarehead," he said, "which way did you think it +was coming out? Damn me if you didn't play square, though! You kept her +up. If you'd liked you could have chucked us all asprawl, an' that would +have bin the end of it, with me down. You git a bottle of booze for +that, Hansen, all for yore own Scandinavian belly. Come on, Rainey. +Tamada, I want you." + +While Tamada got splints and did what he could for the badly shattered +arm, Lund taunted Deming until the hunter's face was seamed with useless +ferocity, like a weasel's in a trap. + +"I wonder you fix him at all, Tamada," he said. "He wanted to cut you +out of yore share. Called you a yellow-skinned heathen, Tamada. What +makes you gentle him that way? You've got him where you want him." + +Tamada, binding up the splints professionally, looked at Deming with +jetty eyes that revealed no emotion. + +Lund passed his hand over his face. + +"I'm some mess myself," he said, stretching his great arms. "Give me a +five-finger drink, Rainey, afore I clean up. Some scrap. Hell popping on +deck, and a dead man in the cabin! And the gal! Did you see the gal, +Rainey?" + +Out of the bloody mask of his face his agate eyes twinkled at Rainey +with a sort of good-natured malice. Rainey did not answer as he poured +the liquor. + +"Make it four finger," exclaimed Lund. "Deming's goin' to faint. One for +Doc Tamada." + +The Japanese excused himself, helping Deming, worn out with pain and +consumed by baffled hate, forward through the galley corridor. Then he +came back with warm water in a basin--and towels. + +"After this cheery little fracas," said Lund, mopping at his face, +"we'll mebbe have a nice, quiet, genteel sort of ship. My gun went +overboard, didn't it? Better let me have that one you've got, Rainey." + +He stretched out his hand for it. Rainey delivered it, reluctantly. +There was nothing else to do, but he felt more than ever that the +_Karluk_ was henceforth to be a one-man ship, run at the will of Lund. + +But the girl, too, had a weapon. He hugged that thought. She carried it +for her own protection, and she would not hesitate to use it. What a +girl she was! What a woman rather! A woman who would _mate_--not marry +for the quiet safety of a home. Rainey thought of her as one does of a +pool that one plumbs with a stone, thinking to find it fairly shallow, +only to discover it a gulf with unknown depth and currents, capable of +smiling placidness or sudden storm. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE RIFLE CARTRIDGES + + +The girl did not appear for the evening meal. She had refused Tamada's +suggestions through the door. Lund drank heavily, but without any +effect, save to sink him in comparative silence, as he and Rainey sat +together, after the Japanese had cleared the table. In contrast to the +excitement of the fight, their moods had changed, sobered by the thought +of the girl sitting up with her dead in the captain's room. + +Rainey was bruised and stiffened, and Lund moved with less of his usual +ease. The flesh of his face had been so pounded that it was turning dull +purple in great patches, giving him a diabolical appearance against his +naming beard. + +"We've got to git hold of those cartridges," he said, after a +long-pause. "Carlsen had 'em planted somewhere, an' it's likely in his +room. Best thing to do is to chuck 'em overboard. Cheaper to dump the +cartridges an' shells than the rifles an' shotguns. + +"You see," he went on, "Deming ain't quit. That's one thing with a man +who's streaked with yeller, when he gits licked in the open an' knows +he's licked proper, he tries to git even underhanded. He knows jest as +well as I do that Carlsen was lyin' that time about there bein' no more +shells. O' course the skipper may have stowed 'em away, but I doubt it. +An' jest so long as he thinks there's a chance of gittin' at 'em, he'll +figger on turning' the tables some day. An' he'll be workin' the rest of +'em up to the job." + +"They can't do much without a navigator," suggested Rainey. + +"Mebbe they figger a man'll do a lot o' things he don't want to with a +rifle barrel stuck in his neck or the small of his back," said Lund +grimly. "It's a good persuader. Might even have some influence on me. +Then ag'in it might not." + +"Where is the magazine?" asked Rainey. + +"In the little room aft o' the galley. We'll look there first. Come on." + +"How about keys? Carlsen's must have been in his pockets. I didn't see +them when I was hunting the morphine. We can't go in there." Rainey made +a motion toward the skipper's room. Lund chuckled. + +"I had my keys to the safe an' the magazine when I was aboard last +trip," he said. "They was with me when we went on the ice. An' I hung on +to 'em. Allus thought I might have a chance to use 'em ag'in." + +The strong room of the _Karluk_ was a narrow compartment, heavily +partitioned off from the galley and the corridor. There was a lamp +there, and Rainey lit it while Lund closed the door behind them. The +magazine was an iron chest fastened to the floor and the side of the +vessel with two padlocks, opened by different keys. It was quite empty. + +"Thorough man, Carlsen," said Lund. "Prepared for a show-down, if +necessary. Might have put 'em in the safe. Wonder if he changed the +combination? I bet Simms didn't, year in an' out." + +He worked at the disk and grunted as the tumblers clicked home. + +"It ain't changed," he said. "No use lookin' here." But he swung back +the door and rummaged through books and papers, disturbing a chronometer +and a small cash-box that held the schooner's limited amount of ready +cash. There was no sign of any cartridges. + +"We'll tackle Carlsen's room next," he announced. "I don't suppose you +looked between the bunk mattresses, did you?" + +"I never thought of it," said Rainey. "I didn't imagine there would be +more than one." + +"I've got a hunch you'll find two on Carlsen's bunk. An' the shells +between 'em. He kep' his door locked when he was out of the main cabin +an' slep' on 'em nights. That's what I'd be apt to do." + +As they came into the main cabin Rainey caught Lund by the arm. + +"I'm almost sure I saw Carlsen's door closing," he whispered. "It might +have been the shadow." + +"But it might not. Shouldn't wonder. One of 'em's sneaked in. Saw the +cabin empty, an' figgered we'd turned in. While we was in the +strong-room." + +He took the automatic from his pocket and went straight to the door of +Carlsen's room. It was locked or bolted from within. + +"The fool!" said Lund. "I've got a good mind to let him stay there till +he swallers some o' the drugs to fill his belly." He rapped on the panel +with the butt of the gun. + +"Come on out before I start trouble." + +There was no answer. Lund looked uncertainly at Rainey. + +"I hate to start a rumpus ag'in," he said, jerking his head toward the +skipper's room. "'Count of her. Reckon he can stay there till after +we've buried Simms. He's safe enough." + +Rainey was a little surprised at this show of thoughtfulness, but he did +not remark on it. He was beginning to think pretty constantly of late +that he had underestimated Lund. + +The giant's hand dropped automatically to the handle as if to assure +himself of the door being fast. Suddenly it opened wide, a black gap, +with only the gray eye of the porthole facing them. Lund had brought up +the muzzle of his pistol to the height of a man's chest, but there was +nothing to oppose it. + +"Hidin', the damn fool! What kind of a game is this? Come out o' there." + +Something scuttled on the floor of the room--then darted swiftly out +between the legs of Lund and Rainey, on all fours, like a great dog. +Curlike, it sprawled on the floor with a white face and pop-eyes, with +hands outstretched in pleading, knees drawn up in some ludicrous attempt +at protection, calling shrilly, in the voice of Sandy: + +"Don't shoot, sir! Please don't shoot!" + +Lund reached down and jerked the roustabout to his feet, half +strangling him with his grip on the collar of the lad's shirt, and flung +him into a chair. + +"What were you doin' in there?" + +Sandy gulped convulsively, feeling at his scraggy throat, where an +Adam's apple was working up and down. Speech was scared out of him, and +he could only roll his eyes at them. + +"You damned young traitor!" said Lund. "I'll have you keelhauled for +this! Out with it, now. Who sent ye? Deming?" + +"You've got him frightened half to death," intervened Rainey. "They +probably scared him into doing this. Didn't they, Sandy?" + +The lad blinked, and tears of self-pity rolled down his grimy cheeks. +The relief of them seemed to unstopper his voice. That, and the kinder +quality of Rainey's questioning. + +"Deming! He said he'd cut my bloody heart out if I didn't do it. Him an' +Beale. Lookit." + +He plucked aside the front of his almost buttonless shirt and worn +undervest and showed them on his left breast the scoring where a sharp +blade had marked an irregular circle on his skin. + +"Beale did that," he whined. "Deming said they'd finish the job if I +come back without 'em." + +"Without the shells?" + +"Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Rainey. Oh, Gord, they'll kill me sure! Oh, my +Gord!" His staring eyes and loose mouth, working in fear, made him look +like a fresh-landed cod. + +"You ain't much use alive," said Lund. + +"Mebbe I ain't," returned the lad, with the desperation of a cornered +rat. "But I got a right to live. And I've lived worse'n a dorg on this +bloody schooner. I'm fair striped an' bruised wi' boots an' knuckles an' +ends o' rope. I'd 'ave chucked myself over long ago if--" + +"If what?" + +The lad turned sullen. + +"Never mind," he said, and glared almost defiantly at Lund. + +"Is that door shut?" the giant asked Rainey. "Some of 'em might be +hangin' 'round." Rainey went to the corridor and closed and locked the +entrance. + +"Now then, you young devil," said Lund. "What they did to you for'ard +ain't a marker on what I'll do to you if you don't speak up an' answer +when I talk. _If what?_" + +Sandy turned to Rainey. + +"They said they was goin' to give me some of the gold," he said. "They +said all along I was to have the hat go 'round for me. I told you I was +dragged up, but there's--there's an old woman who was good to me. She's +up ag'in' it for fair. I told her I'd bring her back some dough an' if I +can hang on an' git it, I'll hang on. But they'll do me up, now, for +keeps." + +Rainey heard Lund's chuckle ripen to a quiet laugh. + +"I'm damned if they ain't some guts to the herrin' after all," he said. +"Hangin' on to take some dough back to an old woman who ain't even his +mother. Who'd have thought it? Look here, my lad. I was dragged up the +same way, I was. An' I hung on. But you'll never git a cent out of that +bunch. I don't know as they'll have enny to give you." + +His face hardened. "But you come through, an' I'll see you git somethin' +for the old woman. An' yoreself, too. What's more, you can stay aft an' +wait on cabin. If they lay a finger on you, I'll lay a fist on them, an' +worse." + +"You ain't kiddin' me?" + +"I don't kid, my lad. I don't waste time that way." + +Sandy stood up, his face lighting. He began to empty his pockets, laying +shells and shotgun cartridges upon the table. + +"I couldn't begin to git harf of 'em," he said. "The rest's under the +mattresses. They said they on'y needed a few. I thought you was both +turned in. When you come out of the corridor I was scared nutty." + +Between the mattresses, as Lund had guessed, they found the rest of the +shells, laid out in orderly rows save where the lad's scrambling +fingers had disturbed them. Lund stripped off a pillow-case and dumped +them in, together with those on the table. + +"You can bunk here," he told the grateful Sandy. "Now I'll have a few +words with Deming, Beale and Company. Want to come along, Rainey?" + +Lund strode down the corridor, bag in one hand, his gun in the other. +Rainey threw open the door of the hunters' quarters and discovered them +like a lot of conspirators. Deming was in his bunk; also another man, +whose ribs Lund had cracked when he had kicked him along the deck out of +his way. The bruised faces of the rest showed their effects from the +fight. As Lund entered, covering them with the gun, while he swung down +the heavy slip on the table with a clatter, their looks changed from +eager expectation to consternation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PEGGY SIMMS + + +"Caught with the goods!" said Lund. "Two tries at mutiny in one day, my +lads. You want to git it into your boneheads that I'm runnin' this ship +from now on. I can sail it without ye and, by God, I'll set the bunch of +ye ashore same's you figgered on doin' with me if you don't sit up an' +take notice! The rifles an' guns"--he glanced at the orderly display of +weapons in racks on the wall--"are too vallyble to chuck over, but here +go the shells, ev'ry last one of them. So that nips _that_ little plan, +Deming." + +He turned back the slip to display the contents. + +"Open a port, Rainey, an' heave the lot out." + +Rainey did so while the hunters gazed on in silent chagrin. + +"There's one thing more," said Lund, grinning at them. "If enny of you +saw a man hurtin' a dog, you'd probably fetch him a wallop. But you +don't think ennything of scarin' the life out of a half-baked kid an' +markin' up his hide like a patchwork quilt. Thet kid's stayin' aft after +this. One of you monkey with him, an' you'll do jest what he's bin +doin', wish you was dead an' overboard." + +He turned on his heel and walked to the door, Rainey following. + +"Burial of the skipper at dawn," said Lund. "All hands on deck, clean +an' neatly dressed to stand by. An' see yore behavior fits the occasion. +Deming, you'll turn out, too. No malingerin'." + +It was plain that the news of the captain's death was known to them. +They showed no surprise. Rainey was sure that Tamada had not mentioned +it. It had leaked out through the grape-vine telegraphy of all ships. +Doubtless, he thought, the after-cabin and its doings was always being +spied upon. + +"Will you take the service ter-morrer?" Lund asked Rainey when they +were back in the cabin. "Bein' as yo're an eddicated chap?" + +"Why--I don't know it. Is there a prayer-book aboard? I thought the +skipper always presided." + +"I'm only deputy-skipper w'en it comes down to that," said Lund. "It +ain't my ship. I'm jest runnin' it under contract with my late partner. +The ship belongs to the gal. And yo're top officer now, in the regular +run. As to a prayer-book, there ain't sech an article aboard to my +knowledge. But I'd like to have it go off shipshape. For Simms' sake as +well as the gal's. I reckon he used his best jedgment 'bout puttin' back +after me on the floe. I might have done the same thing myself." + +Rainey doubted that statement, and set it down to Lund's generosity. +Many of his late words and actions had displayed a latent depth of +feeling that he had never credited Lund with possessing. He could not +help believing that, in some way, the girl had brought them to the +surface. + +"I thought I saw a Bible in the safe," he said, "when we were looking +for the shells. There may be a prayer-book. I suppose there have been +occasions for it. The mate died at sea last trip." + +"There may be," returned Lund. "That's where Simms 'ud keep it. He +warn't what you'd call a religious man. We'll take a look afore we turn +in." + +There were offices to be performed for the dead captain that the girl, +with all her willingness, could not attempt. Lund did not mention them, +and Rainey vacillated about disturbing her until he saw Tamada go +through the cabin with folded canvas and a flag. The Japanese tapped on +the door, which was instantly opened to him. He had been expected. + +There was no doubt that Tamada, with his medical experience, was best +fitted for the task, but it seemed to Rainey also that the girl had +deliberately ignored their services and that, despite her involuntary +admiration of Lund's fight against odds, or in revulsion of it, she +reckoned them hostile to her sentiments. Lund roused him by talking of +the burial-service for Simms. + +"You're a writer," he said. "What's the good of knowin' how to handle +words if you can't fake up some sort of a service? One's as good as +another, long as it sounds like the real thing. + +"I reckon there's a God," he went on. "Somethin' that started things, +somethin' that keeps the stars from runnin' each other down, but, after +He wound up the clock He made, I don't figger He bothers much about the +works. + +"Luck's the big thing that counts. We're all in on the deal. Some of us +git the deuces an' treys, an' some git the aces. If yo're born lucky +things go soft for you. But, if it warn't for luck, for the chance an' +the hope of it, things 'ud be upside down an' plain anarchy in a jiffy. +If it warn't the pore devil's idea that his luck has got to change for +the better, mebbe ter-morrer, he'd start out an' cut his own throat, or +some one else's, if he had ginger enough." + +"It's hardly all luck, is it?" asked Rainey. "Look at you! You're bigger +than most men, stronger, better equipped to get what you want." + +"Hell!" laughed Lund. "I was lucky to be born that way. But you've got +to fudge up some sort of a service to suit the gal. You've got that +Bible. It ought to be easy. Simms wouldn't give a whoop, enny more'n I +would. When yo're dead yo're through, so far's enny one can prove it to +you. A dead body's a nuisance, an' the sooner it's got rid of the +better. But if it's goin' to make the livin' feel enny better for +spielin' off some fine words, why, hop to it an' make up yore speech." + +Peggy Simms saved Rainey by producing a prayer-book, bringing it to +Lund, her face pale but composed enough, and her shadowed eyes calm as +she gave it to him. + +"I reckon Rainey here 'ud read it better'n me," he said. "He's a +scholar." + +"If you will," asked the girl. She seemed to have outworn her first +sorrow, to have obtained a grip of herself that, with the dignity of her +bereavement, the very control of her undoubted grief, set up a barrier +between her and Lund. Rainey was conscious of this fence behind which +the girl had retreated. She was polite, but she did not ask this service +as a favor, as a friendly act. Refusal, even, would not have visibly +affected her, he fancied. There was an invisible armor about her that +might be added to at any moment by a shield of silent scorn. Somehow, if +sex had, for a swift moment, brought her and Lund into any contact, that +same sex, showing another aspect, set them far apart. + +Lund showed that he felt it, running his splay fingers through his beard +in evident embarrassment, while Rainey took the book silently, looking +through the pages for the ritual of "Burial at Sea." + +Arrangements had been made on deck long before dawn. A section of the +rail had been removed and a grating arranged that could be tipped at +the right moment for the consignment of the captain's body to the deep. + +The sea was running in long heaves, and the sun rose in a clear sky. The +ocean was free from ice, though the wind was cold. Here and there a +berg, far off, caught the sparkle of the sun and, to the north, parallel +to their course, the peaks of the Aleutian Isles, broken buttresses of +an ancient seabridge, showed sharply against the horizon. + +At four bells in the morning watch all hands had assembled, save for +Tamada and Hansen, who appeared bearing the canvas-enveloped, +flag-draped body of Simms, his sea-shroud weighted by heavy pieces of +iron. Peggy Simms followed them, and, as the crew, with shuffling feet +and throats that were repeatedly cleared, gathered in a semicircle, she +arranged the folds of the Stars and Stripes that Hansen attached to a +light line by one corner. + +Whatever Lund affected, the solemnity of the occasion held the men. They +uncovered and stood with bowed heads that hid the bruised faces of the +hunters. Lund's own damaged features were lowered as Rainey commenced to +read. Only Deming's face, gray from the effort of coming on deck and the +pain in his arm, held the semblance of a sneer that was largely bravado. +A hunter had his arm tucked in that of his comrade with the broken ribs. +A seaman was told off to the wheel and the schooner was held to the wind +with all sheets close inboard, rising and falling on an almost level +keel. + +"_And the body shall be cast into the sea._" + +At the words Lund and Hansen tilted the grating. There was a slight +pause as if the body were reluctant to start on its last journey, and +then it slid from the platform and plunged into the sea, disappearing +instantly under the urge of the weights, with a hissing aeration of the +water. The flag, held inboard by the line, fluttered a moment and +subsided over the grating. The girl turned toward them, her head up. + +"Thank you," she said, and went below. + +"That's over," said Lund, letting out whatever emotions he might have +repressed in a long breath. "Now, then, trim ship! Watch-off, get below. +We're goin' to drive her for all she's worth." + +He took the wheel himself as the men jumped to the sheets and soon Lund +was getting every foot of possible speed out of the schooner. He was as +good a sailor as Simms, inclined to take more chances, but capable of +handling them. + +The girl kept below and seldom came out of her cabin, Tamada serving her +meals in there. Rainey could see Lund's resentment growing at this +attitude that seemed to him normal enough, though it might present +difficulty later if persisted in. But the morning that they headed up +through Sequam Pass between the spouting reefs of Sequam and Amlia +Islands, she came on deck and went forward to the bows, taking in deep +breaths of the bracing air and gazing north to the free expanse of +Bering Strait. Rainey left her alone, but Lund welcomed her as she came +back aft. + +"Glad to see you on deck again, Miss Peggy," he said. "You need sun and +air to git you in shape again." + +His glance held vivid admiration of her as he spoke, a glance that ran +over her rounded figure with a frank approval that Rainey resented, but +to which the girl paid no attention. She seemed to have made up her mind +to a change of attitude. + +"How far have we yet to go?" she asked. + +"A'most a thousan' miles to the Strait proper," said Lund. "The +Nome-Unalaska steamer lane lies to the east. Runs close to the +Pribilofs, three hundred miles north, with Hall an' St. Matthew three +hundred further. Then comes St. Lawrence Isle, plumb in the middle of +the Strait, with Siberia an' Alaska closin' in." + +He was keen to hold her in conversation, and she willing to listen, +assenting almost eagerly when he offered to point out their positions +on the chart, spread on the cabin table. Lund talked well, for all his +limited and at times luridly inclined vocabulary, whenever he talked of +the sea and of his own adventures, stating them without brag, but +bringing up striking pictures of action, full of the color and savor of +life in the raw. From that time on Peggy Simms came to the table and +talked freely with Lund, more conservatively with Rainey. + +The newspaperman was no experienced analyst of woman nature, but he saw, +or thought he saw, the girl watching Lund closely when he talked, +studying him, sometimes with more than a hint of approbation, at others +with a look that was puzzled, seeming to be working at a problem. The +giant's liking for her, boyish at times, or swiftly changing to bolder +appraisal, grew daily. + +The girl, Rainey decided, was humoring Lund, seeking to know how with +her feminine methods she might control him, keep him within bounds. Her +coldness, it seemed, she had cast aside as an expedient that might prove +too provoking and worthless. + +And Rainey's valuation of her resources increased. She was handling her +woman's weapons admirably, yet when he sometimes, at night, under the +cabin lamp, saw the smoldering light glowing in Lund's agate eyes, he +knew that she was playing a dangerous game. + +"What d'ye figger on doin' with yore share, Rainey?" Lund asked him the +night that they passed Nome. It was stormy weather in the Strait, and +the _Karluk_ was snugged down under treble reefs, fighting her way +north. Ice in the Narrows was scarce, though Lund predicted broken floes +once they got through. The cabin was cozy, with a stove going. Peggy +Simms was busied with some sewing, the canary and the plants gave the +place a domestic atmosphere, and Lund, smoking comfortably, was +eminently at ease. + +"'Cordin' to the way the men figgered it out," he went on, "though I +reckon they're under the mark more'n over it, you'll have forty +thousan' dollars. That's quite a windfall, though nothin' to Miss Peggy, +here, or me, for that matter. I s'pose you got it all spent already." + +"I don't know that I have," said Rainey. "But I think, if all goes well, +I'll get a place up in the Coast Range, in the redwoods looking over the +sea, and write. Not newspaper stuff, but what I've always wanted to. +Stories. Yarns of adventure!" + +Peggy Simms looked up. + +"You've never done that?" she asked. + +"Not satisfactorily. I suppose that genius burns in a garret, but I +don't imagine myself a genius and I don't like garrets. I've an idea I +can write better when I don't have to stand the bread-and-butter strain +of routine." + +"Goin' to write second-hand stuff?" asked Lund. "Why don't you _live_ +what you write? I don't see how yo're goin' to git under a man's skin by +squattin' in a bungalow with a Jap servant, a porcelain bathtub, an' +breakfast in bed. Why don't you travel an' see stuff as it is? How in +blazes are you goin' to write Adventure if you don't live it? + +"Me, I'm goin' to git a schooner built accordin' to my own ideas. Have a +kicker engine in it, mebbe, an' go round the world. What's the use of +livin' on it an' not knowin' it by sight? Books and pictures are all +right in their way, I reckon, but, while my riggin' holds up, I'm for +travel. Mebbe I'll take a group of islands down in the South Seas after +a bit an' make somethin' out of 'em. Not jest _copra_ an' pearl-shell, +but cotton an' rubber." + +"A king and his kingdom," suggested the girl. + +"Aye, an' mebbe a queen to go with it," replied Lund, his eyes wide open +in a look that made the girl flush and Rainey feel the hidden issue that +he felt was bound to come, rising to the surface. + +"That's a _man's_ life," went on Lund. "Travel's all right, but a man's +got to do somethin', buck somethin', start somethin'. An' a red-blooded +man wants the right kind of a woman to play mate. Polish off his rough +edges, mebbe. I'd rather be a rough castin' that could stand filin' a +bit, than smooth an' plated. An', when I find the right woman, one of my +own breed, I'm goin' to tie to her an' her to me. + +"I'm goin' to be rich. They've cleaned up the sands of Nome, but there's +others'll be found yit between Cape Hope an' Cape Barry. Meantime, we've +got a placer of our own. With plenty of gold they ain't much limit to +what a man can do. I've roughed it all my life, an' I'm not lookin' for +ease. It makes a man soft. But--" + +He swept the figure of the girl in a pause that was eloquent of his line +of thought. She grew uneasy of it, but Lund maintained it until she +raised her eyes from her work and challenged his. Rainey saw her breast +heave, saw her struggle to hold the gaze, turn red, then pale. He +thought her eyes showed fear, and then she stiffened. Almost +unconsciously she raised her hand to where Rainey was sure she kept the +little pistol, touched something as though to assure herself of its +presence, and went on sewing. Lund chuckled, but shifted his eyes to +Rainey. + +"Why don't you write up _this_ v'yage? When it's all over? There's +adventure for you, an' we ain't ha'f through with it. An' romance, too, +mebbe. We ain't developed much of a love-story as yit, but you never can +tell." + +He laughed, and Peggy Simms got up quietly, folded her sewing, and said +"Good night" composedly before she went to her room. + +"How about it, Rainey?" quizzed Lund. "How about the love part of it? +She's a beauty, an' she'll be an heiress. Ain't you got enny red blood +in yore veins? Don't you want her? You won't find many to hold a candle +to her. Looks, built like a racin' yacht, smooth an' speedy. Smart, an' +rich into the bargain. Why don't you make love to her?" + +Rainey felt the burning blood mounting to his face and brain. + +"I am not in love with Miss Simms," he said. "If I was I should not try +to make love to her under the circumstances. She's alone, and she's +fatherless. I do not care to discuss her." + +"She's a woman," said Lund. "And yo're a damned prig! You'd like to bust +me in the jaw, but you know I'm stronger. You've got some guts, Rainey, +but yo're hidebound. You ain't got ha'f the git-up-an'-go to ye that she +has. She's a woman, I tell you, an' she's to be won. If you want her, +why don't you stand up an' try to git her 'stead of sittin' around like +a sick cat whenever I happen to admire her looks? + +"I've seen you. I ain't blind enny longer, you know. She's a woman an' +I'm a man. I thought you was one. But you ain't. Yore idea of makin' +love is to send the gal a box of candy an' walk pussy-footed an' write +poems to her. You want to _write_ life an' I want to _live_ it. So does +a gal like that. She's more my breed than yores, if she has got +eddication. An' she's flesh and blood. Same as I am. Yo're half sawdust. +Yo're stuffed." + +He went on deck laughing, leaving Rainey raging but helpless. Lund +appeared to think the situation obvious. Two men, and a woman who was +attractive in many ways. The _only_ woman while they were aboard the +schooner, therefore the more to be desired, admired by men cut off from +the rest of the world. + +He expected Rainey to be in love with her, to stand up and say so, to +endeavor to win her. Lund sought the ardor of competition. He might be +looking for the excuse to crush Rainey. + +But he had said she was of his breed, and that was a true saying. If +Lund was a son of the sea, she was a daughter of a line of seamen. Lund, +sooner or later, meant to take her, willing or unwilling. He had said +so, none too covertly, that very evening. And, if Rainey meant to stand +between her and Lund as a protector, Lund would accept him in that +character only as the girl's lover and his rival. + +And Rainey did not know whether he was in love with her or not. He could +not even be certain of the girl. There were times when Lund seemed to +fascinate her. One thing he braced himself to do, to be ready to aid her +against Lund if occasion came, and she needed protection. The luck, as +Lund phrased it, that had given brawn to the giant, had given Rainey +brains. When the time came he would use them. + +After this the girl avoided Lund's company as much as possible by +seeking Rainey's. They worked through the Strait and headed into the +Arctic Ocean. Ice was all about them, fields formed of vast blocks of +frozen water divided by broad lanes through which the _Karluk_ slowly +made her way, a maze of ice, always threatening, calling for all of +Lund's skill while he fumed at every barrier, every change of the +weather that grew steadily colder. + +The sky was never entirely unveiled by mist, and at night, as they +sailed down a frozen fiord with lookouts doubled, the grinding smashing +noises of the ice seemed the warning voice of the North, as they sailed +on into the wilderness. + +The hunters kept below. Lund bossed the ship. Deming, it seemed, managed +to hold his cards and deal them despite his mending arm in splints. And +he was steadily winning. The girl talked with Rainey of her own life +ashore and at sea on earlier trips with her father, of his own desire to +write, of his ambitions, until there was little he had not told her, +even to the girl who was the daughter of the Lumber King. + +And the spell of her nearness, her youth, her beauty, naturally held +him. When he was on deck duty she remained in her room. When Lund +relieved him, the day's work giving Lund, Hansen, and Rainey each two +regular watches of four hours, though Lund put in most of the night as +the ice grew more difficult to navigate, Rainey occasionally saw the +giant's eyes sizing him up with a sardonic twinkle. + +For the time being, the safety of the _Karluk_ and the successful +carrying out of the purpose of the trip took all of Lund's attention and +energy. Twice he had been thwarted by the weather from gleaning his +golden harvest, and it began to look as if the third attempt might be no +more fortunate. + +"The _Karluk's_ stout," he said once, "but she ain't built for the +Arctic. If we git nipped badly she'll go like an eggshell." + +"And then what?" Rainey asked. + +"Git the gold! That's what we come for. If we have to make sleds an' use +the hunters for a dorg-team." He laughed indomitably. "We'll make a man +of you yit, Rainey, afore we git back." + +Lund was snatching sleep in scraps, seeking always to feel a way toward +the position of the island through the ice that continually baffled +progress. Several times they risked the schooner in a narrow lane when +a lull of the often uncertain wind would have seen them ground between +the edges of the floe. Twice Lund ordered out the boats to save them. +Once all hands fended desperately with spars to keep her clear, and only +the schooner's overhung stern saved her rudder from the savagely +clashing masses that closed behind them. + +But he showed few signs of strain. Once in a while he would sit with +closed eyes or pass his hands across his brows as if they pained him. +But he never complained, and the ice, taking on the dull hues of sea and +sky, gave off no glare that should affect the sight. Against all +opposition Lund forced his way until, just after sunset one night, as +the dusk swept down, he gave a shout and pointed to a fitful flare over +the port bow. Rainey thought it the aurora, but Lund laughed at him. + +"It's the crater atop the island," he said. "Nothin' dangerous. Reg'lar +lighthouse. Now, boys," he went on, his deep voice ringing with +exhilaration, "there's gold in sight! Whistle for a change of weather, +every mother's son of you!" + +The deck was soon crowded. On the previous trip the schooner had +approached the island from a different angle, but the men were swift to +acknowledge the glow of the volcano as the expected landfall. Lund +remained on deck, and it was late before any of the crew turned in. +Rainey, during his watch, saw the mountain fire-pulse, glowing and +winking like the eye of a Cyclops, its gleam reflected in the eyes of +the watchers who were about to invade the island and rob it of its +golden sands. + +The change of weather came about three in the morning, though not as +Lund had hoped. A sudden wind materialized from the north, stiffening +the canvas with its ice-laden breath, glazing the schooner wherever +moisture dripped, bringing up an angry scud of clouds that fought with +the moon. The sea appeared to have thickened. The _Karluk_ went +sluggishly, as if she was sailing in a sea of treacle. + +"Half slush already," said Lund. "We're in for a real cold snap. +There'll be pancake ice all around us afore dawn. That is sure a hard +beach to fetch. But it's too early for winter closing. After this nip +we'll have a warm spell. An' we got to git the stuff aboard an' start +kitin' south afore the big freeze-up catches us." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SMOKE + + +When Rainey came on deck the next morning he found the schooner floating +in a small lagoon that made the center of a floe. The water in it was +slush, half solid. Main and fore were close furled, the headsails also, +and the _Karluk_ was nosing against the far end of the rapidly +diminishing basin. The wind was still lively. + +All about were other floes, but they were widely separated, and between +them crisp waves of indigo were curling snappily. + +The island stood up sharp and jagged, much larger than Rainey had +anticipated. It boasted two cones, from one of which smoke was lazily +trailing. Ice was piled in wild confusion about its shores, wrecked by +the gale that had blown hard from four till eight, and was now +subsiding with the swift change common to the Arctic. + +A deep hum of bursting surf undertoned all other noises and, prisoned as +she was, the schooner and her floe were sweeping slowly toward the land +in the grip of a current rather than before the gusty wind. + +Lund had fendered the schooner's bows effectively before he went below +with old sails that enveloped stem and swell, stuffed with ropes and +bits of canvas. + +Within an hour the wind had ceased and the slush in the lagoon had +pancaked into flakes of forming ice that bid fair to become solid within +a short time, for the day was bitterly cold and tremendously bright. The +sky rose from filmy silver-azure to richest sapphire, and the rolling +waters between the floes were darkest purple-blue. As the whip of the +wind ceased they settled to a vast swell on which the great clumps of +ice rose and fell with dazzling reflections. + +Lund came up within the hour and stood blinking at the brilliance. + +"My eyes ain't as strong yit as they should be," he said to Rainey. "I +shouldn't have slung them glasses so hasty at Carlsen, though they +sp'iled his aim, at that. If this weather keeps up I'll have to make +snow-specs; there ain't another pair of smokes aboard." He made a shade +of his curved hand as he gazed at the island. + +"Current's got us," he said, "an' we'll fetch up mighty close to the +beach. It lies between those two ridges, close together, buttin' out +from the volcano. Long Strait current splits on Wrangell Island, and +we're in the trend of the northern loop. That's why the sea don't freeze +up more solid. It's freezin' fast enough round us, where there ain't +motion." + +He seemed well satisfied with the prospect. "Had breakfast?" he asked +Rainey, and then: "All right. We'll git the men aft." + +He bellowed an order, and soon every one came trooping, to gather in two +groups either side of the cabin skylight. Their faces were eager with +the proximity of the gold, yet half sullen as they waited to hear what +Lund had to say. Since the attempt against him Lund had said nothing +about their shares. They acknowledged him as master, but they still +rebelled in spirit. + +"There's the island," said Lund. "We'll make it afore sundown. The beach +is there, waitin' for us to dig it up. It'll be some job. I don't reckon +it's frozen hard, on'y crusted. If it is we'll bust the crust with +dynamite. But we got to hop to it. There'll be another cold spell after +this one peters out an' the next is like to be permanent. I want the +gold washed out afore then, an' us well down the Strait. It's up to you +to hump yoreselves, an' I'll help the humpin'. + +"We'll cradle most of the stuff an', if they's time, we'll flume the +silt tailin's for the fine dust. Providin' we can git a fall of water. +There'll be plenty for all hands to do. An' the shares go as first +fixed. I ain't expectin' you to do the diggin' an' not git a pinch or +two of the dust." + +The men's faces lighted, and they shuffled about, looking at one another +with grins of relief. + +"No cheers?" asked Lund ironically. "Wall, I hardly expected enny. +Hansen, you'll be one of the foremen, with pay accordin'. Deming." + +"I can't dig," said the hunter truculently. "Neither can Beale, with his +ribs." + +"You've got a sweet nerve," said Lund. "I reckon you've won enough to be +sure of yore shares, if the boys pay up. Enough for you to do some +diggin' in yore pockets for Beale. His ribs 'ud be whole if you hadn't +started the bolshevik stunt. But I'll find something for both of you to +do. Don't let that worry you none. + +"We've got mercury aboard somewhere," Lund continued, to Rainey, when +the men had dispersed, far more cheerful than they had gathered. "We'll +use that for concentration in the film riffles. Hansen'll have rockers +made that'll catch the big stuff. If the worst comes to the worst, +we'll load up the old hooker with the pay dirt an' wash it out on the +way home. I'll strip that beach down to bedrock if I have to work the +toes an' fingers off 'em." + +By noon the schooner was glazed in as firmly as a toy model that is +mounted in a glass sea. The wind blew itself entirely out, but the +current bore them steadily on to the clamorous shore, where the swells +were creating promontories, bays, cliffs and chasms in the piled-up +confusion of the floes pounding on the rocks, breaking up or sliding +atop one another in noisy confusion. + +The marble-whiteness of the ice masses was set off by the blues and soft +violets of their shadows, and by a pearly sheen wherever the planes +caught the light at a proper slant for the play of prisms. Beautiful as +it was, the sight was fearful to Rainey, in common with the crew. Only +Lund surveyed it nonchalantly. + +"It's bustin' up fast," he said. "All we need is a little luck. If we +ain't got that there's no use of worryin'. We can't blast ourselves out +o' this without riskin' the schooner. We ought to be thankful we froze +in gentle. There ain't a plank started. The floe'll fend us off. There +ain't enny big chunks enny way near us aft. Luck--to make a decent +landin'--is all we need, an' it's my hunch it's comin' our way." + +His "hunch" was correct. Though they did not actually make the little +bay on which the treasure beach debouched, they fetched up near it +against a broken hill of ice that had lodged on the sharp slopes of a +little promontory, making the connection without further damage than a +splitting of the forward end of their encasing floe, with hardly a jar +to the _Karluk_. + +Lund sent men ashore over the ice, climbing to the promontory crags with +hawsers by which they tied up schooner, floe and all, to the land. If +the broken hill suffered further catastrophe, which did not seem likely, +its fragments would fall upon the floe. In case of emergency Lund +ordered men told off day and night to stand by the hawsers, to cast +loose or cut, as the extremity needed. + +The main danger threatened from following floes piling up on theirs and +ramming over it to smash the schooner, but that was a risk that must be +met as it evolved, and there did not seem much prospect of the +happening. + +It was dark before they were snugged. The men volunteered, through +Hansen, to commence digging that night by the light of big fires, so +crazy were they at the nearness of the gold. But Lund forbade it. + +"You'll work reg'lar shifts when you git started," he said. "An' you +won't start till ter-morrer. We've got to stand by the ship ter-night +until we find out by mornin' how snug we're goin' to be berthed." + +All night long they lay in a pandemonium of noise. After a while they +would become used to it as do the workers in a stampmill, but that night +it deafened them, kept them awake and alert, fearful, with the +tremendous cannonading. The bite of the frost made the timbers of the +_Karluk_ creak and its thrust continually worked among the stranded +masses with groaning thunders and shrill grindings, while the surf ever +boomed on the resonant sheets of ice. + +The place held a strange mystery. On top of the main cone the volcanic +glow hung above the crater chimney, reflected waveringly on the rolling +clouds of smoke that blotted out the stars. There were no tremors, no +rumblings from the hidden furnace, only the flare of its stoking. The +stars that were visible were intensely brilliant points, and, when the +moon rose, it was accompanied by four mock moons bound in a halo that +widely encircled the true orb. The moon-dogs shone intermittently with +prismatic colors, like disks of mother-of-pearl, and the moon itself was +four-rayed. + +Under moon and stars the coast snaked away to end in a deceptive glimmer +that persisted beyond the eye-range of definite dimensions. And, despite +all the sound, muffled and sharp, of splinterings and explosions, of +the reverberation of the swell, outside all this clamor, silence seemed +to gather and to wait. Silence and loneliness. It awed the crew, it +invested the spirits of Peggy Simms and Rainey, gazing at the mystic +beauty of the Arctic landscape. + +The walls of forced-up ice shifted about them and came clattering down, +booming on their floe as if it had been a drum, and threatening to tilt +it by sheer weight had they not been fairly grounded forward. Other +floes came from seaward to batter at the cliffs, but the eddy that had +brought them to their resting-place seemed to have been dissolved in the +main current and, save for an occasional alarm, their stern was not +seriously invaded. + +Only, as the night wore on, the floating masses became cemented to one +another and the shore. The _Karluk_ was hard and fast within two hundred +yards of her Tom Tiddler's ground, just over the promontory. If a thaw +came, all should go well. If Lund had been deceived, and the true +winter was setting in early, the prospects were far from cheerful, +though no one seemed to think of that possibility. + +Beneath the glamour of the magic night, the weird paraselene of the +moon's phenomenon, the glow of the volcano, the noises, the men +whispered of one thing only--Gold! + +Dawn came before they were aware of it, a sudden rush of light that dyed +the ice in every hue of red and orange, that tipped the frozen coast +with bursts of ruby flame that flared like beacons and gilded the crests +of the long swells, tinging all their world with a wild, unnatural +glory. + +Lund, striding the deck, his red beard iced with his breath, suddenly +stopped and stared into the east. There, in the very eye of the dawn, +was a trail of smoke, like a plume against the flaming, three-quarters +circle of the rising sun! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE MIGHT OF NIPPON + + +Lund's face, on which the bruises were fast fading, changed purple-black +with rage. He whirled upon Sandy, gaping near, and ordered him to fetch +his binoculars. Through them he stared long at the smoke. Then he turned +to the girl and Rainey. + +"Come down inter the cabin," he said. "We'll need all our wits." + +"That's a gunboat patrol," he said. "Japanese, for a million! None other +this far west. An' it's damned funny it should come up right at this +minnit. We've made the trip on schedule time, an' here they show. But +we'll let that slide. We've got to think fast. They'll board us. They'll +overhaul us lookin' for seal pelts. At least, I hope so. + +"We've got none. Our hunters an' our rifles an' shotguns'll prove our +claim to be pelagic sealers. We got to trust they believe us. If there +was a hide aboard or a club, or a sign of a dead seal on the beaches +they'd nail us. They may, ennyway, jest on suspicion. + +"They run things out this way with a high hand. If they ever clap us in +prison it'll be where we can't let a peep out of us. A lot they worry +about our consuls. They's too many good sealers dropped out of sight in +one of their stinkin' jails to starve on millet an' dried, moldy fish. I +know what I'm talkin' about. + +"It's lucky we didn't start mussin' up that beach. But they'll go over +everything. I know 'em. They claim to own the seas hereabouts, an' +they're cockier than ever, since the war. Rainey you got to git busy on +the log. If yore father didn't keep it up, Miss Peggy, so much the +better. If he has, you got to fake it someways, Rainey. + +"I'm Simms, get me, until we're clear of 'em. An' you, Rainey, are Doc +Carlsen. Nothin' must show in the log about enny deaths." + +"But why?" asked the girl. "Why do we have to masquerade? If we haven't +touched the seals?" + +Lund barked at her: + +"I gave you credit for sharper wits," he said. "We've got to have +everything so reg'lar they can't find an excuse for haulin' us in an' +settin' fire to the schooner. They'd do it in a jiffy. We got to show +'em our clearance papers, an' we've got to tally up all down the line. +Rainey ain't on the ship's books--Carlsen is. Lund ain't, but Simms is. +I'm Simms. An' you"--he stopped to grin at her--"you're my daughter. +I'll dissolve the relationship after a while, I'll promise you that. An' +I'll drill the men. They know what's ahead of 'em if the Japs git +suspicious. + +"That ain't the worst of it! _They may know what we're after._ If they +do, we're goners. Ever occur to you, Rainey, that Tamada, who is a deep +one, may have tipped off the whole thing to his consul while the +schooner was at San Francisco? He was along the last trip. He'd know the +approximate position. Might have got the right figgers out o' the log, +him havin' the run of the cabin. A cable would do the rest. He'd git his +whack out of it, with the order of the Golden Chrysanthemum or some +jig-arig to boot, an' git even with the way he feels to'ard our outfit +for'ard, that ain't bin none too sweet to him." + +The suggestion held a foundation of conviction for Rainey. He had +thought of the consul. He had always sensed depths in Tamada's reserve, +he remembered bits of his talk, the "certain circumstances" that he had +mentioned. It looked plausible. Lund rose. + +"I'll fix Tamada," he said. But the girl stopped him. + +"You don't _know_ that's true. Tamada has been wonderful--to me. What do +you intend to do with him?" + +"I'll make up my mind between here and the galley," said Lund grimly. +"This is my third time of tackling this island, an' no Jap is goin' to +stand between me an' the gold, this trip. Why, even if he ain't blown on +us, he'll give the whole thing away. If he didn't want to they'd make +him come through if they laid their eyes on him. They've got more tricks +than a Chinese mandarin to make a man talk. Stands to reason he'll tell +'em. If he can talk when they git here," he added ominously, standing +half-way between the table and the door to the corridor, his hand +opening and closing suggestively. "The crew'd settle his hash if I +didn't. They ain't fools. They know what's ahead of 'em in Japan. You, +Rainey, git busy with that log. That gunboat'll have a boat alongside +this floe inside of ninety minnits." + +But Peggy Simms was between him and the door. + +"You shan't do it," she said, her eyes hard as flints, if Lund's were +like steel. "You don't know what he was to me when--when dad was buried. +Call him in and let him talk for himself or--or _I'll tell the Japanese +myself what we have come for!_" + +Lund stood staring at her, his face hard, his beard thrust out like a +bush with the jut of his jaw. Still she faced him, resolute, barely up +to his shoulder, slim, defiant. Gradually his features crinkled into a +grin. + +"I believe you would," he said at last. "An' I'd hate to fix you the way +I would Tamada. But, mind you, if I don't git a definite promise out of +him that rings true, I'll have to stow him somewheres, where they won't +find him. An' that won't be on board ship." + +The girl's face softened. + +"You said you played fair," she said with a sigh of relief. She stepped +to the door, opened it, and called for Tamada. The Japanese appeared +almost instantly. Lund closed the door behind him and locked it. + +"You know there's a patrol comin' up, Tamada?" he asked. "A Jap patrol?" + +"Yes." + +"What do you intend tellin' 'em if they come on board?" + +"Nothing, if I can help it. I think I can. I am not friendly with +Japanese government. It would be bad for me if they find me. One time I +belong Progressive Party in Japan. I make much talk. Too much. The +government say I am too progressive." + +Rainey imagined he caught a glint of humor in Tamada's eyes as he made +his clipped syllables. + +"So, I leave my country. Suppose I go on steamer I think that government +they stop me. I think even in California they may make trouble, if they +find me. So I go in _sampan_. Sometimes Japanese cross to California in +_sampan_." + +"That's right," said Rainey. He had handled more than one story of +Japanese crews landing on some desolate portion of the coast to avoid +immigration laws and steamer fares. Generally they were rounded up after +their perilous, daring crossing of the Pacific. Tamada's story held the +elements of truth. Even Lund nodded in reserved affirmation. + +"Also I ship on _Karluk_ as cook because of perhaps trouble if some one +know me in San Francisco. I think much better if they do not see me. I +have a plan. Also I want my share of gold. Suppose that gunboat find me, +find out about gold, they will not give me reward. You do not know +Japanese. They will put me in prison. It will be suggest to me, because +I am of _daimio_ blood"--Tamada drew himself up slightly as he claimed +his nobility--"that I make _hari-kari_. That I do not wish. I am +Progressive. I much rather cook on board _Karluk_ and get my share of +gold." + +Lund surveyed him moodily, half convinced. The girl was all eager +approval. + +"What is your plan, Tamada?" + +"We're losin' time on that log," cut in Lund. "Git busy, Rainey. Look +among Carlsen's stuff. He may have kept one. Dope up one of 'em, an' +burn the other. Now then, Tamada, dope out yore scheme; it's got to be +a good one." + +Both Lund and the girl were laughing when Rainey came out into the main +cabin again with the records. Tamada had disappeared. + +"He's some fox," said Lund. "Miss Peggy, you better superintend the +theatricals. It's got to be done right. Rainey, not to interrupt you, +what do you know about enteric fever?" + +"Nothing." + +"Well, it's the same as typhoid. There'll be a surgeon aboard that +gunboat. You got to bluff him. Say little an' look wise as an' owl. +Don't let him mix in with yore patient." + +"My patient?" + +"Tamada! He's got enteric fever. If there's time he'll give you all the +dope." + +"But I don't see how that--" + +"You will see when you see Tamada," Lund grinned. "How about them logs? +Can you fix 'em?" + +"I think so." + +"Then hop to it. I'm goin' to wise up the men and arrange a reception +committee. Don't forgit yore name's Carlsen, an' mine's Simms." + +Rainey wrote rapidly in his log, erasing, eliminating pages without +trace, imitating the skipper's phrasing. Fortunately Simms had made +scant entries at first and, later on, as the drug held him, none at all. +Carlsen had kept no record that he could find. The girl had gone forward +to aid with Tamada's plan which Lund had evidently accepted. + +Before he had quite finished he heard the tramp of men on deck and the +blast of a steam whistle. He ended his task and went up to see the +gunboat, gray and menacing, its brasses glistening, men on her decks at +their tasks, oblivious of the schooner, and officers on her bridge +watching the progress of a launch toward the floe. + +It made landing smartly, and a lieutenant, diminutive but highly +effective in appearance, led six men toward the _Karluk_. He wore a +sword and revolver; the men carried carbines. Their disciplined rank and +smartness, the waiting launch, the gunboat in the offing, were ominous +with the suggestion of power, the will to administer it. The officer in +command carried his chin at an arrogant tilt. Lund had rigged a gangway +and stood at the head of it, saluting the lieutenant as the latter +snappily answered the greeting. + +Rainey found the girl and put a hurried question. + +"What about Tamada? Where is he? What's the plan?" + +She turned to him with eyes that danced with excitement. + +"He's in the galley, Doctor Carlsen. But he isn't Tamada any more. He's +Jim Cuffee, nigger cook, sick with enteric fever, not to be disturbed." + +Rainey stared. It was a clever device, if Tamada could carry it out, and +he bear his own part in the masquerade. The willingness of Tamada to +risk the disguise was assurance of his fidelity. + +"Lund should have told me," he said. "I've got to change his name on +the papers. It won't take a minute though; he doesn't appear in the +log." + +The Japanese officer wasted no time on deck. For precaution, Rainey made +his alteration in the skipper's cabin, leaving the log there on the +built-in desk. + +"This is Lieutenant Ito, Doctor Carlsen," said Lund. "You want to see +our papers, Lieutenant?" + +"My orders are to examine the schooner," said Ito, in English, even more +perfect than Tamada's. His face was officially severe, though his slant +eyes shifted constantly toward the girl. Evidently she was an unexpected +feature of the visit. + +"I'll get the papers first," said Lund. "Doctor, you an' Peggy entertain +the lieutenant." Rainey set out some whisky, which the Japanese refused, +some cigars that he passed over with a motion of his hand. He sat down +stiffly and ran through the papers. + +"We're pelagic, you know," said Lund. "We ain't trespassin' on purpose. +Didn't even know you owned the island." + +"It is on our charts," said Ito crisply, as if that settled the right of +dominion. "How did you come here at all?" + +"We was brought," said Lund. "Got froze in north o' Wrangell. Gale set +us west as we come out o' the Strait. We're bound for Corwin. Nothin' +contraband. All reg'lar. Six hunters, two damaged in the gale, though +the doc's fixed 'em up. Twelve seamen, one boy, an' a nigger cook who's +pizened himself with his own cookin'. Doc's bringin' him round, too, +though he don't deserve it. Want to make yore inspection? We're in no +hurry to git away until the ice melts. Take yore time." + +The little, dapper officer with his keen, high-cheeked face, and his +shoe-brush hair, got up and bowed, with a side glance at Peggy Simms. + +"It is not usual for young ladies to be so far north." His endeavor at +gallantry was obvious. + +"I am with my father," said the girl, looking at Rainey, enjoying the +situation. + +"Where I go she goes," said Lund. And looked in turn at her with relish +in his double suggestion. He, too, was playing the game, gambling, +believing in his luck, reckless, now he had set the board. + +They passed through the corridor. Lund opened up the strong-room, and +then the galley. It was orderly, and there was a moaning figure in +Tamada's bunk, a tossing figure with a head bound in a red bandanna +above the black face and neck that showed above the blankets. The eyes +were closed. The black hands, showing lighter palms, plucked at the +coverings. + +"Delirious," said Lund. "Serves him right. He's a rotten cook." + +"Have you all the medicines you need?" asked Ito. "I can send our +surgeon." + +"I can manage," returned Rainey, _alias_ Carlsen. "It's enteric. I've +reduced the fever." + +They passed on through the hunters' quarters. The girl fell behind with +Rainey. + +"A good make-up and a good actor," she whispered. "I helped him to be +sure he covered everything that would show. It was my idea about the +bandanna. Just what a sick negro might wear, and it hid his straight +hair." + +The lieutenant appeared fairly satisfied, but requested that Lund go on +board his ship. He stayed there until sundown, returning in hilarious +mood. + +"We've slipped it over on 'em this time," he said. "I left 'em aswim +with _sake_, an' bubblin' over with polite regrets. But they'll be back +in three weeks, they said, if the ice is open. An', if the luck holds, +we'll be out of it. I don't want them searchin' the ship ag'in." He +slapped Tamada on the back as he came to serve supper after Sandy had +laid the table. + +"A reg'lar vodeville skit," he exclaimed. "You're some actor, Tamada! +But why didn't you say the island was down on their charts? They've even +got a name for it. Hiyama." + +"It means hot mountain," said Tamada. "The government names many +islands." + +"You can bet yore life they do," said Lund. "They're smart, but they +overlooked that beach an' they've given us three weeks to cash in." + +Lund himself had imbibed enough of the _sake_ to make him loose of +tongue, added to his elation at the success he had achieved. The gunboat +was gone on its patrol, and he had a free hand. He half filled a glass +with whisky. "Here's to luck," he cried. And spilled a part of the +liquor on the floor before he set the glass to his lips. + +"Here's to you, Doc," he added. "An' to Peggy!" He rolled eyes that were +a trifle bloodshot at the girl. + +"Our relations have gone back as usual, Mr. Lund," she said quietly. +Lund glared at her half truculently. + +"I'm agreeable," he said. "As a daughter, I disown you from now on, Miss +Peggy. Here's to ye, jest the same!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MY MATE + + +From the day following the arrival and departure of the Japanese +gunboat, they attacked the little U-shaped beach that lay between two +buttresses of the volcano and sloped sharply down to the sea. Twenty-one +men, a lad and a woman, they went at the despoiling of it with a sort of +obsession, led, rather than driven, by Lund, who worked among the rest +of them like a Hercules. + +From the beginning the tongue of shingle promised to be almost +incredibly rich. Between these two spurs of mountain the tide had washed +and flung the rich, free-flaking gold of a submarine vein, piling it up +for unguessable years. Ebb tides had worked it in among the gravel, +floods had beaten it down; the deeper they went to bedrock, the richer +the pan. + +The men's fancy estimate of a million dollars began speedily to seem +small as the work progressed, systematically stripping the rocky floor +of all its shingle, foot by foot, and cubic yard by cubic yard, cradling +it in crude rockers, fluming it, vaporizing the amalgam of gold and +mercury, and adding pound after pound of virgin gold to the sacks in the +schooner's strong-room. + +They worked at first in alternating shifts of four hours, by day and +night, under the sun, the moon, the stars and the flaming aurora. The +crust was drilled here and there where it had frozen into conglomerate, +and exploded by dynamite, carefully placed so as not to dislodge the +masses of ice that overhung the schooner. Fires to thaw out the ground +were unavailable for sheer lack of fuel; there was no driftwood between +these forestless shores. What fuel could be spared was conserved for use +under the boilers that melted ice to provide water for the cradles and +flumes, and help to cook the meals that Tamada prepared out-of-doors for +the workers. + +Buckets of coffee, stews, and thick soups of peas and lentils, masses of +beans with plenty of fat pork, these were what they craved after hours +of tremendous endeavor. Despite the cold, they sweated profusely at +their tasks, stripping off over-garments as they picked and shoveled or +crowbarred out the rich gravel. + +Peggy Simms worked with the rest, assisting Tamada, helping to serve +with Sandy. Deming, and Beale, the man with the damaged ribs, were given +odd jobs that they could handle: feeding the fires, washing up, or +assisting at the little forge where the drills were sharpened. + +Through all of it Lund was supreme as working superintendent. There was +no job that he could not, did not, handle better than any two of them, +and, though Rainey could see a shrinkage, or a compression, of his bulk +as day by day he called upon it for heroic service, he never seemed to +tire. + +"Got to keep 'em at it," he would say in the cabin. "No time to lose, +an' the odds all against us, in a way. Barring Luck. That's what we got +to count on, but we don't want them thinkin' that. If the weather don't +break--an' break jest right--as soon as we've cleaned up, we're stung. +Though I'll blast a way out of this shore ice, if it comes to the worst. +I saved out some dynamite on purpose." + +"We ought to have brought a steam-shovel along," said Rainey. He was +hard as iron, but he had served a tough apprenticeship to labor, and his +hands and nails, he fancied, would never get into shape again. + +"Now you're talkin'," agreed Lund. "We c'ud have handled it in fine +shape an' left the machine behind as junk or a souvenir for our Jap +friends. We've got to cut out this four-hour shift. Too much time wasted +changin'. Too many meals. We'll make it one long, steady shift of all +hands long as we can stand up to it, an' all git reg'lar sleep. I'm +needin' some myself." + +Rainey knew that neither he nor Hansen got within two-thirds as much +out of their shifts as when Lund was in command, though he had given +them the pick of the men. It was not that the men malingered, they +simply, neither of them, had the knack of keeping the work going at top +speed and top effectiveness. + +But, with Lund handling all of them as a unit, it was not long before +the shovels began to scrape on the bare rock that underlay the gravel at +tide edge, and work swiftly back to the end of the U. The outdoors +kitchen had been established on top of the promontory between the +schooner and the beach, a primitive arrangement of big pots slung from +tripods over fires kindled on a flat area that was partly sheltered from +the sea and the prevailing winds by outcrops of weathered lava. + +At dawn the men trooped from the schooner to be fed and warmed, and then +they flung themselves at their task. The more they got out the more +there was in it for them. But Lund was their overlord, their better, and +they knew it. Only Deming worked with one hand the handle of the forge +bellows, or fed the fires, and sneered. + +Lund stood a full head above the tallest of them, which was Rainey, and +he was always in the thick of the work, directing, demanding the utmost, +and setting example to back command. His eyes had bothered him, and he +had made a pair of Arctic snow-glasses, mere circles of wood with slits +in them. But under these the sweat gathered, and he discarded them, +resorting to the primitive device of smearing soot all about his eyes. +This, he said, gave him relief, but it made him a weird sort of Caliban +in his labors. + +On the fifteenth day, with the work better than half done, with more +than a ton of actual gold in colors, that ranged from flour dust to +nuggets, in the strong-room, the weather began to change. It misted +continually, and Lund, rejoicing, prophesied the breaking up of the cold +snap. + +By the eighteenth day a regular Chinook was blowing, melting the sharper +outlines of the icy crags and pinnacles, and providing streams of +moisture that, in the nights now gradually growing longer, glazed every +yard of rock with peril. + +The men worked in a muck with their rubber sea-boots worn out by +constant chafing, sweaters torn, the blades of their shovels reduced by +the work demanded of them, the drills, shortened by steady sharpening, +gone like the spare flesh of the laborers, who, at last, began to show +signs of quicker and quicker exhaustion with occasional mutterings of +discontent, while Lund, intent only upon cleaning off the rock as a +dentist cleans a crumbling tooth, coaxed and cursed, blamed and praised +and bullied, and did the actual work of three of them. + +Dead with fatigue, filled with food, drowsy from the liberal grog +allowance at the end of the day, the men slept in a torpor every night +and showed less and less inclination to respond, though the end of their +labors was almost in sight. + +"What's the use, we got enough," was the comment beginning to be heard +more and more frequently. "Lund, he's got more'n he can spend in a +lifetime!" + +Rainey could not trace these mutterings to Deming's instigation, but he +suspected the hunter. There was no poker; all hands were too tired for +play. + +The ice in which the schooner was packed began to show signs of +disintegration. The surface rotted by day and froze again by night and +this destroyed its compactness. If the sun's arc above the horizon had +been longer, its rays more vertical, the ice must infallibly have melted +and freed the _Karluk_, for it was salt-water ice, and there were times +when the thermometer stayed above its freezing point for two or three +hours around noon. + +Lund gave the holding floe scant attention. So long as the present +weather kept up he declared that he could dynamite his way out inside of +four hours. + +The effect of all this on Rainey was a bit bewildering. He was judging +life by new standards far apart from his own modes and, though he, too, +worked with a will, and rejoiced in the freer effort of his muscles, the +result comparing favorably with the best of the others--save Lund--he +could not assimilate the general conditions. + +They were too purely physical, he told himself; he missed his old +habits, the reading and discussion of books, new and old, the good +restaurants of San Francisco, and the chat he had been used to hold over +their tables, companionable, witty, the exchange and stimulation of +ideas. + +He missed the theaters, the concerts, the passing show of well-dressed +women, a hodge-podge of flesh-pots and mental uplift. He got to dreaming +of these things nights. + +Daytimes, he saw plainly that, in this environment at least, Lund was +big, and the rest of them comparatively small. He believed that Lund +could actually form a little kingdom of his own, as he had suggested, +and make a success of it. But it would not be a kingdom that fostered +the arts. It would cultivate the sciences, or at least encourage them +and adopt results as applied to land development, and, if necessary, the +defense of the kingdom. + +Lund would be a figure in war and peace, peace of the practical sort, +the kind of peace that went with plenty. He was no dreamer, but a +utilitarian. Perhaps, after all, the world most needed such men just +now. + +As for Peggy Simms, she did not lose the polish of her culture, she was +always feminine, even dainty at times, despite her work, that could not +help but be coarse to a certain extent. She was full of vigor, she +showed unexpected strength, she was a source of encouragement to the men +as she waited on them. And also a source of undisguised admiration, all +of which she shed as a duck sheds water. She was filled with abounding +health, she moved with a free grace that held the eye and lingered in +the mind. She was eminently a woman, and she also was big. + +Rainey gained an increasing respect in her prowess, and a swift +conversion to the equality of the sexes. There were times when he +doubted his own equality. Had she met him on his own ground, in his own +realm of what he considered vaguely as culture, he would have known a +mastery that he now lacked. As it was, she averaged higher, and she had +an attraction of sex that was compelling. + +Here was a girl who would demand certain standards in the man with whom +she would mate, not merely accompany through life. There were times when +Rainey felt irresistibly the charm of her as a woman, longed for her in +the powerful sex reactions that inevitably follow hard labor. There were +times when he felt that she did not consider that he measured up to her +gages, and he would strive to change the atmosphere, to dominate the +situation in which Lund was the greater figure of the two men. + +The rivalry that Lund had suggested between them as regards the girl, +Rainey felt almost thrust upon him. There were moods which Peggy Simms +turned to him for sharing, but there was scant time in the waking hours +for love-making, or even its consideration. + +Lund was centered on one achievement, the gold harvest. He ordered the +girl with the rest; there were even times when he reprimanded her, while +Rainey burned with the resentment she apparently did not share. + +A little before dawn on the eighteenth day of the work upon the beach, +Lund was out upon the floe examining the condition of the ice. He had +declared that two days more of hard endeavor would complete their +labors. What dirt remained at the end of that time they would transship. +Rainey had joined the girl and Tamada at the cook fires. + +The sky was bright with the aurora borealis that would pale before the +sun. The men were not yet out of their bunks. They were bone and muscle +tired, and Rainey doubted whether Lund, gaunt and lean himself, could +get two days of top work out of them. Near the fires for the cooking, +the melting of water and the forge, that were kept glowing all night, +the tools were stacked, to help preserve their temper. + +The aurora quivered in varying incandescence as Rainey watched Lund +prodding at the floe ice with a steel bar. The girl was busy with the +coffee, and Tamada was compounding two pots of stew and bubbling peas +pudding for the breakfast, food for heat and muscle making. + +Sandy appeared on deck and came swiftly over the side of the vessel and +up the worn trail to the fires. He showed excitement, Rainey fancied, +sure of it as the lad got within speaking distance. + +"Where is Mr. Lund?" he panted. + +Rainey pointed to Lund, now examining a crack that had opened up in the +floe, a possible line of exit for the _Karluk_, later on. The men were +beginning to show on the schooner. They, too, he noted somewhat idly, +acted differently this morning. Usually they were sluggish until they +had eaten, sleepy and indifferent until the coffee stimulated them, and +Lund took up this stimulus and fanned it to a flame of work. This +morning they walked differently, abnormally active. + +"They're drunk, an' they're goin' on strike," said Sandy. "You know the +big demijohn in the lazaretto?" + +Rainey nodded. It was a two-handled affair holding five gallons, a +reserve supply of strong rum from which Lund dispensed the grog +allowances and stimulations for extra work toward the end of the shift, +the night-caps and occasional rewards. + +"They've swiped it," he said. "Put an empty one from the hold in its +place. We got plenty without usin' that one for a while, an' I only +happened to notice it this morning by chance. They've bin drinkin' all +night, I reckon. They're ugly, Mr. Rainey. It's the crew this time. They +got the booze. The hunters are sober. Deming ain't in on this. They did +it on their own. I don't know how they got it. I didn't get it for 'em, +sir. They must have worked plumb through the hold an' got to it that +way." + +"All right, Sandy. Thanks. Mr. Lund can handle them, I guess. He's +coming now." + +The men had got to the ice, hidden from Lund, who was walking to the +_Karluk_ on the opposite side of the vessel. The seamen were +gesticulating freely; the sound of their voices came up to him where he +stood, tinged with a new freedom of speech, rough, confident, menacing. +As they climbed the trail their legs betrayed them and confirmed the +boy's story. Behind them came the four hunters, with Hansen, walking +apart, watching the sailors with a certain gravity that communicated +itself despite the distance. + +Lund showed at the far rail of the schooner with his bar. He glanced +toward the men going to work, went below, and came up with a sweater. He +had left the bar behind him in the cabin, where it was used for a stove +poker. + +The men filed by Rainey, their faces flushed and their eyes unusually +bright. They seemed to share a prime joke that wanted to bubble up and +over, yet held a restraint upon themselves that was eased by digs in one +another's ribs, in laughs when one stumbled or hiccoughed. + +But Hansen was stolid as ever, and the hunters had evidently not shared +the stolen liquor. Only Deming's eyes roved over the group of men as +they gathered round for their cups and pannikins of food. He seemed to +be calculating what advantage he could gain out of this unexpected +happening. + +Peggy Simms, under cover of pouring the coffee, sweetened heavily with +condensed milk, found time to speak to Rainey. + +"They're all drunk," she said. + +"Not all of them. Here comes Lund. He'll handle it." + +Lund seemed still pondering the problem of the floe. At first he did not +notice the condition of the sailors. Then he apparently ignored it. But, +after they had eaten, he talked to all the men. + +"Two more days of it, lads, and we're through. The beach is nigh +cleared. We can git out of the floe to blue water easy enough, an' we'll +git a good start on the patrol-ship. We'll go back with full pockets an' +heavy ones. The shares'll be half as large again as we've figgered. I +wouldn't wonder if they averaged sixteen or seventeen thousand dollars +apiece." + +Rainey had picked out a black-bearded Finn as the leader of the sailors +in their debauch. The liquor seemed to have unchained in him a spirit of +revolt that bordered on insolence. He stood with his bowed legs apart, +mittened hands on hips, staring at Lund with a covert grin. + +Next to Lund he was the biggest man aboard. With the rum giving an +unusual coordination to his usually sluggish nervous system, he promised +to be a source of trouble. + +Rainey was surprised to see him shrug his shoulders and lead the way to +the beach. Perhaps breakfast had sobered them, though the fumes of +liquor still clung cloudily on the air. + +Lund went down, with Rainey beside him, reporting Sandy. + +"I'll work it out of 'em," said Lund. "That booze'll be an expensive +luxury to 'em, paid for in hard labor." + +They found the men ranged up in three groups. Deming and Beale, against +custom, had gone down to the beach. They were supposed to help clean the +food utensils, and aid Tamada after a meal, besides replenishing the +fires. + +They stood a little away from the hunters and Hansen and the sailors. +The Finn, talking to his comrades in a low growl, was with a separate +group. + +There was an air of defiance manifest, a feeling of suspense in the tiny +valley, backed by the frowning cone, ribbed by the two icy promontories. +Lund surveyed them sharply. + +"What in hell's the matter with you?" he barked. "Hansen, send up a man +for the drills an' shovels. Yore work's laid out; hop to it!" + +"We ain't goin' to work no more," said the Finn aggressively. "Not fo' +no sich wage like you give." + +"Oh, you ain't, ain't you?" mocked Lund. He was standing with Rainey in +the middle of the space they had cleared of gravel, the seamen lower +down the beach, nearer the sea, their ranks compacted. "Why, you +booze-bitten, lousy hunky, what in hell do you want? You never saw +twenty dollars in a lump you c'u'd call yore own for more'n ten minnits. +You boardin'-house loafer an' the rest of you scum o' the seven seas, +git yore shovels an' git to diggin', or I'll put you ashore in San +Francisco flat broke, an' glad to leave the ship, at that. _Jump!_" + +The Finn snarled, and the rest stood firm. Not one of them knew the real +value of their promised share. Money represented only counters exchanged +for lodging, food and drink enough to make them sodden before they had +spent even their usual wages. Then they would wake to find the rest +gone, and throw themselves upon the selfish bounty of a boarding-house +keeper. + +But they had seen the gold, they had handled it, and they were inflamed +by a sense of what it ought to do for them. Perhaps half of them could +not add a simple sum, could not grasp figures beyond a thousand, at +most. And the sight of so much gold had made it, in a manner, cheap. It +was there, a heap of it, and they wanted more of that shining heap than +had been promised them. + +"You talk big," said the Finn. "Look my hands." He showed palms +calloused, split, swollen lumps of chilblained flesh worn down and +stiffened. "I bin seaman, not goddam navvy." + +Lund turned to the hunters. + +"You in on this?" he asked. Deming and Beale moved off. Two of the +others joined them. "Neutral?" sneered Lund. "I'll remember that." +Hansen and the two remaining came over beside Lund and Rainey. + +"Five of us," said Lund. "Five men against twelve fo'c'sle rats. I'll +give you two minnits to start work." + +"You talk big with yore gun in pocket," said the Finn. "Me good man as +you enny day." + +Lund's face turned dark with a burst of rage that exploded in voice and +action. + +"You think I need my gun, do ye, you pack of rats? Then try it on +without it." + +His hand slid to his holster inside his heavy coat. His arm swung, there +was a streak of gleaming metal in the lifting sun-rays, flying over the +heads of the seamen. It plunked in the free water beyond the ice. + +"Come on," roared Lund, "or I'll rush you to the first bath you've had +in five years." The Finn lowered his head, and charged; the rest +followed their leader. The hot food had steadied their motive control to +a certain extent, they were firmer on their feet, less vague of eye, but +the crude alcohol still fumed in their brains. Without it they would +never have answered the Finn's call to rebellion. + +He had promised, and their drunken minds believed, that refusing in a +mass to work would automatically halt things until they got their +"rights." They had not expected an open fight. The spur of alcohol had +thrust them over the edge, given them a swifter flow of their +impoverished blood, a temporary confidence in their own prowess, a mock +valor that answered Lund's contemptuous challenge. + +Lund, thought Rainey, had done a foolhardy thing in tossing away his +gun. It was magnificent, but it was not war. Pure bravado! But he had +scant time for thinking. Lund tossed him a scrap of advice. "Keep +movin'! Don't let 'em crowd you!" Then the fight was joined. + +The girl leaned out from the promontory to watch the tourney. Tamada, +impassive as ever, tended his fires. Sandy crept down to the beach, +drawn despite his will, and shuffled in and out, irresolute, too weak to +attempt to mix in, but excited, eager to help. Deming, Beale, and the +two neutral hunters, stood to one side, waiting, perhaps, to see which +way the fight went, reserves for the apparent victor. + +The Finn, best and biggest of the sailors, rushed for Lund, his little +eyes red with rage, crazy with the desire to make good his boast that he +was as good as Lund. In his barbaric way he was somewhat of a dancer, +and his legs were as lissome as his arms. He leaped, striking with fists +and feet. + +Lund met him with a fierce upper-cut, short-traveled, sent from the hip. +His enormous hand, bunched to a knuckly lump of stone, knocked the Finn +over, lifting him, before he fell with his nose driven in, its bone +shattered, his lips broken like overripe fruit, and his discolored teeth +knocked out. + +He landed on his back, rolling over and over, to lie still, half +stunned, while two more sprang for Lund. + +Lund roared with surprise and pain as one caught his red beard and swung +to it, smiting and kicking. He wrapped his left arm about the man, +crushing him close up to him, and, as the other came, diving low, +butting at his solar plexus, the giant gripped him by the collar, using +his own impetus, and brought the two skulls together with a thud that +left them stunned. + +The two dropped from Lund's relaxed arms like sacks, and he stepped over +them, alert, poised on the balls of his feet, letting out a shout of +triumph, while he looked about him for his next adversary. + +The bedrock on which they fought was slippery where ice had formed in +the crevices. Two seamen tackled Hansen. He stopped the curses of one +with a straight punch to his mouth, but the man clung to his arm, +bearing it down. Hansen swung at the other, and the blow went over the +shoulder as he dodged, but Hansen got him in chancery, and the three, +staggering, swearing, sliding, went down at last together, with Hansen +underneath, twisting one's neck to shut off his wind while he warded off +the wild blows of the second. With a wild heave he got on all-fours, +and then Lund, roaring like a bull as he came, tore off a seaman and +flung him headlong. + +"Pound him, Hansen!" he shouted, his eyes hard with purpose, shining +like ice that reflects the sun, his nostrils wide, glorying in the +fight. + +The Finn had got himself together a bit, wiping the gouts of blood from +his face and spitting out the snags of his broken teeth. He drew a knife +from inside his shirt, a long, curving blade, and sidled, like a crab, +toward Lund, murder in his piggy, bloodshot eyes, waiting for a chance +to slip in and stab Lund in the back, calling to a comrade to help him. + +"Come on," he called, "Olsen, wit' yore knife. Gut the swine!" + +Another blade flashed out, and the pair advanced, crouching, knees and +bodies bent. Lund backed warily toward the opposite cliff, looking for a +loose rock fragment. He had forbidden knives to the sailors since the +mutiny, and had forced a delivery, but these two had been hidden. A +knife to the Finn was a natural accessory. Only his drunken frenzy had +made him try to beat Lund at his own game. + +One of the two hunters, lamed with a kick on the knee, howling with the +pain, clinched savagely and bore the seaman down, battering his head +against a knob of rock. The other friendly hunter had bashed and +buffeted his opponent to submission. But Rainey was in hard case. + +A seaman, half Mexican, flew at him like a wildcat. Rainey struck out, +and his fists hit at the top of the breed's head without stopping him. +Then he clinched. + +The Mexican was slippery as an eel. He got his arms free, his hands shot +up, and his thumbs sought the inner corners of Rainey's eyes. The +sudden, burning anguish was maddening and he drove his clasped fists +upward, wedging away the drilling fingers. + +Two hands clawed at his shoulders from behind. Some one sprang fairly on +his back. A knee thrust against his spine. + +The agony left him helpless, the vertebræ seemed about to crack. +Strength and will were shut off, and the world went black. And then one +of the hunters catapulted into the struggle, and the four of them went +down in a maddened frenzy of blows and stifled shouts. + +The sailors fought like beasts, striving for blows barred by all codes +of decency and fair play, intent to maim. Lund had got his shoulders +against the rocks and stood with open hands, watching the two with their +knives, who crept in, foot by foot, to make a finish. + +Peggy Simms, a strand of her pale yellow hair whipped loose, flung it +out of her eyes as she stood on the edge of the cliff, her lips apart, +her breasts rising stormily, watching; her features changing with the +tide of battle as it surged beneath her, punctuated with muffled shouts +and wind-clipped oaths. She saw Lund at bay, and snatched out her +pistol. But the distance was too great. She dared not trust her aim. + +Sandy, dancing in and out, willing but helpless, bound by fear and lack +of muscle, saw Deming, followed by Beale, stealing up the trail, +unnoticed by the girl, who leaned far forward, watching the fight, her +eyes on Lund and the two creeping closer with their knives, cautious but +determined. Tamada stood farther back and could not see them. + +The lad's wits, sharpened by his forecastle experience, surmised what +Deming and Beale were after as they gained the promontory flat and ran +toward the fires. + +"Hey!" he shrilled. "Look out; they're after the tools!" + +Deming's hand was stretched toward a shovel, its worn steel scoop sharp +as a chisel. Beale was a few feet behind him. They were going to toss +the shovels and drills down to the seamen. + +Tamada turned. His face did not change, but his eyes gleamed as he +thrust a dipper in the steaming remnants of the pea-soup and flung the +thick blistering mass fair in Deming's face. At the same moment the +girl's pistol cracked with a stab of red flame. Beale dropped, shot in +the neck, close to the collarbone, twisting like a scotched snake, +rolling down the trail to the beach again. + +Deming, howling like a scorched devil, clawed with one hand at the +sticky mass that masked him as he ran blind, wild with pain. He tripped, +clutched, and lost his hold, slid on a plane of icy lava, smooth as +glass, struck a buttress that sent him off at a tangent down the face of +the cliff, bounding from impact with an outthrust elbow of the rock, +whirling into space, into the icy turmoil of the waves, flooding into +the inlet. + +Peggy Simms fled down the trail with a steel drill in either hand, +straight across the beach toward Lund. The Finn turned on her with a +snarl and a side-swipe of his knife, but she leaped aside, dodged the +other slow-foot, and thrust a drill at Lund, who grasped it with a cry +of exultation, swinging it over his head as if it had been a bamboo. +Hansen had shaken off his men, and came leaping in for the second drill. + +The knife fell tinkling on the frozen rock as Lund smashed the wrist of +the Finn. The girl's gun made the second would-be stabber throw up his +hands while Hansen snatched his weapon, flung it over the farther cliff, +and knocked the seaman to the ground before he joined Lund, charging the +rest, who fled before the sight of them and the threat of the bars of +steel. + +Lund laughed loud, and stopped striking, using the drill as a goad, +driving them into a huddled horde, like leaderless sheep, knee-deep, +thigh-deep, into the water, where they stopped and begged for mercy +while Hansen turned to put a finish to the separate struggles. + +It ended as swiftly as it had begun. One hunter could barely stand for +his kicked knee, Rainey's back was strained and stiffening, Lund had +lost a handful of his beard, and Hansen's cheek was laid open. + +On the other side the casualties were more severe. Deming was drowned, +his body flung up by the tide, rolling in the swash. Beale was coughing +blood, though not dangerously wounded. The Finn was crying over his +broken wrist, all the fight out of him. Ribs were sore where not +splintered from the drills, and the two bumped by Lund sat up with +sorely aching heads. The courage inspired by the liquor was all gone; +oozed, beaten out of them. They were cowed, demoralized, whipped. + +Lund took swift inventory, lining them up as they came timorously out of +the water or straggled against the cliff at his order. Tamada had come +down from the fires. Peggy had told of his share, and Sandy's timely +shout. Lund nodded at him in a friendly manner. + +"You're a white man, Tamada," he said. "You, too, Sandy. I'll not forget +it. Rainey, round up these derelicts an' help Tamada fix 'em up. I'll +settle with 'em later. Hansen, put the rest of 'em to work, an' keep 'em +to it! Do you hear? They got to do the work of the whole bunch." + +They went willingly enough, limping, nursing their bruises, while +Hansen, his stolidity momentarily vanished in the rush of the fight and +not yet regained, exhibited an unusual vocabulary as he bossed them. +Lund turned to the two hunters, who had stood apart. + +"Wal, you yellow-bellied neutrals," he said, his voice cold and his eyes +hard. "Thought I might lose, and hoped so, didn't you? Pick up that +skunk Beale an' tote him aboard. Then come back an' go to work. You'll +git yore shares, but you'll not git what's comin' to those who stood by. +Now git out of my sight. You can bury That when you come back." He +nodded at the sodden corpse of Deming, flung up on the grit. "You can +take yore pay as grave-diggers out of what you owe him at poker. He +ain't goin' to collect this trip." + +Rainey, lame and sore, helped Tamada patch up the wounded, turning the +hunters' quarters into a sick bay, using the table for operation. Beale +was the worst off, but Tamada pronounced him not vitally damaged. After +he had finished with them he insisted upon Rainey's lying, face down, on +the table, stripped to the waist, while he rubbed him with oil and then +kneaded him. Once he gave a sudden, twisting wrench, and Rainey saw a +blur of stars as something snapped into place with a click. + +"I think you soon all right, now," said Tamada. + +"You and Miss Simms turned the tide," said Rainey. "If they'd got those +tools first they'd have finished us in short order." + +"Fools!" said Tamada. "Suppose they kill Lund, how they get away? No one +to navigate. Presently the gunboat would find them. I think Mr. Lund +will maybe trust me now," he said quietly. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Mr. Lund think in the back of his head I arrange for that gunboat to +come. He can not understand how they know the schooner at island. He +think to come jus' this time too much curious, I think." + +"It was a bit of a coincidence." + +Tamada shrugged his shoulders slightly. + +"I think Japanese government know all that goes on in North Polar +region," he said. "There is wireless station on Wrangell Island. We pass +by that pretty close." + +Rainey chewed that information as he put on his clothes, wondering if +they had seen the last of the gunboat. They would have to pass south +through Bering Strait. It would be easy to overhaul them, halt them, +search the schooner, confiscate the gold. They were not out of trouble +yet. + +When he went into the cabin to replace his torn coat--he had hardly a +button intact above the waist, from jacket to undershirt--he found the +girl there with Lund. Apparently, they had just come in. Peggy Simms, +with face aglow with the excitement that had not subsided, was +proffering Lund her pistol. + +"Keep it," he said. "You may need it. I've got mine." + +"But you threw it into the water. I saw you." + +"No," He laughed. "That wasn't my gun. They thought it was. I wanted +to bring the thing to grips. But I wasn't fool enough to chuck away my +gun. That was a wrench I was usin' this mornin' to fix the cabin +stove--looks jest like an ottermatic. I stuck it in my inside pocket. I +was ha'f a mind to shoot when they showed their knives, but I didn't +want to use my gun on that mess of hash." + +He stood tall and broad above her, looking down at the face that was +raised to his. Rainey, unnoticed as yet, saw her eyes bright with +admiration. + +"You are a wonderful fighter," she said softly. + +"Wonderful? What about you? A man's woman! You saved the day. Comin' to +me with them drills. An' we licked 'em. We. God!" + +He swept her up into his arms, lifting her in his big hands, making no +more of her than if she had been a feather pillow, up till her face was +on a level with his, pressing her close, while in swift, indignant rage +she fought back at him, striking futilely while he held her, kissed her, +and set her down as Rainey sprang forward. + +Lund seemed utterly unconscious of the girl's revulsion. + +"Comin' to me with the drills!" he said. "We licked 'em. You an' me +together. My woman!" + +Peggy Simms had leaped back, her eyes blazing. Lund came for her, his +face lit with the desire of her, arms outspread, hands open. Before +Rainey could fling himself between them, the girl had snatched the +little pistol that Lund had set on the table and fired point-blank. She +seemed to have missed, though Lund halted, his mouth agape, astounded. + +"You big bully!" said Rainey. Now that the time had come he found that +he was not afraid of Lund, of his gun, of his strength. "Play fair, do +you? Then show it! You asked me once why I didn't make love to her. I +told you. But you, you foul-minded bully! All you think of is your big +body, to take what it wants. + +"Peggy. Will you marry me? I can protect you from this hulking brute. If +it's to be a show-down between you and me," he flared at Lund, still +gazing as if stupefied, "let it come now. Peggy?" + +The girl, tears on her cheeks that were born from the sobs of anger that +had shaken her, swung on him. + +"You?" she said, and Rainey wilted under the scorn in her voice. "Marry +you?" She began to laugh hysterically, trying to check herself. + +"I didn't mean you enny harm," said Lund slowly, addressing Peggy. "Why, +I wouldn't harm you, gal. You're my woman. You come to me. I was +jest--jest sorter swept off my bearin's. Why," he turned to Rainey, his +voice down-pitching to a growl of angry contempt, "you pen-shovin' +whippersnapper, I c'ud break you in ha'f with one hand. You ain't her +breed. But"--his voice changed again--"if it's a show-down, all right. + +"If I was to fight you, over her, I'd kill you. D'ye think I don't +respect a good gal? D'ye think I don't know how to love a gal right? +She's _my_ mate. Not yours. But it's up to you, Peggy Simms. I didn't +mean to insult you. An' if you want him--why, it's up to you to choose +between the two of us." + +She went by Rainey as if he had not existed, straight into Lund's arms, +her face radiant, upturned. + +"It's you I love, Jim Lund," she said. "A man. _My_ man." + +As her arms went round his neck she gave a little cry. + +"I wounded you," she said, and the tender concern of her struck Rainey +to the quick. "Quick, let me see." + +"Wounded, hell!" laughed Lund. "D'ye think that popgun of yores c'ud +stop me? The pellet's somewheres in my shoulder. Let it bide. By God, +yo're my woman, after all. Lund's Luck!" + +Rainey went up on deck with that ringing in his ears. His humiliation +wore off swiftly as he crossed back toward the beach. By the time he +crossed the promontory he even felt relieved at the outcome. He was not +in love with her. He had known that when he intervened. He had not even +told her so. His chivalry had spoken--not his heart. And his thoughts +strayed back to California. The other girl, Diana though she was, would +never, in almost one breath, have shot and kissed the man she loved. A +lingering vision of Peggy Simms' beauty as she had gone to Lund remained +and faded. + +"Lund's right," he told himself. "She's not of my breed." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LUND'S LUCK + + +Lund glanced at the geyser of spray where the shell from the pursuing +gunboat had fallen short, and then at the bank of mist ahead. They were +in the narrows of Bering Strait, between the Cape of Charles and Prince +Edward's Point, the gold aboard, a full wind in their sails, making +eleven knots to the gunboat's fifteen. + +It was mid-afternoon, three hours since they had seen smoke to the north +and astern of them. Either the patrol had found them gone from the +island, freed by blasting from the floe, and followed on the trail full +speed, or the wireless from some Japanese station on the Tchukchis coast +had told of their homing flight. + +The great curtain of fog was a mile ahead. The last shell had fallen two +hundred yards short. Five minutes more would settle it. Hansen had the +wheel. Lund stood by the taffrail, his arm about Peggy Simms. He shook a +fist at the gunboat, vomiting black smoke from her funnel, foam about +her bows. + +"We'll beat 'em yet," he cried. + +The next shell, with more elevation, whined parallel with them, sped +ahead, and smashed into the waves. + +"Hold yore course, Hansen! No time to zigzag. Got to chance it. Damn it, +they know how to shoot!" + +A missile had gone plump through main and foresails, leaving round holes +to mark the score. Another fairly struck the main topmast, and some +splinters came rattling down, while the remnants of the top-sail flapped +amid writhing ends of halyard and sheet. + +They entered the beginning of the fog, curling wisps of it reached out, +twining over the bowsprint and headsails, enveloping the foremast, +swallowing the schooner as a hurtling shell crashed into the stern. The +next instant the mist had sheltered them. Lund released the girl and +jumped to the wheel. + +"Now then," he shouted, "we'll fool 'em!" He gripped the spokes, and the +men ran to the sheets at command while the _Karluk_ shot off at right +angles to her previous course, skirting the fog that blanketed the wind +but yet allowed sufficient breeze to filter through to give them +headway, gliding like a ghost on the new tack to the east. + +Rainey, tense from the explosion of the shell, jumped below at last and +came back exultant. + +"It was a dud, Lund!" he shouted. "Or else they didn't want to blow us +up on account of the gold. But they've wrecked the cabin. The fog's +coming in through the hole they made. Tamada's galley's gone. It's raked +the schooner!" + +"So long's it's above the water line, to hell with it! We'll make out. +Listen to the fools. They've gone in after us, straight on." + +The booming of the gunboat's forward battery sounded aft of them, +dulled by the fog--growing fainter. + +"Lund's luck! We've dodged 'em!" + +"They'll be waiting for us at the passes," said Rainey. "They've got the +speed on us." + +"Let 'em wait. To blazes with the Aleutians! Ready again there for a +tack! Sou'-east now. We'll work through this till we git to the wind +ag'in. It's all blue water to the Seward Peninsula. We're bound for +Nome." + +"For Nome?" asked Peggy Simms. + +"Nome, Peggy! An American port. The nearest harbor. An' the nearest +preacher!" + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man to His Mate, by J. Allan Dunn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN TO HIS MATE *** + +***** This file should be named 28597-8.txt or 28597-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/9/28597/ + +Produced by Brian Janes, Suzanne Lybarger, Pilar Somoza +Fernández and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/28597-8.zip b/28597-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..13b5df5 --- /dev/null +++ b/28597-8.zip diff --git a/28597-h.zip b/28597-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..701338b --- /dev/null +++ b/28597-h.zip diff --git a/28597-h/28597-h.htm b/28597-h/28597-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5a916d --- /dev/null +++ b/28597-h/28597-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7083 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=US-ASCII" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Man To His Mate, by J. Allan Dunn. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em; } + .gap {margin-top: 2em;} + .dgap {margin-top: 4em;} + .noind {text-indent: 0em;} + .center {text-align: center;} + + h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {text-align: center; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + h1 {font-size: 200%;} + h2 {font-size: 175%;} + h3 {font-size: 150%;} + h4 {font-size: 120%;} + h5 {font-size: 100%;} + h6 {font-size: 80%;} + hr { width: 30%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + .tl {text-align: left; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 3em; } + .tr {text-align: right;} + .pagenum {text-indent: 0em; position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: 0.7em; text-align: right; color: gray;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .caption {font-size: smaller;} + .note {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; + text-align: justify; font-size: .8em; + background-color: #eeeeee; padding:10px;} + ins.correction {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted red;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man to His Mate, by J. Allan Dunn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Man to His Mate + +Author: J. Allan Dunn + +Illustrator: Stockton Mulford + +Release Date: April 24, 2009 [EBook #28597] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN TO HIS MATE *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Janes, Suzanne Lybarger, Pilar Somoza +Fernández and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="note"> +<p class="noind">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="noind">Spelling mistakes have been left in the text to match the original, +except for obvious typographical errors, marked <ins class="correction" title="text reads 'llike this'">like this</ins>.</p> +</div> + +<h1>A MAN TO HIS MATE</h1> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;"> +<img src="images/f000.jpg" width="407" height="550" alt="The sea struck the opposite rail with a roar" title="The sea struck the opposite rail with a roar" /> +<span class="caption">The sea struck the opposite rail with a roar</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>A Man to His Mate</h1> + +<h6 class="gap"><i>by</i></h6> + +<h2>J. ALLAN DUNN</h2> + +<h6 class="gap"><span class="smcap">Author of</span></h6> +<h5>Jim Morse—Adventurer, Turquoise Canyon,<br /> +Dead Man's Gold, etc.</h5> + +<h5 class="dgap"><i>Illustrated by</i></h5> +<h3>STOCKTON MULFORD</h3> + + +<h6 class="dgap">INDIANAPOLIS<br /> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY<br /> +PUBLISHERS</h6> + + + +<hr/> + +<h6><span class="smcap">Copyright</span> 1920<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Frank A. Munsey Company</span></h6> + +<h6><span class="smcap">Copyright</span> 1920<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Bobbs-Merrill Company</span></h6> + + +<h6 class="dgap"><i>Printed in the United States of America</i></h6> + + +<h6 class="dgap">PRESS OF<br /> +BRAUNWORTH & CO.<br /> +BOOK MANUFACTURERS<br /> +BROOKLYN. N. Y.</h6> + + +<hr/> + + +<h6><i>To</i></h6> +<h5>J. E. DE RUYTER, <span class="smcap">Esquire</span></h5> +<h6>this yarn is affectionately and<br /> +appreciatively dedicated</h6> + + +<hr/> + +<div class="center"> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="tr"><span class="smcap">chapter</span></td><td class="tl"> </td><td class="tr"><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">I</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Blind Samson</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">II</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">A Divided Company</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">25</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">III</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Target Practise</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">47</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">IV</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">The Bowhead</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">V</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Rainey Scores</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">82</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">VI</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Sandy Speaks</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">VII</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Rainey Makes Decision</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">117</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">VIII</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Tamada Talks</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">132</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">IX</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">The Pot Simmers</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">151</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">X</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">The Show-down</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">163</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">XI</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Honest Simms</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">186</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">XII</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Deming Breaks an Arm</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">210</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">XIII</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">The Rifle Cartridges</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">230</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">XIV</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Peggy Simms</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">241</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">XV</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Smoke</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">266</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">XVI</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">The Might of Nippon</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">277</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">XVII</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">My Mate</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">293</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tr">XVIII</td><td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Lund's Luck</span></td><td class="tr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">332</a></td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">{1}</a></span></p> + + + + +<h1>A Man to His Mate</h1> + + +<h2 class="gap"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>BLIND SAMSON</h3> + + +<p>It was perfect weather along the San Francisco water-front, and Rainey +reacted to the brisk touch of the trade-wind upon his cheek, the breeze +tempering the sun, bringing with it a tang of the open sea and a hint of +Oriental spices from the wharves. He whistled as he went, watching a +lumber coaster outward bound. The dull thump of a heavy cane upon the +timbered walk and the shuffle of uncertain feet warned him from +blundering into a man tapping his way along the Embarcadero, a giant who +halted abruptly and faced him, leaning on the heavy stick.</p> + +<p>"Matey," asked the giant, "could you put a blind man in the way of +finding the sealin' schooner <i>Karluk</i>?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">{2}</a></span></p> + +<p>The voice fitted its owner, Rainey thought—a basso voice tempered to +the occasion, a deep-sea voice that could bellow above the roar of a +gale if needed. For all his shoregoing clothes and shuffle, the man was +certainly a sailor, or had been. All the skin uncovered by cloth or hair +was weathered to leather, the great hands curled in as if they clutched +an invisible rope. He wore dark glasses with side lenses, over which +heavy brows projected in shaggy wisps of red hair.</p> + +<p>Blind as the man proclaimed himself with voice and action, Rainey sensed +something back of those colored glasses that seemed to be appraising +him, almost as if the will of the man was peering, or listening, focused +through those listless sockets. A kind of magnetism, not at all +attractive, Rainey decided, even as he offered help and information.</p> + +<p>"You're not fifty yards from the <i>Karluk</i>," Rainey replied. "But you're +bound in the wrong direction. Let me put you right. I'm going that way +myself."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">{3}</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's kind of ye, matey," said the other. "But I picked ye for that +sort, hearin' you whistlin' as you came swingin' along. Light-hearted, I +thinks, an' young, most likely; he'll help a stranded man. Give me the +touch of yore arm, matey, an' I'll stow this spar of mine."</p> + +<p>He swung about, slinging the curving handle of the stick over his right +elbow as the fingers of his left hand placed themselves on Rainey's +proffered arm. Strong fingers, almost vibrant with a force manifest +through serge and linen. Fingers that could grip like steel upon +occasion.</p> + +<p>Rainey wonderingly sized up his consort. The stranger's bulk was +enormous. Rainey was well over the average himself, but he was only a +stripling beside this hulk, this stranded hulk, of manhood. And, for all +the spectacled eyes and shuffling feet, there was a stamp of coordinated +strength about the giant that bespoke the blind Samson. Given eyes, +Rainey could imagine him agile as a panther, strong as a bear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">{4}</a></span></p> + +<p>His weight was made up of thews and sinews, spare and solid flesh +without an ounce of waste, upon a mighty skeleton. His face was +heavy-bearded in hair of flaming, curling red, from high cheek-bones +down out of sight below the soft loose collar of his shirt. The bridge +of his glasses rested on the outcurve of a nose like the beak of an +osprey, the ends of the wires looped about ears that lay close to the +head, hairy about the inner-curves, lobeless, the tips suggesting the +ear-tips of a satyr.</p> + +<p>Mouth and jaw were hidden, but the beard could not deny the bold +projection of the latter. About thirty, Rainey judged him. Buffeted by +time and weather, but in the prime of his strength.</p> + +<p>"Snow-blinded, matey," said the man. "North o' Point Barrow, a year an' +more ago. Brought me up all standin'. What are you? Steamer man? Purser, +maybe?"</p> + +<p>"Newspaperman," answered Rainey. "Water-front detail. For the <i>Times</i>."</p> + +<p>"You don't say so, matey? A writer, eh?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">{5}</a></span></p> + +<p>Again Rainey felt the tug of that something back of the dark lenses, +some speculation going on in the man's mind concerning him. And he felt +the firm fingers contract ever so slightly, sinking into the muscles of +his forearm for a second with a hint of how they could bruise and +paralyze at will. Once more a faint sense of revulsion fought with his +natural inclination to aid the handicapped mariner, and he shook it off.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Karluk</i> sails to-morrow," he said.</p> + +<p>"Aye, so—so they told me, matey. You've bin aboard?"</p> + +<p>"I had a short talk with Captain Simms when she docked. Not much of a +yarn. She didn't have a good trip, you know."</p> + +<p>"Why, I didn't know. But—hold hard a minnit, will ye? You see, Simms is +an old shipmate of mine. He don't dream I'm within a hundred miles o' +here. Aye, or a thousand." He gave a deep-chested chuckle. "Now, then, +matey, look here."</p> + +<p>Rainey was anchored by the compelling grip.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">{6}</a></span> They stood next to the slip +in which the sealer lay. The <i>Karluk's</i> decks were deserted, though +there was smoke coming from the galley stovepipe.</p> + +<p>"Simms is likely to be aboard," went on the other. "Ye see, I know his +ways. An' I've come a long trip to see him. Nigh missed him. Only got in +from Seattle this mornin'. He ain't expectin' me, an' it's in my mind to +surprise him. By way of a joke. I don't want to be announced, ye see. +Just drop in on him. How's the deck? Clear?"</p> + +<p>"No one in sight," said Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Fine! Mates an' crew down the Barb'ry Coast, I reckon. Sealers have +liberties last shore-day. Like whalers. I've buried a few irons myself, +matey, but I'll never sight the vapor of a right whale ag'in. Stranded, +I am. So you'll do me a favor, matey, an' pilot me down into the cabin, +if so be the skipper's there. If he ain't, I'll wait for him. I've got +the right an' run o' the <i>Karluk's</i> cabin. I know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">{7}</a></span> ev'ry inch of her. +You'll see when we go aboard. Let's go."</p> + +<p>Rainey led him down the gangway to the deck of the sealer, still +cluttered a bit with unstowed gear. Once on board, the blind man seemed +to walk with assurance, guiding himself with touches here and there that +showed his familiarity with the vessel's rig. And he no longer shuffled, +but walked lightly, grinning at Rainey through his beard, with one blunt +forefinger set to his mouth as he approached the cabin skylight, lifted +on the port side. Through it came the murmur of voices. The blind man +nodded in satisfaction and widened his grin with a warning "hush-h" to +his guide.</p> + +<p>"We'll fool 'em proper," he lipped rather than uttered.</p> + +<p>The companion doors were closed, but they opened noiselessly. The stairs +were carpeted with corrugated rubber that muffled all sound. Two men sat +at the cabin table, leaning forward, hands and forearms outstretched, +fingering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">{8}</a></span> something. One Rainey recognized as the captain, Simms—a +heavy, square-built man, gray-haired, clean-shaven, his flesh tanned, +yet somehow unhealthy, as if the bronze was close to tarnishing. There +were deep puffs under the gray tired eyes.</p> + +<p>The other was younger, tall, nervously active, with dark eyes and a dark +mustache and beard, the latter trimmed to a Vandyke. Between them was a +long slim sack of leather, a miner's poke. It was half full of something +that stuffed its lower extremity solid, without doubt the same substance +that glistened in the mouth of the sack and the palms of the two +men—gold—coarse dust of gold!</p> + +<p>Rainey felt himself thrust to one side as the blind man straddled across +the bottom of the companionway, towering in the cabin while he thrust +his stick with a thump on the floor and thundered, in a bellow that +seemed to fill the place and come tumbling back in deafening echo:</p> + +<p>"<i>Karluk</i> ahoy!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">{9}</a></span></p> + +<p>The face of Captain Simms paled, the tan turned to a sickly gray, and +his jaw dropped. Rainey saw fear come into his eyes. His companion did +not stir a muscle except for the quick shift of his glance, but went on +sitting at the table, the gold in one palm, the fingers of his other +hand resting on the grains.</p> + +<p>"Jim Lund!" gasped the captain hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"That's me, you skulking sculpin? Thought I was bear meat by this, +didn't you, blast yore rotten soul to hell! But I'm back, Bill Simms. +Back, an' this time you don't slip me!"</p> + +<p>Jim Lund's face was purple-red with rage, great veins standing out upon +it so swollen that it seemed they must surely burst and discharge their +congested contents. Out of the purpling flesh his scarlet hair curled in +diabolical effect. His teeth gleamed through his beard, strong, yellow, +far apart. He looked, Rainey thought, like a blind Berserker, restrained +only by his affliction.</p> + +<p>"You left me blind on the floe, Bill Simms!" he roared. "Blind, in a +drivin' blizzard with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">{10}</a></span> the ice breakin' up! If I didn't have use for +yore carcass I'd twist yore head from yore scaly body like I'd pull up a +carrot."</p> + +<p>Lund's fingers opened and closed convulsively. Before Rainey the vision +of the threatened crime rose clear.</p> + +<p>"I looked for you, Jim," pleaded the captain, and to Rainey his words +lacked conviction. "I didn't know you were blind. I heard you shout just +before the blizzard broke loose."</p> + +<p>Lund answered with an inarticulate roar.</p> + +<p>"And there's others present, Jim. I can explain it to you when we're by +ourselves. When you're a mite calmer, Jim."</p> + +<p>Lund banged his stick down on the table with a smashing blow that made +the man with the Vandyke beard, still silent, keenly observant, draw +back his arm with a catlike swiftness that only just evaded the stroke. +The heavy wood landed fairly on the filled half of the poke and caused +some of the gold to leap out of the mouth.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 384px;"> +<img src="images/f010.jpg" width="384" height="550" alt=""What's that I hit?" asked Lund" title=""What's that I hit?" asked Lund" /> +<span class="caption">"What's that I hit?" asked Lund</span> +</div> + + +<p>"What's that I hit?" asked Lund. "Soft,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">{11}</a></span> like a rat." He lunged forward, +felt for the poke, and found it, lifted it, hefted it, his forehead +puckered with deep seams, discovered the open end, poured out some of +the colors on one palm, and used that for a mortar, grinding at the +grains with his finger for a pestle, still weighing the stuff with a +slight up-and-down movement of his hand.</p> + +<p>He nodded as he slipped the poke into a side pocket, and the cabin grew +very silent. Lund's face was grimly terrible. Rainey could have gone +when the blind man reached for the gold and left the ladder clear. He +had meant to go at the first opportunity, but now he was held fascinated +by what was about to happen, and Lund stepped back across the +companionway.</p> + +<p>"So," said Lund, his deep voice muffled by some swift restraint. "You +found it. And yo're going back after more?" His forehead was still +creased with puzzlement. "Wal, I'm going with ye, eyes or no eyes, an' +I'll keep tabs on ye, Bill Simms, by day and night. You can lay to that, +you slimy-hearted swab!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">{12}</a></span></p> + +<p>His voice had risen again. Rainey saw the sweat standing out on the +captain's forehead as he answered:</p> + +<p>"Of course you'll come, Jim. No need for you to talk this way."</p> + +<p>"No need to talk! By the eternal, what I've got to say's bin steamin' in +me for fourteen months o' blackness, an' it's comin' out, now it's +started! Who's this man, who was talkin' with ye when I come aboard?"</p> + +<p>He wheeled directly toward the man with the Vandyke, who still sat +motionless, apparently calm, looking on as if at a play that might turn +out to be either comedy or tragedy.</p> + +<p>"That's Doctor Carlsen. He's to be surgeon this trip, Jim," said Simms +deprecatingly, though he darted a look at Rainey half suspicious, half +resentful.</p> + +<p>Rainey, on the hint, turned toward the ladder quietly enough, but Lund +had nipped him by the biceps before Rainey had taken a step.</p> + +<p>"You'll stay right here," said Lund, "while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">{13}</a></span> I tell you an' this Doc +Carlsen what kind of a man Simms is, with his poke full of gold and me +with the price of my last meal spent two hours ago. I won't spin out the +yarn.</p> + +<p>"I rescued an Aleut off a bit of a berg one time. There warn't much of +him left to rescue. Hands an' feet an' nose was frozen so he lost 'em, +but the pore devil was grateful, an' he told me something. Told about an +island north of Bering Strait, west of Kotzebue Sound, where there was +gold on the beach richer and thicker than it ever lay at Nome. I makes +for it, gits close enough for my Aleut to recognize it—it ain't an easy +place to forget for one who has eyes—an' then we're blown south, an' we +git into ice an' trouble. The Aleut dies, an' I lose my ship. But I was +close enough to get the reckonin' of that island.</p> + +<p>"Finally I land at Seattle, broke. I meet up with the man they call +Hardluck Simms. Also they called him Honest Simms those days. Some said +his honesty accounted for his hard luck. I like him, an' I finally tell +him about my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">{14}</a></span> island. I put up the reckonin', an' he supplies the +<i>Karluk</i>, grub, an' crew.</p> + +<p>"Simms' luck is still ag'in' him. The <i>Karluk</i> gits into ice, gits +nipped an' carried north, 'way north, with wind an' current, frozen +tight in a floe. It looks like we've got to winter there. Mind ye, I've +given Honest Simms the reckonin' of the island. We go out on the ice +after bear, though the weather's threatenin', for we're short of meat. +An' we kill a Kadiak bear. Me—I'll never stand for the shootin' of +another bear if I can stop it.</p> + +<p>"I've bin havin' trouble with my eyes. Right along. I'm on the floe not +eighty yards from Simms. No, not sixty! It was me killed the bear, an' +we're goin' back to the schooner for a sled. I stayed behind to bleed +the brute. All of a sudden, like it always hits you, snow-blindness gits +me, an' I shouts to Honest Simms. I'm blind, with my eyeballs on fire, +an' the fire burnin' back inter my brain.</p> + +<p>"Along comes a Point Arrow blister. That's a gale that breeds an' bursts +of a second out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">{15}</a></span> nowhere. It gathers up all the loose snow an' ice +crystals an' drives 'em in a whirlwind. Presently the wind starts the +ice to buckin' an' tremblin' like a jelly under you, splitting inter +lanes. You lose yore direction even when you got eyes. I'm left in it by +that bilge-blooded skunk, blind on the rockin', breakin' floe, while he +scuds back to the schooner with his men. That's Honest Simms! Jim Lund's +left behind but Honest Simms has the position of the island."</p> + +<p>"I didn't hear you call out you were blind, Lund. The wind blew your +words away. I didn't know but what you were as right as the rest of us. +The gale shut us all out from each other. We found the schooner by sheer +luck before we perished. We looked for you—but the floe was broken up. +We looked—"</p> + +<p>"Shut up!" bellowed Lund. "You sailed inside of twenty-four hours, +Honest Simms. The natives told me so later, when I could understand talk +ag'in. D'ye know what saved me? The bear! I stumbled over the carcass +when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">{16}</a></span> I was nigh spent. I ripped it up and clawed some of the warm guts, +an' climbed inside the bloody body an' stayed there till it got cold an' +clamped down over me. Waitin' for you to come an' git me, Honest Simms!</p> + +<p>"That bear was bed and board to me until the natives found it, an' me in +it, more dead than alive. Never mind the rest. I get here the day before +you start back for more gold.</p> + +<p>"An' I'm goin' with you. But first I'm goin' to have a full an' fair +accountin' o' what you got already. I've got this young chap with me, +an' he'll give me a hand to'ard a square deal."</p> + +<p>Lund propelled Rainey forward a few steps and then loosened his grip. +The captain of the <i>Karluk</i> appealed to him directly.</p> + +<p>"You're with the <i>Times</i>," he said. All through the talk Rainey was +conscious of the gaze of Doctor Carlsen, whose dark eyes appeared to be +mocking the whole proceedings, looking on with the air of a man watching +card-play with a prevision of how the game will come out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">{17}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mr. Lund is unstrung," said the captain. "He is under the delusion that +we deliberately deserted him and, later, found the gold he speaks of. +The first charge is nonsense. We did all that was possible in the +frightful weather. We barely saved the ship.</p> + +<p>"As for the gold, we touched on the island, and we did some prospecting, +a very little, before we were driven offshore. The dust in the poke is +all we secured. We are going back for more, quite naturally. I can prove +all this to you by the log. It is manifestly not doctored, for we +imagined Mr. Lund dead. If we had been able to work the beach +thoroughly, nothing would tempt me into going back again to add to even +a moderate fortune."</p> + +<p>Lund had been standing with his great head thrust forward as if +concentrating all his remaining senses in an attempt to judge the +captain's talk. The doctor sat with one leg crossed, smoking a +cigarette, his expression sardonic, sphinxlike. To Rainey, a little +bewildered at being dragged into the affair, and annoyed at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">{18}</a></span> it, Captain +Simms' words rang true enough. He did not know what to say, whether to +speak at all. Lund supplied the gap.</p> + +<p>"If that ain't the truth, you lie well, Simms," he said. "But I don't +trust ye. You lie when you say you didn't hear me call out I was blind. +Sixty yards away, I was, an' the wind hadn't started. I was afraid—yes, +afraid—an' I yelled at the top of my lungs. An' you sailed off inside +of twenty-four hours."</p> + +<p>"Driven off."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe ye. You deserted me—left me blind, tucked in the +bloody, freezin' carcass of a bear. Left me like the cur you are. Why, +you—"</p> + +<p>The rising frenzy of Lund's voice was suddenly broken by the clear note +of a girl's voice. One of two doors in the after-end of the main cabin +had opened, and she stood in the gap, slim, yellow-haired, with gray +eyes that blazed as they looked on the little tableau.</p> + +<p>"Who says my father is a cur?" she demanded. "You?" And she faced Lund +with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">{19}</a></span> such intrepid challenge in her voice, such stinging contempt, that +the giant was silenced.</p> + +<p>"I was dressing," she said, "or I would have come out before. If you say +my father deserted you, you lie!"</p> + +<p>Captain Simms turned to her. Doctor Carlsen had risen and moved toward +her. Rainey wished he was on the dock. Here was a story breaking that +was a <i>saga</i> of the North. He did not want to use it, somehow. The +girl's entrance, her vivid, sudden personality forbade that. He felt an +intruder as her eyes regarded him, standing by Lund's side in apparent +sympathy with him, arrayed against her father. And yet he was not +certain that Lund had not been betrayed. The remembrance of the first +look in the captain's face when he had glanced up from handling the gold +and seen Lund was too keen.</p> + +<p>"Go into your cabin, Peggy," said the captain. "This is no place for +you. I can handle the matter. Lund has cause for excitement; but I can +satisfy him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">{20}</a></span></p> + +<p>Lund stood frozen, like a pointer on scent, all his faculties united in +attention toward the girl. To Rainey he seemed attempting to visualize +her by sheer sense of hearing, by perceptions quickened in the blind. +The doctor crossed to the girl and spoke to her in a low voice.</p> + +<p>Lund spoke, and his voice was suddenly mild.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know there was a lady present, miss," he said. "Yore father's +right. You let us settle this. We'll come to an agreement."</p> + +<p>But, for all his swift change to placability, there was a sinister +undertone to his voice that the girl seemed to recognize. She hesitated +until her father led her back into the cabin.</p> + +<p>"You two'll sit down?" said the doctor, speaking aloud for the first +time, his voice amiable, carefully neutral. "And we'll have a drop of +something. Mr. Lund, I can understand your attitude. You've suffered a +great deal. But you have misunderstood Captain Simms. I have heard about +this from him, before. He has no desire to cheat you. He is rejoiced to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">{21}</a></span> +see you alive, though afflicted. He is still Honest Simms, Mr. Lund.</p> + +<p>"I haven't your name, sir," he went on pleasantly, to Rainey. "The +captain said you were a newspaperman?"</p> + +<p>"John Rainey, of the <i>Times</i>. I knew nothing of this before I came +aboard."</p> + +<p>"And you will understand, of course, what Mr. Lund overlooked in his +natural agitation, that this is not a story for your paper. We should +have a fleet trailing us. We must ask your confidence, Mr. Rainey."</p> + +<p>There was a strong personality in the doctor, Rainey realized. Not the +blustering, driving force of Lund, but a will that was persistent, +powerful. He did not like the man from first appearances. He was too +aloof, too sardonic in his attitudes. But his manner was friendly +enough, his voice compelling in its suggestion that Rainey was a man to +be trusted. Captain Simms came back into the cabin, closing the door of +his daughter's room.</p> + +<p>"We are going to have a little drink together,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">{22}</a></span> said the doctor. "I +have some Scotch in my cabin. If you'll excuse me for a moment? Captain, +will you get some glasses, and a chair for Mr. Lund?"</p> + +<p>The captain looked at Rainey a little uncertainly, and then at Lund, +whose aggressiveness seemed to have entirely departed. It was Rainey who +got the chair for the latter and seated himself. He would join in a +friendly drink and then be well shut of the matter, he told himself.</p> + +<p>And he would promise not to print the story, or talk of it. That was +rotten newspaper craft, he supposed, but he was not a first-class man, +in that sense. He let his own ethics interfere sometimes with his pen +and what the paper would deem its best interests. And this was a whale +of a yarn.</p> + +<p>But it was true that its printing would mean interference with the +<i>Karluk's</i> expedition. And there was the girl. Rainey was not going to +forget the girl. If the <i>Karluk</i> ever came back? But then she would be +an heiress.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">{23}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey pulled himself up for a fool at the way his thoughts were racing +as the doctor came back with a bottle of Scotch whisky and a siphon. The +captain had set out glasses and a pitcher of plain water from a rack.</p> + +<p>"I imagine you'll be the only one who'll take seltzer, Mr. Rainey," said +the doctor pleasantly, passing the bottle. "Captain Simms, I know, uses +plain water. Siphons are scarce at sea. I suppose Mr. Lund does the +same. And I prefer a still drink."</p> + +<p>"Plain water for mine," said Lund.</p> + +<p>"We're all charged," said the doctor. "Here's to a better +understanding!"</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you aboard, Mr. Rainey," said the captain.</p> + +<p>Lund merely grunted.</p> + +<p>Rainey took a long pull at his glass. The cabin was hot, and he was +thirsty. The seltzer tasted a little flat—or the whisky was of an +unusual brand, he fancied. And then inertia suddenly seized him. He lost +the use of his limbs, of his tongue, when he tried to call out. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">{24}</a></span> saw +the doctor's sardonic eyes watching him as he strove to shake off a +lethargy that swiftly merged into dizziness.</p> + +<p>Dimly he heard the scrape of the captain's chair being pushed back. From +far off he heard Lund's big voice booming, "Here, what's this?" and the +doctor's cutting in, low and eager; then he collapsed, his head falling +forward on his outstretched arms.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">{25}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>A DIVIDED COMPANY</h3> + + +<p>It was not the first time that Rainey had been on a ship, a sailing +ship, and at sea. Whenever possible his play-hours had been spent on a +little knockabout sloop that he owned jointly with another man, both of +them members of the Corinthian Club. While the <i>Curlew</i> had made no +blue-water voyages, they had sailed her more than once up and down the +California coast on offshore regattas and pleasure-trips, and, lacking +experience in actual navigation, Rainey was a pretty handy sailorman for +an amateur.</p> + +<p>So, as he came out of the grip of the drug that had been given him, +slowly, with a brain-pan that seemed overstuffed with cotton and which +throbbed with a dull persistent ache—with a throat that seemed to be +coated with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">{26}</a></span> ashes, strangely contracted—a nauseated stomach—eyes that +saw things through a haze—limbs that ached as if bruised—the sounds +that beat their way through his sluggish consciousness were familiar +enough to place him almost instantly and aid his memory's flickering +film to reel off what had happened.</p> + +<p>As he lay there in a narrow bunk, watching the play of light that came +through a porthole beyond his line of vision, noting in this erratic +shuttling of reflected sunlight the roll and pitch of cabin walls, +listening to the low boom of waves followed by the swash alongside that +told him the <i>Karluk</i> was bucking heavy seas, a slow rage mastered him, +centered against the doctor with the sardonic smile and Captain Simms, +who Rainey felt sure had tacitly approved of the doctor's actions.</p> + +<p>He remembered Lund's exclamation of, "Here, what's this?"—the question +of a blind man who could not grasp what was happening—and acquitted +him.</p> + +<p>They had deliberately kidnapped him, shanghaied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">{27}</a></span> him, because they did +not choose to trust him, because they thought he might print the story +of the island treasure beach in his paper, or babble of it and start a +rush to the new strike of which he had seen proof in the gold dust +streaming from the poke.</p> + +<p>He had been willing to suppress the yarn, Rainey reflected bitterly, his +intentions had been fair and square in this situation forced upon him, +and they had not trusted him. They were taking no chances, he thought, +and suddenly wondered what position the girl would take in the matter. +He could not think of her approving it. Yet she would naturally side +with her father, as she had done against Lund's accusations. And Rainey +suspected that there was something back of Lund's charge of desertion. +The girl's face, her graceful figure, the tones of her voice, clung in +his still palsied recollection a long time before he could dismiss it +and get round to the main factor of his imprisonment—<i>what were they +going to do with him?</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">{28}</a></span></p> + +<p>There was a fortune in sight. For gold, men forget the obligations of +life and law in civilization; they revert to savage type, and their +minds and actions are swayed by the primitive urge of lust. Treachery, +selfishness, cruelty, crime breed from the shining particles even before +they are in actual sight and touch.</p> + +<p>Rainey knew that. He had read many true yarns that had come down from +the frozen North, in from the deserts and the mountains, tales of the +mining records of the West.</p> + +<p>He mistrusted the doctor. The man had drugged him. He was a man whose +profession, where the mind was warped, belittled life. Captain Simms had +been charged with leaving a blind man on a broken floe. Lund was the +type whose passions left him ruthless. The crew—they would be bound by +shares in the enterprise, a rough lot, daring much and caring little for +anything beyond their own narrow horizons. The girl was the only +redeeming feature of the situation.</p> + +<p>Was it because of her—it might be because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">{29}</a></span> of her special +pleading—that they had not gone further? Or were they still fighting +through the heads, waiting until they got well out to sea before they +disposed of him, so there would be no chance of his telltale body +washing up along the coast for recognition and search for clues? He +wondered whether any one had seen him go aboard the <i>Karluk</i> with +Lund—any one who would remember it and mention the circumstance when he +was found to be missing.</p> + +<p>That might take a day or two. At the office they would wonder why he +didn't show up to cover his detail, because he had been steady in his +work. But they would not suspect foul play at first. He had no immediate +family. His landlady lodged other newspapermen, and was used to their +vagaries. And all this time the <i>Karluk</i> would be thrashing north, well +out to sea, unsighted, perhaps, for all her trip, along that coast of +fogs.</p> + +<p>Rainey had disappeared, dropped out of sight. He would be a front-page +wonder for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">{30}</a></span> a day, then drop to paragraphs for a day or so more, and +that would be the end of it.</p> + +<p>But they had made him comfortable. He was not in a smelly forecastle, +but in a bunk in a cabin that must open off the main room of the +schooner. Why had they treated him with such consideration? He dozed +off, for all his wretchedness, exhausted by his efforts to untangle the +snarl. When he awoke again his mouth was glued together with thirst.</p> + +<p>The schooner was still fighting the sea—the wind, too, Rainey +fancied—sailing close-hauled, going north against the trade. He fumbled +for his watch. It had run down. His head ached intolerably. Each hair +seemed set in a nerve center of pain. But he was better.</p> + +<p>Back of his thirst lay hunger now, and the apathy that had held him to +idle thinking had given way to an energy that urged him to action and +discovery.</p> + +<p>As he sat up in his bunk, fully clothed as he had come aboard, the door +of his cabin opened and the doctor appeared, nodded coolly as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">{31}</a></span> saw +Rainey moving, disappeared for an instant, and brought in a draft of +some sort in a long glass.</p> + +<p>"Take this," said Carlsen. "Pull you together. Then we'll get some food +into you."</p> + +<p>The calm insolence of the doctor's manner, ignoring all that had +happened, seemed to send all the blood in Rainey's body fuming to his +brain. He took the glass and hurled its contents at Carlsen's face. The +doctor dodged, and the stuff splashed against the cabin wall, only a few +drops reaching Carlsen's coat, which he wiped off with his handkerchief, +unruffled.</p> + +<p>"Don't be a damned fool," he said to Rainey, his voice irritatingly +even. "Are you afraid it's drugged? I would not be so clumsy. I could +have given you a hypodermic while you slept, enough to keep you +unconscious for as many hours as I choose—or forever.</p> + +<p>"I'll mix you another dose—one more—take it or leave it. Take it, and +you'll soon feel yourself again after Tamada has fed you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">{32}</a></span> Then we'll +thrash out the situation. Leave it, and I wash my hands of you. You can +go for'ard and bunk with the men and do the dirty work."</p> + +<p>He spoke with the calm assumption of one controlling the schooner, +Rainey noted, rather as skipper than surgeon. But Rainey felt that he +had made a fool of himself, and he took the second draft, which almost +instantly relieved him, cleansing his mouth and throat and, as his +headache died down, clearing his brain.</p> + +<p>"Why did you drug me?" he demanded. "Pretty high-handed. I can make you +pay for this."</p> + +<p>"Yes? How? When? We're well off Cape Mendocino, heading nor'west or +thereabouts. Nothing between us and Unalaska but fog and deep water. +Before we get back you'll see the payment in a different light. We're +not pirates. This was plain business. A million or more in sight.</p> + +<p>"Lund nearly spilled things as it was, raving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">{33}</a></span> the way he did. It's a +wonder some one didn't overhear him with sense enough to tumble.</p> + +<p>"We didn't take any chances. Rounded up the crew, and got out. The man +who's made a gold discovery thinks everybody else is watching him. It's +a genuine risk. If they followed us, they'd crowd us off the beach. I +don't suppose any one has followed us. If they have, we've lost them in +this fog.</p> + +<p>"But we didn't take any risks after Lund's blowing off. He might have +done it ashore before you brought him aboard. I don't think so. But he +might. And so might you, later."</p> + +<p>"I'd have given you my word."</p> + +<p>"And meant to keep it. But you'd have been an uncertain factor, a weak +link. You might have given it away in your sleep. You heard enough to +figure the general locality of the island when Lund blurted it out. You +knew too much. Suppose the <i>Karluk</i> fought up to Kotzebue Bay and found +a dozen power-vessels hanging about, waiting for us to lead them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">{34}</a></span> to the +beach? And we'd have worried all the way up, with you loose. You're a +newspaperman. The suppression of this yarn would have obsessed you, lain +on your reportorial conscience.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose your salary is much over thirty a week, is it? Now, +then, here you are in for a touch of real adventure, better than +gleaning dock gossip, to a red-blooded man. If we win—and you saw the +gold—<i>you</i> win. We expect to give you a share. We haven't taken it up +yet, but it'll be enough. More than you'd earn in ten years, likely, +more than you'd be apt to save in a lifetime. We kidnapped you for your +own good. You're a prisoner <i>de luxe</i>, with the run of the ship."</p> + +<p>"I can work my passage," said Rainey. He could see the force of the +doctor's argument, though he didn't like the man. He didn't trust the +doctor, though he thought he'd play fair about the gold. But it was +funny, his assuming control.</p> + +<p>"Yachted a bit?" asked Carlsen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">{35}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Can you navigate?"</p> + +<p>Rainey thought he caught a hint of emphasis to this question.</p> + +<p>"I can learn," he said. "Got a general idea of it."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" The doctor appeared to dismiss the subject with some relief. +"Well," he went on, "are you open to reason—and food? I'm sorry about +your friends and folks ashore, but you're not the first prodigal who has +come back with the fatted calf instead of hungry for it."</p> + +<p>"That part of it is all right," said Rainey. There was no help for the +situation, save to make the most of it and the best. "But I'd like to +ask you a question."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead. Have a cigarette?"</p> + +<p>Rainey would rather have taken it from any one else, but the whiff of +burning tobacco, as Carlsen lit up, gave him an irresistible craving for +a smoke. Besides, it wouldn't do for the doctor to know he mistrusted +him. If he was to be a part of the ship's life, there was small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">{36}</a></span> sense +in acting pettishly. He took the cigarette, accepted the light, and +inhaled gratefully.</p> + +<p>"What's the question?" asked Carlsen.</p> + +<p>"You weren't on the last trip. You weren't in on the original deal. But +I find you doing all the talking, making me offers. You drugged me on +your own impulse. Where's the skipper? How does he stand in this matter? +Why didn't he come to see me? What is your rating aboard?"</p> + +<p>"You're asking a good deal for an outsider, it seems to me, Rainey. I +came to you partly as your doctor. But I speak for the captain and the +crew. Don't worry about that."</p> + +<p>"And Lund?" Rainey could not resist the shot. He had gathered that the +doctor resented Lund.</p> + +<p>Carlsen's eyes narrowed.</p> + +<p>"Lund will be taken care of," he said, and, for the life of him, Rainey +could not judge the statement for threat or friendly promise. "As for my +status, I expect to be Captain Simms' son-in-law as soon as the trip is +over."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">{37}</a></span></p> + +<p>"All right," said Rainey. Carlsen's announcement surprised him. Somehow +he could not place the girl as the doctor's fiancée. "I suppose the +captain may mention this matter," he queried, "to cement it?"</p> + +<p>"He may," replied Carlsen enigmatically. "Feel like getting up?"</p> + +<p>Rainey rose and bathed face and hands. Carlsen left the cabin. The main +room was empty when Rainey entered, but there was a place set at the +table. Through the skylight he noted, as he glanced at the telltale +compass in the ceiling, that the sun was low toward the west.</p> + +<p>The main cabin was well appointed in hardwood, with red cushions on the +transoms and a creeping plant or so hanging here and there. A canary +chirped up and broke into rolling song. It was all homy, innocuous. Yet +he had been drugged at the same table not so long before. And now he was +pledged a share of ungathered gold. It was a far cry back to his desk in +the <i>Times</i> office.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">{38}</a></span></p> + +<p>A Japanese entered, sturdy, of white-clad figure, deft, polite, +incurious. He had brought in some ham and eggs, strong coffee, sliced +canned peaches, bread and butter. He served as Rainey ate heartily, +feeling his old self coming back with the food, especially with the +coffee.</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Tamada," he said as he pushed aside his plate at last.</p> + +<p>"Everything arright, sir?" purred the Japanese.</p> + +<p>Rainey nodded. The "sir" was reassuring. He was accepted as a somebody +aboard the <i>Karluk</i>. Tamada cleared away swiftly, and Rainey felt for +his own cigarettes. He hesitated a little to smoke in the cabin, +thinking of the girl, wondering whether she was on deck, where he +intended to go. Some one was snoring in a stateroom off the cabin, and +he fancied by its volume it was Lund.</p> + +<p>It was a divided ship's company, after all. For he knew that Lund, +handicapped with his blindness, would live perpetually suspicious of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">{39}</a></span> +Simms. And the doctor was against Lund. Rainey's own position was a +paradox.</p> + +<p>He started for the companionway, and a slight sound made him turn, to +face the girl. She looked at him casually as Rainey, to his annoyance, +flushed.</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon," said Rainey. "Are you going on deck?"</p> + +<p>It was not a clever opening, but she seemed to rob him of wit, to an +extent. He had yet to know how she stood concerning his presence aboard. +Did she countenance the forcible kidnapping of him as a possible +tattler? Or—?</p> + +<p>"My father tells me you have decided to go with us," she said, +pleasantly enough, but none too cordially, Rainey thought.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Carlsen helped me to my decision."</p> + +<p>She did not seem to regard this as a thrust, but stood lightly swaying +to the pitch of the vessel, regarding him with grave eyes of appraisal.</p> + +<p>"You have not been well," she said. "I hope you are better. Have you +eaten?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">{40}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey began to think that she was ignorant of the facts. And he made up +his mind to ignore them. There was nothing to be gained by telling her +things against her father—much less against her fiancée, the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I have," he said. "I was going to look up Mr. Lund."</p> + +<p>The sentence covered a sudden change of mind. He no longer wanted to go +on deck with the girl. They were not to be intimates. She was to marry +Carlsen. He was an outsider. Carlsen had told him that. So she seemed to +regard him, impersonally, without interest. It piqued him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lund is in the first mate's cabin," said the girl, indicating a +door. "Mr. Bergstrom, who was mate, died at sea last voyage. Doctor +Carlsen acts as navigator with my father, but he has another room."</p> + +<p>She passed him and went on deck. Carlsen was acting first mate as well +as surgeon. That meant he had seamanship. Also that they had taken in no +replacements, no other men to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">{41}</a></span> swell the little corporation of +fortune-hunters who knew the secret, or a part of it. It was unusual, +but Rainey shrugged his shoulders and rapped on the door of the cabin.</p> + +<p>It took loud knocking to waken Lund. At last he roared a "Come in."</p> + +<p>Rainey found him seated on the edge of his bunk, dressed in his +underclothes, his glasses in place. Rainey wondered whether he slept in +them. Lund's uncanny intuition seemed to read the thought. He tapped the +lenses.</p> + +<p>"Hate to take them off," he said. "Light hurts my eyes, though the optic +nerve is dead. Seems to strike through. How're ye makin' out?"</p> + +<p>Rainey gave Lund the full benefit of his blindness. The giant could not +have known what was in the doctor's mind, but he must have learned +something. Lund was not the type to be satisfied with half answers, and +undoubtedly felt that he held a proprietary interest in the <i>Karluk</i> by +virtue of his being the original owner of the secret. Rainey wondered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">{42}</a></span> +if he had sensed the doctor's attitude in that direction, an attitude +expressed largely by the expression of Carlsen's face, always wearing +the faint shadow of a sneer.</p> + +<p>"You know they drugged me," Rainey ended his recital of the interview he +had had with the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Knockout drops? I guessed it. That doctor's slick. Well, you've not +much fault to find, have ye? Carlsen talked sense. Here you are on the +road to a fortune. I'll see yore share's a fair one. There's plenty. It +ain't a bad billet you've fallen into, my lad. But I'll look out for ye. +I'm sort of responsible for yore trip, ye see, matey. And I'll need ye."</p> + +<p>He lowered his voice mysteriously.</p> + +<p>"Yo're a writer, Mister Rainey. You've got brains. You can see which way +a thing's heading. You've heard enough. I'm blind. I've bin done dirt +once aboard the <i>Karluk</i>, and I don't aim to stand for it ag'in. And I +had my eyes, then. No use livin' in a rumpus. Got to keep watch. Got to +keep yore eyes open.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">{43}</a></span></p> + +<p>"And I ain't got eyes. You have. Use 'em for both of us. I ain't asking +ye to take sides, exactly. But I've got cause for bein' suspicious. I +don't call the skipper <i>Honest</i> Simms no more. And I ain't stuck on that +doctor. He's too bossy. He's got the skipper under his thumb. And +there's somethin' funny about the skipper. Notice ennything?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I don't know him," said Rainey. "He doesn't look extra well, what +I've seen of him. Only the once."</p> + +<p>"He's logey," said Lund confidentially. "He ain't the same man. Mebbe +it's his conscience. But that doctor's runnin' him."</p> + +<p>"He's going to marry the captain's daughter," said Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Simms' daughter? Carlsen goin' to marry her? Ump! That may account for +the milk in the cocoanut. She's a stranger to me. Lived ashore with her +uncle and aunt, they tell me. Carlsen was the family doctor. Now she's +off with her father."</p> + +<p>His face became crafty, and he reached out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">{44}</a></span> for Rainey's knee, found it +as readily as if he had sight, and tapped it for emphasis.</p> + +<p>"That makes all the more reason for us lookin' out for things, matey," +he went on, almost in a whisper. "If they've played me once they may do +it ag'in. And they've got the odds, settin' aside my eyes. But I can +turn a trick or two. You an' me come aboard together. You give me a +hand. Stick to me, an' I'll see you git yore whack.</p> + +<p>"I'll have yore bunk changed. You'll come in with me. An' we'll put one +an' one together. We'll be mates. Treat 'em fair if they treat us fair. +But don't forget they fixed yore grog. I had nothin' to do with that. I +may be stranded, but, if the tide rises—"</p> + +<p>He set the clutch of his powerful fingers deep into Rainey's leg above +the knee with a grip that left purple bruises there before the day was +over.</p> + +<p>"We two, matey," he said. "Now you an' me'll have a tot of stuff that +ain't doped."</p> + +<p>He moved about the little cabin with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">{45}</a></span> astounding freedom and +sureness, chuckling as he handled bottle and glasses and measured out +the whisky and water.</p> + +<p>"W'en yo're blind," he said, ramming his pipe full of black tobacco, +"they's other things comes to ye. I know the run of this ship, +blindfold, you might say. I c'ud go aloft in a pinch, or steer her. More +grog?"</p> + +<p>But Rainey abstained after the first glass, though Lund went on lowering +the bottle without apparent effect.</p> + +<p>"So yo're a bit of a sailor?" the giant asked presently. "An' a scholar. +You can navigate, I make no doubt?"</p> + +<p>"I hope to get a chance to learn on the trip," answered Rainey. "I know +the general principles, but I've never tried to use a sextant. I'm going +to get the skipper to help me out. Or Carlsen."</p> + +<p>"Carlsen! What in hell does a doctor know about navigation?" demanded +Lund.</p> + +<p>Rainey told him what the girl had said, and the giant grunted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">{46}</a></span></p> + +<p>"I have my doubts whether they'll ever help ye," he said. "Wish I could. +But it 'ud be hard without my eyes. An' I've got no sextant an' no book +o' tables. It's too bad."</p> + +<p>His disappointment seemed keen, and Rainey could not fathom it. Why had +both Lund and Carlsen seemed to lay stress on this matter? Why was the +doctor relieved and Lund disappointed at his ignorance?</p> + +<p>As they came out of the stateroom together, later, Lund reeking of the +liquor he had absorbed, though remaining perfectly sober, his hand laid +on Rainey's shoulder, perhaps for guidance but with a show of +familiarity, Rainey saw the girl looking at him with a glance in which +contempt showed unveiled. It was plain that his intimacy with Lund was +not going to advance him in her favor.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">{47}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>TARGET PRACTISE</h3> + + +<p>The <i>Karluk</i> was an eighty-five-ton schooner, Gloster Fisherman type, +with a length of ninety and a beam of twenty-five feet. Her enormous +stretch of canvas, spread to the limit on all possible occasions by +Captain Simms, was offset by the pendulum of lead that made up her keel, +and she could slide through the seas at twelve knots on her best point +of sailing—reaching—the wind abaft her beam.</p> + +<p>After Rainey had demonstrated at the wheel that he had the mastery of +her and had shown that he possessed sea-legs, a fair amount of seacraft +and, what the sailors did not possess, initiative, Captain Simms +appointed him second mate.</p> + +<p>"We don't carry one as a rule," the skipper said. "But it'll give you a +rating and the right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">{48}</a></span> to eat in the cabin." He had not brought up the +subject of Rainey's kidnapping, and Rainey let it go. There was no use +arguing about the inevitable. The rating and the cabin fare seemed +offered as an apology, and he was willing to accept it.</p> + +<p>Carlsen acted as first mate, and Rainey had to acknowledge him +efficient. He fancied the man must have been a ship's surgeon, and so +picked up his seamanship. After a few days Carlsen, save for taking noon +observations with the skipper and working out the reckoning, left his +duties largely to Rainey, who was glad enough for the experience. A +sailor named Hansen was promoted to acting-quartermaster, and relieved +Rainey. Carlsen spent most of his time attendant on the girl or chatting +with the hunters, with whom he soon appeared on terms of intimacy.</p> + +<p>The hunters esteemed themselves above the sailors, as they were, in +intelligence and earning capacity. The forecastlemen acted, on occasion, +as boat-steerers and rowers for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">{49}</a></span> hunters, each of whom had his own +boat from which to shoot the cruising seals.</p> + +<p>There were six hunters and twelve sailors, outside of a general +roustabout and butt named "Sandy," who cleaned up the forecastle and the +hunters' quarters, where they messed apart, and helped Tamada, the cook, +in the galley with his pots and dishes. But now there was no work in +prospect for the hunters, and they lounged on deck or in the 'midship +quarters, spinning yarns or playing poker. They were after gold this +trip, not seals.</p> + +<p>"'Cordin' to the agreement," Lund said to Rainey, "the gold's to be +split into a hundred shares. One for each sailorman, an' they chip in +for the boy. Two for the hunters, two for the cook, four for Bergstrom, +the first mate, who died at sea. Twenty for 'ship's share.' Fifty shares +to be split between Simms an' me."</p> + +<p>"What's the 'ship's share'?" asked Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Represents capital investment. Matter of fact, it belongs to the gal," +said Lund. "Simms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">{50}</a></span> gave her the <i>Karluk</i>. It's in her name with the +insurance."</p> + +<p>"Then he and his daughter get forty-five shares, and you only +twenty-five?"</p> + +<p>"You got it right," grinned Lund. "Simms is no philanthropist. It wa'n't +so easy for me to git enny one to go in with me, son. I ain't the first +man to come trailin' in with news of a strike. An' I had nothin' to show +for it. Not even a color of gold. Nothin' but the word of a dead Aleut, +my own jedgment, an' my own sight of an island I never landed on. Matter +of fact, Honest Simms was the only one who didn't laff at me outright. +It was on'y his bad luck made him try a chance at gold 'stead of keepin' +after pelts.</p> + +<p>"An' we had a hard an' tight agreement drawn up on paper, signed, +witnessed an' recorded. 'Course it holds him as well as it holds me, but +he gits the long end of <i>that</i> stick. W'en I read, or got it read to me, +in the Seattle <i>News-Courier</i>, that the <i>Karluk</i> was listed as 'Arrived' +in San Francisco, it was all I could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">{51}</a></span> do to git carfare an' grub money. +If I hadn't bin blind, an' some of 'em half-way human to'ards a man with +his lights out, I'd never have raised it. I'd have got here someways, +matey, if I'd had to walk, but I'd have got here a bit late. Then I'd +have had to wait till Simms got back ag'in—an' mebbe starved to death.</p> + +<p>"But I'm here an' I've got some say-so. One thing, you're goin' to git +Bergstrom's share. I don't give a damn where the doctor comes in. If he +marries the gal he'll git her twenty shares, ennyway. Though he ain't +married her yet. And I ain't through with Simms yet," he added, with an +emphasis that was a trifle grim, Rainey thought.</p> + +<p>"The crew, hunters an' sailors, don't seem over glad to see me back," +Lund went on. "Mebbe they figgered their shares 'ud be bigger. Mebbe the +doc's queered me. He's pussy-footin' about with 'em a good deal. But +I'll talk with you about that later. It's me an' you ag'in' the rest of +'em, seems to me, Rainey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">{52}</a></span> The doc's aimin' to be the Big Boss aboard +this schooner. He's got the skipper buffaloed. But not me, not by a +jugful."</p> + +<p>He slammed his big fist against the side of the bunk so viciously that +it seemed to jar the cabin. The blow was typical of the man, Rainey +decided. He felt for Lund not exactly a liking, but an attraction, a +certain compelled admiration. The giant was elemental, with a driving +force inside him that was dynamic, magnetic. What a magnificent pirate +he would have made, thought Rainey, looking at his magnificent +proportions and considering the crude philosophies that cropped out in +his talk.</p> + +<p>"I'm in life for the loot of it, Rainey," Lund declared. "Food an' drink +to tickle my tongue an' fill my belly, the woman I happen to want, an' +bein' able to buy ennything I set my fancy on. The answer to that is +Gold. With it you can buy most enny thing. Not all wimmen, I'll grant +you that. Not the kind of woman I'd want for a steady mate. Thet's one +thing I've found out can't be bought, my son, the honor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">{53}</a></span> of a good +woman. An' thet's the sort of woman I'm lookin' for.</p> + +<p>"I reckon yo're raisin' yore eyebrows at that?" he challenged Rainey. +"But the other kind, that'll sell 'emselves, 'll sell you jest as +quick—an' quicker. I'd wade through hell-fire hip-deep to git the right +kind—an' to hold her. An' I'll buck all hell to git what's comin' to me +in the way of luck, or go down all standin' tryin'. This is my gold, an' +I'm goin' to handle it. If enny one tries to swizzle me out of it I'm +goin' to swizzle back, an' you can lay to that. Not forgettin' them that +stands by me."</p> + +<p>Between Lund and Simms there existed a sort of armed truce. No open +reference was made to the desertion of Lund on the floe. But Rainey knew +that it rankled in Lund's mind. The five, Peggy Simms, her father, +Carlsen, Lund and Rainey, ostensibly messed together, but Rainey's +duties generally kept him on deck until Carlsen had sufficiently +completed his own meal to relieve him. By that time the girl and the +captain had left the table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">{54}</a></span></p> + +<p>Lund invariably waited for Rainey. Tamada kept the food hot for them. +And served them, Lund making good play with spoon or fork and a piece of +bread, the Japanese cutting up his viands conveniently beforehand.</p> + +<p>To Rainey, Tamada seemed the hardest worked man aboard ship. He had +three messes to cook and he was busy from morning until night, +efficient, tireless and even-tempered. The crew, though they +acknowledged his skill, were Californians, either by birth or adoption, +and the racial prejudice against the Japanese was apparent.</p> + +<p>A week of good wind was followed by dirty weather. The <i>Karluk</i> proved a +good fighter, though her headway was materially lessened by contrary +wind and sea, and the persistence and increasing opposition of the storm +seemed to have a corresponding effect upon Captain Simms.</p> + +<p>He grew daily more irritable and morose, even to his daughter. Only the +doctor appeared able to get along with him on easy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">{55}</a></span> terms, and Rainey +noticed that, to Carlsen, the skipper seemed conciliatory even to +deference.</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms watched her father with worried eyes. The curious, tarnished +look of his tanned skin grew until the flesh seemed continually dry and +of an earthy color; his lips peeled, and more than once he shook as if +with a chill.</p> + +<p>On the eleventh day out, Rainey went below in the middle of the +afternoon for his sea-boots. The gale had suddenly strengthened and, +under reefs, the <i>Karluk</i> heeled far over until the hissing seas flooded +the scuppers and creamed even with the lee rail. In the main cabin he +found Simms seated in a chair with his daughter leaning over him, +speaking to her in a harsh, complaining voice.</p> + +<p>"No, you can't do a thing for me," he was saying. "It's this sciatica. +I've got to get Carlsen."</p> + +<p>As Rainey passed through to his own little stateroom neither of them +noticed him, but he saw that the captain was shivering, his hands +picking almost convulsively at the table-cloth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">{56}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Where's Carlsen, curse him!" Rainey heard through his cabin partition. +"Tell him I can't stand this any longer. He's got to help me. Got to. +<i>Got to.</i>"</p> + +<p>As Rainey appeared, walking heavily in his boots, the girl looked up. +Her father was slumped in his chair, his face buried on his folded arms. +The girl glanced at him doubtfully, apparently uncertain whether to go +herself to find Carlsen or stay with her father.</p> + +<p>"Anything I can do, Miss Simms? Your father seems quite ill."</p> + +<p>The hesitation of the girl even to speak to him was very plain to +Rainey. Suddenly she threw up her chin.</p> + +<p>"Kindly find Doctor Carlsen," she ordered, rather than requested. "Ask +him to come as soon as he can. I—" She turned uncertainly to her +father.</p> + +<p>"Can I help you to get him into the cabin?" asked Rainey.</p> + +<p>She thanked him with lips, not eyes, and he assisted her to shift the +almost helpless man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">{57}</a></span> into his room and bunk. He was like a stuffed sack +between them, save that his body twitched. While Rainey took most of the +weight, he marveled at the strength of the slender girl and the way in +which she applied it. Simms seemed to have fainted, to be on the verge +of unconsciousness or even utter collapse. Rainey felt his wrist, and +the pulse was almost imperceptible.</p> + +<p>"I'll get the doctor immediately," he said.</p> + +<p>She nodded at him, chafing her father's hands, her own face pale, and a +look of anxious fear in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Mighty funny sort of sciatica," Rainey told himself as he hurried +forward. He knew where Carlsen was, in the hunters' cozy quarters, +playing poker. From the chips in front of him he had been winning +heavily.</p> + +<p>"The skipper's ill," said Rainey. "No pulse. Almost unconscious."</p> + +<p>Carlsen raised his eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"Didn't know you were a physician," he said. "Just one of his spells. +I'll finish this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">{58}</a></span> hand. Too good to lay down. The skipper can wait for +once."</p> + +<p>The hunters grinned as Carlsen took his time to draw his cards, make his +bets and eventually win the pot on three queens.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what your real game is?" Rainey asked himself as he affected +to watch the play. According to his own announcement Carlsen was +deliberately neglecting the father of the girl he was to marry and at +the same time slighting the captain to his own men. Carlsen drew in his +chips and leisurely made a note of the amount.</p> + +<p>"Quite a while yet to settling-day," he said to the players. "Luck may +swing all round the compass before then, boys. All right, Rainey, you +needn't wait."</p> + +<p>Rainey ignored the omitted "Mister." He held the respect of the sailors, +since he had shown his ability, but he knew that the hunters regarded +him with an amused tolerance that lacked disrespect by a small margin. +To them he was only the amateur sailor. Rainey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">{59}</a></span> fancied that the doctor +had contributed to this attitude, and it did not lessen his score +against Carlsen.</p> + +<p>The captain did not make his appearance for that day, the next, or the +next. The men began to roll eyes at one another when they asked after +his health. Carlsen kept his own counsel, and Peggy Simms spent most of +her time in the main cabin with her eyes always roving to her father's +door. Rainey noticed that Tamada brought no food for the sick man. +Carlsen was the apparent controller of the schooner. Lund was quick to +sense this.</p> + +<p>"We got to block that Carlsen's game," he said to Rainey. "There's a +nigger in the woodpile somewhere an' you an' me got to uncover him, +matey, afore we reach Bering Strait, or you an' me'll finish this trip +squattin' on the rocks of one of the Four Mountain Islands makin' faces +at the gulls.</p> + +<p>"I wish you c'ud git under the skin of that Jap. No use tryin' to git in +with the crew or the hunters. They're ag'in' both of us—leastwise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">{60}</a></span> +the hunters are. The hands don't count. They're jest plain hash."</p> + +<p>Lund spoke with an absolute contempt of the sailors that was +characteristic of the man.</p> + +<p>"You think they'd put a blind man ashore that way?" asked Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen would. In a minnit. He'd argy that you c'ud look out for me, +seein' as we are chums. As for you, you've bin useful, but you can't +navigate, an' you've helped train Hansen to yore work. You were in the +way at the start, an' he'd jest as soon git rid of you that road as enny +other. He don't intend you to have Bergstrom's share, by a jugful."</p> + +<p>Lund grinned as he spoke, and Rainey felt a little chill raise +gooseflesh all over his body. It was not exactly fear, but—</p> + +<p>"They don't look on us two as <i>mascots</i>," went on Lund. "But to git back +to that Jap. Forewarned is forearmed. He ain't over an' above liked, but +they've got used to him goin' back an' forth with their grub, an' they +sort of despise him for a yellow-skinned coolie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">{61}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now Tamada ain't no coolie. I know Japs. He's a cut above his job. +Cooks well enough for a swell billet ashore if he wanted it. An' there +ain't much goin' on that Tamada ain't wise to. See if you can't get next +to him. Trubble is he's too damn' neutral. He knows he's safe, becoz +he's cook an' a damn' good one. But he's wise to what Carlsen's playin' +at.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen don't care for man, woman, God, or the devil. Neither do I," he +concluded. "An' I've got a card or two up my sleeve. But I'd sure like +to git a peep at what the doc's holdin'."</p> + +<p>The storm blew out, and there came a spell of pleasant weather, with the +<i>Karluk</i> gliding along, logging a fair rate where a less well-designed +vessel would barely have found steerage way, riding on an almost even +keel. Simms was still confined to his cabin, though now his daughter +took him in an occasional tray.</p> + +<p>Except for observations and the details of navigation, Carlsen left the +schooner to Rainey. They were well off the coast, out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">{62}</a></span> the fogs, +apparently alone upon the lonely ocean that ran sparkling to the far +horizon. It was warm, there was little to do, the sailors, as well as +the hunters, spent most of their time lounging on the deck.</p> + +<p>Save at meal-times, Carlsen, for one who had announced himself as an +accepted lover, neglected the girl, who had devoted herself to her +father. Yet she seldom went into her cabin, never remained there long, +and time must have hung heavily on her hands. A girl of her spirit must +have resented such treatment, Rainey imagined, but reminded himself it +was none of his business.</p> + +<p>Lund hung over the rail, smoking, or paced the deck, always close to +Rainey. The manner in which he went about the ship was almost uncanny. +Except that his arms were generally ahead of him when he moved, his +hands, with their woolly covering of red hair, lightly touching boom or +rope or rail, he showed no hesitation, made no mistakes.</p> + +<p>He no longer shuffled, as he had on shore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">{63}</a></span> but moved with a pantherlike +dexterity, here and there at will. When the breeze was steady he would +even take the wheel and steer perfectly by the "feel of the wind" on his +cheek, the slap of it in the canvas, or the creak of the rigging to tell +him if he was holding to the course. And he took an almost childish +delight in proclaiming his prowess as helmsman.</p> + +<p>The booms were stayed out against swinging in flaws and the roll of the +sea, and Lund strode back and forth behind Rainey, who had the wheel. +The hunters were grouped about Carlsen, who, seated on the skylight, was +telling them something at which they guffawed at frequent intervals.</p> + +<p>"Spinnin' them some of his smutty yarns," growled Lund, halting in his +promenade. "Bad for discipline, an' bad for us. He's the sort of +fine-feathered bird that wouldn't give those chaps a first look ashore. +Gittin' in solid with 'em that way is a bad steer. You can't handle a +man you make a pal of, w'en he ain't yore rank."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">{64}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Carlsen's slack, but he's a good sailorman," said Rainey casually.</p> + +<p>"Damn' sight better sailorman than he is doctor," retorted Lund. "Hear +him the other mornin' w'en I asked him if he c'ud give me somethin' to +help my eyes hurtin'? 'I'm no eye specialist,' sez he. 'Try some boracic +acid, my man.' I wouldn't put ennything in my eyes <i>he'd</i> give me, you +can lay to that. He'd give me vitriol, if he thought I'd use it. I +wouldn't let him treat a sick cat o' mine. He's the kind o' doctor that +uses his title to give him privileges with the wimmin. I know his sort."</p> + +<p>Rainey wondered why Lund had asked Carlsen for a lotion if he did not +mean to use it, but he did not provoke further argument. Lund was going +on.</p> + +<p>"He don't do the skipper enny good, thet's certain."</p> + +<p>"Captain Simms seems to believe in him," answered Rainey. He wondered +how much of Carlsen's increasing dominance over the skipper Lund had +noticed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">{65}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Simms is Carlsen's dog!" exploded Lund. "The doc's got somethin' on +him, mark me. Carlsen's a bad egg an', w'en he hatches, you'll see a +buzzard. An' you wait till he's needed as a doctor on somethin' that +takes more'n a few kind words or a lick out a bottle."</p> + +<p>There was a stir among the hunters. Lund turned his spectacled eyes in +their direction.</p> + +<p>"What are they up to now?" he queried. "Goin' to play poker? Wish I had +my eyes. I'd show 'em how to read the pips."</p> + +<p>Hansen came aft, offering to take the wheel.</p> + +<p>"They bane goin' to shute at targets," he said. "Meester Carlsen he put +up prizes. For rifle an' shotgun. Thought you might like to watch it, +sir."</p> + +<p>Rainey gave over the spokes and went to the starboard rail with Lund, +watching the preparations between fore and main masts for the +competition, and telling Lund what was happening. Carlsen gave out some +shotgun cartridges from cardboard boxes, twelve to each of the six +hunters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">{66}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hunters pay for their own shells," said Lund. "But they buy 'em from +the ship. Mate's perkisite. They usually have some shells on hand for +the rifles, but the paper cases o' the shotgun cartridges suck up the +damp an' they keep better in the magazine in the cabin. What they +shootin' at? Bottles?"</p> + +<p>Sandy, the roustabout, had been requisitioned to toss up empty bottles, +and those who failed cursed him for a poor thrower. A hunter named +Deming made no misses, and secured first prize of ten dollars in gold, +with a man named Beale scoring two behind him, and getting half that +amount from Carlsen.</p> + +<p>Then came the test with the rifles. The weapons were all of the same +caliber, well oiled, and in perfect condition. As Lund had said, each of +the hunters had a few shells in his possession, but they lacked the +total of six dozen by a considerable margin.</p> + +<p>Carlsen went below for the necessary ammunition while the target was +completed and set in place. A keg had been rigged with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">{67}</a></span> weight +underslung to keep it upright, and a tin can, painted white, set on a +short spar in one end of the keg. A light line was attached to a bridle, +and the mark lowered over the stern, where it rode, bobbing in the tail +of the schooner's wake, thirty fathoms from the taffrail where the crowd +gathered.</p> + +<p>Carlsen, returning, ordered Hansen to steer fine. He gave each +competitor a limit of ten seconds for his aim, contributing an element +of chance that made the contest a sporting one. Without the counting, +each would have deliberately waited for the most favorable moment when +the schooner hung in the trough and the white can was backed by green +water. As it was, it made a far-from-easy mark, slithering, lurching, +dipping as the <i>Karluk</i> slid down a wave or met a fresh one, the can +often blurred against the blobs of foam.</p> + +<p>More bullets hit the keg than the can, and Carlsen was often called upon +as umpire. But the tin gradually became ragged and blotched where the +steel-jacketed missiles tore through.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">{68}</a></span> Beale and Deming both had five +clean, undisputed hits, tying for first prize. Beale offered to shoot it +off with six more shells apiece, and Deming consented.</p> + +<p>"Can't be done," declared Carlsen. "Not right now, anyway. I gave out +the last shell there was in the magazine. If there are any more the +skipper's got them stowed away, and I can't disturb him."</p> + +<p>"Derned funny," said Deming, "a sealer shy on cartridges! Lucky we ain't +worryin' about thet sort of a cargo."</p> + +<p>"Probably plenty aboard somewhere," said Carlsen, "but I don't know +where they are. Sorry to break up the shooting. You boys have got me +beaten on rifles and shotguns," he went on, producing from his hip +pocket a flat, effective-looking automatic pistol of heavy caliber. "How +are you on small arms?"</p> + +<p>The hunters shook their heads dubiously.</p> + +<p>"Never use 'em," said Deming. "Never could do much with that kind, +ennyhow. Give me a revolver, an' I might make out to hit a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">{69}</a></span> whale, if he +was close enough, but not with one o' them."</p> + +<p>"Not much difference," said, Carlsen. "Any of you got revolvers?"</p> + +<p>No one spoke. It was against the unwritten laws of a vessel for pistols +to be owned forward of the main cabin. Beale finally answered for the +rest.</p> + +<p>"Nary a pistol, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Carlsen, "I'll give you an exhibition myself. Any bottles +left? Beale, will you toss them for me?"</p> + +<p>There were eight shots in the automatic, and Carlsen smashed seven +bottles in mid-air. He missed the last, but retrieved himself by +breaking it as it dipped in the wake. The hunters shouted their +appreciation.</p> + +<p>"Break all of 'em?" Lund asked Rainey. "Enny bottles left at all?"</p> + +<p>He walked toward the taffrail, addressing Carlsen.</p> + +<p>"Kin you shoot by <i>sound</i> as well as by sight, Doc?" he challenged.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">{70}</a></span></p> + +<p>"I fancy not," said Carlsen.</p> + +<p>"If I had my eyes I'd snapshoot ye for a hundred bucks," said Lund. "As +it is, I might target one or two. Rainey, have some one run a line, +head-high, an' fix a bottle on it, will ye? I ain't got a gun o' my own, +Doc," he continued, "will you lend me yours?" Carlsen filled his clip +and Lund turned toward Rainey, who was rigging the target.</p> + +<p>"I'll want you to tap it with a stick," he said. "Signal-flag staff'll +do fine."</p> + +<p>Rainey got the slender bamboo and stood by. Lund felt for the cord, +passed his fingers over the suspended bottle and stepped off five paces, +hefting the automatic to judge its balance.</p> + +<p>"Ruther have my own gun," he muttered. "All right, tetch her up, +Rainey."</p> + +<p>Rainey tapped the bottle on the neck and it gave out a little tinkle, +lost immediately in the crash of splintering glass as the bottle, hit +fairly in the torn label, broke in half.</p> + +<p>"How much left?" asked Lund. "Half? Tetch it up."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">{71}</a></span></p> + +<p>Again he fired and again the bullet found the mark, leaving only the +neck of the bottle still hanging. Lund grinned.</p> + +<p>"Thet's all," he said. "Jest wanted to show ye what a blind man can do, +if he's put to it."</p> + +<p>There was little applause. Carlsen took his gun in silence and moved +forward with the hunters and the onlookers, disappearing below. Rainey +took the wheel over from Hansen and ordered him forward again.</p> + +<p>"Given 'em something to talk about," chuckled Lund. "Carlsen wanted to +show off his fancy shootin'. Wal, I've shown 'em I ain't entirely +wrecked if I ain't carryin' lights. An' I slipped more'n one over on +Carlsen at that."</p> + +<p>Rainey did not catch his entire meaning and said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Did you get wise to the play about the shells?" asked Lund. "A smart +trick, though Deming almost tumbled. Carlsen got those dumb fools of +hunters to fire away every shell they happened to have for'ard. If the +magazine's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">{72}</a></span> empty, I'll bet Carlsen knows where they's plenty more +shells, if we ever needed 'em bad. But now those rifles an' shotguns +ain't no more use than so many clubs—<i>not to the hunters</i>. An' he's +found out they ain't got enny pistols. <i>He's</i> got one, an' shows 'em how +straight he shoots, jest in case there should be enny trubble between +'em. Plays both ends to the middle, does Carlsen. Slick! But he ain't +won the pot. They's a joker in this game. Mebbe he holds it, mebbe not."</p> + +<p>He nodded mysteriously, well pleased with himself.</p> + +<p>"Don't suppose <i>you</i> brought a gun along with ye?" he asked Rainey. +"Might come in handy."</p> + +<p>"I wasn't expecting to stay," Rainey replied dryly, "or I might have."</p> + +<p>Lund laughed heartily, slapping his leg.</p> + +<p>"That's a good un," he declared. "It would have bin a good idea, though. +It sure pays to go heeled when you travel with strangers."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">{73}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE BOWHEAD</h3> + + +<p>Captain Simms appeared again in the cabin and on deck, but he was not +the same man. His illness seemed to have robbed him permanently of what +was left him of the spring of manhood. It was as if his juices had been +sucked from his veins and arteries and tissues, leaving him flabby, +irresolute, compared to his former self. Even as Lund shadowed Rainey, +so Simms shadowed Carlsen.</p> + +<p>The fine weather vanished, snuffed out in an hour and, day after day, +the <i>Karluk</i> flung herself at mocking seas that pounded her bows with +blows that sounded like the noise of a giant's drum. The sun was never +seen. Through daylight hours the schooner wrestled with the elements in +a ghastly, purplish twilight, lifting under double reefs over great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">{74}</a></span> +waves that raised spuming crests to overwhelm her, and were ridden down, +hissing and roaring, burying one rail and covering the deck to the +hatches with yeasty turmoil.</p> + +<p>The <i>Karluk</i> charged the stubborn fury of the gale, rolling from side to +side, lancing the seas, gaining a little headway, losing leeway, +fighting, fighting, while every foot of timber, every fathom of rope, +groaned and creaked perpetually, but endured.</p> + +<p>To Rainey, this persistent struggle—as he himself controlled the +schooner, legs far astride, his oilskins dripping, his feet awash to the +ankles, spume drenching and whipping him, the wind a lash—brought +exultation and a sense of mastery and confidence such as he had never +before held suggestion of. To guide the ship, constantly to baffle the +sea and wind, the turbulence, buffeting bows and run and counter, +smashing at the rudder, leaping always like a pack of yapping +hounds—this was a thing that left the days of his water-front detail +far behind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">{75}</a></span></p> + +<p>And then he had thought himself in the whirl of things! Even as Simms +seemed to be declining, so Rainey felt that he was coming into the +fulness of strength and health.</p> + +<p>Lund was ever with him. Sometimes the girl would come up on deck in her +own waterproofs and stand against the rail to watch the storm, silent as +far as the pair were concerned. And presently Carlsen would come from +below or forward and stand to talk with her until she was tired of the +deck.</p> + +<p>They did not seem much like lovers, Rainey fancied. They lacked the +little intimacies that he, though he made himself somewhat of an +automaton at the wheel, could not have failed to see. If the girl +slipped, Carlsen's hand would catch and steady her by the arm; never go +about her waist. And there was no especial look of welcome in her face +when the doctor came to her.</p> + +<p>Carlsen seldom took over the wheel. Rainey did more than his share from +sheer love of feeling the control. But one day, at a word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">{76}</a></span> from the +girl, Carlsen and she came up to Rainey as he handled the spokes.</p> + +<p>"I'll take the wheel a while, Rainey," said the doctor.</p> + +<p>Rainey gave it up and went amidships. Out of the tail of his eye he +could see that the girl was pleading to handle the ship, and that +Carlsen was going to let her do so.</p> + +<p>Rainey shrugged his shoulders. It was Carlsen's risk. It was no child's +play in that weather to steer properly. The <i>Karluk</i>, with her narrow +beam, was lithe and active as a great cat in those waves. It took not +only strength, but watchfulness and experience to hold the course in the +welter of cross-seas.</p> + +<p>Lund, whose recognition of voices was perfect, moved amidships as soon +as Carlsen and Peggy Simms came aft. There was no attempt at disguising +the fact that the schooner's afterward was a divided company and, save +for the fact of his blindness tempering the action, the manner of Lund's +showing them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">{77}</a></span> his back and deliberately walking off would have been a +deliberate insult.</p> + +<p>Not to the girl, Rainey thought. At first he had considered Lund's +character as comparatively simple—and brutal—but he had qualified +this, without seeming consciousness, and he felt that Lund would never +deliberately insult a woman—any sort of woman. He was beginning to feel +something more than an admiration for Lund's strength; a liking for the +man himself had, almost against his will, begun to assert itself.</p> + +<p>They stood together by the weather-rail. It was still Rainey's +deck-watch, and at any moment Carlsen might relinquish the wheel back to +him as soon as the girl got tired. Suddenly shouts sounded from forward, +a medley of them, indistinct against the quartering wind. Sandy, the +roustabout, came dashing aft along the sloping deck, catching clumsily +at rail and rope to steady himself, flushed with excitement, almost +hysterical with his news.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">{78}</a></span></p> + +<p>"A bowhead, sir!" he cried when he saw Rainey. "And killers after him! +Blowin' dead ahead!"</p> + +<p>Beyond the bows Rainey could see nothing of the whale, that must have +sounded in fear of the killers, but he saw half a dozen scythe-like, +black fins cutting the water in streaks of foam, all abreast, their high +dorsals waving, wolves of the sea, hunting for the gray bowhead whale, +to force its mouth open and feast on the delicacy of its living tongue. +So Lund told him in swift sentences while they waited for the whale to +broach.</p> + +<p>"Ha'f the time the bowheads won't even try an' git away," said Lund. +"Lie atop, belly up, plain jellied with fear while the killers help +'emselves. Ha'f the bowheads you git have got chunks bitten out of their +tongues. If they're nigh shore when the killers show up the whales'll +slide way out over the rocks an' strand 'emselves."</p> + +<p>Rainey glanced aft. Sandy had carried his warning to Carlsen and the +girl, and now was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">{79}</a></span> craning over the lee rail, knee-deep in the wash, +trying to see something of the combat. Peggy Simms' lithe figure was +leaning to one side as she, too, gazed ahead, though she still paid +attention to her steering and held the schooner well up, her face bright +with excitement, wet with flying brine, wisps of yellow hair streaming +free in the wind from beneath the close grip of her woolen +tam-o'-shanter bonnet of scarlet. Carlsen was pointing out the racing +fins of the killers.</p> + +<p>"Bl-o-ows!" started the deep voice of a lookout, from where sailors and +hunters had grouped in the bows to witness this gladiatorial combat +between sea monsters, staged fittingly in a sea that was running wild. +Rainey strained his gaze to catch the steamy spiracle and the outthrust +of the great head.</p> + +<p>"<i>Bl-o-ows!</i>" The deep voice almost leaped an octave in a sudden shrill +of apprehension. Other voices mingled with his in a clamor of dismay.</p> + +<p>"Look out! Oh, look out! Dead ahead!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">{80}</a></span></p> + +<p>The enormous bulk of the whale had appeared, not to spout, but to lie +belly up, rocking on the surface with fins outspread, paralyzed with +terror, directly in the course of the <i>Karluk</i>, while toward it, intent +only on their blood lust, leaped the killers, thrusting at its head as +the schooner surged down. In that tremendous sea the impact would be +certain to mean the staving in of something forward, perhaps the +springing of a butt.</p> + +<p>"Hard a lee!" yelled Rainey. "Up with her! Up!"</p> + +<p>It was desire to vent his own feelings, rather than necessity for the +command, that made Rainey yell the order, for he could see the girl +striving with the spokes, Carlsen lending his strength to hers. The +sheets were well flattened, the wind almost abeam, and there was no need +to change the set of fore and main.</p> + +<p>Forward, the men jumped to handle the headsails. The <i>Karluk</i> started to +spin about on its keel, instinct to the changing plane of the rudder. +But the waves were running tremendously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">{81}</a></span> high, and the wind blowing with +great force, the water rolling in great mountains of sickly greenish +gray, topped with foam that blew in a level scud.</p> + +<p>As the schooner hung in a deep trough, the wind struck at her, bows on. +With the gale suddenly spilled out of them, the topsails lashed and +shivered, and the fore broke loose with the sharp report of a gunshot +and disappeared aft in the smother.</p> + +<p>Rainey saw one huge billow rising, curving, high as the gaff of the +main, it seemed to him, as he grasped at the coil of the main halyards. +Down came the tons of water, booming on the deck that bent under the +blow, spilling in a great cataract that swashed across the deck.</p> + +<p>His feet were swept from under him, for a moment he seemed to swing +horizontal in the stream, clutching at the halyards. The sea struck the +opposite rail with a roar that threatened to tear it away, piling up and +then seething overboard.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">{82}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>RAINEY SCORES</h3> + + +<p>With it went a figure. Rainey caught sight of a ghastly face, a mouth +that shouted vainly for help in the pandemonium, and was instantly +stoppered with strangling brine, pop-eyes appealing in awful fright as +Sandy was washed away in the cascade. The halyards were held on the pin +with a turn and twist that Rainey swiftly loosened, lifting the coil +free, making a fast loop, and thrusting head and arms through it as he +flung himself after the roustabout.</p> + +<p>Even as he dived he heard the bellow of Lund, knowing instinctively the +peril of the schooner by its actions, though ignorant of the accident.</p> + +<p>"Back that jib! Back it, blast yore eyes! Ba-ck—"</p> + +<p>Then Rainey was clubbing his way through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">{83}</a></span> the race of water to where he +glimpsed an upflung arm. Sandy was in oilskins and sea-boots, he had +hardly a chance to save himself, however expert. And it flashed over +Rainey's mind that, like many sailors, the lad had boasted that he could +not swim. His boots would pull him under as soon as the force of the +waves, that were tossing him from crest to crest, should be suspended. +Rainey himself was borne on their thrust, clogged by his own equipment, +linked to life only by the halyard coil.</p> + +<p>A great bulk wallowed just before him, the helpless body of the bowhead +whale, the killers darting in a mad mêlée for its head. Then a figure +was literally hurled upon the slippery mass of the mammal, its gray +belly plain in the welter, a living raft against which the waves broke +and tossed their spray.</p> + +<p>Clawing frantically, Sandy clutched at the base of the enormous pectoral +fin, clinging with maniacal strength, mad with fear. Striking out to +little purpose, save to help buoy himself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">{84}</a></span> blinded by the flying scud +and broken crests, Rainey felt himself upreared, swept impotently on and +slammed against the slimy hulk, just close enough to Sandy to grasp him +by the collar, as the whale, stung by a killer's tearing at its oily +tongue, flailed with its fin and the two of them slid down its body, +deep under water.</p> + +<p>Rainey fought against the suffocation and the fierce desire to gasp and +relieve his tortured lungs. The lad's weight seemed to be carrying him +down as if he was a thing of lead, but Rainey would not relax his grip. +He could not. He had centered all his energy upon the desire to save +Sandy, and his nerve centers were still tense to that last conscious +demand.</p> + +<p>There came a swift, painful constriction of his chest that his failing +senses interpreted only as the end of things. Then his head came out +into the blessed air and he gulped what he could, though half of it was +water.</p> + +<p>The <i>Karluk</i> was into the wind and they were in what little lee there +was, dragging aft at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">{85}</a></span> end of the halyards, being fetched in toward +the rail by the mighty tugs of Lund, a weird sight to Rainey's smarting +eyes as he caught sight of the giant, with red hair uncovered, his beard +whipping in the wind, his black glasses still in place, making some sort +of a blessed monster out of him.</p> + +<p>Rainey had his left fist welded to the line, his right was set in +Sandy's collar, and Sandy's death clutch had twined itself into Rainey's +oilskins, though the lad was limp, and his face, seen through the watery +film that streamed over it, set and white.</p> + +<p>A dozen arms shot down to grasp him. He felt the iron grip of Lund upon +his left forearm, almost wrenching his arm from its socket as he was +inhauled, caught at by body and legs and deposited on the deck of the +schooner, that almost instantly commenced to go about upon its former +course. Again he heard the bellow of the blind giant, as if it had been +a continuation of the order shouted as he had gone overboard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">{86}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ba-ack that jib to win'ard! Ba-ck it, you swabs!"</p> + +<p>The <i>Karluk</i> came about more smartly this time, swinging on the upheaval +of a wave and rushing off with ever-increasing speed. Lund bent over +him, asking him with a note that Rainey, for all his exhaustion, +interpreted as one of real anxiety:</p> + +<p>"How is it with you, matey? Did ye git lunged up?"</p> + +<p>Rainey managed to shake his head and, with Lund's boughlike arm for +support, got to his feet, winded, shaken, aching from his pounding and +the crash against the whale.</p> + +<p>"Good man!" cried Lund, thwacking him on the shoulder and holding him up +as Rainey nearly collapsed under the friendly accolade.</p> + +<p>Sandy was lying face down, one hunter kneeling across him, kneading his +ribs to bellows action, lifting his upper body in time to the pressure, +while another worked his slack arms up and down.</p> + +<p>"I tank he's gone," said Hansen. "Swallowed a tubful."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">{87}</a></span></p> + +<p>"That was splendid, Mr. Rainey! Wonderful! It was brave of you!"</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms stood before Rainey, clinging to the mainstays, a different +girl to the one that he had known. Her red lips were apart, showing the +clean shine of her teeth, above her glowing cheeks her gray eyes +sparkled with friendly admiration, one slender wet hand was held out +eagerly toward him.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Rainey, in that embarrassment that comes when one knows he +has done well, yet instinctively seeks to disclaim honors, "any one +would have done that. I happened to be the only one to see it."</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure of that," replied the girl, and Rainey thought her lip +curled contemptuously as she glanced toward Carlsen at the wheel. Yet +Carlsen, he fancied, had full excuse for not having made the attempt, +busied as he had been adding needed strength to the wheel.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was not what he did, or failed to do," said the girl, and this +time there was no mistaking the fact that she emphasized her voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">{88}</a></span> with +contempt and made sure that it would carry to Carlsen. "He said it +wasn't worth while."</p> + +<p>Her eyes flashed and then she made a visible effort to control herself. +"But it was very brave of you, and I want to ask your pardon," she +concluded, with the crimson of her cheeks flooding all her face before +she turned away, and made abruptly for the companion.</p> + +<p>A little bewildered, the touch of her slim but strong fingers still +sensible to his own, Rainey went to the wheel.</p> + +<p>"Shall I take it over, Mr. Carlsen?" he asked. "It's my watch."</p> + +<p>Carlsen surveyed him coolly. Either he pretended not to have heard the +girl's innuendo or it failed to get under his skin.</p> + +<p>"You'd better get into some dry togs, Rainey," he said. "And I'll +prescribe a stiff jorum of grog-hot. Take your time about it." Rainey, +conscious of a wrenched feeling in his side, a growing nausea and +weakness, thanked him and took the advice. Half an hour later,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">{89}</a></span> save for +a general soreness, he felt too vigorous to stay below, and went on deck +again. Sandy had been taken forward. He encountered the hunter, Deming, +and asked after the roustabout.</p> + +<p>"Born to be hanged," answered the hunter with more friendliness than he +had ever exhibited. "They pumped it out of him, and got his own pump to +workin'. He'll be as fit as a fiddle presently. Asking for you."</p> + +<p>"I'll see him soon," said Rainey, and again offered relief to Carlsen, +which the doctor this time accepted.</p> + +<p>"Miss Simms misunderstood me, Rainey," he said easily. "My intent was, +that Sandy could never stay on top in those seas, and that it was idle +to send a valuable man after a lout who was as good as dead. If it +hadn't been for the whale you'd never have landed him. And the killers +got the whale," he added, with his cynical grin.</p> + +<p>So he had overheard. Rainey wondered whether the girl would accept the +amended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">{90}</a></span> statement if it was offered. At its best interpretation it was +callous.</p> + +<p>When Hansen took over the watch Rainey went below to Sandy. Lund had +disappeared, but he found the giant in the triangular forecastle by +Sandy's bunk.</p> + +<p>"That you, Rainey?" Lund asked as he heard the other's tread. Then he +dropped his voice to a whisper:</p> + +<p>"The lad's grateful. Make the most of it. If he wants to spill +ennything, git all of it."</p> + +<p>But Sandy seemed able to do nothing but grin sheepishly. He was half +drunk with the steaming potion that had been forced down him.</p> + +<p>"I'll see you later, Mister Rainey," he finally stammered out. "See you +later, sir. You—I—"</p> + +<p>Lund suddenly nudged Rainey in the ribs.</p> + +<p>"Never mind now," he whispered.</p> + +<p>A sailor had come into the forecastle with an extra blanket for Sandy, +contributed from the hunters' mess.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">{91}</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's all right, Sandy," said Rainey. "Better try to get some sleep."</p> + +<p>The roustabout had already dropped off. The seaman touched his temple in +an old-fashioned salute.</p> + +<p>"That was a smart job you did, sir," he said to Rainey.</p> + +<p>The latter went aft with Lund through the hunters' quarters. They were +seated under the swinging lamp which had been lit in the gloom of the +gale, playing poker, as usual. But all laid down their cards as Rainey +appeared.</p> + +<p>"Good work, sir!" said one of them, and the rest chimed in with +expressions that warmed Rainey's heart. He felt that he had won his way +into their good-will. They were human, after all, he thought.</p> + +<p>"Glad to have you drop in an' gam a bit with us, or take a hand in a +game, sir," added Deming.</p> + +<p>Rainey escaped, a trifle embarrassed, and passed through the alley that +went by the cook's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">{92}</a></span> domain into the main cabin. Tamada was at work, but +turned a gleam of slanting eyes toward Rainey as they passed the open +door. The main cabin was empty.</p> + +<p>"Come into my room," suggested Lund. "I want to talk with you."</p> + +<p>He stuffed his pipe and proffered a drink before he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Best day's work you've done in a long while, matey," he said quietly. +"Take Deming's offer up, an' mix in with them hunters. An' pump thet +kid, Sandy. Pump him dry. He'll know almost as much as Tamada, an' he'll +come through with it easier."</p> + +<p>"Just what are you afraid of?" asked Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Son," said Lund simply, "I'm afraid of nothing. But they're primed for +somethin', under Carlsen. We'll be makin' Unalaska ter-morrer or the +next day. Here's hopin' it's the next. An' we've got to know what to +expect. Did you know that the skipper has had another bad spell?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">{93}</a></span></p> + +<p>"No. When?"</p> + +<p>"Jest a few minnits ago. Cryin' for Carlsen like a kid for its nurse an' +bottle. The doc's with him now. An' I'm beginnin' to have a hunch what's +wrong with him. Here's somethin' for you to chew on: Inside of +forty-eight hours there's goin' to be an upset aboard this hooker an' +it's up to me an' you to see we come out on top. If not—"</p> + +<p>He spread out his arms with the great, gorilla-like hands at the end of +them, in a gesture that supplanted words. Beyond any doubt Lund expected +trouble. And Rainey, for the first time, began to sense it as something +approaching, sinister, almost tangible.</p> + +<p>"You drop in on the hunters an' have a little game of poker ter-night," +said Lund emphatically.</p> + +<p>"I haven't got much money with me," said Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Money, hell!" mocked Lund. "They don't play for money. They play for +shares in the gold. They've got the big amount fixed at a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">{94}</a></span> million, each +share worth ten thousand. 'Cordin' to the way things stand at present, +you've got forty thousand dollars' worth in chips to gamble with. Put it +up to 'em that way. I figger they'll accept it. If they don't, wal, +we've learned something. An' don't forget to git next to Sandy."</p> + +<p>A good deal of this was enigmatical to Rainey, but there was no +mistaking Lund's tremendous seriousness and, duly impressed, Rainey +promised to carry out his suggestions.</p> + +<p>As he crossed the main cabin to go to his own room, Carlsen came out of +the skipper's. He did not see Rainey at first and was humming a little +air under his breath as he slipped a small article into his pocket. His +face held a sneer. Then he saw Rainey, and it changed to a mask that +revealed nothing. His tune stopped.</p> + +<p>"I hear the captain's sick again," said Rainey. "Not serious, I hope."</p> + +<p>Carlsen stood there gazing at him with his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">{95}</a></span> look of a sphinx, his eyes +half-closed, the scoffing light showing faintly.</p> + +<p>"Serious? I'm afraid it is serious this time, Rainey. Yes," he ended +slowly. "I am inclined to think it is really serious." He turned away +and rapped at the door of the girl's stateroom. In answer to a low reply +he turned the handle and went in, leaving Rainey alone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">{96}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>SANDY SPEAKS</h3> + + +<p>The next morning Rainey, going on deck to relieve Hansen at eight bells, +in the commencement of the forenoon watch, found Lund in the bows as he +walked forward, waiting for the bell to be struck. The giant leaned by +the bowsprit, his spectacled eyes seeming to gaze ahead into the gray of +the northern sky, and it seemed to Rainey as if he were smelling the +wind. The sun shone brightly enough, but it lacked heat-power, and the +sea had gone down, though it still ran high in great billows of dull +green. There was a bite to the air, and Rainey, fresh from the warm +cabin, wished he had brought up his sweater.</p> + +<p>Lightly as he trod, the giant heard him and instantly recognized him.</p> + +<p>"How'd ye make out with the hunters last night?" he queried. "I turned +in early."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">{97}</a></span></p> + +<p>"We had quite a session," said Rainey. "They got me in the game, all +right."</p> + +<p>"Enny objections 'bout yore stakin' yore share in the gold?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. I fancy they thought it a bit of a joke. More of one after +we'd finished the game. I lost two thousand seven hundred dollars," he +added with a laugh. "No chips under a dollar. Sky limit. And Deming had +all the luck, and a majority of the skill, I fancy."</p> + +<p>"Don't seem to worry you none."</p> + +<p>"Well, it was sort of ghost money," laughed Rainey.</p> + +<p>"You've seen the color of it," retorted Lund. "Hear ennything special?"</p> + +<p>"No." Rainey spoke thoughtfully. "I had a notion I was being treated as +an outsider, though they were friendly enough. But, somehow I fancy they +reserved their usual line of talk."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder," grunted Lund. "Seen Sandy yet?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">{98}</a></span></p> + +<p>"I haven't had a chance. I imagined it would be best not to be seen +talking to him."</p> + +<p>"Right. Matey, things are comin' to a head. There's ice in the air. I +can smell it. Feel the difference in temperature? Ice, all right. An' +that means two things. We're nigh one of the Aleutians, an' Bering +Strait is full of ice. Early, a bit, but there's nothin' reg'lar 'bout +the way ice forms. I've got a strong hunch something'll break before we +make the Strait.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing in our favor. Yore savin' Sandy has set you solid +with the hunters. They won't be so keen to maroon you. An' they'll think +twice about puttin' me ashore blind. I used to git along fine with the +hunters. All said an' done, they're men at bottom. Got their hearts +gold-plated right now. But—"</p> + +<p>He seemed obsessed with the idea that the crew, with Carlsen as prime +instigator, had determined to leave them stranded on some volcanic, +lonely barren islet. Rainey wondered what actual foundations he had for +that theory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">{99}</a></span></p> + +<p>"The sailors—" he started.</p> + +<p>"Don't amount to a bunch of dried herrin'. A pore lot. Swing either way, +like a patent gate. I ain't worryin' about them. I'm goin' to git my +coffee. I was up afore dawn, tryin' to figger things out. You git to +Sandy soon's you can, matey." And Lund went below.</p> + +<p>Rainey saw nothing more of him until noon, at the midday meal. And he +found no chance to talk with Sandy. He noticed the boy looking at him +once or twice, wistfully, he thought, and yet furtively. A thickening +atmosphere of something unusual afoot seemed present. And the actual +weather grew distinctly colder. He had got his sweater, and he needed +it. The sailors had put on their thickest clothes. Carlsen did not +appear during the morning, neither did the hunters. Nor the girl.</p> + +<p>At noon Carlsen came up to take his observation. He said nothing to +Rainey, but the latter noticed the doctor's face seemed more sardonic +than usual as he tucked his sextant under his arm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">{100}</a></span></p> + +<p>With Hansen on deck they all assembled at the table with the exception +of the captain. Tamada served perfectly and silently. The doctor +conversed with the girl in a low voice. Once or twice she smiled across +the table at Rainey in friendly fashion.</p> + +<p>"Skipper enny better?" asked Lund, at the end of the meal.</p> + +<p>Carlsen ignored him, but the girl answered:</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not." It was not often she spoke to Lund at all, and Rainey +wondered if she had experienced any change of feeling toward the giant +as well as himself.</p> + +<p>Carlsen got up, announcing his intention of going forward. Lund nodded +significantly at Rainey as if to suggest that the doctor was going to +foregather with the hunters, and that this might be an opportunity to +talk with Sandy.</p> + +<p>"Goin' to turn in," he said. "Eyes hurt me. It's the ice in the wind."</p> + +<p>"Is there ice?" Peggy Simms asked Rainey as Lund disappeared. Carlsen +had already vanished.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">{101}</a></span></p> + +<p>"None in sight," he answered. "But Lund says he can smell it, and I +think I know what he means. It's cold on deck."</p> + +<p>The girl went to the door of her own room and then hesitated and came +back to the table where Rainey still sat. He had four hours off, and he +meant to make an opportunity of talking to the roustabout.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Carlsen told me he expects to sight land by to-morrow morning," she +said. "Unalaska or Unimak, most likely. How is the boy you saved?"</p> + +<p>She seemed so inclined to friendliness, her eyes were so frank, that +Rainey resolved to talk to her. He held a notion that she was lonely, +and worried about her father. There were pale blue shadows under her +eyes, and he fancied her face looked drawn.</p> + +<p>"May I ask you a question?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Surely."</p> + +<p>"Just why did you beg my pardon? And, I may be wrong, but you seemed to +make a point of doing so rather publicly."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">{102}</a></span></p> + +<p>She flushed slowly, but did not avoid his gaze, coming over to the table +and standing across from him, her fingers resting lightly on the +polished wood.</p> + +<p>"It was because I thought I had misunderstood you," she said. "And I +have thought it over since. I do not think that any man who would risk +his life to save that lad could have joined the ship with such motives +as you did. I—I hope I am not mistaken."</p> + +<p>Rainey stared at her in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"What motives?" he asked. "Surely you know I did not intend to go on +this voyage of my own free will?"</p> + +<p>The changing light in her eyes reminded Rainey of the look of her +father's when he was at his best in some time of stress for the +schooner. They were steady, and the pupils had dilated while the irises +held the color of steel. There was something more than ordinary feminine +softness to her, he decided. She sat down, challenging his gaze.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to tell me," she asked, "that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">{103}</a></span> you did not use your +knowledge of this treasure to gain a share in it, under a covert threat +of disclosing it to the newspaper you worked for?"</p> + +<p>It was Rainey's turn to flush. His indignation flooded his eyes, and the +girl's faltered a little. His wrath mastered his judgment. He did not +intend to spare her feelings. What did she mean by such a charge? She +must have known about the drugging. If not—she soon would.</p> + +<p>"Your fiancé, Mr. Carlsen, told you that, I fancy," he said, "if you did +not evolve it from your own imagination." Now her face fairly flamed.</p> + +<p>"My fiancé?" she gasped. "Who told you that?"</p> + +<p>"The gentleman himself," answered Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she cried, closing her eyes, her face paling.</p> + +<p>"The same gentleman," went on Rainey vindictively, "who put chloral in +my drink and deliberately shanghaied me aboard the <i>Karluk</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">{104}</a></span> so that I +only came to at sea, with no chance of return. He, too, was afraid I +might give the snap away to my paper, though I would have given him my +word not to. He told me it was a matter of business, that he had +kidnapped me for my own good," he went on bitterly, recalling the talk +with Carlsen when he had come out of the influence of the drug. "You +don't have to believe me, of course," he broke off.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you are quite fair, Mr. Rainey," the girl answered. "To +me, I mean. I will give you <i>my</i> word that I knew nothing of this. I—" +She suddenly widened her eyes and stared at him. "Then—my father—he?"</p> + +<p>Rainey felt a twinge of compassion.</p> + +<p>"He was there when it happened," he said. "But I don't know that he had +anything to do with it. Mr. Carlsen may have convinced him it was the +only thing to do. He seems to have considerable influence with your +father."</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 370px;"> +<img src="images/f104.jpg" width="370" height="550" alt=""The same gentleman who put chloral in my drink"" title=""The same gentleman who put chloral in my drink"" /> +<span class="caption">"The same gentleman who put chloral in my drink"</span> +</div> + + +<p>"He has. He—Mr. Rainey, I have begged your pardon once; I do so again. +Won't you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">{105}</a></span> accept it? Perhaps, later, we can talk this matter out. I am +upset. But—you'll accept the apology, and believe me?"</p> + +<p>She put out her hand across the table and Rainey gripped it.</p> + +<p>"We'll be friends?" she asked. "I need a friend aboard the <i>Karluk</i>, Mr. +Rainey."</p> + +<p>He experienced a revulsion of feeling toward her. She was undoubtedly +plucky, he thought; she would stand up to her guns, but she suddenly +looked very tired, a pathetic figure that summoned his chivalry.</p> + +<p>"Why, surely," he said.</p> + +<p>They relinquished hands slowly, and again Rainey felt something more +than her mere grasp lingering, a slight tingling that warmed him to +smile at her in a manner that brought a little color back to her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she said.</p> + +<p>He watched her close the door of her cabin behind her before he +remembered that she had not denied that she was to marry Carlsen. But he +shrugged his shoulders as he started to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">{106}</a></span> smoke. At any rate, he told +himself, she knows what kind of a chap he is—in what he calls business.</p> + +<p>Presently he thought he heard her softly sobbing in her room, and he got +up and paced the cabin, not entirely pleased with himself.</p> + +<p>"I was a bit of a cad the way I went at her," he thought, "but that chap +Carlsen sticks in my gorge. How any decent girl could think of mating up +with him is beyond me—unless—by gad, I'll bet he's working through her +father to pull it off! For the gold! If he's in love with her he's got a +damned queer way of not showing it."</p> + +<p>The door from the galley corridor opened, and a head was poked in +cautiously. Then Sandy came into the cabin.</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, Mister Rainey, sir," said the roustabout, "I was through +with the dishes. I wanted to have a talk with yer." His pop-eyes roamed +about the cabin doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Come in here," said Rainey, and ushered Sandy into his own quarters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">{107}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now, then," he said, established on the bunk, while Sandy stood by the +partition, slouching, irresolute, his slack jaw working as if he was +chewing something, "what is it, my lad?"</p> + +<p>"They'd kick the stuffin' out of me if they knew this," said Sandy. +"I've bin warned to hold my tongue. Deming said he'd cut it out if I +chattered. An' he would. But—"</p> + +<p>"But what? Sit down, Sandy; I won't give you away."</p> + +<p>"You went overboard after me, sir. None of them would. I've heard what +Mr. Carlsen said, that I didn't ermount to nothin'. Mebbe I don't, but +I've got my own reasons for hangin' on. Me, of course I don't ermount to +much. Why would I? If I ever had mother an' father, I never laid eyes on +'em. I've made my own livin' sence I was eight. I've never 'ad enough +grub in my belly till I worked for Tamada. The Jap slips me prime +fillin'. He's only a Jap, but he's got more heart than the rest o' that +bloody bunch put tergether."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">{108}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey nodded.</p> + +<p>"Tell me what you know, quickly. You may be wanted any minute."</p> + +<p>The words seemed to stick in the lad's dry throat, and then they came +with a gush.</p> + +<p>"It's the doc! It's Carlsen who's turned 'em into a lot of bloody +bolsheviks, sir. Told 'em they ought to have an ekal share in the gold. +Ekal all round, all except Tamada—an' me. I don't count. An' Tamada's a +Jap. The men is sore at Mr. Lund becoz he sez the skipper left him +be'ind on the ice. Carlsen's worked that up, too. Said Lund made 'em all +out to be cowards. 'Cept Hansen, that is. He don't dare say too much, or +they'd jump him, but Hansen sort of hints that Cap'n Simms ought to have +gone back after Lund, could have gone back, is the way Hansen put it. So +they're all goin' to strike."</p> + +<p>Rainey's mind reacted swiftly to Sandy's talk. It seemed inconceivable +that Carlsen would be willing to share alike with the hunters and the +crew. Sandy's imagination had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">{109}</a></span> running wild, or the men had been +making a fool of him. The girl's share would be thrown into the common +lot. And then flashed over him the trick by which Carlsen had disposed +of all the ammunition in the hunters' possession. He had a deeper scheme +than the one he fed to the hunters, and which he merely offered to serve +some present purpose. Rainey's jaw muscles bunched.</p> + +<p>"Go on, Sandy," he said tersely.</p> + +<p>"There ain't much more, sir. They're goin' to put it up to Lund. First +they figgered some on settin' him ashore with you an' the Jap. That's +what Carlsen put up to 'em. But they warn't in favor of that. Said Lund +found the gold, an' ought to have an ekal share with the rest. An' +they're feelin' diff'runt about you, sir, since you saved me. Not becoz +it was me, but becoz it was what Deming calls a damn plucky thing to +do."</p> + +<p>"How did you learn all this?" demanded Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Scraps, sir. Here an' there. The sailors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">{110}</a></span> gams about it nights when +they thinks I'm asleep in the fo'c's'le. An' I keeps my ears open when I +waits on the hunters. But they ain't goin' to give you no share becoz +you warn't in on the original deal. But they ain't goin' to maroon you, +neither, unless Lund bucks an' you stand back of him."</p> + +<p>"How about Captain Simms?"</p> + +<p>"Carlsen sez he'll answer for him, sir. He boasts how he's goin' to +marry the gal. That'll giv' him three shares—countin' the skipper's. +The men don't see that, but I did. He's a bloody fox, is Carlsen."</p> + +<p>"When's this coming off?" asked Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Quick! They're goin' to sight land ter-morrer, they say. I heard that +this mornin'. I hid in my bunk. It heads ag'inst the wall of the +hunters' mess an', if it's quiet, you can hear what they say.</p> + +<p>"They ain't goin' in to Bering Strait through Unimak Pass. They're goin' +in through Amukat or Seguam Pass. An' they'll put it up to Lund an' the +skipper somewheres close by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">{111}</a></span> there. An' that's where you two'll get put +off, if you don't fall in line."</p> + +<p>"All right, Sandy. You're smarter than I thought you were. Sure of all +this?"</p> + +<p>"I ain't much to look at, sir, but I ain't had to buck my own way +without gittin' on ter myself. You won't give me away, though? They'd +keelhaul me."</p> + +<p>"I won't. You cut along. And if we happen to come out on top, Sandy, +I'll see that you get a share out of it."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir."</p> + +<p>"I'll come out with you," said Rainey. "If any one comes in before you +get clear, I'll give you an order. I sent for you, understand."</p> + +<p>But Sandy got back into the galley without any trouble. Rainey began to +pace the cabin again, and then went back into his own room to line the +thing up. Lund was asleep, but he would waken him, he decided, filled +with admiration at the blind man's sagacity and the way he had foreseen +the general situation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">{112}</a></span></p> + +<p>There was not much time to lose. He did not see what they could do +against the proposition. He was sure that Lund would not consent to it. +And he might have some plan. He had hinted that he had cards up his +sleeve.</p> + +<p>What Carlsen's ultimate plans were Rainey did not bother himself with. +That it meant the fooling of the whole crew he did not doubt. He +intended eventually to gather all the gold. And the girl—she would be +in his power. But perhaps she wanted to be? Rainey got out of his blind +alley of thought and started into the main cabin to give Lund the news.</p> + +<p>The girl was coming out of her father's room.</p> + +<p>"Any better?" asked Rainey.</p> + +<p>"No. I can't understand it. He seems hardly to know me. Doctor Carlsen +came along because of father's sciatica, but—there's something +else—and the doctor can't help it any. I can't quite understand—"</p> + +<p>She stopped abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Have you known the doctor long?" asked Rainey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">{113}</a></span></p> + +<p>"For a year. He lives in Mill Valley, close to my uncle. I live with my +father's brother when father is at sea. But this time I wanted to be +near him. And the doctor—"</p> + +<p>Again she seemed to be deliberately checking herself from a revelation +that wanted to come out.</p> + +<p>"Did he practise in Mill Valley? Or San Francisco?" asked Rainey, +remembering Lund's outburst against Carlsen's professional powers.</p> + +<p>"No, he hasn't practised for some years. That was how it happened he was +able to go along. Of course, father promised him a certain share in the +venture. And he was a friend."</p> + +<p>She trailed off in her speech, looking uncertainly at Rainey. The latter +came to a decision.</p> + +<p>"Miss Simms," he said, "are you going to marry Doctor Carlsen?"</p> + +<p>Suddenly Rainey was aware that some one had come into the cabin. It was +Carlsen, now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">{114}</a></span> swiftly advancing toward him, his face livid, his mouth +snarling, and his black eyes devilish with mischief.</p> + +<p>"I'll attend to this end of it," he said. "Peggy, you had better go in +to your father. I'll be in there in a minute. He's a pretty sick man," +he added.</p> + +<p>His snarl had changed to a smile, and he seemed to have swiftly +controlled himself. The girl looked at both of them and slowly went into +the captain's room. Carlsen wheeled on Rainey, his face once more a mask +of hate.</p> + +<p>"I'll put you where you belong, you damned interloper," he said. "What +in hell do you mean by asking her that question?"</p> + +<p>"That is my business."</p> + +<p>"I'll make it mine. And I'll settle yours very shortly, once and for +all. I suppose you're soft on the girl yourself," he sneered. "Think +yourself a hero! Do you think she'd look at you, a beggarly news-monger? +Why, she—"</p> + +<p>"You can leave her out of it," said Rainey,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">{115}</a></span> quietly. "As for you, I +think you're a dirty blackguard."</p> + +<p>Carlsen's hand shot back to his hip pocket as Rainey's fist flashed +through the opening and caught him high on the jaw, sending him +staggering back, crashing against the partition and down into the +cushioned seat that ran around the place.</p> + +<p>But his gun was out. As he raised it Rainey grappled with him. Carlsen +pulled trigger, and the bullet smashed through the skylight above them, +while Rainey forced up his arm, twisting it fiercely with both hands +until the gun fell on the seat.</p> + +<p>Simultaneously the girl and Lund appeared.</p> + +<p>"Gun-play?" rumbled the giant. "That'll be you, Carlsen! You're too fond +of shooting off that gat of yores."</p> + +<p>Rainey had stepped back at the girl's exclamation. Carlsen recovered his +gun and put it away, while Peggy Simms advanced with blazing eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">{116}</a></span></p> + +<p>"You coward!" she said. "If I had thought—oh!"</p> + +<p>She made a gesture of utter loathing, at which Carlsen sneered.</p> + +<p>"I'll show you whether I'm a coward or not, my lady," he said, "before I +get through with all of you. And I'll tell you one thing: The captain's +life is in my hands. And he and I are the only navigators aboard this +vessel, except a fool of a blind man," he added, as he strode to the +door of Simms' cabin, turned to look at them, laughed deliberately in +their faces, and shut the door on them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">{117}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>RAINEY MAKES DECISION</h3> + + +<p>"Well?" asked Lund, "what are you goin' to do about it, Rainey? Stick +with me, or line up with the rest of 'em, work yore passage, an' thank +'em for nothing when they divvy the stuff an' leave you out? You've got +to decide one way or the other damn' quick, for the show-down's on the +program for ter-morrer."</p> + +<p>"You haven't said outright what you are going to do yourself," replied +Rainey. "As for me, I seem to be between the devil and the deep sea. +Carlsen has got some plan to outwit the men. It's inconceivable that +he'll be willing to give them equal shares. And he has no use for me."</p> + +<p>"You ought to have grabbed that gun of his before he did," said Lund. +"He'll put you out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">{118}</a></span> of the way if he can, but, now his temper's b'iled +over a bit, he'll not shoot you. Not afore the gold's in the hold. One +thing, he knows the hunters wouldn't stand for it. They've got dust in +their eyes right now—gold-dust, chucked there by Carlsen, but if he'd +butchered you he'd likely lose his grip on 'em. I think he would. I +don't believe yo're in enny danger, Rainey, if you want to buckle in an' +line up with the crowd.</p> + +<p>"As for me," he went on, his voice deepening, "I'm goin' to tell 'em to +go plumb to hell. I'll tell Carlsen a few things first. Equal shares! A +fine bunch of socialists they are! Settin' aside that Carlsen's bullin' +'em, as you say. Equal? They ain't my equal, none of 'em, man to man. +All men are born free an' equal, says the Constitution an' by-laws of +this country of ours. Granted. But they don't stay that way long. +They're all lined up to toe the mark on the start, but watch 'em +straggle afore they've run a tenth of the distance.</p> + +<p>"I found this gold, an' they didn't. I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">{119}</a></span> have to divvy with 'em, +an' I won't. A lot of I. W. W.'s, that's what they are, an' I'll tell +'em so. More'n that, if enny of 'em thinks he's my equal all he's got to +do is say so, an' I'll give him a chance to prove it. Feel those arms, +matey, size me up. Man to man, I c'ud break enny of 'em in half. Put me +in a room with enny three of 'em, an' the door locked, an' one 'ud come +out. That 'ud be me."</p> + +<p>This was not bragging, not blustering, but calm assurance, and Rainey +felt that Lund merely stated what he believed to be facts. And Rainey +believed they were facts. There was a confident strength of spirit aside +from his physical condition that emanated from Lund as steam comes from +a kettle. It was the sort of strength that lies in a steady gale, a wind +that one can lean against, an elastic power with big reserves of force. +But the conditions were all against Lund, though he proceeded to put +them aside.</p> + +<p>"Man to man," he repeated, "I c'ud beat 'em into Hamburg steak. An' I've +got brains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">{120}</a></span> enough to fool Carlsen. I've outguessed him so far."</p> + +<p>"He's got the gun," warned Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Never mind his gun. I ain't afraid of his gun." He nodded with such +supreme confidence that Rainey felt himself suddenly relegating the +doctor's possession of the gun to the background. "If his gun's the only +thing trubblin' you, forget it. You an' me got to know where we stand. +It's up to you. I won't blame you for shiftin' over. An' I can git along +without you, if need be. But we've got along together fine; I've took a +notion to you. I'd like to see you get a whack of that gold, an' all the +devils in hell an' out of it ain't goin' to stop me from gittin' it!"</p> + +<p>He talked in a low voice, but it rumbled like the distant roar of a +bull. Rainey looked at the indomitable jaw that the beard could not +hide, at the great barrel of his chest, the boughlike arms, the swelling +thighs and calves, and responded to the suggestion that Lund could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">{121}</a></span> rise +in Berserker rage and sweep aside all opposition.</p> + +<p>It was absurd, of course; his next thought adjusted the balance that had +been weighed down by the compelling quality of the man's vigor but, for +the moment, remembering his earlier simile, Lund appeared a blind Samson +who, by some miracle, could at the last moment destroy his enemies by +pulling down their house—or their ship—about them.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen says that the skipper's life is in his hands," he said, still +evading Lund's direct question. "What do you make of that?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what to make of it," answered Lund. "If it is, God help +the skipper! I reckon he's in a bad way. Ennyhow, he's out of it for the +time bein', Rainey. I don't think he'll be present at the meetin' if +he's that ill. Carlsen speaks for him. Count Simms out of it for the +present."</p> + +<p>"There's the girl," said Rainey. "I don't believe she wants to marry +Carlsen."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">{122}</a></span></p> + +<p>"If she does," said Lund, "she ain't the kind we need worry about. +Carlsen 'ud marry her if he thought it was necessary to git her share by +bein' legal. He may try an' squeeze her to a wedding through the +skipper. Threaten to let her dad die if she don't marry him, likely'll +git the skipper to tie the knot. It 'ud be legal. But if you're +interested about the gal, Rainey, an' I take it you are, I'm tellin' you +that Carlsen'll marry her if it suits his book. If it don't, he won't. +An', if he wins out, he'll take her without botherin' about prayer-books +an' ceremonies. I know his breed. All men are more or less selfish an' +shy on morals, in streaks more or less wide, but that Carlsen's just +plain skunk."</p> + +<p>"The men wouldn't permit that," said Rainey tersely. "If Carlsen started +anything like that I'd kill him with my own hands, gun or no gun. And +any white man would help me do it."</p> + +<p>"You would, mebbe," said Lund, nodding sagely. "You'd have a try at it. +But you don't know men, matey, not like I do. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">{123}</a></span> ship's got a skipper +now. A sick one, I grant you. But so far he's boss. An' he's the gal's +father. All's usual an' reg'lar. But you turn this schooner into a +free-an'-easy, equal shares-to-all, go-as-you-please outfit, let 'em git +their claws on the gold, an' be on the way home to spend it—for +Carlsen'll let 'em go that far afore he pulls his play, whatever it +is—an' discipline will go by the board.</p> + +<p>"Grog'll be served when they feel like it, they'll start gamblin', some +of 'em'll lose all they got. There'll be sore-heads, an' they'll +remember there's a gal in the after-cabin, which won't be the +after-cabin enny more, for they'll all have the run of it, bein' equal; +then all hell's goin' to break loose, far's that gal's concerned.</p> + +<p>"A bunch of men who've bin at sea for weeks, half drunk, crazy over +havin' more gold than they ever dreamed of, or havin' gambled it away. +Jest a bunch of beasts, matey, whenever they think of that gal. They'll +be too much for Carlsen to handle—an'"—he tapped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">{124}</a></span> at Rainey's +knee—"Carlsen don't think enough of enny woman to let her interfere +with his best interests."</p> + +<p>Rainey's jaw was set and his fists clenched, his blood running hot and +fast. His imagination was instinct to conjure up full-colored scenes +from Lund's suggestions.</p> + +<p>"You mean—" he began.</p> + +<p>"Under his hide, when there ain't nothin' to hinder him, a man's plain +animal," said Lund. "What do these water-front bullies know about a good +gal—or care? They only know one sort. Ever think what happened to a +woman in privateer days when they got one aboard, alone, on the high +seas? Why, if they pushed Carlsen, he'd turn her over to 'em without +winkin'."</p> + +<p>"You hinted I was different," said Rainey. "How about you, Lund, how +would you act?"</p> + +<p>"If Carlsen wins out, I'd be chewin' mussels on a rock, or feedin' +crabs," said Lund simply. "I'm no saint, but, so long as I can keep +wigglin', there ain't enny hunter or seaman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">{125}</a></span> goin' to harm a decent gal. +That's another way they ain't my equal, Rainey. Savvy? Nor is Carlsen. +There ain't enough real manhood in that Carlsen to grease a skillet. How +about it, Rainey; are you lined up with me?"</p> + +<p>"Just as far as I can go, Lund. I'm with you to the limit."</p> + +<p>Lund brought down his hand with a mighty swing, and caught at Rainey's +in mid-air, gripping it till Rainey bit his lips to repress a cry of +pain.</p> + +<p>"You've got the guts!" cried the giant, checking the loudness of his +voice abruptly. "I knew it. It ain't all goin' to go as they like it. +Watch my smoke. Now, then, keep out of Carlsen's way all you can. He may +try an' pick a row with you that'll put you in wrong all around. Go easy +an' speak easy till land's sighted. If you ain't invited to this +I. W. W. convention, horn in.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen'll try an' keep you on deck, I fancy. Don't stay there. Turn +the wheel over to Sandy if you have to. I'll insist on havin' you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">{126}</a></span> +there. That'll be better. They'll probably have some fool agreement to +sign. Carlsen would do that. Make 'em all feel it's more like a bizness +meetin'. They'll love to scrawl their names an' put down their marks. +I'll have to have you there to read it over to me; savvy?"</p> + +<p>"What do you think Carlsen's game is, if it goes through?"</p> + +<p>"He's fox enough to think up a dozen ways. Run the schooner ashore +somewhere in the night. Wreck her. Git 'em in the boats with the gold. +Inside of a week, Deming an' one or two others would have won it all. +Then—he'd have the only gun—he'd shoot the lot of 'em an' say they +died at sea. He ain't got enny more warm blood than a squid. Or he might +land, and accuse 'em all of piracy. What do we care about his plans? He +ain't goin' to put 'em over."</p> + +<p>Rainey had to relieve Hansen. He left Lund primed for resistance against +Carlsen, against all the crew, if necessary, resolved to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">{127}</a></span> save the girl, +but, as Lund stayed below and the time slid by, his confidence oozed out +of him, and the odds assumed their mathematical proportion.</p> + +<p>What could they do against so many? But he held firm in his +determination to do what he could, to go down with the forlorn hope, +fighting. Blind as he was, Lund was the better man of the two of them, +Rainey felt; it was better to attempt to seize the horns of the dilemma +than weakly to give way and, with Lund killed, or marooned, try +single-handed to protect Peggy Simms against the horrors that would come +later.</p> + +<p>He did not believe himself in love with her. The environment had not +been conducive to that sort of thing. But the thought of her, their +hands clasped, her eyes appealing, saying she needed a friend aboard the +<i>Karluk</i>; the young clean beauty of her, nerved him to stand with Lund +against the odds. Lund was fighting for his rights, for his gold, but he +had said that he would not see a decent girl harmed as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">{128}</a></span> long as he could +wiggle. Rough sea-bully as the giant was, he had his code. Rainey +tingled with contempt of his own hesitancy.</p> + +<p>The <i>Karluk</i> was bowling along northward toward landfall and the crisis +between Lund and Carlsen at good speed. The weather had subsided and the +half gale now served the schooner instead of hindering her. Rainey +turned over the wheel to a seaman and paced the deck. The bite in the +air had increased until even the smart walk he maintained failed to +circulate the blood sufficiently to keep his fingers from becoming +benumbed, so that he had to beat his arms across his chest.</p> + +<p>It was well below the freezing point. If they had been sailing on fresh +water, instead of salt, he fancied that the rigging would have been +glazed where the spray struck it. As it was, the canvas seemed to him +stiffer than usual, and there was a whitish haze about the northern +horizon that suggested ice.</p> + +<p>The tall, olive-tinted seas ranged up in dissolving hills, the wind's +whistle was shrill in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">{129}</a></span> the rigging. Over the mainmast a gray-breasted +bird with wide, unmoving pinions hung without apparent motion, its ruby +eyes watching the ship, as if it was a spy sent out from the Arctic to +report the adventurous strangers about to dare its dangers.</p> + +<p>As the day passed to sunset the gloom quickly deepened. The sun sank +early into banks of leaden clouds, and the <i>Karluk</i> slid on through the +seething seas in a scene of strange loneliness, save for the suspended +albatross that never varied its position by an inch or by a flirt of its +plumes.</p> + +<p>Rainey felt the dreary suggestion of it all as he walked up and down, +trying to evolve some plan. Lund's mysterious hints were unsatisfactory. +He could not believe them without some basis, but the giant would never +go further than vague talk of a "joker" or a card up his sleeve. And +they would need more than one card, Rainey thought.</p> + +<p>He wondered whether they could win over Hansen, who had spoken for Lund +against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">{130}</a></span> skipper. And had then kept his counsel. But he dismissed +Hansen as an ally. The Scandinavian was too cautious, too apt to +consider such things as odds. Sandy was useless, aside from his +good-will. He was cowed by Deming, scared of Carlsen, too puny to do +more than he had done, given them warning.</p> + +<p>Tamada? Would he fight for the share of gold he expected to come to him? +Lund had described him as neutral. But, if he knew that he was to be +left out of the division? It was not likely that he would be called to +the conference. The Japanese undoubtedly knew the racial prejudice +against him, a prejudice that Rainey considered short-sighted, taking +some pains to show that he did not share it. At any rate, Tamada might +provide him with a weapon, a sharp-bladed vegetable knife if nothing +better.</p> + +<p>But, if it came to downright combat, they must be overwhelmed. Carlsen's +gun again assumed proper proportions. Lund might not be afraid of it, +but Rainey was, very frankly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">{131}</a></span> He should have snatched it from the cabin +cushions. But Tamada? He could not dismiss Tamada as an important +factor. There was no question to Rainey but that Tamada was, by caste, +above his position as sealer's cook. It was true that a Japanese +considered no means menial if they led to the proper end.</p> + +<p>Was that end merely to gain possession of his share of the gold, or did +Tamada have some deeper, more complicated reason for signing on to run +the galley of the <i>Karluk</i>? Somehow Rainey thought there was such a +reason. He treated Tamada with a courtesy that he had found other +Japanese appreciated, and fancied that Tamada gradually came to regard +him with a certain amount of good-will. But it was hard to determine +anything that went on back of those unfathomable eyes, or to read +Tamada's face, smooth and placid as that of an ivory image.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">{132}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>TAMADA TALKS</h3> + + +<p>Tamada's galley was as orderly and efficient as the operating-room of a +first-class hospital. And Tamada at his work had all the deftness and +some of the dignity of a surgeon. There was no wasted move, there was no +litter of preparation, every article was returned to its specified place +as soon as used, and every implement and utensil was shining and +spotless.</p> + +<p>It was an hour from the third meal of the day. Tamada was juggling the +food for three messes, and he was doing it with the calm precision of +one who has every detail well mapped out and is moving on schedule. The +boy Sandy was not there, probably engaged in laying the table for the +hunters' mess, Rainey imagined.</p> + +<p>Tamada regarded him with eyes that did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">{133}</a></span> not lack a certain luster, as a +sloeberry might hold it, but which, beneath their hooded lids, revealed +neither interest, nor curiosity, nor friendliness. They belonged in his +unwrinkled face, they were altogether neutral. Yet they seemed covertly +to suggest to Rainey that they might, on occasion, flame with wrath or +hatred, or show the burning light of high intelligence. Seldom, he +thought, while their gaze rested on him impassively, would they soften.</p> + +<p>"Tamada," he queried, "you think I am your friend, that I would rather +help you than otherwise?"</p> + +<p>"I think that—yes?" answered the Japanese without hesitation and +without servility. And his eyes slowly searched Rainey's face with +appraising pertinacity for a second or two. His English, save for the +oddness of his idioms and a burr that made <i>r's</i> of most his <i>l's</i>, and +sometimes reversed the process, was almost perfect. His vocabulary +showed study. "You are not hating me because you are Californian and I +Japanese," he said. "I know that."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">{134}</a></span></p> + +<p>There was little time to spare, and there was likelihood of +interruption, so Rainey plunged into his subject without introduction.</p> + +<p>"They promised you a share of this treasure, Tamada?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"They promised me that, yes."</p> + +<p>"They do not intend to give it to you." There was a tiny, dancing +flicker in the dark eyes that died like a spark in the night air. Rainey +recalled Lund's opinion that little went on that Tamada did not know. +"You may have guessed this," he hurried on, "but I am sure of it. I, +too, am promised some of the gold, but they do not intend to give it to +me. They will offer Mr. Lund only a small portion of what was originally +arranged, the same amount as the rest of them are to get. He will refuse +that to-morrow, when a meeting is to be called. Then there will be +trouble. I shall stand with Mr. Lund. If we win you will get your share, +whether you help us or not. If you help us I can promise you at least +twice the amount you were to get."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">{135}</a></span></p> + +<p>"How can I help you? If this is to be talked over at a meeting I shall +not be allowed to be present. If trouble starts it will do so +immediately. Mr. Lund"—he called it Rund—"is not patient man. What can +I do? How can I help you?"</p> + +<p>Rainey was nonplused. He had seized the first opportunity +of sounding the Japanese, and he had nothing outlined.</p> + +<p>"I do not know," he said. "I must talk that over with Mr. Lund. I wanted +to know if you would be on our side."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lund will not want me to help you. He does not like color of my +skin, he does not like Japanese because he thinks they make too good +living in California, and making more money than some of his countrymen. +I do not think it help you for me to join. I do not see how you can win. +If you can show some way out I will do what I can. But I like to see way +out."</p> + +<p>He mollified the bald acknowledgment of his neutrality with a little bow +and a hissing-in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">{136}</a></span> breath. Back of it all was a will that was inflexible, +thought Rainey.</p> + +<p>"If we lose, you lose," he went on lamely. He had come on a fool's +errand, he decided.</p> + +<p>"I think I shall get my money," said Tamada, and something looked out of +his eyes that betrayed a purpose already gained, Rainey fancied, as a +chess player might gain assurance of victory by the looking ahead to all +conceivable moves against him, and providing a counter-play that would +achieve the game. It was borne in upon him that Tamada had resources he +could not fathom. The Oriental gave a swift smile, that held no mirth, +no friendship, rather, a sardonic appreciation of the situation, without +rancor.</p> + +<p>"They are very foolish," he said. "They make me cook, they eat what I +serve. They say Tamada is very good cook. But he is Jap, damn him. +Suppose I put something in that food, that they would not taste? I could +send them all to sleep. I could kill them. I could do it so they never +suspect, but would go to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">{137}</a></span> their beds—and never get up from them. It +would be very easy. Yet they trust me."</p> + +<p>The statement was so matter-of-fact that Rainey felt his horror gather +slowly as he stared at the impassive Oriental.</p> + +<p>"You would do that? What good would it do you? You would have to kill +them all, or the rest would tear you apart. And if you murdered the +whole ship where would you be? You talk as if you were a little mad. +Suppose I told Carlsen of this?"</p> + +<p>Tamada was smiling again. He seemed to know that Rainey was in no +position to betray him—if he wished to do so.</p> + +<p>"I did not say I would do it. And, except under certain circumstances, +it do me little good. I do not expect to do it. But it would be easy. +Yet, as you say, it would not help you to kill only few, those who will +be at the meeting, for example, even if I wish to do. No, I do not see +way out. If, at any time there should seem way out and I can help you, I +will."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">{138}</a></span></p> + +<p>He turned abruptly to a simmering pot and rattled the lid. The hunter, +Deming, stuck his head in at the door.</p> + +<p>"Smells good," he said. "Evening, Mr. Rainey."</p> + +<p>He seemed disposed to linger, and Rainey, not to excite suspicion toward +himself or Tamada, went back on deck. What did Tamada mean by "except +under certain circumstances"? he asked himself. For one thing he felt +sure that Tamada had some basis for his <ins class="correction" title="text reads 'expresion'">expression</ins> that he +expected to get his money. <i>He knew something</i>. Was it merely the +Oriental method of <i>jiu-jitsu</i>, practised mentally as well as +physically, the belief in a seemingly passive resistance against +circumstances, waiting for some move that, by its own aggressiveness, +would give him an opening for a trick that would secure him the +advantage? What could one Japanese hope to do against the crowd?</p> + +<p>A thought suddenly flashed over Rainey. Was Tamada in league with +Carlsen? Had he mistaken his man? Did Carlsen plan to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">{139}</a></span> have Tamada +undertake a wholesale poisoning to secure the gold himself, providing +the drugs? Was it a friendly hint from the Japanese?</p> + +<p>Still mulling over it he went down to supper. The girl was not present. +Carlsen appeared in an unusual mood.</p> + +<p>"I was a bit hasty, Rainey," he said, with all appearance of sincerity. +"I've been worried a bit over the skipper. He's in a bad way.</p> + +<p>"Forget what happened, if you can. I apologize. Though I still think +your interference in my private affairs unwarranted. I'll call it +square, if you will."</p> + +<p>He nodded across the table at Rainey, saving the latter a reply which he +was rather at a loss how to word. Amenities from Carlsen were likely a +Greek gift. And Carlsen rattled on during the meal in high good spirits, +rallying Rainey about his poker game with the hunters, joking Lund about +his shooting, talking of the landfall they expected the next day.</p> + +<p>To Rainey's surprise Lund picked up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">{140}</a></span> talk. There was a subtle, +sardonic flavor to it on both sides and, once in a while, as Tamada, +like an animated sphinx, went about his duties, Rainey saw the eyes of +Carlsen turned questioningly upon the giant as if a bit puzzled +concerning the exact spirit of his sallies.</p> + +<p>Rainey admired while he marveled at the sheer skill of Lund in this sort +of a fencing bout. He never went far enough to arouse Carlsen's +suspicions, yet he showed a keen sense of humorous appreciation of +Carlsen's half-satirical sallies that, in the light of Sandy's +revelation, showed the doctor considered himself the master of the +situation, the winner of a game whose pieces were already on the board, +though the players had not yet taken their places. Yet Rainey fancied +that Carlsen qualified his dismissal of Lund as a "blind fool" before +they rose from the table, without disturbing his own equanimity as the +craftier of the two.</p> + +<p>Later, when his watch was ended and he was closeted with Lund in the +latter's cabin, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">{141}</a></span> giant promptly quashed all discussion of Tamada's +attitude.</p> + +<p>"I'll put no trust in any slant-eyed, yellow-skinned rice-eater," he +announced emphatically. "They're against us, race an' religion. They +want California, or rather, the Pacific coast, an' they think they're +goin' to git it. They're no more akin to us than a snake is a cousin to +an eel. They're not of our breed, an' you can't mix the two. I'll have +no deal with Tamada, beyond gettin' dope out of him. If he helped us it +'ud be only to further his own ends. Not that he can do much—unless—"</p> + +<p>He lowered his voice to a husky whisper.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing may slip in our gold-gettin', matey," he said—"the +Japanese. I doubt if this island is set down on American or British +charts. But I'll bet it is on the Japanese. I don't know as any nation +has openly claimed it, but it's a sure thing the Japs know of its +existence. They don't know of the gold, or it wouldn't be there. +Rightly, the island may belong to Russia, but, since the war, Russia's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">{142}</a></span> +in a bad way, an' ennything loose from the mainland'll be gobbled by +Japan.</p> + +<p>"What the Japs grab they don't let go of. On general principles they +patrol the west side of Bering Strait. If one of their patrols sees us +we'll be inside the sealin' limit, an' they'll have right of search. +They'd take it, ennyway, if they sighted us. They go by <i>power</i> of +search, not right. They won't find enny pelts on us, we've got hunters +aboard, we're pelagic sealers, they won't be able to hang up enny +clubbin' of herds on us.</p> + +<p>"But, if they should suspicion us of gittin' gold off enny island they +c'ud trump up to call theirs, if they found gold on us at all, it 'ud be +all off with us an' the <i>Karluk</i>. We'd be dumped inside of some Jap +prison an' the schooner confiscated.</p> + +<p>"An', if things go right with us, an' we ever sight the smoke of a Jap +gunboat comin' our way, the first thing I'll be apt to do will be to +scrag Tamada or he'll blow the whole proposition, whether we've got the +gold aboard or not.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">{143}</a></span> Even if he didn't want to tell becoz of his own +share, they'd git it out of him what we was after."</p> + +<p>Did this, wondered Rainey, explain Tamada's "certain circumstances"? Was +he calculating on the arrival of a Japanese patrol? Had he already +tipped off to his consul in San Francisco the purpose of the expedition, +sure of a reward equal to what his share would have been? If so, Rainey +had made a muddle of his attempt to sound Tamada. He felt guilty, glad +that Lund could not see his face, and he dropped the subject abruptly.</p> + +<p>Lund seemed to know that something was amiss.</p> + +<p>"Nervous, Rainey?" he asked. "That's becoz you've not bin livin' a man's +life. All yore experience has bin second-hand, an' you've never gone +into a rough-an'-tumble, I take it. You'll make out all right if it +comes to that at all. Yo're well put up, an' you've got solid of late. +Now yo're goin' to git a taste of life in the raw. Not story-book stuff. +It's strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">{144}</a></span> meat sometimes, an' liable to turn some people's stomachs. +I've got an appetite for it, an' so'll you have, after a bit.</p> + +<p>"Ever play much at cards?" he went on. "Play for yore last red when you +don't know where to turn for another, an' have all the crowd thinkin' +yo're goin' broke as they watch the play? An' then you slap down a card +they've all overlooked an' larf in the other chap's face?</p> + +<p>"That's what I'm goin' to do with Carlsen. I've got that kind of a card, +matey, an' I ain't goin' to spoil my fun by tellin' even you what it is, +though yo're my partner in this gamble. It's a trump, an' Carlsen's +overlooked it. He figgers he's stacked the deck an' fixed it so's he +deals himself all the winnin' cards. But there's one he don't know is +there becoz he's more of a blind fool than I am, is Doctor Carlsen."</p> + +<p>Lund chuckled hugely as he mixed himself some whisky and water. Rainey +refused a drink. Lund was right, he was nervous, bothering over what the +outcome might be, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">{145}</a></span> how he might handle himself. He was not at all +sure of his own grit.</p> + +<p>Lund had hit the nail on the head. All his experience had lain in +listening to the stories of others and writing them down. He did not +know whether he would act in a manner that would satisfy himself. There +was a nasty doubt as to his own prowess and his own courage that kept +cropping up. And that state of mind is not a pleasant one.</p> + +<p>"All be over this time ter-morrer," put in Lund, "so far as our bisness +with Carlsen is concerned. You git all the sleep you can ter-night, +Rainey. An' don't you worry none about that gal. She's a damn' sight +more capable of lookin' after herself than you imagine. You ain't +counted her in as bein' more than a clingin' vine proposition. Not that +she could buck it on her own, but she's no fool, an' I bet she's game.</p> + +<p>"Soft on her?" he challenged unexpectedly.</p> + +<p>"I haven't thought of her in that way," Rainey answered, a bit shortly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">{146}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ah!" the giant ejaculated softly. "You haven't? Wal, mebbe it's jest as +well."</p> + +<p>Rainey took that last remark up on deck and pondered over it in the +middle watch, but he could make nothing out of it. Yet he was sure that +Lund had meant something by it.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the night the cold seemed to concentrate. Rainey had +found mittens in the schooner's slop-chest, and he was glad of them at +the wheel. The sailors, with but little to do, huddled forward. One man +acted as lookout for ice. The smell of this was now unmistakable even to +Rainey's inexperience. On certain slants of wind a sharper edge would +come that bit through ordinary clothes. It was, he thought, as if some +one had suddenly opened in the dark the doors of an enormous +refrigerator. He knew what that felt like, and this was much the same.</p> + +<p>The weather was still clearing. In the sky of indigo the stars were +glittering points, not of gold, but steel, hard and cold. Ahead, the +northern lights were projected above the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">{147}</a></span> horizon in a low arch of +quivering rose. And, out of the north, before the wind, the sea advanced +in the long, smooth folds of a weighty swell over which the <i>Karluk</i> +wore her way into the breeze, clawing steadily on to the Aleutians and a +passage through to Bering Strait.</p> + +<p>At two bells the hunters began to come on deck for a breath or so of +fresh air after the closeness of their quarters, as they invariably did +following a poker session. They did not come aft or give any greeting to +Rainey, but walked briskly about in couples, discussing something that +Rainey did not doubt was the next day's meeting. Doubtless, in the +confidence of their numbers, they considered it a mere formality. Lund +would take what they offered—or nothing. And Carlsen had guaranteed the +skipper's signature to an agreement.</p> + +<p>They got their lungs recharged with good air, and then the cold drove +them below, and Rainey, with the length of the schooner between him and +the watch, was practically alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">{148}</a></span> He went over and over the situation +as a squirrel might race around the bars of his revolving cylinder, and +came to only one conclusion, the inevitable one, to let the matter +develop itself. Lund's winning card he had bothered about until his +brain was tired. The only thing he got out of all his fussing was the +one new thought that seemed to fly out at a tangent and mock him.</p> + +<p>If Carlsen was deposed, and the skipper continued ill—to face the worst +but still plausible—if Carlsen, being deposed, refused to act, and the +skipper was too sick to leave his room—who was going to navigate the +schooner? Not a blind man. And Rainey couldn't learn navigation in a +day. There was more to it in these perilous seas than mere reckoning. +Ice was ahead.</p> + +<p>What could Lund make of that? Supposing that card of his did win, how +could they handle the schooner? He, in his capacity of eyes for Lund, +would be about as competent as a poodle trying to lead a blind pedler +out of a maze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">{149}</a></span></p> + +<p>The lookout broke in on his mulling over with a sudden shout.</p> + +<p>"<i>Ice! Ice!</i> Close on the starboard bow!"</p> + +<p>Rainey put the helm over, throwing the <i>Karluk</i> on the opposite tack.</p> + +<p>The berg slipped by them, not as he had imagined it, a thing of +sparkling minarets and pinnacles, but a hill of snow that materialized +in the soft darkness and floated off again to dissolution like the ghost +of an island, leaving behind the bitter chill of death, rising and +falling until, in a moment, it was gone, with its threat of shipwreck +had the night been less clear.</p> + +<p>Five times before eight bells the cry came from forward, and the heaps +of shining whiteness would take form, gather a certain sharpness of +outline, and go past the beam with the seas surging about them and +breaking with a hollow boom upon their cavernous sides. And this was in +the open sea. Lund had suggested that the strait would be full of ice. +Rainey felt his sailing experience, that he came to be rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">{150}</a></span> proud of, +pitifully limited and inadequate in the face of coming conditions.</p> + +<p>When he turned in at last, despite his determination to follow Lund's +admonition concerning sleep, it would not come to him. Hansen had taken +over the deck stolidly enough, with no show of misgivings as to his +ability to handle things, but his words had not been cheering to Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Plenty ice from now on, Mr. Rainey. Now we bane goin' to have one hard +yob on our hands, by yiminy, you an' me!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">{151}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE POT SIMMERS</h3> + + +<p>Rainey was awakened at half past seven by the swift rush of men on deck +and a confused shouting. The sun was shining brightly through his +porthole and then it became suddenly obscured. He looked out and saw a +turreted mass of ice not half a cable's length away from the schooner, +water cascading all over its hills and valleys, that were distinct +enough, but so smoothed that the truth flashed over him. Here was a berg +that had suddenly turned turtle and exposed its greater, under-water +bulk to the air.</p> + +<p>About it the sea was dark and vivid blue, and the berg sparkled in the +sun with prismatic reflections that gave all the hues of the rainbow to +its prominences, while the bulk glowed like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">{152}</a></span> a fire opal. Between it and +the schooner the sea ran in a lasher of diminishing turmoil. Hansen had +carelessly sailed too close. The momentum of the <i>Karluk</i> and its slight +wave disturbance must have sufficed to upset the equilibrium of the +berg, floating with only a third of its bulk above the water. And the +displacement had narrowly missed the schooner's side.</p> + +<p>He got a cup of coffee after dressing warmly, and went up. Carlsen and +the girl had preceded him and were gazing at the iceberg. The doctor +seemed to be in the same rare vein of humor as overnight. Lund stood at +the rail with his beak of a nose wrinkled, snuffing toward the icy crags +that were spouting a dazzle of white flame, set about with smaller, +sudden flares of ruby, emerald and sapphire.</p> + +<p>"Close shave, that, Rainey," called Carlsen. "She turned turtle on us."</p> + +<p>"Too close to be pleasant," said Rainey, and went to the wheel. The girl +had given him a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">{153}</a></span> smile, but he marked her face as weary from +sleeplessness and strain. Rainey left the spokes in charge of Hansen for +a minute—Hansen stolid and chewing like an automaton, undisturbed by +the incident now it had passed—and asked the girl how her father was.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid—" she began, then glanced at Carlsen.</p> + +<p>"He is not at all well," said the doctor, facing Rainey, his face away +from the girl. As he spoke he left his mouth open for a moment, his +tongue showing between his white teeth, in a grin that was as mocking as +that of a wolf, mirthless, ruthless, triumphant. And for a fleeting +second his eyes matched it.</p> + +<p>Rainey restrained a sudden desire to smash his fist into that sardonic +mask. This was the day of Carlsen's anticipated victory, the first of +his calculated moves toward check-mate, and he was palpably enjoying it.</p> + +<p>"Not—at—all—well," repeated Carlsen slowly. "He needs something to +bring him out of himself, as he now is. A little excitement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">{154}</a></span> Yet he +should not be crossed in any way. We shall see."</p> + +<p>He shifted his position and looked at the girl much as a wolf, not +particularly hungry, might look at a tethered lamb. His tongue just +touched the inner edges of his lips. It was as if the wolf had licked +his chops.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen would be a bad loser," Lund had once said, "and a nasty winner. +He'd want to rub it in as soon as he knew he had you beat."</p> + +<p>Rainey gripped the spokes hard until he felt the pressure of his bones +against the wood. Carlsen's attitude had had one good effect. His +nervousness had disappeared, and a cold rage taken its place. He could +cheerfully have attempted to throttle Carlsen without fear of his gun. +For that matter, he had faced the pistol once and come off best. What a +fool he had been, though, to let Carlsen regain his automatic! Now he +was anxious for the landfall, keen for the show-down.</p> + +<p>Far on the horizon, northward, he sighted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">{155}</a></span> glimmering flashes of milky +whiteness that came and went to the swing of the schooner. This could +not be land, he decided, or they would have announced it. It was ice, +pack-ice, or floes. He tried to recollect all that he had heard or read +of Arctic voyages, and succeeded only in comprehending his own +ignorance. Of the rapidly changing conditions the commonest sailor +aboard knew more than he. Blind Lund, sniffing to windward, smelled and +heard far more than he could rightfully imagine.</p> + +<p>Tamada appeared and announced breakfast.</p> + +<p>"You'll be coming later, Rainey?" asked Carlsen. "You and Lund?"</p> + +<p>He started for the companionway and the girl followed. As she passed the +wheel Rainey spoke to her:</p> + +<p>"I am sorry your father is worse, Miss Simms," he said.</p> + +<p>She looked at him with eyes that were filled with sadness, that seemed +liquid with tears bravely held back.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">{156}</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am afraid he is dying," she answered in a low voice. "Thank you, for +you sympathy. I—"</p> + +<p>She stopped at some slight sound that Rainey did not catch. But he saw +the face of Carlsen framed in the shadow of the companion, his mouth +open in the wolf grin, and the man's eyes were gleaming crimson. He held +up a hand for the girl. She passed down without taking it.</p> + +<p>Lund came over to Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Clear weather, they tell me?" he said. "That's unusual. Fog off the +Aleutians three hundred an' fifty days of the year, as a rule. Soon as +we sight land, which'll be Unalaska or thereabouts, he'll have the +course changed. There's a considerable fleet of United States revenue +cutters at Unalaska, an' Carlsen won't pull ennything until we're well +west of there. He's pretty cocky this mornin'. Wal, we'll see."</p> + +<p>There had always been a certain rollicking good-humor about Lund. This +morning he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">{157}</a></span> was grim, his face, with its beak of a nose and aggressive +chin beneath the flaming whiskers, and his whole magnificent body gave +the impression of resolve and repressed action. Rainey fancied +whimsically that he could hear a dynamo purring inside of the giant's +massiveness. He had seen him in open rage when he had first denounced +Honest Simms, but the serious mood was far more impressive.</p> + +<p>The big man stepped like a great cat, his head was thrust slightly +forward, his great hands were half open. One forgot his blindness. +Despite the unsightly black lenses, Lund appeared so absolutely prepared +and, in a different way, fully as confident as Carlsen. A certain +audacious assurance seemed to ooze out of him, to permeate his +neighborhood, and a measure of it extended to Rainey.</p> + +<p>"We'll sight Makushin first," muttered Lund, as if to himself.</p> + +<p>"Makushin?"</p> + +<p>"Volcano, fifty-seven hundred feet high. Much ice in sight?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">{158}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey described the horizon.</p> + +<p>"All fresh-water ice," said Lund. "An' melting."</p> + +<p>"Melting? It must be way below freezing," said Rainey. Lund chuckled.</p> + +<p>"This ain't cold, matey. Wait till we git <i>north</i>. Never saw it lower +than five above in Unalaska in my life. It's the rainiest spot in the +U. S. A. Rains two days out of three, reg'lar. This ice is comin' out of +the strait. Sure sign it's breakin' up. The winter freeze ain't due for +six weeks yet."</p> + +<p>Carlsen, before he went below, had sent a man into the fore-spreaders, +and now he shouted, cupping his hands and sounding his news as if it had +been a call to arms.</p> + +<p>"<i>Land-ho!</i>"</p> + +<p>"What is it?" called Rainey back.</p> + +<p>"High peak, sir. Dead ahead! Clouds on it, or smoke."</p> + +<p>He came sliding down the halyards to the deck as Lund said: "That'll be +Makushin. Now the fun'll commence."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">{159}</a></span></p> + +<p>From below the sailors off watch came up on deck, and the hunters, the +latter wiping their mouths, fresh from their interrupted breakfast, all +crowding forward to get a glimpse of the land. Rainey kept on the +course, heading for the far-off volcano. Minutes passed before Carlsen +came on deck. He had not hurried his meal.</p> + +<p>"I'll take her over, Rainey," he said briefly.</p> + +<p>Rainey and Lund were barely seated before the heeling of the schooner +and the scuffle of feet told of Lund's prophesied change of course. +Rainey looked at the telltale compass above his head.</p> + +<p>"Heading due west," he told Lund.</p> + +<p>"West it is," said the giant. "More coffee, Tamada. Fill your belly, +Rainey. Get a good meal while the eatin' is good."</p> + +<p>Although it was Hansen's watch below, Rainey found him at the wheel +instead of the seaman he had left there. Carlsen came up to him smiling.</p> + +<p>"Better let Hansen have the deck, Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">{160}</a></span> Rainey," he said. "We're going to +have a conference in the cabin at four bells, and I'd like you to be +present."</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," Rainey answered, getting a thrill at this first actual +intimation of the meeting. Hansen, it seemed, was not to be one of the +representatives of the seamen. And Carlsen had been smart enough to +forestall Lund's demand for Rainey by taking some of the wind out of the +giant's sails and doing the unexpected. Unless the hunters had suggested +that Rainey be present. But that was hardly likely, considering that he +was to be left out of the deal.</p> + +<p>"In just what capacity are you callin' this conference?" Lund asked, +when Carlsen notified him in turn. "The skipper ain't dead is he?"</p> + +<p>"I represent the captain, Lund," replied the doctor. "He entirely +approves of what I am about to suggest to you and the men. In fact I +have his signature to a document that I hope you will sign also. It will +be greatly to your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">{161}</a></span> interest to do so. I am in present charge of the +<i>Karluk</i>."</p> + +<p>"You ain't a reg'lar member of this expedition," objected Lund stolidly. +"Neither am I a member of the crew, just now. But the skipper's my +partner in this deal, signed, sealed and recorded. Afore I go to enny +meetin' I'd like to have a talk with him personally. Thet's fair enough, +ain't it?"</p> + +<p>Several of the hunters had gathered about, and Lund's question seemed a +general appeal. Carlsen shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"If you had your eyesight," he said almost brutally, "you could soon see +that the skipper was in no condition to discuss matters, much less be +present."</p> + +<p>"Here's my eyesight," countered Lund. "Mr. Rainey here. Let him see the +skipper and ask him a question or two."</p> + +<p>"What kind of question? I'm asking as his doctor, Lund."</p> + +<p>"For one thing if he's read the paper you say he signed. I want to be +sure of that. An'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">{162}</a></span> I don't make it enny of yore bizness, Carlsen, what I +want to say to my partner, by proxy or otherwise. Second thing, I'd like +to be sure he's still alive. As for yore standin' as his doctor, all +I've got to say is that yo're a damned pore doctor, so fur as the +skipper's concerned, ennyway."</p> + +<p>The two men stood facing each other, Carlsen looking evilly at the +giant, whose black glasses warded off his glance. It was wasting looks +to glare at a blind man. Equally to sneer. But the bout between the two +was timed now, and both were casting aside any veneer of diplomacy, +their enmity manifesting itself in the raw. The issue was growing tense.</p> + +<p>Rainey fancied that Carlsen was not entirely sure of his following, and +relied upon Lund's indignant refusal of terms to back up his plans of +getting rid of him decisively.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">{163}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE SHOW-DOWN</h3> + + +<p>"Rainey can see the skipper," said Carlsen carelessly.</p> + +<p>"All right," said Lund. "Will you do that, Rainey? Now?" And Rainey had +a fleeting fancy that the giant winked one of his blind eyes at him, +though the black lenses were deceiving.</p> + +<p>He went below immediately and rapped on the door, a little surprised to +see the girl appear in the opening. He had expected to find the skipper +alone, and he was pretty sure that Carlsen had also expected this. The +drawn expression of her face, the strained faint smile with which she +greeted him, the hopeless look in her eyes, startled him.</p> + +<p>"I wanted to see your father," he said in a low voice.</p> + +<p>She told him to enter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">{164}</a></span></p> + +<p>Captain Simms was lying in his bunk, apparently fully dressed, with the +exception of his shoes. His cheeks had sunken, dark hollows showed under +his closed eyes, the bones of his skull projected, and his flesh was the +color of clay. Rainey believed that he was in the presence of death +itself. He looked at the girl.</p> + +<p>"He is in a stupor," she said. "He has been that way since last night, +following a collapse. I can barely find his pulse, but his breath shows +on this."</p> + +<p>She produced a small mirror, little larger than a dollar, and held it +before her father's lips. When she took it away Rainey saw a trace of +moisture.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen can not rouse him?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Can not—or will not," she answered in a voice that held a hard quality +for all its despondency. Rainey glanced at the door. It was shut.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that?" he asked, speaking low.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">{165}</a></span></p> + +<p>She looked at him as if measuring his dependency.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she answered dully. "I wish I did. Father's illness +started with sciatica, through exposure to the cold and damp. It was +better during the time the <i>Karluk</i> was in San Francisco though he had +some severe attacks. He said that Doctor Carlsen gave him relief. I know +that he did, for there were days at first when father had to stay in bed +from the pain. It was in his left leg, and then it showed in frightful +headaches, and he complained of pain about the heart. But he was bent on +the voyage, and Doctor Carlsen guaranteed he could pull him through. +But—lately—the doctor has seemed uncertain. He talks of perverted +nerve functions, and he has obtained a tremendous influence over father.</p> + +<p>"You heard what he said when—the night he tried to shoot you? You see, +I am trusting you in all this, Mr. Rainey. I <i>must</i> trust some one. If I +don't I can't stand it. I think I shall go mad sometimes. The doctor has +changed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">{166}</a></span> It is as if he was a dual personality—like Jekyll and +Hyde—and now he is always Hyde. It is the gold that has turned his +brain, his whole behavior from what he was in California before father +returned and he learned of the island. He said last night that he could +save father or—or—that he would let father die. I told him it was +sheer murder! He laughed. He said he would save him—for a price."</p> + +<p>She stopped, and Rainey supplied the gap, sure that he was right.</p> + +<p>"If you would marry him?"</p> + +<p>The girl nodded. "Father will do anything he tells him. I sometimes +think he tortures father and only relieves him when father promises what +he wants. Otherwise I could not understand. Last night father asked me +to do this thing. Not because of any threat—he did not seem conscious +of anything underhanded. He told me he looked upon the doctor as a son, +that it would make him happy for me to marry him—now. That he would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">{167}</a></span> +perform the ceremony. That he did not think he would live long and he +wanted to see me with a protector.</p> + +<p>"It was horrible. I dare not hint anything against the doctor. It brings +on a nervous attack. Last night my refusal caused convulsions, and +then—the collapse! What can I do? If I made the sacrifice how can I +tell that Doctor Carlsen could—<i>would</i> save him? What shall I do?"</p> + +<p>She was in an agony of self-questioning, of doubt.</p> + +<p>"To see him lie there—like that. I can not bear it."</p> + +<p>"Miss Simms," said Rainey, "your father is not in his right mind or he +would see Carlsen as you do, as I do. Carlsen's brain is turned with the +lure of the gold. If he marries you, I believe it is only for your +share, for what you will get from your father. It can not be right to do +a wrong thing. No good could come from it. But—something may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">{168}</a></span> happen +this morning—I can not tell you what. I do not know, except that Lund +is to face Carlsen. It may change matters."</p> + +<p>"Lund," she said scornfully. "What can he do? And he accused my father +of deserting him. I—"</p> + +<p>A knock came at the door, and it started to open. Carlsen entered.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said. "I trust I have not disturbed you. I had no idea I should +interrupt a tête-á-tête. Are you satisfied as to the captain's +condition, Mr. Rainey?"</p> + +<p>Rainey looked the scoffing devil full in his eyes, and hot scorn mounted +to his own so swiftly that Carlsen's hand fell away from the door jamb +toward his hip. Then he laughed softly.</p> + +<p>"We may be able to bring him round, all right again, who knows?" he +said.</p> + +<p>Rainey went on deck, raging but impotent. He told Lund briefly of the +talk between him and Peggy Simms, and described the general symptoms of +the skipper's strange malady. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">{169}</a></span> was nine o'clock, an hour to the +meeting. He went down to his own room and sat on the bunk, smoking, +trying to piece up the puzzle. If Carlsen was a potential murderer, if +he intended to let Simms die, why should he want to marry the girl? He +thought he solved that issue.</p> + +<p>As his wife Carlsen would retain her share. If he gave her up, it would +go into the common purse. But, if he expected to trick the men out of it +all, that would be unnecessary. Did he really love the girl? Or was his +lust for gold mingled with a passion for possession of her? He might +know that the girl would kill herself before she would submit to +dishonor. Perhaps he knew she had the means!</p> + +<p>One thing became paramount. To save Peggy Simms. Lund might fight for +the gold; Rainey would battle for the girl's sanctity. And, armed with +that resolve, Rainey went out into the main cabin.</p> + +<p>Carlsen took the head of the table. Lund faced him at the other end. All +six of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">{170}</a></span> hunters, as privileged characters, were present, but only +three of the seamen, awkward and diffident at being aft. The nine, with +Rainey, ranged themselves on either side of the table, five and five, +with Rainey on Lund's right.</p> + +<p>Tamada had brought liquor and glasses and cigars, and gone forward. The +door between the main cabin and the corridor leading to the galley was +locked after him by Deming. The girl was not present. Yet her share was +an important factor.</p> + +<p>Lund sat with folded arms, his great body relaxed. Now that the table +was set, the cards all dealt, and the first play about to be made, the +giant shed his tenseness. Even his grim face softened a trifle. He +seemed to regard the affair with a certain amount of humor, coupled with +the zest of a gambler who loves the game whether the stakes are for +death or dollars.</p> + +<p>Carlsen had a paper under his hand, but deferred its reading until he +had addressed the meeting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">{171}</a></span></p> + +<p>"A ship," he said, "is a little community, a world in itself. To its +safety every member is a necessity, the lookout as much as the man at +the wheel, the common seaman, the navigator. And, when a ship is engaged +in a certain calling, those who are hired as experts in that line are +equally essential with the rest."</p> + +<p>"All the way from captain to—cook?" drawled Lund.</p> + +<p>"Each depends upon his comrade's fulfilment of duty," went on Carlsen. +"So an absolute equality is evolved. Each man's responsibility being +equal, his reward should be also equal. It seems to me that this status +of affairs is arrived at more naturally aboard the <i>Karluk</i> than it +might be elsewhere. We are a small company, and not easily divided. The +will of the majority may easily become that of all, may easily be +applied.</p> + +<p>"Payment for all services comes on this voyage from an uncertain amount +of gold that Nature, Mother of us all, and therefore intending that all +her children shall share her heritage,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">{172}</a></span> has washed up on a beach from +some deep-sea vein and thus deposited upon an uncharted, unclaimed +island. It is discovered by an Indian, the discovery is handed on to +another."</p> + +<p>"Meanin' me." Lund seemed to be enjoying himself. Despite the fact that +Carlsen was presiding and most evidently assumed the attributes of +leader, despite the fact that ten of the twelve at the table were +arrayed against him, with the rest of the seamen behind them, Lund was +decidedly enjoying himself.</p> + +<p>To Rainey, the matter of the gold was but a mask for the license that +would inevitably be manifested in such a crude democracy if it was +established, a license that threatened the girl, now, he imagined, +watching her father, the captain of the vessel, tottering on the verge +of death. His pulses raced, he longed for the climax.</p> + +<p>"This gold," went on Carlsen, "is not a commodity made in a factory, +obtained through the toil of others, through the expenditure of +capital.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">{173}</a></span> If it were, it would not alter the principle of the thing. It +is of nature's own providing for those of her sons who shall find it and +gather it. Sons that, as brothers, must willingly share and share +alike."</p> + +<p>Lund yawned, showing his strong teeth and the red cavern of his mouth. +The hunters gazed at him curiously. The seamen, lacking initiative, +lacking imagination, a crude collection of water-front drifters, more or +less wrecked specimens of humanity who went to sea because they had no +other capacity—were apathetic, listening to Carlsen with a sort of awe, +a hypnosis before his argument that street rabble exhibit before the +jargon of a soap-box orator.</p> + +<p>Carlsen promised them something, therefore they followed him. But the +hunters, more independent, more intelligent, seemed expecting an +outburst from Lund and, because it was not forthcoming, they were a +little uneasy.</p> + +<p>"Share and share alike," said Lund. "I've got yore drift, Carlsen. Let's +get down to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">{174}</a></span> brass tacks. The idea is to divvy the gold into equal +parts, ain't it? How does she split? There's twenty-five souls aboard. +Does that mean you split the heap into a hundred parts an' each one gits +four?"</p> + +<p>"No." It was Deming who answered. "It don't. The Jap don't come in, for +one."</p> + +<p>"A cook ain't a brother?"</p> + +<p>"Not when he's got a yellow skin," answered Deming. "We'll take up a +collection for Sandy. Rainey ain't in on the deal. We split it just +twenty-two ways. What have you got to say about it?"</p> + +<p>His tone was truculent, and Carlsen did not appear disposed to check +him. He appeared not quite certain of the temper of the hunters. Deming, +like Rainey, evidently chafed under the preliminaries.</p> + +<p>"You figger we're all equal aboard," said Lund slowly, "leavin' out Mr. +Rainey, Tamada an' Sandy. You an' me, an' Carlsen an' Harris there"—he +nodded toward one of the seaman delegates who listened with his slack +mouth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">{175}</a></span> agape, scratching himself under the armpit—"are all equal?"</p> + +<p>Deming cast a glance at Harris and, for just a moment, hesitated.</p> + +<p>Harris squirming under the look of Deming, which was aped by the sudden +scrutiny of all the hunters, found speech: "How in hell did you know I +was here?" he demanded of Lund. "I ain't opened my mouth yit!"</p> + +<p>"That ain't the truth, Harris," replied Lund composedly. "It's allus +open. But if you want to know, I smelled ye."</p> + +<p>There was a guffaw at the sally. Carlsen's voice stopped it.</p> + +<p>"I'll answer the question, Lund. Yes, we're all equal. The world is not +a democracy. Harris, so far, hasn't had a chance to get the equal share +that belongs to him by rights. That's what I meant by saying that the +<i>Karluk</i> was a little world of its own. We're all equal on board."</p> + +<p>"Except Rainey, Tamada an' Sandy. Seems to me yore argumint's got holes +in it, Carlsen."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">{176}</a></span></p> + +<p>"We are waiting to know whether you agree with us?" replied Carlsen. His +voice had altered quality. It held the direct challenge. Lund accepted +it.</p> + +<p>"I don't," he answered dryly. "There ain't enny one of you my equal, an' +you've showed it. There ain't enny one of you, from Carlsen to Harris, +who'd have the nerve to put it up to me alone. You had to band together +in a pack, like a flock of sheep, with Carlsen for sheepherder. <i>I'm +talking</i>," he went on in a tone that suddenly leaped to thunder. "None +of you have got the brains of Carlsen, becoz he had to put this scheme +inter yore noddles. Deming, you think yo're a better man than Harris, +you know damn' well you play better poker than the rest, an' you agreed +to this becoz you figger you'll win most of the gold afore the v'yage is +over. The rest of you suckers listened becoz some one tells you you are +goin' to get more than what's rightly comin' to you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">{177}</a></span></p> + +<p>"This gold is mine by right of discovery. I lose my ship through bad +luck, an' I make a deal whereby the skipper gets the same as I do, an' +the ship, which is the same as his daughter, gets almost as much. You +men were offered a share on top of yore wages if you wanted to take the +chance—two shares to the hunters. It was damned liberal, an' you +grabbed at it. I got left on the ice, blind on a breakin' floe, an' you +sailed off an' grabbed a handful or so of gold, enough to set you crazy.</p> + +<p>"What in blazes would you know what to do with it, enny of you? Spill it +all along the Barb'ry Coast, or gamble it off to Deming. Is there one of +you 'ud have got off thet floe an', blind as I was, turned up ag'in? Not +one of ye. An' when I <i>did</i> show you got sore becoz you'd figgered there +'ud be more with me away.</p> + +<p>"A fine lot of skunks. You can take yore damned bit of paper an' light +yore pipes with it, for all of me. To hell with it!</p> + +<p>"<i>Shut up</i>!" His voice topped the murmurs at the table. Rainey saw +Carlsen sitting back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">{178}</a></span> with his tongue-tip showing in a grin, tapping the +table with the folded paper in one hand, the other in his lap, leaning +back a little. He was like a man waiting for the last bet to be made +before he exposed the winning hand.</p> + +<p>"As for bein' equal, I've told you Carlsen's got the brains of you all. +The skipper's dyin', Carlsen expects to marry his gal. An' he figgers +thet way on pullin' down three shares to yore one. You say Rainey ain't +in on the deal. He's as much so as Carlsen. Carlsen butts in as a doctor +an' a fine job he's made of it. Skipper nigh dead. A hell of a doctor! +Smoke up, all of you."</p> + +<p>Carlsen sat quiet, sometimes licking his lips gently, listening to Lund +as he might have listened to the rantings of a melodramatic actor. But +Rainey sensed that he was making a mistake. He was letting Lund go too +far. The men were listening to Lund, and he knew that the giant was +talking for a specific purpose. Just to what end he could not guess.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">{179}</a></span> +The big booming voice held them, while it lashed them.</p> + +<p>"Equal to me? Bah! I'm a <i>man</i>. Yo're a lot of fools. Talk about me +bein' blind. It was ice-blink got me. Then ophthalmy matterin' up my +eyes. It's gold-blink's got you. Yo're cave-fish, a lot of blind +suckers."</p> + +<p>He leaned over the table pointing a massive square finger, thatched with +red wool, direct at Carlsen, as if he had been leveling a weapon.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen's a fake! He's got you hipped. He thinks he's boss, becoz he's +the only navigator of yore crowd. I ain't overlooked that card, Carlsen. +That ain't the only string he's got on ye. Nor the three shares he +expects to pull down. He made you pore suckers fire off all your shells; +he found out you ain't got a gun left among you that's enny more use +than a club. He's got a gun an' he showed you how he could use it. He's +sittin' back larfin' at the bunch of you!"</p> + +<p>The men stirred. Rainey saw Carlsen's grin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">{180}</a></span> disappear. He dropped the +paper. His face paled, the veins showed suddenly like purple veins in +dirty marble.</p> + +<p>"I've got that gun yet, Lund," he snarled.</p> + +<p>Lund laughed, the ring of it so confident that the men glanced from him +to Carlsen nervously.</p> + +<p>"Yo're a fake, Carlsen," he said. "And I've got yore number! To hell +with you an' yore popgun. You ain't even a doctor. I saw real doctors +ashore about my eyes. Niphablepsia, they call snow-blindness. I'll bet +you never heard of it. Yo're only a woman-conning dope-shooter! Else +you'd have known that niphablepsia ain't <i>permanent</i>! I've bin' gettin' +my sight back ever sence I left Seattle. An' now, damn you for a moldy +hearted, slimy souled fakir, stand up an' say yo're my equal!"</p> + +<p>He stood up himself, towering above the rest as they rose from their +chairs, tearing the black glasses from his eyes and flinging them at +Carlsen, who was forced to throw up a hand to ward them off. Rainey got +one glimpse of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">{181}</a></span> the giant's eyes. They were gray-blue, the color of +agate-ware, hard as steel, implacable.</p> + +<p>Carlsen swept aside the spectacles and they shattered on the floor as he +leaped up and the automatic shone in his hand. Lund had folded his arms +above his great chest. He laughed again, and his arms opened.</p> + +<p>In an instant Rainey caught the object of Lund's speech-making. He had +done it to enrage Carlsen beyond endurance, to make him draw his gun. +Giant as he was, he moved with the grace of a panther, with a swiftness +too fast for the eye to register. Something flashed in his right hand, a +gun, that he had drawn from a holster slung over his left breast.</p> + +<p>The shots blended. Lund stood there erect, uninjured. A red blotch +showed between Carlsen's eyes. He slumped down into his chair, his arms +clubbing the table, his gun falling from his nerveless hand, his +forehead striking the wood like the sound of an auctioneer's gavel. Lund +had beaten him to the draw.</p> + +<p>Lund, no longer a blind Samson, with contempt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">{182}</a></span> in his agate eyes, +surveyed the scattering group of men who stared at the dead man dully, +as if gripped by the exhibition of a miracle.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Miss Simms," he said. "Jest killed a skunk. Rainey, git +that gun an' attend to the young lady, will you?"</p> + +<p>The girl stood in the doorway of her father's cabin, her face frozen to +horror, her eyes fixed on Lund with repulsion. As Rainey got the +automatic, slipped it into his pocket, and went toward her, she shrank +from him. But her voice was for Lund.</p> + +<p>"You murderer!" she cried.</p> + +<p>Lund grinned at her, but there was no laughter in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"We'll thrash that out later, miss," he said. "Now, you men, jump +for'ard, all of you. Deming, unlock that door. <i>Jump!</i> Equals, are you? +I'll show you who's master on this ship. Wait!"</p> + +<p>His voice snapped like the crack of a whip and they all halted, save +Deming, who sullenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">{183}</a></span> fitted the key to the lock of the corridor +entrance.</p> + +<p>"Take this with you," said Lund, pointing to Carlsen's sagging body. +"When you git tired of his company, throw him overboard. Jump to it!"</p> + +<p>The nearest men took up the body of the doctor and they all filed +forward, silently obedient to the man who ordered them.</p> + +<p>"They ain't all whipped yit," said Lund. "Not them hunters. They're +still sufferin' from gold-blink, but I'll clean their eyesight for 'em. +Look after the lady an' her father, Rainey."</p> + +<p>Tamada entered as if nothing had happened. He carried a tray of dishes +and cutlery that he laid down on the table.</p> + +<p>"Never mind settin' a place for Carlsen, Tamada," said Lund. "He's lost +his appetite—permanent." The Oriental's face did not change.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," he answered.</p> + +<p>The girl shuddered. Rainey saw that Lund<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">{184}</a></span> was exhilarated by his +victory, that the primitive fighting brute was prominent. Carlsen had +tried to shoot first, goaded to it; his death was deserved; but it +seemed to Rainey that Lund's exhibition of savagery was unnecessary. But +he also saw that Lund would not heed any protest that he might make, he +was still swept on by his course of action, not yet complete.</p> + +<p>"I'll borrow Carlsen's sextant," said Lund. "Nigh noon, an' erbout time +I got our reckonin'." He went into the doctor's cabin and came out with +the instrument, tucking it under his arm as he went on deck.</p> + +<p>Tamada went stolidly on with his preparations. He paused at the little +puddle of blood where Carlsen's head had struck the table, turned, and +disappeared toward his galley, promptly emerging with a wet cloth.</p> + +<p>The girl put her hands over her eyes as Tamada methodically mopped up +the telltale stains.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">{185}</a></span></p> + +<p>"The brute!" she said. Then took away her hands and extended them toward +Rainey.</p> + +<p>"What will he do with my father?" she said. "He thinks that dad deserted +him. And the doctor, who might have saved him, is dead. My God, what +shall I do? What shall I do?"</p> + +<p>Rainey found himself murmuring some attempts at consolation, a defense +of Lund.</p> + +<p>"You too?" she said with a contempt that, unmerited as it was, stung +Rainey to the quick. "You are on his side. Oh!"</p> + +<p>She wheeled into her father's room and shut the door. Rainey heard the +click of the bolt on the other side. Tamada was going on with his +table-laying. Rainey saw that he had left Carlsen's place vacant. He +listened for a moment, but heard nothing within the skipper's cabin. The +swift rush of events was still a jumble. Slowly he went up the +companionway to the deck.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">{186}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>HONEST SIMMS</h3> + + +<p>Lund greeted Rainey with a curt nod. Hansen was still at the helm. The +crew on duty were standing about alert, their eyes on Lund. They had +found a new master, and they were cowed, eager to do their best.</p> + +<p>"It ain't noon yet," said Lund. "I hardly need to shoot the sun with the +land that close."</p> + +<p>Rainey looked over the starboard bow to where a series of peaks and +lower humps of dark blue proclaimed the Aleutian island bridge +stretching far to the west.</p> + +<p>"I'll show this crew they've got a skipper aboard," said Lund. "How's +the cap'en?"</p> + +<p>Rainey told him.</p> + +<p>"We'll see what we can do for him," said Lund. "He's better off without +that fakir,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">{187}</a></span> that's a cinch. Called me a murderer," he went on with a +good-humored laugh. "Got spunk, she has. And she's a trim bit. A slip of +a gal, but she's game. An' good-lookin' eh, Rainey?"</p> + +<p>He shot a keen glance at the newspaperman.</p> + +<p>"You're in her bad hooks, too, ain't ye? We'll fix that after a bit. She +don't know when she's well off. Most wimmin don't. An' she's the sort +that needs handlin' right. She's upset now, natural, an' she hates me."</p> + +<p>He smiled as if the prospect suited him. A suspicion leaped into +Rainey's brain. Lund had said he would not see a decent girl harmed. But +the man was changed. He had fought and won, and victory shone in his +eyes with a glitter that was immune from sympathy, for all his air of +good-nature.</p> + +<p>He had said that a man under his skin was just an animal. His appraisal +of the girl struck Rainey with apprehension. "To the victor belong the +spoils." Somehow the quotation persisted. What if Lund regarded the girl +as legitimate loot? He might have talked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">{188}</a></span> differently beforehand, to +assure himself of Rainey's support.</p> + +<p>And Rainey suddenly felt as if his support had been uncalled upon, a +frail reed at best. Lund had not needed him, would he need him, save as +an aid, not altogether necessary, with Hansen aboard, to run the ship?</p> + +<p>He said nothing, but thrust both hands into the side pockets of the +pilot coat he had acquired from the ship's stores. The sudden touch of +cold steel gave him new courage. He had sworn to protect the girl. If +Lund, seeming more like a pirate than ever, with his cold eyes sweeping +the horizon, his bulk casting Rainey's into a dwarf's by comparison, +attempted to harm Peggy Simms, Rainey resolved to play the part of +champion.</p> + +<p>He could not shoot like Lund, but he was armed. There were undoubtedly +more cartridges in the clip. And he must secure the rest from Carlsen's +cabin immediately.</p> + +<p>The sun reached its height, and Lund busied himself with his sextant. +Rainey determined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">{189}</a></span> to ask him to teach him the use of it. His consent or +refusal would tell him where he stood with Lund.</p> + +<p>He felt the mastery of the man. And he felt incompetent beside him. +Carlsen had been right. A ship at sea was a little world of its own, and +Lund was now lord of it. A lord who would demand allegiance and enforce +it. He held the power of life and death, not by brute force alone. He +was the only navigator aboard, with the skipper seriously ill. As such +alone he held them in his hand, once they were out of sight of land.</p> + +<p>"Hansen," said Lund, "Mr. Rainey'll relieve you after we've eaten. Come +on, Rainey. You ain't lost yore appetite, I hope. Watch me discard that +spoon for a knife an' fork. I don't have to play blind man enny longer."</p> + +<p>Food did not appeal to Rainey. He could not help thinking of the spot +under the cloth where Tamada had wiped up the blood of the man just +killed by Lund, sitting opposite him, making play for a double helping +of victuals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">{190}</a></span></p> + +<p>It was Lund's apparent callousness that affected him more than his own +squeamishness. He could not regret Carlsen's death. With the doctor +alive, his own existence would have been a constant menace. But he was +not used to seeing a killing, though, in his water-front detail, he had +not been unacquainted with grim tragedies of the sea.</p> + +<p>It was Lund's demeanor that gripped him. The giant had dismissed Carlsen +as unceremoniously as he might have flipped the ash from a cigar, or +tossed the stub overside.</p> + +<p>"I've got to tackle those hunters," Lund said. "I expect trouble there, +sooner or later. But I'm goin' to lay down the law to 'em. If they come +clean, well an' good, they git their original two shares. If not, they +don't get a plugged nickel. An' Deming's the one who'll stir up the +trouble, take it from me. Tell Hansen to turn in his watch-off, I shan't +take a deck for a day or two, you'll have to go on handlin' it between +you. I've got to make my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">{191}</a></span> peace with the gal, an' do what I can with the +skipper."</p> + +<p>"She'll not make peace easily. But the skipper's in a bad way."</p> + +<p>Lund lit his pipe.</p> + +<p>"I'd jest as soon it was war. I don't see as we can help the skipper +much 'less we try reverse treatment of what Carlsen did. If we knew what +that was? If he gits worse she'll let us know, I reckon. Mebbe you can +suggest somethin'?"</p> + +<p>Rainey shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I suppose she can do more than any of us," he said.</p> + +<p>Lund nodded, then whistled to Tamada, leaving the cabin.</p> + +<p>"Take a bottle of whisky to the hunters' mess, with my compliments. +That'll give 'em about three jolts apiece," he said to Rainey. "Long as +we've won out we may as well let 'em down easy. But they'll work for +their shares, jest the same. A drink or two may help 'em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">{192}</a></span> swaller what +I'm goin' to give 'em by way of dessert in the talkin' line. See you +later."</p> + +<p>Rainey took the dismissal and went up to the relief of Hansen. He did +not mention what had happened until the Scandinavian referred to it +indirectly.</p> + +<p>"They put the doc overboard, sir, soon's Mr. Lund an' you bane go +below."</p> + +<p>It seemed a summary dismissal of the dead, without ceremony. Yet, for +the rite to be authentic, Lund must have presided, and the sea-burial +service would have been a mockery under the circumstances. It was the +best thing to have done, Rainey felt, but he could not avoid a mental +shiver at the thought of the man, so lately vital, his brain alive with +energy, sliding through the cold water to the ooze to lie there, sodden, +swinging with the sub-sea currents until the ocean scavengers claimed +him.</p> + +<p>"All right, Hansen," he said in answer, and the man hurried off after +his extra detail.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">{193}</a></span></p> + +<p>Lund came up after a while, and Rainey told him of the fate of Carlsen's +body.</p> + +<p>"I figgered they'd do about that," commented Lund. "They savvied he'd +aimed to make suckers out of 'em, an' they dumped him. But they ain't on +our side, by a long sight. Not that I give a damn. If they want to sulk, +let 'em sulk. But they'll stand their watches, an', when we git to the +beach, they'll do their share of diggin'. If they need drivin', I'll +drive 'em.</p> + +<p>"That Deming is a better man than I thought. He's the main grouch among +'em. Said if I hadn't had a gun he'd have tackled me in the cabin. Meant +it, too, though I'd have smashed him. He's sore becoz I said he warn't +my equal. I told him, enny time he wanted to try it out, I'd accommodate +him. He didn't take it up, an' they'll kid him about it. He'll pack a +grudge. I ain't afraid of their knifin' me, not while the skipper's +sick. They need me to navigate."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">{194}</a></span></p> + +<p>"This might be a good chance for me to handle a sextant," suggested +Rainey casually.</p> + +<p>Lund shook his head, smiling, but his eyes hard.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, matey," he said. "Not that I don't trust you, but for me to be +the only one, jest now, is a sort of life insurance that suits me to +carry. They might figger, if you was able to navigate, that they c'ud +put the screws on you to carry 'em through, with me out of the way. I +don't say they could, but they might make it hard for you, an' you ain't +got quite the same stake in this I have."</p> + +<p>Here was cold logic, but Rainey saw the force of it. Hansen came up +early to split the watch and put their schedule right again, and Lund +went below with Rainey. Lund ordered Tamada to bring a bottle and +glasses, and they sat down at the table. Rainey needed the kick of a +drink, and took one.</p> + +<p>As Lund was raising his glass with a toast of "Here's to luck," the +skipper's door opened and the girl appeared. She looked like a ghost.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">{195}</a></span> +Her hair was disheveled and her eyes stared at them without seeming +recognition. But she spoke, in a flat toneless voice.</p> + +<p>"My father is dead! I—" she faltered, swayed, and seemed to swoon as +she sank toward the floor. Rainey darted forward, but Lund was quicker +and swooped her up in his arms as if she had been a feather, took her to +the table, set her in a chair, dabbled a napkin in some water and +applied it to her brows.</p> + +<p>"Chafe her wrists," he ordered Rainey. "Undo that top button of her +blouse. That's enough; she ain't got on corsets. She'll come through. +Plumb worn out. That's all."</p> + +<p>He handled her, deftly, as a nurse would a child. Rainey chafed the +slender wrists and beat her palms, and soon she opened her eyes and +sighed. Then she pulled away from Lund, bending over her, and got to her +feet.</p> + +<p>"I must go to my father," she said. "He is dead."</p> + +<p>They followed her into the cabin, and Lund bent over the bunk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">{196}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Looks like it," he whispered to Rainey. Then he tore open the skipper's +vest and shirt and laid his head on his chest. The girl made a faint +motion as if to stop him, but did not hinder him. She was at the end of +her own strength from weariness and worry. Lund suddenly raised his +head.</p> + +<p>"There's a flutter," he announced. "He ain't gone yit. Get Tamada an' +some brandy."</p> + +<p>The Japanese, by some intuition, was already on hand, and produced the +brandy. Rainey poured out a measure. The captain's teeth were tightly +clenched. Lund spraddled one great hand across his jaws, pressing at +their junction, forcing them apart, firmly, but gently enough, while +Rainey squeezed in a few drops of brandy from the corner of his soaked +handkerchief. Lund stroked the sick man's throat, and he swallowed +automatically.</p> + +<p>"More brandy," ordered Lund.</p> + +<p>With the next dose there came signs of revival, a low moan from the +skipper. The girl flew to his side. Tamada, standing by with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">{197}</a></span> the +bottle, stepped forward, handed the brandy to Rainey, and rolled up the +lid of an eye, looking closely at the pupil.</p> + +<p>"I study medicine at Tokio," he said.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't ye say so before?" demanded Lund. It did not occur to any of +them to doubt Tamada's word. There was an air of professional assurance +and an efficiency about him that carried weight. "What can you do for +him? There's a medicine chest in Carlsen's room."</p> + +<p>"I was hired to cook," said Tamada quietly. "I should not have been +permit to interfere. It is not my business if a white man makes a fool +of himself. Now we want morphine and hypodermic syringe."</p> + +<p>Tamada rolled up the captain's sleeve. The flesh, shrunken, pallid, was +closely spotted with dot-like scars that showed livid, as if the captain +had been suffering from some strange rash.</p> + +<p>Lund whistled softly. Rainey, too, knew what it meant. The skipper had +been a veritable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">{198}</a></span> slave to the drug. Carlsen had administered it, +prescribed it, used it as a means to bring Simms under his subjection. +The girl looked strangely at Tamada.</p> + +<p>"Would he have taken that for sciatica?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I think, perhaps, yes. Injection over muscle gives relief. Sometimes +makes cure. But Captain Simms take too much. Suppose this supply cut off +very suddenly, then come too much chills, maybe collapse, maybe—" The +girl clutched his arm.</p> + +<p>"You meant more than you said. It might mean death?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," replied Tamada gravely. "Perhaps, if now we have +morphine, presently we give him smaller dose every time, it will be all +right." He lifted up the sick man's hand and examined the nails +critically. They were broken, brittle.</p> + +<p>Rainey had gone to Carlsen's room in search of the drug and the +injecting needle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">{199}</a></span></p> + +<p>"How much d'ye suppose he took at once?" Lund asked the Japanese in a +low voice.</p> + +<p>"Fifteen grains, I think. Maybe more. Too much! Always too much drug in +his veins. Much worse than opium for man."</p> + +<p>"Carlsen's work," growled Lund. "Increased the stuff on him till he +couldn't do without it. Made him a slave to dope an' Carlsen his boss. +He deserved killin' jest for that, the skunk."</p> + +<p>Rainey frantically searched through the medicine chest and, finding only +five tablets marked <i>Morphine 1 gr.</i> in a bottle, sought elsewhere in +vain. And he could find no needle. But he ran across some automatic +cartridges and put them in his pockets before he hurried back.</p> + +<p>"This is not enough," said Tamada. "And we should have needle. But I +dissolve these in galley." And he hurried out. The girl had slipped down +on her knees beside the bed, holding her father's hand against her lips, +her eyes closed. She seemed to be praying.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">{200}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey and Lund looked at each other. Rainey was trying to recall +something. It came at last, the memory of Carlsen slipping something in +his pocket as he had come out of the captain's room. That had been the +hypodermic case! As the thought lit up' his eyes he saw a flash in +Lund's.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen had the morphine on him," said Lund in a whisper, not to +disturb the girl.</p> + +<p>"And the needle!" said Rainey. "What if?" He raced out of the cabin +forward, passing Tamada, coming out of the galley with the dissolved +tablets in a glass that steamed with hot water. Swiftly he told his +suspicions.</p> + +<p>"They may have searched him first," he said, and went on to the hunters' +cabin. They were seated about their table, talking. On seeing Rainey +they stopped abruptly and viewed him suspiciously. Deming rose.</p> + +<p>"What's the idea?" he asked and his tone was not friendly.</p> + +<p>Rainey hurriedly explained. Deming shrugged his shoulders.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">{201}</a></span></p> + +<p>"They sewed him up in canvas in the fo'k'le," he said indifferently. +"None of us went through him. I think they made the kid do the job."</p> + +<p>Rainey found Sandy in his bunk, asleep, trying to get one of the catnaps +by which he made up his lack of definitely assigned rest. The roustabout +woke with a shudder, flinching under Rainey's hand.</p> + +<p>"They made me do it," he said in answer. "None of 'em 'ud touch it till +I had it sewed in an old staysail, an' a boatkedge tied on for weight. I +didn't go inter his pockets. I was scared to touch it more'n I had to."</p> + +<p>"Is that the truth, Sandy? I don't care what you took besides this +little case and a bottle of tablets. You can keep the rest."</p> + +<p>"It's the bloody truth, Mister Rainey, s'elp me," whined Sandy. And the +truth was in his shifty eyes.</p> + +<p>Rainey went back with his news. He imagined that the five grains would +prove temporarily sufficient. And they could put in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">{202}</a></span> for Unalaska. There +were surgeons there with the revenue fleet. He thought there was +probably a hospital.</p> + +<p>They would have to explain Carlsen's death. They would be asked about +the purpose of the voyage, the crew examined. It might mean detention, +the defeat of the expedition, the very thing that Lund had feared, the +following of them to the island. He wondered how Lund would take to the +plan.</p> + +<p>He found that Tamada had administered the morphine. Already the +beneficial results were apparent. The dry, frightfully sallow skin had +changed and Simms was breathing freely while Tamada, feeling his pulse, +nodded affirmatively to the girl's questioning glance.</p> + +<p>"Got it?" asked Lund.</p> + +<p>Rainey gave the result of his search.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to put in to Unalaska," he said. "There are doctors there." +The girl turned toward Lund. He smiled at the intensity of her gaze and +pose.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">{203}</a></span></p> + +<p>"I play fair, Miss Peggy," he said. "Rainey, change the course."</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms seized Lund's great paw in both her hands, and, for the +first time, the tears overflowed her eyes. The <i>Karluk</i> came about as +Rainey reached the deck and gave his orders. Then he returned to the +cabin. The captain had opened his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Peggy!" he murmured. "Carlsen, where is he? Lund! Good God, Lund, you +can see?"</p> + +<p>"Keep quiet as you can," said Tamada. Something in his voice made the +skipper shift his look to the Japanese.</p> + +<p>"Where's Carlsen?" he asked again.</p> + +<p>"He can't come now," said Tamada.</p> + +<p>Under the urge of the drug the skipper's brain seemed abnormally clear, +his intuition heightened.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen's dead?" he asked. Then, shifting to Lund. "You killed him, +Jim?"</p> + +<p>Lund nodded.</p> + +<p>"How much morphine did you give me?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">{204}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Five grains."</p> + +<p>"It's not enough. It won't last. <i>There isn't any more?</i>" he flashed +out, with sudden energy, trying to raise himself.</p> + +<p>"We're puttin' in for Unalaska, Simms," said Lund.</p> + +<p>"How far?"</p> + +<p>"'Bout seventy miles."</p> + +<p>"Then it's too late. Too late. The pain's shifted of late—to my heart. +It'll get me presently."</p> + +<p>The girl darted a look of hate at Lund, an accusation that he met +composedly, swift as the change had come from the almost reverence with +which she had clasped his hand.</p> + +<p>"I'll be gone in an hour or two," said the skipper. "Got to talk while +this lasts. Jim—about leavin' you that time. I could have come back. I +had words about it—with Hansen. He knows. But the gale was bad, an' the +ice. It wasn't the gold, Jim. I swear it. I had the ship an' crew to +look out for. An' Peggy, at home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">{205}</a></span></p> + +<p>"I might have gone back sooner, Jim, I'll own up to that. But it wasn't +the gold that did it. An'—I didn't hear what you shouted, Jim. The +storm came up. We were frozen by the time we found the ship. Numb.</p> + +<p>"Then, then; oh, God, my heart!" He sat upright, clutching at his chest, +his face convulsed with spasms of pain. Tamada got some brandy between +the chattering teeth. Sweat poured out on the skipper's forehead, and he +sank back, exhausted but temporarily relieved. The girl wiped his brows.</p> + +<p>"It'll get me next attack," he said presently in a weak voice. "Jim, +this trouble hit me the day after we left the floe. Not sciatica, at +first, but in the head. I couldn't think right. I was just numb in the +brain. An' when it cleared off, it was too late. The ice had closed. We +couldn't go back. I read up in my medical book, Jim, later, when the +sciatica took me.</p> + +<p>"Had to take to my bunk. Couldn't stand. I had morphine, an' it relieved +me. Took too much after a while. Had to have it. Got better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">{206}</a></span> in San +Francisco for a bit. Then Carlsen prescribed it. Morphine was my boss, +an' then Carlsen, he was boss of the morphine. Seemed like—seemed +like—<i>More brandy, Tamada</i>."</p> + +<p>His voice was weaker when he spoke again. They came closer to catch his +whispers.</p> + +<p>"Carlsen—mind wasn't my own. Peggy—I wasn't in my right mind, honey. +Not when—Carlsen—he was angel when he gave me what I +wanted—devil—when he wouldn't. Made me—do things. But he's dead. And +I'm going. Never reach Unalaska. Peggy—forgive. Meant for +best—but—not in right mind. Jim—it wasn't the gold. Not Peggy's +fault—anyway."</p> + +<p>"She'll get hers, Simms," said Lund. "Yours too."</p> + +<p>The skipper's eyes closed and his frame settled under the clothes. The +girl flung herself on the bed in uncontrollable weeping. Lund raised his +eyebrows at Tamada, who shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Better get out o' here," whispered Lund.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">{207}</a></span> He and Rainey went out +together. In a few minutes Tamada joined them, his face sphinxlike as +ever.</p> + +<p>"He is dead," he said.</p> + +<p>Rainey and Lund went on deck. The schooner thrashed toward the volcano, +the bearing-mark for Unalaska, hidden behind it. They paced up and down +in silence.</p> + +<p>"I guess he was 'Honest Simms,' after all," said Lund at last. "The gal +blames me for the morphine, but Carlsen never meant him to live. She'll +see that after a bit, mebbe."</p> + +<p>Rainey glanced at him curiously. He was getting fresh lights on Lund.</p> + +<p>Then the girl appeared, pale, composed, coming straight up to Lund, who +halted his stride at sight of her.</p> + +<p>"Will you change the course, Mr. Lund?" she said.</p> + +<p>He looked at her in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Father spoke once more. After you left. He does not want you to go on +to Unalaska. He said it would mean a rush for the gold;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">{208}</a></span> perhaps you +would have to stay there. He does not want you to lose the gold. He +wants me to have my share. He made me promise. And he wants—he +wants"—she bit her lip fiercely in repression of her feelings—"to be +buried at sea. That was his last request."</p> + +<p>She turned and looked over the rail, struggling to wink back her tears. +Rainey saw the giant's glance sweep over her, full of admiration.</p> + +<p>"As you wish, Miss Peggy," he said. "Hansen, 'bout ship. Hold on a +minnit. How about you, Miss Peggy? If you want to go home, we can find +ways at Unalaska. I play fair. I'll bring back yore share—in full."</p> + +<p>"I am not thinking about the gold," the girl said scornfully. "But I +want to carry out my father's last wishes, if you will permit me. I +shall stay with the ship. Now I am going back to him. You—you"—she +quelled the tremble of her mouth, and her chin showed firm and +determined—"you can arrange for the funeral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">{209}</a></span> to-morrow at dawn, if you +will. I want him to-night."</p> + +<p>Her face quivered piteously, but she conquered even that and walked to +the companionway.</p> + +<p>"Game, by God, game as they make 'em!" said Lund.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">{210}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>DEMING BREAKS AN ARM</h3> + + +<p>Rainey, dozing in his bunk, going over the sudden happenings of the day, +had placed Carlsen's automatic under his pillow after loading it. He +found that it lacked four shells of full capacity, the two that Lund had +fired at his bottle target, the one fired by Carlsen at Rainey, and the +last ineffective shot at Lund, a shot that went astray, Rainey decided, +largely through Lund's <i>coup-de-theatre</i> of tearing off his glasses and +flinging them at the doctor.</p> + +<p>The dynamo that he had idly fancied he could hear purring away inside of +Lund was apparent with vengeance now, driving with full force. That was +what Lund would be from now on, a driver, imperative, relentless, +overcoming all obstacles; as he had himself said, selfish at heart, keen +for his own ends.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">{211}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey was neither a weakling nor a coward, but he shrank from open +encounter with Lund, and knew himself, without fear, the weaker man. The +challenge of Lund, splendidly daring any one of them to come out against +him alone, and challenging them <i>en masse</i>, had found in Rainey an +acknowledgment of inferiority that was not merely physical.</p> + +<p>Lund knew far more than he did about the class of men that made up the +inhabitants of the <i>Karluk</i>. Rainey had once fondly hugged the delusion +that he knew something of the nature of those who "went down to the sea +in ships."</p> + +<p>Now he knew that his ignorance was colossal. Such men were not complex, +they moved by instinct rather than reason, they were not guided by +conscience, the values of right and wrong were not intuitive with them, +muscle rather than mind ruled their universe.</p> + +<p>Yet Rainey could not solve them, and Lund knew them as one may know a +favorite book.</p> + +<p>Lund had brains, cunning, brute force that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">{212}</a></span> commanded a respect not all +bred of being weaker. In a way he was magnificent. And Rainey vaguely +heralded trouble when Captain Simms was at last given to the deep. He +felt certain that the hunters under Deming were hatching something but, +in the main, his mental prophecy of trouble coming was connected with +the girl.</p> + +<p>Lund had shown no disrespect to her, rather the opposite. But the girl +showed hatred of Lund and, in minor measure, of Rainey. Some of this +would die out, naturally. Rainey intended to attempt an adjustment in +his own behalf. But he held the feeling that Lund would not tolerate +this hatred against him on the part of the girl. Such scorn would arouse +something in the giant's nature, something that would either strike +under the lash, or laugh at it.</p> + +<p>Dimly, Rainey saw these things as the giant gropings of sex, not as he +had known it, surrounded by conventionalities, by courtesies of +twentieth-century veneering, but a law, primitive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">{213}</a></span> irresistible, +sweeping away barriers and opposition, a thing bigger even than the lust +of gold; the lure of woman for man, and man for woman.</p> + +<p>Both Lund and the girl, he felt, would have this thing in greater +measure than he would. He shared his life with too many things, with +books, with amusements, with the social ping-pong of the level in which +he ordinarily moved.</p> + +<p>There had been once a girl, perhaps there still was a girl, whom Rainey +had known on a visit to the camp-palace of a lumber king, high in the +Sierras, a girl who rode and hunted and lived out-of-doors, and yet +danced gloriously, sang, sewed and was both feminine and masculine, a +maddening latter-day Diana, who had swept Rainey off his feet for the +time.</p> + +<p>But he had known that he was not up to her standards, that he was but a +paper-worm, aside from his lack of means. That latter detail would, he +knew, have bothered him far more than her. But she announced openly that +she would only mate with a man who had lived.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">{214}</a></span> He rather fancied that it +had been a challenge—one he had not taken up. The matrix of his own +life just then was too snug a bed. Well, he was living now, he told +himself.</p> + +<p>On the border of dreams he was brought back by a strange noise on deck, +a rush of feet, many voices, and topping them all, the bellow of Lund, +roaring, not for help, but in challenge.</p> + +<p>Rainey, half asleep, jumped from his bunk and rushed out of the room. He +had no doubt as to what had happened; the hunters had attacked Lund! +And, unused to the possession of firearms, still drowsy, he forgot the +automatic, intent upon rallying to the cry of the giant. As he made for +the companionway, the girl came out of her father's room.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Lund—hunters!" Rainey called back as he sped up the stairs. He thought +he heard a "wait" from her, but the stamping and yelling were loud in +his ears, and he plunged out on deck. As he emerged he saw the stolid +face of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">{215}</a></span> Hansen at the wheel, his pale blue eyes glancing at the set of +his canvas and then taking on a glint as they turned amidships.</p> + +<p>Lund looked like a bear surrounded by the dog-pack. He stood upright +while the six hunters tore and smashed at him. Two had caught him by the +middle, one from the front and one from the rear, and, as the fight +raged back and forth, they were swung off their feet, bludgeoned and +kicked by Lund to stop them getting at the gun in its holster slung +under his coat close to his armpit.</p> + +<p>Lund's arms swung like clubs, his great hands plucked at their holds, +while he roared volleys of deep-sea, defiant oaths, shaking or striking +off a man now and then, who charged back snarlingly to the attack.</p> + +<p>Brief though the fight had been when Rainey arrived, there was ample +evidence of it. Clothes were torn and faces bloody, and already the men +were panting as Lund dragged them here and there, flailing, striking, +half-smothered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">{216}</a></span> but always coming up from under, like a rock that +emerges from the bursting of a heavy wave.</p> + +<p>And the voice of the combat, grunts and snarls, gasping shouts and +broken curses, was the sound of ravening beasts. So far as Rainey could +vision in one swift moment before he ran forward, no knives were being +used.</p> + +<p>A hunter lunged out heavily and confidently to meet him as the others +got Lund to his knees for a fateful moment, piling on top of him, +bludgeoning blows with guttural cries of fancied victory.</p> + +<p>Rainey's man struck, and the strength of his arm, backed by his hurling +weight, broke down Rainey's guard and left the arm numb. The next +instant they were at close quarters, swinging madly, rife with the one +desire to down the other, to maim, to kill. A blow crashed home on +Rainey's cheek, sending him back dazed, striking madly, clinching to +stop the piston-like smashes of the hunter clutching<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">{217}</a></span> him, trying to +trip him, hammering at the fierce face above him as they both went down +and rolled into the scuppers, tearing at each other.</p> + +<p>He felt the man's hands at his throat, gradually squeezing out sense and +breath and strength, and threw up his knee with all his force. It struck +the hunter fairly in the groin, and he heard the man groan with the +sudden agony. But he himself was nearly out. The man seemed to fade away +for the second, the choking fingers relaxed, and Rainey gulped for air. +His eyes seemed strained from bulging from their sockets in that fierce +grip, and there was a fog before them through which he could hear the +roar of Lund, sounding like a siren blast that told he was still +fighting, still confident.</p> + +<p>Then he saw the hunter's face close to his again, felt the whole weight +of the man crushing him, felt the bite of teeth through cloth and flesh, +nipping down on his shoulder as the man lay on him, striving to hold him +down until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">{218}</a></span> he regained the strength that the blow in the groin had +temporarily broken down.</p> + +<p>For just a moment Rainey's spirit sagged, his own strength was spent, +his will sapped, his lungs flattened. For a moment he wanted to lie +there—to quit.</p> + +<p>Then the hunter's body tautened for action, and, at the feel, Rainey's +ebbing pride came surging back, and he heaved and twisted, clubbing the +other over his kidneys until the roll of the schooner sent them +twisting, tumbling over to the lee once more.</p> + +<p>He felt as if he had been fighting for an hour, yet it had all taken +place during the leap of the <i>Karluk</i> between two long swells that she +had negotiated with a sidelong lurch to the cross seas and wind.</p> + +<p>Rainey came up uppermost. The hunter's head struck the rail heavily. His +shoulder was free, but he could see ravelings of his coat in the other's +teeth. The pain in his shoulder was evident enough, and the sight of the +woolly fragments maddened him. The tactics of boyish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">{219}</a></span> fights came back +to him, and he broke loose from the arms that hugged him, hitched +forward until he sat on the hunter's chest, set a knee on either bicep +and battered at the other's face as it twisted from side to side +helplessly, making a pulp of it, keen to efface all semblance of +humanity, a brute like the rest of them, intent upon bruising, on +blood-letting, on beating all resistance down to a quivering, +spirit-broken mass.</p> + +<p>The hunter lay still beneath him at last, his nerve centers shattered by +some blow that had short-circuited them, and Rainey got wearily to his +feet. The hunter's thumbs had pressed deep on each side of his neck, and +his head felt like wood for heaviness, but shot with pain. The vigor was +out of him. He knew he could not endure another hand-to-hand battle with +one of the crowd still raging about Lund, who was on his feet again.</p> + +<p>Rainey saw his face, one red mask of blood and hair, with his agate eyes +flaring up with the glory of the fight. He roared no longer,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">{220}</a></span> saving his +breath. Hands clutched for him and fists fell, a man was tugging at each +knee of his legs, set far apart, sturdy as the masts themselves.</p> + +<p>Lund's arm came up, lifting a hunter clean from the deck, shook him off +somehow, and crashed down. One of the men tackling his legs dropped +senseless from the buffet he got on the side of his skull, and Lund's +kick sent him scudding across the deck, limp, out of the fight that +could not last much longer.</p> + +<p>All this came as Rainey, still dazed, helped himself by the skylight +toward the companion, going as fast as he could to get his gun. If he +did not hurry he was certain they would kill Lund. No man could +withstand those odds much longer.</p> + +<p>And, Lund killed, hell would break loose. It would be his turn next, and +the girl would be left at their mercy. The thought spurred him, cleared +his throbbing head, jarred by the smashes of his still senseless +opponent who would be coming to before long.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">{221}</a></span></p> + +<p>Then he saw the girl, standing by the rail, not crouching, as he had +somehow expected her to be, shutting out the sight of the fight with +trembling hands, but with her face aglow, her eyes shining, watching, as +a Roman maid might have watched a gladiatorial combat; thrilled with the +spectacle, hands gripping the rail, leaning a little forward.</p> + +<p>She did not notice Rainey as he crept by Hansen, still guiding the +schooner, holding her to her course, imperturbable, apparently careless +of the issue. As he staggered down the stairs the line of thought he had +pursued in his bunk, broken by the noise of the fight and his +participation, flashed up in his brain.</p> + +<p>This was sex, primitive, predominant! The girl must sense what might +happen to her if Lund went down. She had no eyes for Rainey, her soul +was up in arms, backing Lund. The shine in her eyes was for the strength +of his prime manhood, matched against the rest, not as a person, an +individual, but as an embodiment of the conquering male.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">{222}</a></span></p> + +<p>He got the gun, and he snatched a drink of brandy that ran through his +veins like quick fire, revivifying him so that he ran up the ladder and +came on deck ready to take a decisive hand.</p> + +<p>But he found it no easy matter to risk a shot in that swirling mass. +They all seemed to be arm weary. Blows no longer rose and fell. Lund was +slowly dragging the dead weight of them all toward the mast. The two men +on the deck still lay there. Rainey's opponent was trying to get up, +wiping clumsily at the blood on his face, blinded.</p> + +<p>The girl still stood by the rail. Back of the wrestling mass stood the +seamen, offering to take no part, their arms aswing like apes, their +dull faces working. Tamada stood by the forward companion, his arms +folded, indifferent, neutral.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 372px;"> +<img src="images/f222.jpg" width="372" height="550" alt="Then he saw the girl standing by the rail" title="Then he saw the girl standing by the rail" /> +<span class="caption">Then he saw the girl standing by the rail</span> +</div> + + +<p>All this Rainey saw as he circled, while the mass whirled like a +teetotum. The action raced like an overtimed kinetoscopic film. A man +broke loose from the scrimmage, on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">{223}</a></span> opposite side from Rainey, who +barely recognized the disheveled figure with the bloody, battered face +as Deming. The hunter had managed to get hold of Lund's gun. Rainey's +aim was screened by a sudden lunge of the huddle of men. He saw Lund +heave, saw his red face bob up, mouth open, roaring once more, saw his +leg come up in a tremendous kick that caught Deming's outleveling arm +close to the elbow, saw the gleam of the gun as it streaked up and +overboard, and Deming staggering back, clutching at his broken limb, +cursing with the pain, to bring up against the rail and shout to the +seamen:</p> + +<p>"Get into it, you damned cowards! Get into it, and settle him!"</p> + +<p>Even in that instant the sarcasm of the cry of "cowards" struck home to +Rainey. The next second the girl had jumped by him, a glint of metal in +her hand as she brought it out of her blouse. This time she saw him. +"Come on!" she cried. And darted between the fighters and the storming +figure of Deming, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">{224}</a></span> tried to grasp her with his one good arm, but +failed.</p> + +<p>Rainey sped after her just as Lund reached the mast. The girl had a +nickeled pistol in her hand and was threatening the sullen line of +irresolute seamen. Rainey with his gun was not needed. He heard Lund +shout out in a triumphant cry and saw him battering at the heads of +three who still clung to him.</p> + +<p>All through the fight Lund had kept his head, struggling to the purpose +he had finally achieved, to reach the mast-rack of belaying pins, seize +one of the hardwood clubs and, with this weapon, beat his assailants to +the deck.</p> + +<p>He stood against the mast, his clothes almost stripped from him, the +white of his flesh gleaming through the tatters, streaked with blood. +Save for his eyes, his face was no longer human, only a mass of flayed +flesh and clotted beard. But his eyes were alight with battle and then, +as Rainey gazed, they changed. Something of surprise, then of delight, +leaped into them, followed by a burning flare that was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">{225}</a></span> matched in those +of the girl who, with Rainey herding back the seamen, had turned at +Lund's yell of victory.</p> + +<p>Lund took a lurching step forward over the prone bodies of the men on +the deck, that was splotched with blood.</p> + +<p>"By God!" he said slowly, his arms opening, his great fingers outspread, +his gaze on the girl, "by God!"</p> + +<p>The girl's face altered. Her eyes grew frightened, cold. The retreating +blood left her cheeks pale, and she wheeled and fled, dodging behind +Tamada, who gave way to let her pass, his ivory features showing no +emotion, closing up the fore companionway as Peggy Simms dived below.</p> + +<p>Lund did not follow her. Instead, he laughed shortly and appeared to see +Rainey for the first time.</p> + +<p>"Jumped me, the bunch of 'em!" he said, his chest heaving, his breath +coming in spurts from his laboring lungs. "Couldn't use my gun. But I +licked 'em. Damn 'em! <i>Equals?</i> Hell!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">{226}</a></span></p> + +<p>He seemed to have a clear recollection of the fight. He smiled grimly at +Deming, who glared at him, nursing his broken arm, then glanced at the +man that Rainey had mastered.</p> + +<p>"Did him up, eh? Good for you, matey! You didn't have to use your gun. +Jest as well, you might have plugged me. An' the gal had one, after +all."</p> + +<p>He seemed to ruminate on this thought as if it gave him special cause +for reflection.</p> + +<p>"Game!" he said. "Game as they make 'em!"</p> + +<p>He surveyed the rueful, groaning combatants with the smile of a +conqueror, then turned to the seamen.</p> + +<p>"Here, you!" he roared, and they jumped as if galvanized into life by +the shout. "Chuck a bucket of water over 'em! Chuck water till they git +below. Then clean the decks. Off-watch, you're out of this. Below with +you, where you belong. Jump!</p> + +<p>"They all fought fair," he went on. "Not a knife out. Only Deming there, +when he knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">{227}</a></span> he was licked, tried to git my gun. Yo're yeller, Deming," +he said, with contempt that was as if he had spat in the hunter's face. +"I thought you were a better man than the rest. But you've got yores. +Git down below an' we'll fix you up."</p> + +<p>He strode over to Hansen, stolid at the wheel.</p> + +<p>"Wal, you wooden-faced squarehead," he said, "which way did you think it +was coming out? Damn me if you didn't play square, though! You kept her +up. If you'd liked you could have chucked us all asprawl, an' that would +have bin the end of it, with me down. You git a bottle of booze for +that, Hansen, all for yore own Scandinavian belly. Come on, Rainey. +Tamada, I want you."</p> + +<p>While Tamada got splints and did what he could for the badly shattered +arm, Lund taunted Deming until the hunter's face was seamed with useless +ferocity, like a weasel's in a trap.</p> + +<p>"I wonder you fix him at all, Tamada," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">{228}</a></span> said. "He wanted to cut you +out of yore share. Called you a yellow-skinned heathen, Tamada. What +makes you gentle him that way? You've got him where you want him."</p> + +<p>Tamada, binding up the splints professionally, looked at Deming with +jetty eyes that revealed no emotion.</p> + +<p>Lund passed his hand over his face.</p> + +<p>"I'm some mess myself," he said, stretching his great arms. "Give me a +five-finger drink, Rainey, afore I clean up. Some scrap. Hell popping on +deck, and a dead man in the cabin! And the gal! Did you see the gal, +Rainey?"</p> + +<p>Out of the bloody mask of his face his agate eyes twinkled at Rainey +with a sort of good-natured malice. Rainey did not answer as he poured +the liquor.</p> + +<p>"Make it four finger," exclaimed Lund. "Deming's goin' to faint. One for +Doc Tamada."</p> + +<p>The Japanese excused himself, helping Deming, worn out with pain and +consumed by baffled hate, forward through the galley corridor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">{229}</a></span> Then he +came back with warm water in a basin—and towels.</p> + +<p>"After this cheery little fracas," said Lund, mopping at his face, +"we'll mebbe have a nice, quiet, genteel sort of ship. My gun went +overboard, didn't it? Better let me have that one you've got, Rainey."</p> + +<p>He stretched out his hand for it. Rainey delivered it, reluctantly. +There was nothing else to do, but he felt more than ever that the +<i>Karluk</i> was henceforth to be a one-man ship, run at the will of Lund.</p> + +<p>But the girl, too, had a weapon. He hugged that thought. She carried it +for her own protection, and she would not hesitate to use it. What a +girl she was! What a woman rather! A woman who would <i>mate</i>—not marry +for the quiet safety of a home. Rainey thought of her as one does of a +pool that one plumbs with a stone, thinking to find it fairly shallow, +only to discover it a gulf with unknown depth and currents, capable of +smiling placidness or sudden storm.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">{230}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE RIFLE CARTRIDGES</h3> + + +<p>The girl did not appear for the evening meal. She had refused Tamada's +suggestions through the door. Lund drank heavily, but without any +effect, save to sink him in comparative silence, as he and Rainey sat +together, after the Japanese had cleared the table. In contrast to the +excitement of the fight, their moods had changed, sobered by the thought +of the girl sitting up with her dead in the captain's room.</p> + +<p>Rainey was bruised and stiffened, and Lund moved with less of his usual +ease. The flesh of his face had been so pounded that it was turning dull +purple in great patches, giving him a diabolical appearance against his +naming beard.</p> + +<p>"We've got to git hold of those cartridges,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">{231}</a></span> he said, after a +long-pause. "Carlsen had 'em planted somewhere, an' it's likely in his +room. Best thing to do is to chuck 'em overboard. Cheaper to dump the +cartridges an' shells than the rifles an' shotguns.</p> + +<p>"You see," he went on, "Deming ain't quit. That's one thing with a man +who's streaked with yeller, when he gits licked in the open an' knows +he's licked proper, he tries to git even underhanded. He knows jest as +well as I do that Carlsen was lyin' that time about there bein' no more +shells. O' course the skipper may have stowed 'em away, but I doubt it. +An' jest so long as he thinks there's a chance of gittin' at 'em, he'll +figger on turning' the tables some day. An' he'll be workin' the rest of +'em up to the job."</p> + +<p>"They can't do much without a navigator," suggested Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe they figger a man'll do a lot o' things he don't want to with a +rifle barrel stuck in his neck or the small of his back," said Lund +grimly. "It's a good persuader. Might even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">{232}</a></span> have some influence on me. +Then ag'in it might not."</p> + +<p>"Where is the magazine?" asked Rainey.</p> + +<p>"In the little room aft o' the galley. We'll look there first. Come on."</p> + +<p>"How about keys? Carlsen's must have been in his pockets. I didn't see +them when I was hunting the morphine. We can't go in there." Rainey made +a motion toward the skipper's room. Lund chuckled.</p> + +<p>"I had my keys to the safe an' the magazine when I was aboard last +trip," he said. "They was with me when we went on the ice. An' I hung on +to 'em. Allus thought I might have a chance to use 'em ag'in."</p> + +<p>The strong room of the <i>Karluk</i> was a narrow compartment, heavily +partitioned off from the galley and the corridor. There was a lamp +there, and Rainey lit it while Lund closed the door behind them. The +magazine was an iron chest fastened to the floor and the side of the +vessel with two padlocks, opened by different keys. It was quite empty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">{233}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Thorough man, Carlsen," said Lund. "Prepared for a show-down, if +necessary. Might have put 'em in the safe. Wonder if he changed the +combination? I bet Simms didn't, year in an' out."</p> + +<p>He worked at the disk and grunted as the tumblers clicked home.</p> + +<p>"It ain't changed," he said. "No use lookin' here." But he swung back +the door and rummaged through books and papers, disturbing a chronometer +and a small cash-box that held the schooner's limited amount of ready +cash. There was no sign of any cartridges.</p> + +<p>"We'll tackle Carlsen's room next," he announced. "I don't suppose you +looked between the bunk mattresses, did you?"</p> + +<p>"I never thought of it," said Rainey. "I didn't imagine there would be +more than one."</p> + +<p>"I've got a hunch you'll find two on Carlsen's bunk. An' the shells +between 'em. He kep' his door locked when he was out of the main cabin +an' slep' on 'em nights. That's what I'd be apt to do."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">{234}</a></span></p> + +<p>As they came into the main cabin Rainey caught Lund by the arm.</p> + +<p>"I'm almost sure I saw Carlsen's door closing," he whispered. "It might +have been the shadow."</p> + +<p>"But it might not. Shouldn't wonder. One of 'em's sneaked in. Saw the +cabin empty, an' figgered we'd turned in. While we was in the +strong-room."</p> + +<p>He took the automatic from his pocket and went straight to the door of +Carlsen's room. It was locked or bolted from within.</p> + +<p>"The fool!" said Lund. "I've got a good mind to let him stay there till +he swallers some o' the drugs to fill his belly." He rapped on the panel +with the butt of the gun.</p> + +<p>"Come on out before I start trouble."</p> + +<p>There was no answer. Lund looked uncertainly at Rainey.</p> + +<p>"I hate to start a rumpus ag'in," he said, jerking his head toward the +skipper's room. "'Count of her. Reckon he can stay there till after +we've buried Simms. He's safe enough."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">{235}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey was a little surprised at this show of thoughtfulness, but he did +not remark on it. He was beginning to think pretty constantly of late +that he had underestimated Lund.</p> + +<p>The giant's hand dropped automatically to the handle as if to assure +himself of the door being fast. Suddenly it opened wide, a black gap, +with only the gray eye of the porthole facing them. Lund had brought up +the muzzle of his pistol to the height of a man's chest, but there was +nothing to oppose it.</p> + +<p>"Hidin', the damn fool! What kind of a game is this? Come out o' there."</p> + +<p>Something scuttled on the floor of the room—then darted swiftly out +between the legs of Lund and Rainey, on all fours, like a great dog. +Curlike, it sprawled on the floor with a white face and pop-eyes, with +hands outstretched in pleading, knees drawn up in some ludicrous attempt +at protection, calling shrilly, in the voice of Sandy:</p> + +<p>"Don't shoot, sir! Please don't shoot!"</p> + +<p>Lund reached down and jerked the roustabout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">{236}</a></span> to his feet, half +strangling him with his grip on the collar of the lad's shirt, and flung +him into a chair.</p> + +<p>"What were you doin' in there?"</p> + +<p>Sandy gulped convulsively, feeling at his scraggy throat, where an +Adam's apple was working up and down. Speech was scared out of him, and +he could only roll his eyes at them.</p> + +<p>"You damned young traitor!" said Lund. "I'll have you keelhauled for +this! Out with it, now. Who sent ye? Deming?"</p> + +<p>"You've got him frightened half to death," intervened Rainey. "They +probably scared him into doing this. Didn't they, Sandy?"</p> + +<p>The lad blinked, and tears of self-pity rolled down his grimy cheeks. +The relief of them seemed to unstopper his voice. That, and the kinder +quality of Rainey's questioning.</p> + +<p>"Deming! He said he'd cut my bloody heart out if I didn't do it. Him an' +Beale. Lookit."</p> + +<p>He plucked aside the front of his almost buttonless shirt and worn +undervest and showed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">{237}</a></span> them on his left breast the scoring where a sharp +blade had marked an irregular circle on his skin.</p> + +<p>"Beale did that," he whined. "Deming said they'd finish the job if I +come back without 'em."</p> + +<p>"Without the shells?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Rainey. Oh, Gord, they'll kill me sure! Oh, my +Gord!" His staring eyes and loose mouth, working in fear, made him look +like a fresh-landed cod.</p> + +<p>"You ain't much use alive," said Lund.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe I ain't," returned the lad, with the desperation of a cornered +rat. "But I got a right to live. And I've lived worse'n a dorg on this +bloody schooner. I'm fair striped an' bruised wi' boots an' knuckles an' +ends o' rope. I'd 'ave chucked myself over long ago if—"</p> + +<p>"If what?"</p> + +<p>The lad turned sullen.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," he said, and glared almost defiantly at Lund.</p> + +<p>"Is that door shut?" the giant asked Rainey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">{238}</a></span> "Some of 'em might be +hangin' 'round." Rainey went to the corridor and closed and locked the +entrance.</p> + +<p>"Now then, you young devil," said Lund. "What they did to you for'ard +ain't a marker on what I'll do to you if you don't speak up an' answer +when I talk. <i>If what?</i>"</p> + +<p>Sandy turned to Rainey.</p> + +<p>"They said they was goin' to give me some of the gold," he said. "They +said all along I was to have the hat go 'round for me. I told you I was +dragged up, but there's—there's an old woman who was good to me. She's +up ag'in' it for fair. I told her I'd bring her back some dough an' if I +can hang on an' git it, I'll hang on. But they'll do me up, now, for +keeps."</p> + +<p>Rainey heard Lund's chuckle ripen to a quiet laugh.</p> + +<p>"I'm damned if they ain't some guts to the herrin' after all," he said. +"Hangin' on to take some dough back to an old woman who ain't even his +mother. Who'd have thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">{239}</a></span> it? Look here, my lad. I was dragged up the +same way, I was. An' I hung on. But you'll never git a cent out of that +bunch. I don't know as they'll have enny to give you."</p> + +<p>His face hardened. "But you come through, an' I'll see you git somethin' +for the old woman. An' yoreself, too. What's more, you can stay aft an' +wait on cabin. If they lay a finger on you, I'll lay a fist on them, an' +worse."</p> + +<p>"You ain't kiddin' me?"</p> + +<p>"I don't kid, my lad. I don't waste time that way."</p> + +<p>Sandy stood up, his face lighting. He began to empty his pockets, laying +shells and shotgun cartridges upon the table.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't begin to git harf of 'em," he said. "The rest's under the +mattresses. They said they on'y needed a few. I thought you was both +turned in. When you come out of the corridor I was scared nutty."</p> + +<p>Between the mattresses, as Lund had guessed, they found the rest of the +shells, laid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">{240}</a></span> out in orderly rows save where the lad's scrambling +fingers had disturbed them. Lund stripped off a pillow-case and dumped +them in, together with those on the table.</p> + +<p>"You can bunk here," he told the grateful Sandy. "Now I'll have a few +words with Deming, Beale and Company. Want to come along, Rainey?"</p> + +<p>Lund strode down the corridor, bag in one hand, his gun in the other. +Rainey threw open the door of the hunters' quarters and discovered them +like a lot of conspirators. Deming was in his bunk; also another man, +whose ribs Lund had cracked when he had kicked him along the deck out of +his way. The bruised faces of the rest showed their effects from the +fight. As Lund entered, covering them with the gun, while he swung down +the heavy slip on the table with a clatter, their looks changed from +eager expectation to consternation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">{241}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>PEGGY SIMMS</h3> + + +<p>"Caught with the goods!" said Lund. "Two tries at mutiny in one day, my +lads. You want to git it into your boneheads that I'm runnin' this ship +from now on. I can sail it without ye and, by God, I'll set the bunch of +ye ashore same's you figgered on doin' with me if you don't sit up an' +take notice! The rifles an' guns"—he glanced at the orderly display of +weapons in racks on the wall—"are too vallyble to chuck over, but here +go the shells, ev'ry last one of them. So that nips <i>that</i> little plan, +Deming."</p> + +<p>He turned back the slip to display the contents.</p> + +<p>"Open a port, Rainey, an' heave the lot out."</p> + +<p>Rainey did so while the hunters gazed on in silent chagrin.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing more," said Lund, grinning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">{242}</a></span> at them. "If enny of you +saw a man hurtin' a dog, you'd probably fetch him a wallop. But you +don't think ennything of scarin' the life out of a half-baked kid an' +markin' up his hide like a patchwork quilt. Thet kid's stayin' aft after +this. One of you monkey with him, an' you'll do jest what he's bin +doin', wish you was dead an' overboard."</p> + +<p>He turned on his heel and walked to the door, Rainey following.</p> + +<p>"Burial of the skipper at dawn," said Lund. "All hands on deck, clean +an' neatly dressed to stand by. An' see yore behavior fits the occasion. +Deming, you'll turn out, too. No malingerin'."</p> + +<p>It was plain that the news of the captain's death was known to them. +They showed no surprise. Rainey was sure that Tamada had not mentioned +it. It had leaked out through the grape-vine telegraphy of all ships. +Doubtless, he thought, the after-cabin and its doings was always being +spied upon.</p> + +<p>"Will you take the service ter-morrer?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">{243}</a></span> Lund asked Rainey when they +were back in the cabin. "Bein' as yo're an eddicated chap?"</p> + +<p>"Why—I don't know it. Is there a prayer-book aboard? I thought the +skipper always presided."</p> + +<p>"I'm only deputy-skipper w'en it comes down to that," said Lund. "It +ain't my ship. I'm jest runnin' it under contract with my late partner. +The ship belongs to the gal. And yo're top officer now, in the regular +run. As to a prayer-book, there ain't sech an article aboard to my +knowledge. But I'd like to have it go off shipshape. For Simms' sake as +well as the gal's. I reckon he used his best jedgment 'bout puttin' back +after me on the floe. I might have done the same thing myself."</p> + +<p>Rainey doubted that statement, and set it down to Lund's generosity. +Many of his late words and actions had displayed a latent depth of +feeling that he had never credited Lund with possessing. He could not +help believing that, in some way, the girl had brought them to the +surface.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">{244}</a></span></p> + +<p>"I thought I saw a Bible in the safe," he said, "when we were looking +for the shells. There may be a prayer-book. I suppose there have been +occasions for it. The mate died at sea last trip."</p> + +<p>"There may be," returned Lund. "That's where Simms 'ud keep it. He +warn't what you'd call a religious man. We'll take a look afore we turn +in."</p> + +<p>There were offices to be performed for the dead captain that the girl, +with all her willingness, could not attempt. Lund did not mention them, +and Rainey vacillated about disturbing her until he saw <ins class="correction" title="text reads 'Tamanda'">Tamada</ins> go +through the cabin with folded canvas and a flag. The Japanese tapped on +the door, which was instantly opened to him. He had been expected.</p> + +<p>There was no doubt that Tamada, with his medical experience, was best +fitted for the task, but it seemed to Rainey also that the girl had +deliberately ignored their services and that, despite her involuntary +admiration of Lund's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">{245}</a></span> fight against odds, or in revulsion of it, she +reckoned them hostile to her sentiments. Lund roused him by talking of +the burial-service for Simms.</p> + +<p>"You're a writer," he said. "What's the good of knowin' how to handle +words if you can't fake up some sort of a service? One's as good as +another, long as it sounds like the real thing.</p> + +<p>"I reckon there's a God," he went on. "Somethin' that started things, +somethin' that keeps the stars from runnin' each other down, but, after +He wound up the clock He made, I don't figger He bothers much about the +works.</p> + +<p>"Luck's the big thing that counts. We're all in on the deal. Some of us +git the deuces an' treys, an' some git the aces. If yo're born lucky +things go soft for you. But, if it warn't for luck, for the chance an' +the hope of it, things 'ud be upside down an' plain anarchy in a jiffy. +If it warn't the pore devil's idea that his luck has got to change for +the better, mebbe ter-morrer, he'd start out an' cut his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">{246}</a></span> throat, or +some one else's, if he had ginger enough."</p> + +<p>"It's hardly all luck, is it?" asked Rainey. "Look at you! You're bigger +than most men, stronger, better equipped to get what you want."</p> + +<p>"Hell!" laughed Lund. "I was lucky to be born that way. But you've got +to fudge up some sort of a service to suit the gal. You've got that +Bible. It ought to be easy. Simms wouldn't give a whoop, enny more'n I +would. When yo're dead yo're through, so far's enny one can prove it to +you. A dead body's a nuisance, an' the sooner it's got rid of the +better. But if it's goin' to make the livin' feel enny better for +spielin' off some fine words, why, hop to it an' make up yore speech."</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms saved Rainey by producing a prayer-book, bringing it to +Lund, her face pale but composed enough, and her shadowed eyes calm as +she gave it to him.</p> + +<p>"I reckon Rainey here 'ud read it better'n me," he said. "He's a +scholar."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">{247}</a></span></p> + +<p>"If you will," asked the girl. She seemed to have outworn her first +sorrow, to have obtained a grip of herself that, with the dignity of her +bereavement, the very control of her undoubted grief, set up a barrier +between her and Lund. Rainey was conscious of this fence behind which +the girl had retreated. She was polite, but she did not ask this service +as a favor, as a friendly act. Refusal, even, would not have visibly +affected her, he fancied. There was an invisible armor about her that +might be added to at any moment by a shield of silent scorn. Somehow, if +sex had, for a swift moment, brought her and Lund into any contact, that +same sex, showing another aspect, set them far apart.</p> + +<p>Lund showed that he felt it, running his splay fingers through his beard +in evident embarrassment, while Rainey took the book silently, looking +through the pages for the ritual of "Burial at Sea."</p> + +<p>Arrangements had been made on deck long before dawn. A section of the +rail had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">{248}</a></span> removed and a grating arranged that could be tipped at +the right moment for the consignment of the captain's body to the deep.</p> + +<p>The sea was running in long heaves, and the sun rose in a clear sky. The +ocean was free from ice, though the wind was cold. Here and there a +berg, far off, caught the sparkle of the sun and, to the north, parallel +to their course, the peaks of the Aleutian Isles, broken buttresses of +an ancient seabridge, showed sharply against the horizon.</p> + +<p>At four bells in the morning watch all hands had assembled, save for +Tamada and Hansen, who appeared bearing the canvas-enveloped, +flag-draped body of Simms, his sea-shroud weighted by heavy pieces of +iron. Peggy Simms followed them, and, as the crew, with shuffling feet +and throats that were repeatedly cleared, gathered in a semicircle, she +arranged the folds of the Stars and Stripes that Hansen attached to a +light line by one corner.</p> + +<p>Whatever Lund affected, the solemnity of the occasion held the men. They +uncovered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">{249}</a></span> and stood with bowed heads that hid the bruised faces of the +hunters. Lund's own damaged features were lowered as Rainey commenced to +read. Only Deming's face, gray from the effort of coming on deck and the +pain in his arm, held the semblance of a sneer that was largely bravado. +A hunter had his arm tucked in that of his comrade with the broken ribs. +A seaman was told off to the wheel and the schooner was held to the wind +with all sheets close inboard, rising and falling on an almost level +keel.</p> + +<p>"<i>And the body shall be cast into the sea.</i>"</p> + +<p>At the words Lund and Hansen tilted the grating. There was a slight +pause as if the body were reluctant to start on its last journey, and +then it slid from the platform and plunged into the sea, disappearing +instantly under the urge of the weights, with a hissing aeration of the +water. The flag, held inboard by the line, fluttered a moment and +subsided over the grating. The girl turned toward them, her head up.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she said, and went below.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">{250}</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's over," said Lund, letting out whatever emotions he might have +repressed in a long breath. "Now, then, trim ship! Watch-off, get below. +We're goin' to drive her for all she's worth."</p> + +<p>He took the wheel himself as the men jumped to the sheets and soon Lund +was getting every foot of possible speed out of the schooner. He was as +good a sailor as Simms, inclined to take more chances, but capable of +handling them.</p> + +<p>The girl kept below and seldom came out of her cabin, Tamada serving her +meals in there. Rainey could see Lund's resentment growing at this +attitude that seemed to him normal enough, though it might present +difficulty later if persisted in. But the morning that they headed up +through Sequam Pass between the spouting reefs of Sequam and Amlia +Islands, she came on deck and went forward to the bows, taking in deep +breaths of the bracing air and gazing north to the free expanse of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">{251}</a></span> +Bering Strait. Rainey left her alone, but Lund welcomed her as she came +back aft.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you on deck again, Miss Peggy," he said. "You need sun and +air to git you in shape again."</p> + +<p>His glance held vivid admiration of her as he spoke, a glance that ran +over her rounded figure with a frank approval that Rainey resented, but +to which the girl paid no attention. She seemed to have made up her mind +to a change of attitude.</p> + +<p>"How far have we yet to go?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"A'most a thousan' miles to the Strait proper," said Lund. "The +Nome-Unalaska steamer lane lies to the east. Runs close to the +Pribilofs, three hundred miles north, with Hall an' St. Matthew three +hundred further. Then comes St. Lawrence Isle, plumb in the middle of +the Strait, with Siberia an' Alaska closin' in."</p> + +<p>He was keen to hold her in conversation, and she willing to listen, +assenting almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">{252}</a></span> eagerly when he offered to point out their positions +on the chart, spread on the cabin table. Lund talked well, for all his +limited and at times luridly inclined vocabulary, whenever he talked of +the sea and of his own adventures, stating them without brag, but +bringing up striking pictures of action, full of the color and savor of +life in the raw. From that time on Peggy Simms came to the table and +talked freely with Lund, more conservatively with Rainey.</p> + +<p>The newspaperman was no experienced analyst of woman nature, but he saw, +or thought he saw, the girl watching Lund closely when he talked, +studying him, sometimes with more than a hint of approbation, at others +with a look that was puzzled, seeming to be working at a problem. The +giant's liking for her, boyish at times, or swiftly changing to bolder +appraisal, grew daily.</p> + +<p>The girl, Rainey decided, was humoring Lund, seeking to know how with +her feminine methods she might control him, keep him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">{253}</a></span> within bounds. Her +coldness, it seemed, she had cast aside as an expedient that might prove +too provoking and worthless.</p> + +<p>And Rainey's valuation of her resources increased. She was handling her +woman's weapons admirably, yet when he sometimes, at night, under the +cabin lamp, saw the smoldering light glowing in Lund's agate eyes, he +knew that she was playing a dangerous game.</p> + +<p>"What d'ye figger on doin' with yore share, Rainey?" Lund asked him the +night that they passed Nome. It was stormy weather in the Strait, and +the <i>Karluk</i> was snugged down under treble reefs, fighting her way +north. Ice in the Narrows was scarce, though Lund predicted broken floes +once they got through. The cabin was cozy, with a stove going. Peggy +Simms was busied with some sewing, the canary and the plants gave the +place a domestic atmosphere, and Lund, smoking comfortably, was +eminently at ease.</p> + +<p>"'Cordin' to the way the men figgered it out," he went on, "though I +reckon they're under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">{254}</a></span> the mark more'n over it, you'll have forty +thousan' dollars. That's quite a windfall, though nothin' to Miss Peggy, +here, or me, for that matter. I s'pose you got it all spent already."</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I have," said Rainey. "But I think, if all goes well, +I'll get a place up in the Coast Range, in the redwoods looking over the +sea, and write. Not newspaper stuff, but what I've always wanted to. +Stories. Yarns of adventure!"</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms looked up.</p> + +<p>"You've never done that?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Not satisfactorily. I suppose that genius burns in a garret, but I +don't imagine myself a genius and I don't like garrets. I've an idea I +can write better when I don't have to stand the bread-and-butter strain +of routine."</p> + +<p>"Goin' to write second-hand stuff?" asked Lund. "Why don't you <i>live</i> +what you write? I don't see how yo're goin' to git under a man's skin by +squattin' in a bungalow with a Jap servant, a porcelain bathtub, an' +breakfast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">{255}</a></span> in bed. Why don't you travel an' see stuff as it is? How in +blazes are you goin' to write Adventure if you don't live it?</p> + +<p>"Me, I'm goin' to git a schooner built accordin' to my own ideas. Have a +kicker engine in it, mebbe, an' go round the world. What's the use of +livin' on it an' not knowin' it by sight? Books and pictures are all +right in their way, I reckon, but, while my riggin' holds up, I'm for +travel. Mebbe I'll take a group of islands down in the South Seas after +a bit an' make somethin' out of 'em. Not jest <i>copra</i> an' pearl-shell, +but cotton an' rubber."</p> + +<p>"A king and his kingdom," suggested the girl.</p> + +<p>"Aye, an' mebbe a queen to go with it," replied Lund, his eyes wide open +in a look that made the girl flush and Rainey feel the hidden issue that +he felt was bound to come, rising to the surface.</p> + +<p>"That's a <i>man's</i> life," went on Lund. "Travel's all right, but a man's +got to do somethin', buck somethin', start somethin'. An' a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">{256}</a></span> red-blooded +man wants the right kind of a woman to play mate. Polish off his rough +edges, mebbe. I'd rather be a rough castin' that could stand filin' a +bit, than smooth an' plated. An', when I find the right woman, one of my +own breed, I'm goin' to tie to her an' her to me.</p> + +<p>"I'm goin' to be rich. They've cleaned up the sands of Nome, but there's +others'll be found yit between Cape Hope an' Cape Barry. Meantime, we've +got a placer of our own. With plenty of gold they ain't much limit to +what a man can do. I've roughed it all my life, an' I'm not lookin' for +ease. It makes a man soft. But—"</p> + +<p>He swept the figure of the girl in a pause that was eloquent of his line +of thought. She grew uneasy of it, but Lund maintained it until she +raised her eyes from her work and challenged his. Rainey saw her breast +heave, saw her struggle to hold the gaze, turn red, then pale. He +thought her eyes showed fear, and then she stiffened. Almost +unconsciously she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">{257}</a></span> raised her hand to where Rainey was sure she kept the +little pistol, touched something as though to assure herself of its +presence, and went on sewing. Lund chuckled, but shifted his eyes to +Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you write up <i>this</i> v'yage? When it's all over? There's +adventure for you, an' we ain't ha'f through with it. An' romance, too, +mebbe. We ain't developed much of a love-story as yit, but you never can +tell."</p> + +<p>He laughed, and Peggy Simms got up quietly, folded her sewing, and said +"Good night" composedly before she went to her room.</p> + +<p>"How about it, Rainey?" quizzed Lund. "How about the love part of it? +She's a beauty, an' she'll be an heiress. Ain't you got enny red blood +in yore veins? Don't you want her? You won't find many to hold a candle +to her. Looks, built like a racin' yacht, smooth an' speedy. Smart, an' +rich into the bargain. Why don't you make love to her?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">{258}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey felt the burning blood mounting to his face and brain.</p> + +<p>"I am not in love with Miss Simms," he said. "If I was I should not try +to make love to her under the circumstances. She's alone, and she's +fatherless. I do not care to discuss her."</p> + +<p>"She's a woman," said Lund. "And yo're a damned prig! You'd like to bust +me in the jaw, but you know I'm stronger. You've got some guts, Rainey, +but yo're hidebound. You ain't got ha'f the git-up-an'-go to ye that she +has. She's a woman, I tell you, an' she's to be won. If you want her, +why don't you stand up an' try to git her 'stead of sittin' around like +a sick cat whenever I happen to admire her looks?</p> + +<p>"I've seen you. I ain't blind enny longer, you know. She's a woman an' +I'm a man. I thought you was one. But you ain't. Yore idea of makin' +love is to send the gal a box of candy an' walk pussy-footed an' write +poems to her. You want to <i>write</i> life an' I want to <i>live</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">{259}</a></span> it. So does +a gal like that. She's more my breed than yores, if she has got +eddication. An' she's flesh and blood. Same as I am. Yo're half sawdust. +Yo're stuffed."</p> + +<p>He went on deck laughing, leaving Rainey raging but helpless. Lund +appeared to think the situation obvious. Two men, and a woman who was +attractive in many ways. The <i>only</i> woman while they were aboard the +schooner, therefore the more to be desired, admired by men cut off from +the rest of the world.</p> + +<p>He expected Rainey to be in love with her, to stand up and say so, to +endeavor to win her. Lund sought the ardor of competition. He might be +looking for the excuse to crush Rainey.</p> + +<p>But he had said she was of his breed, and that was a true saying. If +Lund was a son of the sea, she was a daughter of a line of seamen. Lund, +sooner or later, meant to take her, willing or unwilling. He had said +so, none too covertly, that very evening. And, if Rainey meant to stand +between her and Lund<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">{260}</a></span> as a protector, Lund would accept him in that +character only as the girl's lover and his rival.</p> + +<p>And Rainey did not know whether he was in love with her or not. He could +not even be certain of the girl. There were times when Lund seemed to +fascinate her. One thing he braced himself to do, to be ready to aid her +against Lund if occasion came, and she needed protection. The luck, as +Lund phrased it, that had given brawn to the giant, had given Rainey +brains. When the time came he would use them.</p> + +<p>After this the girl avoided Lund's company as much as possible by +seeking Rainey's. They worked through the Strait and headed into the +Arctic Ocean. Ice was all about them, fields formed of vast blocks of +frozen water divided by broad lanes through which the <i>Karluk</i> slowly +made her way, a maze of ice, always threatening, calling for all of +Lund's skill while he fumed at every barrier, every change of the +weather that grew steadily colder.</p> + +<p>The sky was never entirely unveiled by mist,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">{261}</a></span> and at night, as they +sailed down a frozen fiord with lookouts doubled, the grinding smashing +noises of the ice seemed the warning voice of the North, as they sailed +on into the wilderness.</p> + +<p>The hunters kept below. Lund bossed the ship. Deming, it seemed, managed +to hold his cards and deal them despite his mending arm in splints. And +he was steadily winning. The girl talked with Rainey of her own life +ashore and at sea on earlier trips with her father, of his own desire to +write, of his ambitions, until there was little he had not told her, +even to the girl who was the daughter of the Lumber King.</p> + +<p>And the spell of her nearness, her youth, her beauty, naturally held +him. When he was on deck duty she remained in her room. When Lund +relieved him, the day's work giving Lund, Hansen, and Rainey each two +regular watches of four hours, though Lund put in most of the night as +the ice grew more difficult to navigate, Rainey occasionally saw the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">{262}</a></span> +giant's eyes sizing him up with a sardonic twinkle.</p> + +<p>For the time being, the safety of the <i>Karluk</i> and the successful +carrying out of the purpose of the trip took all of Lund's attention and +energy. Twice he had been thwarted by the weather from gleaning his +golden harvest, and it began to look as if the third attempt might be no +more fortunate.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Karluk's</i> stout," he said once, "but she ain't built for the +Arctic. If we git nipped badly she'll go like an eggshell."</p> + +<p>"And then what?" Rainey asked.</p> + +<p>"Git the gold! That's what we come for. If we have to make sleds an' use +the hunters for a dorg-team." He laughed indomitably. "We'll make a man +of you yit, Rainey, afore we git back."</p> + +<p>Lund was snatching sleep in scraps, seeking always to feel a way toward +the position of the island through the ice that continually baffled +progress. Several times they risked the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">{263}</a></span> schooner in a narrow lane when +a lull of the often uncertain wind would have seen them ground between +the edges of the floe. Twice Lund ordered out the boats to save them. +Once all hands fended desperately with spars to keep her clear, and only +the schooner's overhung stern saved her rudder from the savagely +clashing masses that closed behind them.</p> + +<p>But he showed few signs of strain. Once in a while he would sit with +closed eyes or pass his hands across his brows as if they pained him. +But he never complained, and the ice, taking on the dull hues of sea and +sky, gave off no glare that should affect the sight. Against all +opposition Lund forced his way until, just after sunset one night, as +the dusk swept down, he gave a shout and pointed to a fitful flare over +the port bow. Rainey thought it the aurora, but Lund laughed at him.</p> + +<p>"It's the crater atop the island," he said. "Nothin' dangerous. Reg'lar +lighthouse. Now, boys," he went on, his deep voice ringing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">{264}</a></span> with +exhilaration, "there's gold in sight! Whistle for a change of weather, +every mother's son of you!"</p> + +<p>The deck was soon crowded. On the previous trip the schooner had +approached the island from a different angle, but the men were swift to +acknowledge the glow of the volcano as the expected landfall. Lund +remained on deck, and it was late before any of the crew turned in. +Rainey, during his watch, saw the mountain fire-pulse, glowing and +winking like the eye of a Cyclops, its gleam reflected in the eyes of +the watchers who were about to invade the island and rob it of its +golden sands.</p> + +<p>The change of weather came about three in the morning, though not as +Lund had hoped. A sudden wind materialized from the north, stiffening +the canvas with its ice-laden breath, glazing the schooner wherever +moisture dripped, bringing up an angry scud of clouds that fought with +the moon. The sea appeared to have thickened. The <i>Karluk</i> went +sluggishly, as if she was sailing in a sea of treacle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">{265}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Half slush already," said Lund. "We're in for a real cold snap. +There'll be pancake ice all around us afore dawn. That is sure a hard +beach to fetch. But it's too early for winter closing. After this nip +we'll have a warm spell. An' we got to git the stuff aboard an' start +kitin' south afore the big freeze-up catches us."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">{266}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>SMOKE</h3> + + +<p>When Rainey came on deck the next morning he found the schooner floating +in a small lagoon that made the center of a floe. The water in it was +slush, half solid. Main and fore were close furled, the headsails also, +and the <i>Karluk</i> was nosing against the far end of the rapidly +diminishing basin. The wind was still lively.</p> + +<p>All about were other floes, but they were widely separated, and between +them crisp waves of indigo were curling snappily.</p> + +<p>The island stood up sharp and jagged, much larger than Rainey had +anticipated. It boasted two cones, from one of which smoke was lazily +trailing. Ice was piled in wild confusion about its shores, wrecked by +the gale that had blown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">{267}</a></span> hard from four till eight, and was now +subsiding with the swift change common to the Arctic.</p> + +<p>A deep hum of bursting surf undertoned all other noises and, prisoned as +she was, the schooner and her floe were sweeping slowly toward the land +in the grip of a current rather than before the gusty wind.</p> + +<p>Lund had fendered the schooner's bows effectively before he went below +with old sails that enveloped stem and swell, stuffed with ropes and +bits of canvas.</p> + +<p>Within an hour the wind had ceased and the slush in the lagoon had +pancaked into flakes of forming ice that bid fair to become solid within +a short time, for the day was bitterly cold and tremendously bright. The +sky rose from filmy silver-azure to richest sapphire, and the rolling +waters between the floes were darkest purple-blue. As the whip of the +wind ceased they settled to a vast swell on which the great clumps of +ice rose and fell with dazzling reflections.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">{268}</a></span></p> + +<p>Lund came up within the hour and stood blinking at the brilliance.</p> + +<p>"My eyes ain't as strong yit as they should be," he said to Rainey. "I +shouldn't have slung them glasses so hasty at Carlsen, though they +sp'iled his aim, at that. If this weather keeps up I'll have to make +snow-specs; there ain't another pair of smokes aboard." He made a shade +of his curved hand as he gazed at the island.</p> + +<p>"Current's got us," he said, "an' we'll fetch up mighty close to the +beach. It lies between those two ridges, close together, buttin' out +from the volcano. Long Strait current splits on Wrangell Island, and +we're in the trend of the northern loop. That's why the sea don't freeze +up more solid. It's freezin' fast enough round us, where there ain't +motion."</p> + +<p>He seemed well satisfied with the prospect. "Had breakfast?" he asked +Rainey, and then: "All right. We'll git the men aft."</p> + +<p>He bellowed an order, and soon every one came trooping, to gather in two +groups either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">{269}</a></span> side of the cabin skylight. Their faces were eager with +the proximity of the gold, yet half sullen as they waited to hear what +Lund had to say. Since the attempt against him Lund had said nothing +about their shares. They acknowledged him as master, but they still +rebelled in spirit.</p> + +<p>"There's the island," said Lund. "We'll make it afore sundown. The beach +is there, waitin' for us to dig it up. It'll be some job. I don't reckon +it's frozen hard, on'y crusted. If it is we'll bust the crust with +dynamite. But we got to hop to it. There'll be another cold spell after +this one peters out an' the next is like to be permanent. I want the +gold washed out afore then, an' us well down the Strait. It's up to you +to hump yoreselves, an' I'll help the humpin'.</p> + +<p>"We'll cradle most of the stuff an', if they's time, we'll flume the +silt tailin's for the fine dust. Providin' we can git a fall of water. +There'll be plenty for all hands to do. An' the shares go as first +fixed. I ain't expectin'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">{270}</a></span> you to do the diggin' an' not git a pinch or +two of the dust."</p> + +<p>The men's faces lighted, and they shuffled about, looking at one another +with grins of relief.</p> + +<p>"No cheers?" asked Lund ironically. "Wall, I hardly expected enny. +Hansen, you'll be one of the foremen, with pay accordin'. Deming."</p> + +<p>"I can't dig," said the hunter truculently. "Neither can Beale, with his +ribs."</p> + +<p>"You've got a sweet nerve," said Lund. "I reckon you've won enough to be +sure of yore shares, if the boys pay up. Enough for you to do some +diggin' in yore pockets for Beale. His ribs 'ud be whole if you hadn't +started the bolshevik stunt. But I'll find something for both of you to +do. Don't let that worry you none.</p> + +<p>"We've got mercury aboard somewhere," Lund continued, to Rainey, when +the men had dispersed, far more cheerful than they had gathered. "We'll +use that for concentration in the film riffles. Hansen'll have rockers +made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">{271}</a></span> that'll catch the big stuff. If the worst comes to the worst, +we'll load up the old hooker with the pay dirt an' wash it out on the +way home. I'll strip that beach down to bedrock if I have to work the +toes an' fingers off 'em."</p> + +<p>By noon the schooner was glazed in as firmly as a toy model that is +mounted in a glass sea. The wind blew itself entirely out, but the +current bore them steadily on to the clamorous shore, where the swells +were creating promontories, bays, cliffs and chasms in the piled-up +confusion of the floes pounding on the rocks, breaking up or sliding +atop one another in noisy confusion.</p> + +<p>The marble-whiteness of the ice masses was set off by the blues and soft +violets of their shadows, and by a pearly sheen wherever the planes +caught the light at a proper slant for the play of prisms. Beautiful as +it was, the sight was fearful to Rainey, in common with the crew. Only +Lund surveyed it nonchalantly.</p> + +<p>"It's bustin' up fast," he said. "All we need<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">{272}</a></span> is a little luck. If we +ain't got that there's no use of worryin'. We can't blast ourselves out +o' this without riskin' the schooner. We ought to be thankful we froze +in gentle. There ain't a plank started. The floe'll fend us off. There +ain't enny big chunks enny way near us aft. Luck—to make a decent +landin'—is all we need, an' it's my hunch it's comin' our way."</p> + +<p>His "hunch" was correct. Though they did not actually make the little +bay on which the treasure beach debouched, they fetched up near it +against a broken hill of ice that had lodged on the sharp slopes of a +little promontory, making the connection without further damage than a +splitting of the forward end of their encasing floe, with hardly a jar +to the <i>Karluk</i>.</p> + +<p>Lund sent men ashore over the ice, climbing to the promontory crags with +hawsers by which they tied up schooner, floe and all, to the land. If +the broken hill suffered further catastrophe, which did not seem likely, +its fragments would fall upon the floe. In case of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">{273}</a></span> emergency Lund +ordered men told off day and night to stand by the hawsers, to cast +loose or cut, as the extremity needed.</p> + +<p>The main danger threatened from following floes piling up on theirs and +ramming over it to smash the schooner, but that was a risk that must be +met as it evolved, and there did not seem much prospect of the +happening.</p> + +<p>It was dark before they were snugged. The men volunteered, through +Hansen, to commence digging that night by the light of big fires, so +crazy were they at the nearness of the gold. But Lund forbade it.</p> + +<p>"You'll work reg'lar shifts when you git started," he said. "An' you +won't start till ter-morrer. We've got to stand by the ship ter-night +until we find out by mornin' how snug we're goin' to be berthed."</p> + +<p>All night long they lay in a pandemonium of noise. After a while they +would become used to it as do the workers in a stampmill, but that night +it deafened them, kept them awake and alert, fearful, with the +tremendous cannonading.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">{274}</a></span> The bite of the frost made the timbers of the +<i>Karluk</i> creak and its thrust continually worked among the stranded +masses with groaning thunders and shrill grindings, while the surf ever +boomed on the resonant sheets of ice.</p> + +<p>The place held a strange mystery. On top of the main cone the volcanic +glow hung above the crater chimney, reflected waveringly on the rolling +clouds of smoke that blotted out the stars. There were no tremors, no +rumblings from the hidden furnace, only the flare of its stoking. The +stars that were visible were intensely brilliant points, and, when the +moon rose, it was accompanied by four mock moons bound in a halo that +widely encircled the true orb. The moon-dogs shone intermittently with +prismatic colors, like disks of mother-of-pearl, and the moon itself was +four-rayed.</p> + +<p>Under moon and stars the coast snaked away to end in a deceptive glimmer +that persisted beyond the eye-range of definite dimensions. And, despite +all the sound, muffled and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">{275}</a></span> sharp, of splinterings and explosions, of +the reverberation of the swell, outside all this clamor, silence seemed +to gather and to wait. Silence and loneliness. It awed the crew, it +invested the spirits of Peggy Simms and Rainey, gazing at the mystic +beauty of the Arctic landscape.</p> + +<p>The walls of forced-up ice shifted about them and came clattering down, +booming on their floe as if it had been a drum, and threatening to tilt +it by sheer weight had they not been fairly grounded forward. Other +floes came from seaward to batter at the cliffs, but the eddy that had +brought them to their resting-place seemed to have been dissolved in the +main current and, save for an occasional alarm, their stern was not +seriously invaded.</p> + +<p>Only, as the night wore on, the floating masses became cemented to one +another and the shore. The <i>Karluk</i> was hard and fast within two hundred +yards of her Tom Tiddler's ground, just over the promontory. If a thaw +came, all should go well. If Lund had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">{276}</a></span> deceived, and the true +winter was setting in early, the prospects were far from cheerful, +though no one seemed to think of that possibility.</p> + +<p>Beneath the glamour of the magic night, the weird paraselene of the +moon's phenomenon, the glow of the volcano, the noises, the men +whispered of one thing only—Gold!</p> + +<p>Dawn came before they were aware of it, a sudden rush of light that dyed +the ice in every hue of red and orange, that tipped the frozen coast +with bursts of ruby flame that flared like beacons and gilded the crests +of the long swells, tinging all their world with a wild, unnatural +glory.</p> + +<p>Lund, striding the deck, his red beard iced with his breath, suddenly +stopped and stared into the east. There, in the very eye of the dawn, +was a trail of smoke, like a plume against the flaming, three-quarters +circle of the rising sun!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">{277}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE MIGHT OF NIPPON</h3> + + +<p>Lund's face, on which the bruises were fast fading, changed purple-black +with rage. He whirled upon Sandy, gaping near, and ordered him to fetch +his binoculars. Through them he stared long at the smoke. Then he turned +to the girl and Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Come down inter the cabin," he said. "We'll need all our wits."</p> + +<p>"That's a gunboat patrol," he said. "Japanese, for a million! None other +this far west. An' it's damned funny it should come up right at this +minnit. We've made the trip on schedule time, an' here they show. But +we'll let that slide. We've got to think fast. They'll board us. They'll +overhaul us lookin' for seal pelts. At least, I hope so.</p> + +<p>"We've got none. Our hunters an' our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">{278}</a></span> rifles an' shotguns'll prove our +claim to be pelagic sealers. We got to trust they believe us. If there +was a hide aboard or a club, or a sign of a dead seal on the beaches +they'd nail us. They may, ennyway, jest on suspicion.</p> + +<p>"They run things out this way with a high hand. If they ever clap us in +prison it'll be where we can't let a peep out of us. A lot they worry +about our consuls. They's too many good sealers dropped out of sight in +one of their stinkin' jails to starve on millet an' dried, moldy fish. I +know what I'm talkin' about.</p> + +<p>"It's lucky we didn't start mussin' up that beach. But they'll go over +everything. I know 'em. They claim to own the seas hereabouts, an' +they're cockier than ever, since the war. Rainey you got to git busy on +the log. If yore father didn't keep it up, Miss Peggy, so much the +better. If he has, you got to fake it someways, Rainey.</p> + +<p>"I'm Simms, get me, until we're clear of 'em. An' you, Rainey, are Doc +Carlsen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">{279}</a></span> Nothin' must show in the log about enny deaths."</p> + +<p>"But why?" asked the girl. "Why do we have to masquerade? If we haven't +touched the seals?"</p> + +<p>Lund barked at her:</p> + +<p>"I gave you credit for sharper wits," he said. "We've got to have +everything so reg'lar they can't find an excuse for haulin' us in an' +settin' fire to the schooner. They'd do it in a jiffy. We got to show +'em our clearance papers, an' we've got to tally up all down the line. +Rainey ain't on the ship's books—Carlsen is. Lund ain't, but Simms is. +I'm Simms. An' you"—he stopped to grin at her—"you're my daughter. +I'll dissolve the relationship after a while, I'll promise you that. An' +I'll drill the men. They know what's ahead of 'em if the Japs git +suspicious.</p> + +<p>"That ain't the worst of it! <i>They may know what we're after.</i> If they +do, we're goners. Ever occur to you, Rainey, that Tamada, who is a deep +one, may have tipped off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">{280}</a></span> the whole thing to his consul while the +schooner was at San Francisco? He was along the last trip. He'd know the +approximate position. Might have got the right figgers out o' the log, +him havin' the run of the cabin. A cable would do the rest. He'd git his +whack out of it, with the order of the Golden Chrysanthemum or some +jig-arig to boot, an' git even with the way he feels to'ard our outfit +for'ard, that ain't bin none too sweet to him."</p> + +<p>The suggestion held a foundation of conviction for Rainey. He had +thought of the consul. He had always sensed depths in Tamada's reserve, +he remembered bits of his talk, the "certain circumstances" that he had +mentioned. It looked plausible. Lund rose.</p> + +<p>"I'll fix Tamada," he said. But the girl stopped him.</p> + +<p>"You don't <i>know</i> that's true. Tamada has been wonderful—to me. What do +you intend to do with him?"</p> + +<p>"I'll make up my mind between here and the galley," said Lund grimly. +"This is my third<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">{281}</a></span> time of tackling this island, an' no Jap is goin' to +stand between me an' the gold, this trip. Why, even if he ain't blown on +us, he'll give the whole thing away. If he didn't want to they'd make +him come through if they laid their eyes on him. They've got more tricks +than a Chinese mandarin to make a man talk. Stands to reason he'll tell +'em. If he can talk when they git here," he added ominously, standing +half-way between the table and the door to the corridor, his hand +opening and closing suggestively. "The crew'd settle his hash if I +didn't. They ain't fools. They know what's ahead of 'em in Japan. You, +Rainey, git busy with that log. That gunboat'll have a boat alongside +this floe inside of ninety minnits."</p> + +<p>But Peggy Simms was between him and the door.</p> + +<p>"You shan't do it," she said, her eyes hard as flints, if Lund's were +like steel. "You don't know what he was to me when—when dad was buried. +Call him in and let him talk for himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">{282}</a></span> or—or <i>I'll tell the Japanese +myself what we have come for!</i>"</p> + +<p>Lund stood staring at her, his face hard, his beard thrust out like a +bush with the jut of his jaw. Still she faced him, resolute, barely up +to his shoulder, slim, defiant. Gradually his features crinkled into a +grin.</p> + +<p>"I believe you would," he said at last. "An' I'd hate to fix you the way +I would Tamada. But, mind you, if I don't git a definite promise out of +him that rings true, I'll have to stow him somewheres, where they won't +find him. An' that won't be on board ship."</p> + +<p>The girl's face softened.</p> + +<p>"You said you played fair," she said with a sigh of relief. She stepped +to the door, opened it, and called for Tamada. The Japanese appeared +almost instantly. Lund closed the door behind him and locked it.</p> + +<p>"You know there's a patrol comin' up, Tamada?" he asked. "A Jap patrol?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">{283}</a></span></p> + +<p>"What do you intend tellin' 'em if they come on board?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, if I can help it. I think I can. I am not friendly with +Japanese government. It would be bad for me if they find me. One time I +belong Progressive Party in Japan. I make much talk. Too much. The +government say I am too progressive."</p> + +<p>Rainey imagined he caught a glint of humor in Tamada's eyes as he made +his clipped syllables.</p> + +<p>"So, I leave my country. Suppose I go on steamer I think that government +they stop me. I think even in California they may make trouble, if they +find me. So I go in <i>sampan</i>. Sometimes Japanese cross to California in +<i>sampan</i>."</p> + +<p>"That's right," said Rainey. He had handled more than one story of +Japanese crews landing on some desolate portion of the coast to avoid +immigration laws and steamer fares. Generally they were rounded up after +their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">{284}</a></span> perilous, daring crossing of the Pacific. Tamada's story held the +elements of truth. Even Lund nodded in reserved affirmation.</p> + +<p>"Also I ship on <i>Karluk</i> as cook because of perhaps trouble if some one +know me in San Francisco. I think much better if they do not see me. I +have a plan. Also I want my share of gold. Suppose that gunboat find me, +find out about gold, they will not give me reward. You do not know +Japanese. They will put me in prison. It will be suggest to me, because +I am of <i>daimio</i> blood"—Tamada drew himself up slightly as he claimed +his nobility—"that I make <i>hari-kari</i>. That I do not wish. I am +Progressive. I much rather cook on board <i>Karluk</i> and get my share of +gold."</p> + +<p>Lund surveyed him moodily, half convinced. The girl was all eager +approval.</p> + +<p>"What is your plan, Tamada?"</p> + +<p>"We're losin' time on that log," cut in Lund. "Git busy, Rainey. Look +among Carlsen's stuff. He may have kept one. Dope up one of 'em, an' +burn the other. Now then, Tamada,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">{285}</a></span> dope out yore scheme; it's got to be +a good one."</p> + +<p>Both Lund and the girl were laughing when Rainey came out into the main +cabin again with the records. Tamada had disappeared.</p> + +<p>"He's some fox," said Lund. "Miss Peggy, you better superintend the +theatricals. It's got to be done right. Rainey, not to interrupt you, +what do you know about enteric fever?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's the same as typhoid. There'll be a surgeon aboard that +gunboat. You got to bluff him. Say little an' look wise as an' owl. +Don't let him mix in with yore patient."</p> + +<p>"My patient?"</p> + +<p>"Tamada! He's got enteric fever. If there's time he'll give you all the +dope."</p> + +<p>"But I don't see how that—"</p> + +<p>"You will see when you see Tamada," Lund grinned. "How about them logs? +Can you fix 'em?"</p> + +<p>"I think so."</p> + +<p>"Then hop to it. I'm goin' to wise up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">{286}</a></span> men and arrange a reception +committee. Don't forgit yore name's Carlsen, an' mine's Simms."</p> + +<p>Rainey wrote rapidly in his log, erasing, eliminating pages without +trace, imitating the skipper's phrasing. Fortunately Simms had made +scant entries at first and, later on, as the drug held him, none at all. +Carlsen had kept no record that he could find. The girl had gone forward +to aid with Tamada's plan which Lund had evidently accepted.</p> + +<p>Before he had quite finished he heard the tramp of men on deck and the +blast of a steam whistle. He ended his task and went up to see the +gunboat, gray and menacing, its brasses glistening, men on her decks at +their tasks, oblivious of the schooner, and officers on her bridge +watching the progress of a launch toward the floe.</p> + +<p>It made landing smartly, and a lieutenant, diminutive but highly +effective in appearance, led six men toward the <i>Karluk</i>. He wore a +sword and revolver; the men carried carbines. Their disciplined rank and +smartness, the waiting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">{287}</a></span> launch, the gunboat in the offing, were ominous +with the suggestion of power, the will to administer it. The officer in +command carried his chin at an arrogant tilt. Lund had rigged a gangway +and stood at the head of it, saluting the lieutenant as the latter +snappily answered the greeting.</p> + +<p>Rainey found the girl and put a hurried question.</p> + +<p>"What about Tamada? Where is he? What's the plan?"</p> + +<p>She turned to him with eyes that danced with excitement.</p> + +<p>"He's in the galley, Doctor Carlsen. But he isn't Tamada any more. He's +Jim Cuffee, nigger cook, sick with enteric fever, not to be disturbed."</p> + +<p>Rainey stared. It was a clever device, if Tamada could carry it out, and +he bear his own part in the masquerade. The willingness of Tamada to +risk the disguise was assurance of his fidelity.</p> + +<p>"Lund should have told me," he said. "I've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">{288}</a></span> got to change his name on +the papers. It won't take a minute though; he doesn't appear in the +log."</p> + +<p>The Japanese officer wasted no time on deck. For precaution, Rainey made +his alteration in the skipper's cabin, leaving the log there on the +built-in desk.</p> + +<p>"This is Lieutenant Ito, Doctor Carlsen," said Lund. "You want to see +our papers, Lieutenant?"</p> + +<p>"My orders are to examine the schooner," said Ito, in English, even more +perfect than Tamada's. His face was officially severe, though his slant +eyes shifted constantly toward the girl. Evidently she was an unexpected +feature of the visit.</p> + +<p>"I'll get the papers first," said Lund. "Doctor, you an' Peggy entertain +the lieutenant." Rainey set out some whisky, which the Japanese refused, +some cigars that he passed over with a motion of his hand. He sat down +stiffly and ran through the papers.</p> + +<p>"We're pelagic, you know," said Lund.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">{289}</a></span> "We ain't trespassin' on purpose. +Didn't even know you owned the island."</p> + +<p>"It is on our charts," said Ito crisply, as if that settled the right of +dominion. "How did you come here at all?"</p> + +<p>"We was brought," said Lund. "Got froze in north o' Wrangell. Gale set +us west as we come out o' the Strait. We're bound for Corwin. Nothin' +contraband. All reg'lar. Six hunters, two damaged in the gale, though +the doc's fixed 'em up. Twelve seamen, one boy, an' a nigger cook who's +pizened himself with his own cookin'. Doc's bringin' him round, too, +though he don't deserve it. Want to make yore inspection? We're in no +hurry to git away until the ice melts. Take yore time."</p> + +<p>The little, dapper officer with his keen, high-cheeked face, and his +shoe-brush hair, got up and bowed, with a side glance at Peggy Simms.</p> + +<p>"It is not usual for young ladies to be so far north." His endeavor at +gallantry was obvious.</p> + +<p>"I am with my father," said the girl, looking at Rainey, enjoying the +situation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">{290}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Where I go she goes," said Lund. And looked in turn at her with relish +in his double suggestion. He, too, was playing the game, gambling, +believing in his luck, reckless, now he had set the board.</p> + +<p>They passed through the corridor. Lund opened up the strong-room, and +then the galley. It was orderly, and there was a moaning figure in +Tamada's bunk, a tossing figure with a head bound in a red bandanna +above the black face and neck that showed above the blankets. The eyes +were closed. The black hands, showing lighter palms, plucked at the +coverings.</p> + +<p>"Delirious," said Lund. "Serves him right. He's a rotten cook."</p> + +<p>"Have you all the medicines you need?" asked Ito. "I can send our +surgeon."</p> + +<p>"I can manage," returned Rainey, <i>alias</i> Carlsen. "It's enteric. I've +reduced the fever."</p> + +<p>They passed on through the hunters' quarters. The girl fell behind with +Rainey.</p> + +<p>"A good make-up and a good actor," she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">{291}</a></span> whispered. "I helped him to be +sure he covered everything that would show. It was my idea about the +bandanna. Just what a sick negro might wear, and it hid his straight +hair."</p> + +<p>The lieutenant appeared fairly satisfied, but requested that Lund go on +board his ship. He stayed there until sundown, returning in hilarious +mood.</p> + +<p>"We've slipped it over on 'em this time," he said. "I left 'em aswim +with <i>sake</i>, an' bubblin' over with polite regrets. But they'll be back +in three weeks, they said, if the ice is open. An', if the luck holds, +we'll be out of it. I don't want them searchin' the ship ag'in." He +slapped Tamada on the back as he came to serve supper after Sandy had +laid the table.</p> + +<p>"A reg'lar vodeville skit," he exclaimed. "You're some actor, Tamada! +But why didn't you say the island was down on their charts? They've even +got a name for it. Hiyama."</p> + +<p>"It means hot mountain," said Tamada. "The government names many +islands."</p> + +<p>"You can bet yore life they do," said Lund.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">{292}</a></span> "They're smart, but they +overlooked that beach an' they've given us three weeks to cash in."</p> + +<p>Lund himself had imbibed enough of the <i>sake</i> to make him loose of +tongue, added to his elation at the success he had achieved. The gunboat +was gone on its patrol, and he had a free hand. He half filled a glass +with whisky. "Here's to luck," he cried. And spilled a part of the +liquor on the floor before he set the glass to his lips.</p> + +<p>"Here's to you, Doc," he added. "An' to Peggy!" He rolled eyes that were +a trifle bloodshot at the girl.</p> + +<p>"Our relations have gone back as usual, Mr. Lund," she said quietly. +Lund glared at her half truculently.</p> + +<p>"I'm agreeable," he said. "As a daughter, I disown you from now on, Miss +Peggy. Here's to ye, jest the same!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">{293}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>MY MATE</h3> + + +<p>From the day following the arrival and departure of the Japanese +gunboat, they attacked the little U-shaped beach that lay between two +buttresses of the volcano and sloped sharply down to the sea. Twenty-one +men, a lad and a woman, they went at the despoiling of it with a sort of +obsession, led, rather than driven, by Lund, who worked among the rest +of them like a Hercules.</p> + +<p>From the beginning the tongue of shingle promised to be almost +incredibly rich. Between these two spurs of mountain the tide had washed +and flung the rich, free-flaking gold of a submarine vein, piling it up +for unguessable years. Ebb tides had worked it in among the gravel, +floods had beaten it down; the deeper they went to bedrock, the richer +the pan.</p> + +<p>The men's fancy estimate of a million dollars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">{294}</a></span> began speedily to seem +small as the work progressed, systematically stripping the rocky floor +of all its shingle, foot by foot, and cubic yard by cubic yard, cradling +it in crude rockers, fluming it, vaporizing the amalgam of gold and +mercury, and adding pound after pound of virgin gold to the sacks in the +schooner's strong-room.</p> + +<p>They worked at first in alternating shifts of four hours, by day and +night, under the sun, the moon, the stars and the flaming aurora. The +crust was drilled here and there where it had frozen into conglomerate, +and exploded by dynamite, carefully placed so as not to dislodge the +masses of ice that overhung the schooner. Fires to thaw out the ground +were unavailable for sheer lack of fuel; there was no driftwood between +these forestless shores. What fuel could be spared was conserved for use +under the boilers that melted ice to provide water for the cradles and +flumes, and help to cook the meals that Tamada prepared out-of-doors for +the workers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">{295}</a></span></p> + +<p>Buckets of coffee, stews, and thick soups of peas and lentils, masses of +beans with plenty of fat pork, these were what they craved after hours +of tremendous endeavor. Despite the cold, they sweated profusely at +their tasks, stripping off over-garments as they picked and shoveled or +crowbarred out the rich gravel.</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms worked with the rest, assisting Tamada, helping to serve +with Sandy. Deming, and Beale, the man with the damaged ribs, were given +odd jobs that they could handle: feeding the fires, washing up, or +assisting at the little forge where the drills were sharpened.</p> + +<p>Through all of it Lund was supreme as working superintendent. There was +no job that he could not, did not, handle better than any two of them, +and, though Rainey could see a shrinkage, or a compression, of his bulk +as day by day he called upon it for heroic service, he never seemed to +tire.</p> + +<p>"Got to keep 'em at it," he would say in the cabin. "No time to lose, +an' the odds all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">{296}</a></span> against us, in a way. Barring Luck. That's what we got +to count on, but we don't want them thinkin' that. If the weather don't +break—an' break jest right—as soon as we've cleaned up, we're stung. +Though I'll blast a way out of this shore ice, if it comes to the worst. +I saved out some dynamite on purpose."</p> + +<p>"We ought to have brought a steam-shovel along," said Rainey. He was +hard as iron, but he had served a tough apprenticeship to labor, and his +hands and nails, he fancied, would never get into shape again.</p> + +<p>"Now you're talkin'," agreed Lund. "We c'ud have handled it in fine +shape an' left the machine behind as junk or a souvenir for our Jap +friends. We've got to cut out this four-hour shift. Too much time wasted +changin'. Too many meals. We'll make it one long, steady shift of all +hands long as we can stand up to it, an' all git reg'lar sleep. I'm +needin' some myself."</p> + +<p>Rainey knew that neither he nor Hansen got<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">{297}</a></span> within two-thirds as much +out of their shifts as when Lund was in command, though he had given +them the pick of the men. It was not that the men malingered, they +simply, neither of them, had the knack of keeping the work going at top +speed and top effectiveness.</p> + +<p>But, with Lund handling all of them as a unit, it was not long before +the shovels began to scrape on the bare rock that underlay the gravel at +tide edge, and work swiftly back to the end of the U. The outdoors +kitchen had been established on top of the promontory between the +schooner and the beach, a primitive arrangement of big pots slung from +tripods over fires kindled on a flat area that was partly sheltered from +the sea and the prevailing winds by outcrops of weathered lava.</p> + +<p>At dawn the men trooped from the schooner to be fed and warmed, and then +they flung themselves at their task. The more they got out the more +there was in it for them. But Lund was their overlord, their better, and +they knew it. Only Deming worked with one hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">{298}</a></span> the handle of the forge +bellows, or fed the fires, and sneered.</p> + +<p>Lund stood a full head above the tallest of them, which was Rainey, and +he was always in the thick of the work, directing, demanding the utmost, +and setting example to back command. His eyes had bothered him, and he +had made a pair of Arctic snow-glasses, mere circles of wood with slits +in them. But under these the sweat gathered, and he discarded them, +resorting to the primitive device of smearing soot all about his eyes. +This, he said, gave him relief, but it made him a weird sort of Caliban +in his labors.</p> + +<p>On the fifteenth day, with the work better than half done, with more +than a ton of actual gold in colors, that ranged from flour dust to +nuggets, in the strong-room, the weather began to change. It misted +continually, and Lund, rejoicing, prophesied the breaking up of the cold +snap.</p> + +<p>By the eighteenth day a regular Chinook was blowing, melting the sharper +outlines of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">{299}</a></span> the icy crags and pinnacles, and providing streams of +moisture that, in the nights now gradually growing longer, glazed every +yard of rock with peril.</p> + +<p>The men worked in a muck with their rubber sea-boots worn out by +constant chafing, sweaters torn, the blades of their shovels reduced by +the work demanded of them, the drills, shortened by steady sharpening, +gone like the spare flesh of the laborers, who, at last, began to show +signs of quicker and quicker exhaustion with occasional mutterings of +discontent, while Lund, intent only upon cleaning off the rock as a +dentist cleans a crumbling tooth, coaxed and cursed, blamed and praised +and bullied, and did the actual work of three of them.</p> + +<p>Dead with fatigue, filled with food, drowsy from the liberal grog +allowance at the end of the day, the men slept in a torpor every night +and showed less and less inclination to respond, though the end of their +labors was almost in sight.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">{300}</a></span></p> + +<p>"What's the use, we got enough," was the comment beginning to be heard +more and more frequently. "Lund, he's got more'n he can spend in a +lifetime!"</p> + +<p>Rainey could not trace these mutterings to Deming's instigation, but he +suspected the hunter. There was no poker; all hands were too tired for +play.</p> + +<p>The ice in which the schooner was packed began to show signs of +disintegration. The surface rotted by day and froze again by night and +this destroyed its compactness. If the sun's arc above the horizon had +been longer, its rays more vertical, the ice must infallibly have melted +and freed the <i>Karluk</i>, for it was salt-water ice, and there were times +when the thermometer stayed above its freezing point for two or three +hours around noon.</p> + +<p>Lund gave the holding floe scant attention. So long as the present +weather kept up he declared that he could dynamite his way out inside of +four hours.</p> + +<p>The effect of all this on Rainey was a bit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">{301}</a></span> bewildering. He was judging +life by new standards far apart from his own modes and, though he, too, +worked with a will, and rejoiced in the freer effort of his muscles, the +result comparing favorably with the best of the others—save Lund—he +could not assimilate the general conditions.</p> + +<p>They were too purely physical, he told himself; he missed his old +habits, the reading and discussion of books, new and old, the good +restaurants of San Francisco, and the chat he had been used to hold over +their tables, companionable, witty, the exchange and stimulation of +ideas.</p> + +<p>He missed the theaters, the concerts, the passing show of well-dressed +women, a hodge-podge of flesh-pots and mental uplift. He got to dreaming +of these things nights.</p> + +<p>Daytimes, he saw plainly that, in this environment at least, Lund was +big, and the rest of them comparatively small. He believed that Lund +could actually form a little kingdom of his own, as he had suggested, +and make a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">{302}</a></span> success of it. But it would not be a kingdom that fostered +the arts. It would cultivate the sciences, or at least encourage them +and adopt results as applied to land development, and, if necessary, the +defense of the kingdom.</p> + +<p>Lund would be a figure in war and peace, peace of the practical sort, +the kind of peace that went with plenty. He was no dreamer, but a +utilitarian. Perhaps, after all, the world most needed such men just +now.</p> + +<p>As for Peggy Simms, she did not lose the polish of her culture, she was +always feminine, even dainty at times, despite her work, that could not +help but be coarse to a certain extent. She was full of vigor, she +showed unexpected strength, she was a source of encouragement to the men +as she waited on them. And also a source of undisguised admiration, all +of which she shed as a duck sheds water. She was filled with abounding +health, she moved with a free grace that held the eye and lingered in +the mind. She was eminently a woman, and she also was big.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">{303}</a></span></p> + +<p>Rainey gained an increasing respect in her prowess, and a swift +conversion to the equality of the sexes. There were times when he +doubted his own equality. Had she met him on his own ground, in his own +realm of what he considered vaguely as culture, he would have known a +mastery that he now lacked. As it was, she averaged higher, and she had +an attraction of sex that was compelling.</p> + +<p>Here was a girl who would demand certain standards in the man with whom +she would mate, not merely accompany through life. There were times when +Rainey felt irresistibly the charm of her as a woman, longed for her in +the powerful sex reactions that inevitably follow hard labor. There were +times when he felt that she did not consider that he measured up to her +gages, and he would strive to change the atmosphere, to dominate the +situation in which Lund was the greater figure of the two men.</p> + +<p>The rivalry that Lund had suggested between them as regards the girl, +Rainey felt almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">{304}</a></span> thrust upon him. There were moods which Peggy Simms +turned to him for sharing, but there was scant time in the waking hours +for love-making, or even its consideration.</p> + +<p>Lund was centered on one achievement, the gold harvest. He ordered the +girl with the rest; there were even times when he reprimanded her, while +Rainey burned with the resentment she apparently did not share.</p> + +<p>A little before dawn on the eighteenth day of the work upon the beach, +Lund was out upon the floe examining the condition of the ice. He had +declared that two days more of hard endeavor would complete their +labors. What dirt remained at the end of that time they would transship. +Rainey had joined the girl and Tamada at the cook fires.</p> + +<p>The sky was bright with the aurora borealis that would pale before the +sun. The men were not yet out of their bunks. They were bone and muscle +tired, and Rainey doubted whether Lund, gaunt and lean himself, could +get two days of top work out of them. Near the fires<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">{305}</a></span> for the cooking, +the melting of water and the forge, that were kept glowing all night, +the tools were stacked, to help preserve their temper.</p> + +<p>The aurora quivered in varying incandescence as Rainey watched Lund +prodding at the floe ice with a steel bar. The girl was busy with the +coffee, and Tamada was compounding two pots of stew and bubbling peas +pudding for the breakfast, food for heat and muscle making.</p> + +<p>Sandy appeared on deck and came swiftly over the side of the vessel and +up the worn trail to the fires. He showed excitement, Rainey fancied, +sure of it as the lad got within speaking distance.</p> + +<p>"Where is Mr. Lund?" he panted.</p> + +<p>Rainey pointed to Lund, now examining a crack that had opened up in the +floe, a possible line of exit for the <i>Karluk</i>, later on. The men were +beginning to show on the schooner. They, too, he noted somewhat idly, +acted differently this morning. Usually they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">{306}</a></span> sluggish until they +had eaten, sleepy and indifferent until the coffee stimulated them, and +Lund took up this stimulus and fanned it to a flame of work. This +morning they walked differently, abnormally active.</p> + +<p>"They're drunk, an' they're goin' on strike," said Sandy. "You know the +big demijohn in the lazaretto?"</p> + +<p>Rainey nodded. It was a two-handled affair holding five gallons, a +reserve supply of strong rum from which Lund dispensed the grog +allowances and stimulations for extra work toward the end of the shift, +the night-caps and occasional rewards.</p> + +<p>"They've swiped it," he said. "Put an empty one from the hold in its +place. We got plenty without usin' that one for a while, an' I only +happened to notice it this morning by chance. They've bin drinkin' all +night, I reckon. They're ugly, Mr. Rainey. It's the crew this time. They +got the booze. The hunters are sober. Deming ain't in on this. They did +it on their own. I don't know how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">{307}</a></span> they got it. I didn't get it for 'em, +sir. They must have worked plumb through the hold an' got to it that +way."</p> + +<p>"All right, Sandy. Thanks. Mr. Lund can handle them, I guess. He's +coming now."</p> + +<p>The men had got to the ice, hidden from Lund, who was walking to the +<i>Karluk</i> on the opposite side of the vessel. The seamen were +gesticulating freely; the sound of their voices came up to him where he +stood, tinged with a new freedom of speech, rough, confident, menacing. +As they climbed the trail their legs betrayed them and confirmed the +boy's story. Behind them came the four hunters, with Hansen, walking +apart, watching the sailors with a certain gravity that communicated +itself despite the distance.</p> + +<p>Lund showed at the far rail of the schooner with his bar. He glanced +toward the men going to work, went below, and came up with a sweater. He +had left the bar behind him in the cabin, where it was used for a stove +poker.</p> + +<p>The men filed by Rainey, their faces flushed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">{308}</a></span> and their eyes unusually +bright. They seemed to share a prime joke that wanted to bubble up and +over, yet held a restraint upon themselves that was eased by digs in one +another's ribs, in laughs when one stumbled or hiccoughed.</p> + +<p>But Hansen was stolid as ever, and the hunters had evidently not shared +the stolen liquor. Only Deming's eyes roved over the group of men as +they gathered round for their cups and pannikins of food. He seemed to +be calculating what advantage he could gain out of this unexpected +happening.</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms, under cover of pouring the coffee, sweetened heavily with +condensed milk, found time to speak to Rainey.</p> + +<p>"They're all drunk," she said.</p> + +<p>"Not all of them. Here comes Lund. He'll handle it."</p> + +<p>Lund seemed still pondering the problem of the floe. At first he did not +notice the condition of the sailors. Then he apparently ignored it. But, +after they had eaten, he talked to all the men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">{309}</a></span></p> + +<p>"Two more days of it, lads, and we're through. The beach is nigh +cleared. We can git out of the floe to blue water easy enough, an' we'll +git a good start on the patrol-ship. We'll go back with full pockets an' +heavy ones. The shares'll be half as large again as we've figgered. I +wouldn't wonder if they averaged sixteen or seventeen thousand dollars +apiece."</p> + +<p>Rainey had picked out a black-bearded Finn as the leader of the sailors +in their debauch. The liquor seemed to have unchained in him a spirit of +revolt that bordered on insolence. He stood with his bowed legs apart, +mittened hands on hips, staring at Lund with a covert grin.</p> + +<p>Next to Lund he was the biggest man aboard. With the rum giving an +unusual coordination to his usually sluggish nervous system, he promised +to be a source of trouble.</p> + +<p>Rainey was surprised to see him shrug his shoulders and lead the way to +the beach. Perhaps breakfast had sobered them, though the fumes of +liquor still clung cloudily on the air.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">{310}</a></span></p> + +<p>Lund went down, with Rainey beside him, reporting Sandy.</p> + +<p>"I'll work it out of 'em," said Lund. "That booze'll be an expensive +luxury to 'em, paid for in hard labor."</p> + +<p>They found the men ranged up in three groups. Deming and Beale, against +custom, had gone down to the beach. They were supposed to help clean the +food utensils, and aid Tamada after a meal, besides replenishing the +fires.</p> + +<p>They stood a little away from the hunters and Hansen and the sailors. +The Finn, talking to his comrades in a low growl, was with a separate +group.</p> + +<p>There was an air of defiance manifest, a feeling of suspense in the tiny +valley, backed by the frowning cone, ribbed by the two icy promontories. +Lund surveyed them sharply.</p> + +<p>"What in hell's the matter with you?" he barked. "Hansen, send up a man +for the drills an' shovels. Yore work's laid out; hop to it!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">{311}</a></span></p> + +<p>"We ain't goin' to work no more," said the Finn aggressively. "Not fo' +no sich wage like you give."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you ain't, ain't you?" mocked Lund. He was standing with Rainey in +the middle of the space they had cleared of gravel, the seamen lower +down the beach, nearer the sea, their ranks compacted. "Why, you +booze-bitten, lousy hunky, what in hell do you want? You never saw +twenty dollars in a lump you c'u'd call yore own for more'n ten minnits. +You boardin'-house loafer an' the rest of you scum o' the seven seas, +git yore shovels an' git to diggin', or I'll put you ashore in San +Francisco flat broke, an' glad to leave the ship, at that. <i>Jump!</i>"</p> + +<p>The Finn snarled, and the rest stood firm. Not one of them knew the real +value of their promised share. Money represented only counters exchanged +for lodging, food and drink enough to make them sodden before they had +spent even their usual wages. Then they would wake to find the rest +gone, and throw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">{312}</a></span> themselves upon the selfish bounty of a boarding-house +keeper.</p> + +<p>But they had seen the gold, they had handled it, and they were inflamed +by a sense of what it ought to do for them. Perhaps half of them could +not add a simple sum, could not grasp figures beyond a thousand, at +most. And the sight of so much gold had made it, in a manner, cheap. It +was there, a heap of it, and they wanted more of that shining heap than +had been promised them.</p> + +<p>"You talk big," said the Finn. "Look my hands." He showed palms +calloused, split, swollen lumps of chilblained flesh worn down and +stiffened. "I bin seaman, not goddam navvy."</p> + +<p>Lund turned to the hunters.</p> + +<p>"You in on this?" he asked. Deming and Beale moved off. Two of the +others joined them. "Neutral?" sneered Lund. "I'll remember that." +Hansen and the two remaining came over beside Lund and Rainey.</p> + +<p>"Five of us," said Lund. "Five men against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">{313}</a></span> twelve fo'c'sle rats. I'll +give you two minnits to start work."</p> + +<p>"You talk big with yore gun in pocket," said the Finn. "Me good man as +you enny day."</p> + +<p>Lund's face turned dark with a burst of rage that exploded in voice and +action.</p> + +<p>"You think I need my gun, do ye, you pack of rats? Then try it on +without it."</p> + +<p>His hand slid to his holster inside his heavy coat. His arm swung, there +was a streak of gleaming metal in the lifting sun-rays, flying over the +heads of the seamen. It plunked in the free water beyond the ice.</p> + +<p>"Come on," roared Lund, "or I'll rush you to the first bath you've had +in five years." The Finn lowered his head, and charged; the rest +followed their leader. The hot food had steadied their motive control to +a certain extent, they were firmer on their feet, less vague of eye, but +the crude alcohol still fumed in their brains. Without it they would +never have answered the Finn's call to rebellion.</p> + +<p>He had promised, and their drunken minds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">{314}</a></span> believed, that refusing in a +mass to work would automatically halt things until they got their +"rights." They had not expected an open fight. The spur of alcohol had +thrust them over the edge, given them a swifter flow of their +impoverished blood, a temporary confidence in their own prowess, a mock +valor that answered Lund's contemptuous challenge.</p> + +<p>Lund, thought Rainey, had done a foolhardy thing in tossing away his +gun. It was magnificent, but it was not war. Pure bravado! But he had +scant time for thinking. Lund tossed him a scrap of advice. "Keep +movin'! Don't let 'em crowd you!" Then the fight was joined.</p> + +<p>The girl leaned out from the promontory to watch the tourney. Tamada, +impassive as ever, tended his fires. Sandy crept down to the beach, +drawn despite his will, and shuffled in and out, irresolute, too weak to +attempt to mix in, but excited, eager to help. Deming, Beale, and the +two neutral hunters, stood to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">{315}</a></span> one side, waiting, perhaps, to see which +way the fight went, reserves for the apparent victor.</p> + +<p>The Finn, best and biggest of the sailors, rushed for Lund, his little +eyes red with rage, crazy with the desire to make good his boast that he +was as good as Lund. In his barbaric way he was somewhat of a dancer, +and his legs were as lissome as his arms. He leaped, striking with fists +and feet.</p> + +<p>Lund met him with a fierce upper-cut, short-traveled, sent from the hip. +His enormous hand, bunched to a knuckly lump of stone, knocked the Finn +over, lifting him, before he fell with his nose driven in, its bone +shattered, his lips broken like overripe fruit, and his discolored teeth +knocked out.</p> + +<p>He landed on his back, rolling over and over, to lie still, half +stunned, while two more sprang for Lund.</p> + +<p>Lund roared with surprise and pain as one caught his red beard and swung +to it, smiting and kicking. He wrapped his left arm about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">{316}</a></span> the man, +crushing him close up to him, and, as the other came, diving low, +butting at his solar plexus, the giant gripped him by the collar, using +his own impetus, and brought the two skulls together with a thud that +left them stunned.</p> + +<p>The two dropped from Lund's relaxed arms like sacks, and he stepped over +them, alert, poised on the balls of his feet, letting out a shout of +triumph, while he looked about him for his next adversary.</p> + +<p>The bedrock on which they fought was slippery where ice had formed in +the crevices. Two seamen tackled Hansen. He stopped the curses of one +with a straight punch to his mouth, but the man clung to his arm, +bearing it down. Hansen swung at the other, and the blow went over the +shoulder as he dodged, but Hansen got him in chancery, and the three, +staggering, swearing, sliding, went down at last together, with Hansen +underneath, twisting one's neck to shut off his wind while he warded off +the wild blows of the second.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">{317}</a></span> With a wild heave he got on all-fours, +and then Lund, roaring like a bull as he came, tore off a seaman and +flung him headlong.</p> + +<p>"Pound him, Hansen!" he shouted, his eyes hard with purpose, shining +like ice that reflects the sun, his nostrils wide, glorying in the +fight.</p> + +<p>The Finn had got himself together a bit, wiping the gouts of blood from +his face and spitting out the snags of his broken teeth. He drew a knife +from inside his shirt, a long, curving blade, and sidled, like a crab, +toward Lund, murder in his piggy, bloodshot eyes, waiting for a chance +to slip in and stab Lund in the back, calling to a comrade to help him.</p> + +<p>"Come on," he called, "Olsen, wit' yore knife. Gut the swine!"</p> + +<p>Another blade flashed out, and the pair advanced, crouching, knees and +bodies bent. Lund backed warily toward the opposite cliff, looking for a +loose rock fragment. He had forbidden knives to the sailors since the +mutiny, and had forced a delivery, but these two had been hidden. A +knife to the Finn was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">{318}</a></span> a natural accessory. Only his drunken frenzy had +made him try to beat Lund at his own game.</p> + +<p>One of the two hunters, lamed with a kick on the knee, howling with the +pain, clinched savagely and bore the seaman down, battering his head +against a knob of rock. The other friendly hunter had bashed and +buffeted his opponent to submission. But Rainey was in hard case.</p> + +<p>A seaman, half Mexican, flew at him like a wildcat. Rainey struck out, +and his fists hit at the top of the breed's head without stopping him. +Then he clinched.</p> + +<p>The Mexican was slippery as an eel. He got his arms free, his hands shot +up, and his thumbs sought the inner corners of Rainey's eyes. The +sudden, burning anguish was maddening and he drove his clasped fists +upward, wedging away the drilling fingers.</p> + +<p>Two hands clawed at his shoulders from behind. Some one sprang fairly on +his back. A knee thrust against his spine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">{319}</a></span></p> + +<p>The agony left him helpless, the vertebræ seemed about to crack. +Strength and will were shut off, and the world went black. And then one +of the hunters catapulted into the struggle, and the four of them went +down in a maddened frenzy of blows and stifled shouts.</p> + +<p>The sailors fought like beasts, striving for blows barred by all codes +of decency and fair play, intent to maim. Lund had got his shoulders +against the rocks and stood with open hands, watching the two with their +knives, who crept in, foot by foot, to make a finish.</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms, a strand of her pale yellow hair whipped loose, flung it +out of her eyes as she stood on the edge of the cliff, her lips apart, +her breasts rising stormily, watching; her features changing with the +tide of battle as it surged beneath her, punctuated with muffled shouts +and wind-clipped oaths. She saw Lund at bay, and snatched out her +pistol. But the distance was too great. She dared not trust her aim.</p> + +<p>Sandy, dancing in and out, willing but helpless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">{320}</a></span> bound by fear and lack +of muscle, saw Deming, followed by Beale, stealing up the trail, +unnoticed by the girl, who leaned far forward, watching the fight, her +eyes on Lund and the two creeping closer with their knives, cautious but +determined. Tamada stood farther back and could not see them.</p> + +<p>The lad's wits, sharpened by his forecastle experience, surmised what +Deming and Beale were after as they gained the promontory flat and ran +toward the fires.</p> + +<p>"Hey!" he shrilled. "Look out; they're after the tools!"</p> + +<p>Deming's hand was stretched toward a shovel, its worn steel scoop sharp +as a chisel. Beale was a few feet behind him. They were going to toss +the shovels and drills down to the seamen.</p> + +<p>Tamada turned. His face did not change, but his eyes gleamed as he +thrust a dipper in the steaming remnants of the pea-soup and flung the +thick blistering mass fair in Deming's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">{321}</a></span> face. At the same moment the +girl's pistol cracked with a stab of red flame. Beale dropped, shot in +the neck, close to the collarbone, twisting like a scotched snake, +rolling down the trail to the beach again.</p> + +<p>Deming, howling like a scorched devil, clawed with one hand at the +sticky mass that masked him as he ran blind, wild with pain. He tripped, +clutched, and lost his hold, slid on a plane of icy lava, smooth as +glass, struck a buttress that sent him off at a tangent down the face of +the cliff, bounding from impact with an outthrust elbow of the rock, +whirling into space, into the icy turmoil of the waves, flooding into +the inlet.</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms fled down the trail with a steel drill in either hand, +straight across the beach toward Lund. The Finn turned on her with a +snarl and a side-swipe of his knife, but she leaped aside, dodged the +other slow-foot, and thrust a drill at Lund, who grasped it with a cry +of exultation, swinging it over his head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">{322}</a></span> as if it had been a bamboo. +Hansen had shaken off his men, and came leaping in for the second drill.</p> + +<p>The knife fell tinkling on the frozen rock as Lund smashed the wrist of +the Finn. The girl's gun made the second would-be stabber throw up his +hands while Hansen snatched his weapon, flung it over the farther cliff, +and knocked the seaman to the ground before he joined Lund, charging the +rest, who fled before the sight of them and the threat of the bars of +steel.</p> + +<p>Lund laughed loud, and stopped striking, using the drill as a goad, +driving them into a huddled horde, like leaderless sheep, knee-deep, +thigh-deep, into the water, where they stopped and begged for mercy +while Hansen turned to put a finish to the separate struggles.</p> + +<p>It ended as swiftly as it had begun. One hunter could barely stand for +his kicked knee, Rainey's back was strained and stiffening, Lund had +lost a handful of his beard, and Hansen's cheek was laid open.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">{323}</a></span></p> + +<p>On the other side the casualties were more severe. Deming was drowned, +his body flung up by the tide, rolling in the swash. Beale was coughing +blood, though not dangerously wounded. The Finn was crying over his +broken wrist, all the fight out of him. Ribs were sore where not +splintered from the drills, and the two bumped by Lund sat up with +sorely aching heads. The courage inspired by the liquor was all gone; +oozed, beaten out of them. They were cowed, demoralized, whipped.</p> + +<p>Lund took swift inventory, lining them up as they came timorously out of +the water or straggled against the cliff at his order. Tamada had come +down from the fires. Peggy had told of his share, and Sandy's timely +shout. Lund nodded at him in a friendly manner.</p> + +<p>"You're a white man, Tamada," he said. "You, too, Sandy. I'll not forget +it. Rainey, round up these derelicts an' help Tamada fix 'em up. I'll +settle with 'em later. Hansen, put the rest of 'em to work, an' keep 'em +to it!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">{324}</a></span> Do you hear? They got to do the work of the whole bunch."</p> + +<p>They went willingly enough, limping, nursing their bruises, while +Hansen, his stolidity momentarily vanished in the rush of the fight and +not yet regained, exhibited an unusual vocabulary as he bossed them. +Lund turned to the two hunters, who had stood apart.</p> + +<p>"Wal, you yellow-bellied neutrals," he said, his voice cold and his eyes +hard. "Thought I might lose, and hoped so, didn't you? Pick up that +skunk Beale an' tote him aboard. Then come back an' go to work. You'll +git yore shares, but you'll not git what's comin' to those who stood by. +Now git out of my sight. You can bury That when you come back." He +nodded at the sodden corpse of Deming, flung up on the grit. "You can +take yore pay as grave-diggers out of what you owe him at poker. He +ain't goin' to collect this trip."</p> + +<p>Rainey, lame and sore, helped Tamada patch up the wounded, turning the +hunters' quarters into a sick bay, using the table for operation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">{325}</a></span> Beale +was the worst off, but Tamada pronounced him not vitally damaged. After +he had finished with them he insisted upon Rainey's lying, face down, on +the table, stripped to the waist, while he rubbed him with oil and then +kneaded him. Once he gave a sudden, twisting wrench, and Rainey saw a +blur of stars as something snapped into place with a click.</p> + +<p>"I think you soon all right, now," said Tamada.</p> + +<p>"You and Miss Simms turned the tide," said Rainey. "If they'd got those +tools first they'd have finished us in short order."</p> + +<p>"Fools!" said Tamada. "Suppose they kill Lund, how they get away? No one +to navigate. Presently the gunboat would find them. I think Mr. Lund +will maybe trust me now," he said quietly.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lund think in the back of his head I arrange for that gunboat to +come. He can not understand how they know the schooner at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">{326}</a></span> island. He +think to come jus' this time too much curious, I think."</p> + +<p>"It was a bit of a coincidence."</p> + +<p>Tamada shrugged his shoulders slightly.</p> + +<p>"I think Japanese government know all that goes on in North Polar +region," he said. "There is wireless station on Wrangell Island. We pass +by that pretty close."</p> + +<p>Rainey chewed that information as he put on his clothes, wondering if +they had seen the last of the gunboat. They would have to pass south +through Bering Strait. It would be easy to overhaul them, halt them, +search the schooner, confiscate the gold. They were not out of trouble +yet.</p> + +<p>When he went into the cabin to replace his torn coat—he had hardly a +button intact above the waist, from jacket to undershirt—he found the +girl there with Lund. Apparently, they had just come in. Peggy Simms, +with face aglow with the excitement that had not subsided, was +proffering Lund her pistol.</p> + +<p>"Keep it," he said. "You may need it. I've got mine."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">{327}</a></span></p> + +<p>"But you threw it into the water. I saw you."</p> + +<p>"No," He laughed. "That wasn't my gun. They thought it was. I wanted +to bring the thing to grips. But I wasn't fool enough to chuck away my +gun. That was a wrench I was usin' this mornin' to fix the cabin +stove—looks jest like an ottermatic. I stuck it in my inside pocket. I +was ha'f a mind to shoot when they showed their knives, but I didn't +want to use my gun on that mess of hash."</p> + +<p>He stood tall and broad above her, looking down at the face that was +raised to his. Rainey, unnoticed as yet, saw her eyes bright with +admiration.</p> + +<p>"You are a wonderful fighter," she said softly.</p> + +<p>"Wonderful? What about you? A man's woman! You saved the day. Comin' to +me with them drills. An' we licked 'em. We. God!"</p> + +<p>He swept her up into his arms, lifting her in his big hands, making no +more of her than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">{328}</a></span> if she had been a feather pillow, up till her face was +on a level with his, pressing her close, while in swift, indignant rage +she fought back at him, striking futilely while he held her, kissed her, +and set her down as Rainey sprang forward.</p> + +<p>Lund seemed utterly unconscious of the girl's revulsion.</p> + +<p>"Comin' to me with the drills!" he said. "We licked 'em. You an' me +together. My woman!"</p> + +<p>Peggy Simms had leaped back, her eyes blazing. Lund came for her, his +face lit with the desire of her, arms outspread, hands open. Before +Rainey could fling himself between them, the girl had snatched the +little pistol that Lund had set on the table and fired point-blank. She +seemed to have missed, though Lund halted, his mouth agape, astounded.</p> + +<p>"You big bully!" said Rainey. Now that the time had come he found that +he was not afraid of Lund, of his gun, of his strength. "Play fair, do +you? Then show it! You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">{329}</a></span> asked me once why I didn't make love to her. I +told you. But you, you foul-minded bully! All you think of is your big +body, to take what it wants.</p> + +<p>"Peggy. Will you marry me? I can protect you from this hulking brute. If +it's to be a show-down between you and me," he flared at Lund, still +gazing as if stupefied, "let it come now. Peggy?"</p> + +<p>The girl, tears on her cheeks that were born from the sobs of anger that +had shaken her, swung on him.</p> + +<p>"You?" she said, and Rainey wilted under the scorn in her voice. "Marry +you?" She began to laugh hysterically, trying to check herself.</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean you enny harm," said Lund slowly, addressing Peggy. "Why, +I wouldn't harm you, gal. You're my woman. You come to me. I was +jest—jest sorter swept off my bearin's. Why," he turned to Rainey, his +voice down-pitching to a growl of angry contempt, "you pen-shovin' +whippersnapper, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">{330}</a></span> c'ud break you in ha'f with one hand. You ain't her +breed. But"—his voice changed again—"if it's a show-down, all right.</p> + +<p>"If I was to fight you, over her, I'd kill you. D'ye think I don't +respect a good gal? D'ye think I don't know how to love a gal right? +She's <i>my</i> mate. Not yours. But it's up to you, Peggy Simms. I didn't +mean to insult you. An' if you want him—why, it's up to you to choose +between the two of us."</p> + +<p>She went by Rainey as if he had not existed, straight into Lund's arms, +her face radiant, upturned.</p> + +<p>"It's you I love, Jim Lund," she said. "A man. <i>My</i> man."</p> + +<p>As her arms went round his neck she gave a little cry.</p> + +<p>"I wounded you," she said, and the tender concern of her struck Rainey +to the quick. "Quick, let me see."</p> + +<p>"Wounded, hell!" laughed Lund. "D'ye think that popgun of yores c'ud +stop me? The pellet's somewheres in my shoulder. Let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">{331}</a></span> it bide. By God, +yo're my woman, after all. Lund's Luck!"</p> + +<p>Rainey went up on deck with that ringing in his ears. His humiliation +wore off swiftly as he crossed back toward the beach. By the time he +crossed the promontory he even felt relieved at the outcome. He was not +in love with her. He had known that when he intervened. He had not even +told her so. His chivalry had spoken—not his heart. And his thoughts +strayed back to California. The other girl, Diana though she was, would +never, in almost one breath, have shot and kissed the man she loved. A +lingering vision of Peggy Simms' beauty as she had gone to Lund remained +and faded.</p> + +<p>"Lund's right," he told himself. "She's not of my breed."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="noind"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">{332}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>LUND'S LUCK</h3> + + +<p>Lund glanced at the geyser of spray where the shell from the pursuing +gunboat had fallen short, and then at the bank of mist ahead. They were +in the narrows of Bering Strait, between the Cape of Charles and Prince +Edward's Point, the gold aboard, a full wind in their sails, making +eleven knots to the gunboat's fifteen.</p> + +<p>It was mid-afternoon, three hours since they had seen smoke to the north +and astern of them. Either the patrol had found them gone from the +island, freed by blasting from the floe, and followed on the trail full +speed, or the wireless from some Japanese station on the Tchukchis coast +had told of their homing flight.</p> + +<p>The great curtain of fog was a mile ahead. The last shell had fallen two +hundred yards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">{333}</a></span> short. Five minutes more would settle it. Hansen had the +wheel. Lund stood by the taffrail, his arm about Peggy Simms. He shook a +fist at the gunboat, vomiting black smoke from her funnel, foam about +her bows.</p> + +<p>"We'll beat 'em yet," he cried.</p> + +<p>The next shell, with more elevation, whined parallel with them, sped +ahead, and smashed into the waves.</p> + +<p>"Hold yore course, Hansen! No time to zigzag. Got to chance it. Damn it, +they know how to shoot!"</p> + +<p>A missile had gone plump through main and foresails, leaving round holes +to mark the score. Another fairly struck the main topmast, and some +splinters came rattling down, while the remnants of the top-sail flapped +amid writhing ends of halyard and sheet.</p> + +<p>They entered the beginning of the fog, curling wisps of it reached out, +twining over the bowsprint and headsails, enveloping the foremast, +swallowing the schooner as a hurtling shell crashed into the stern. The +next instant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">{334}</a></span> the mist had sheltered them. Lund released the girl and +jumped to the wheel.</p> + +<p>"Now then," he shouted, "we'll fool 'em!" He gripped the spokes, and the +men ran to the sheets at command while the <i>Karluk</i> shot off at right +angles to her previous course, skirting the fog that blanketed the wind +but yet allowed sufficient breeze to filter through to give them +headway, gliding like a ghost on the new tack to the east.</p> + +<p>Rainey, tense from the explosion of the shell, jumped below at last and +came back exultant.</p> + +<p>"It was a dud, Lund!" he shouted. "Or else they didn't want to blow us +up on account of the gold. But they've wrecked the cabin. The fog's +coming in through the hole they made. Tamada's galley's gone. It's raked +the schooner!"</p> + +<p>"So long's it's above the water line, to hell with it! We'll make out. +Listen to the fools. They've gone in after us, straight on."</p> + +<p>The booming of the gunboat's forward battery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">{335}</a></span> sounded aft of them, +dulled by the fog—growing fainter.</p> + +<p>"Lund's luck! We've dodged 'em!"</p> + +<p>"They'll be waiting for us at the passes," said Rainey. "They've got the +speed on us."</p> + +<p>"Let 'em wait. To blazes with the Aleutians! Ready again there for a +tack! Sou'-east now. We'll work through this till we git to the wind +ag'in. It's all blue water to the Seward Peninsula. We're bound for +Nome."</p> + +<p>"For Nome?" asked Peggy Simms.</p> + +<p>"Nome, Peggy! An American port. The nearest harbor. An' the nearest +preacher!"</p> + + +<h3 class="gap">THE END</h3> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man to His Mate, by J. Allan Dunn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN TO HIS MATE *** + +***** This file should be named 28597-h.htm or 28597-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/9/28597/ + +Produced by Brian Janes, Suzanne Lybarger, Pilar Somoza +Fernández and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/28597-h/images/f000.jpg b/28597-h/images/f000.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd7e1fe --- /dev/null +++ b/28597-h/images/f000.jpg diff --git a/28597-h/images/f010.jpg b/28597-h/images/f010.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a83c302 --- /dev/null +++ b/28597-h/images/f010.jpg diff --git a/28597-h/images/f104.jpg b/28597-h/images/f104.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7d85b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/28597-h/images/f104.jpg diff --git a/28597-h/images/f222.jpg b/28597-h/images/f222.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..914bad9 --- /dev/null +++ b/28597-h/images/f222.jpg diff --git a/28597.txt b/28597.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7a8586 --- /dev/null +++ b/28597.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6962 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man to His Mate, by J. Allan Dunn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Man to His Mate + +Author: J. Allan Dunn + +Illustrator: Stockton Mulford + +Release Date: April 24, 2009 [EBook #28597] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN TO HIS MATE *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Janes, Suzanne Lybarger, Pilar Somoza +FernAindez and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +A MAN TO HIS MATE + + +[Illustration: The sea struck the opposite rail with a roar] + + + + +A Man to His Mate + +_by_ + +J. ALLAN DUNN + + +AUTHOR OF +Jim Morse--Adventurer, Turquoise Canyon, +Dead Man's Gold, etc. + + +_Illustrated by_ +STOCKTON MULFORD + + +INDIANAPOLIS +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1920 +THE FRANK A. MUNSEY COMPANY + +COPYRIGHT 1920 +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + +_Printed in the United States of America_ + + +PRESS OF +BRAUNWORTH & CO. +BOOK MANUFACTURERS +BROOKLYN. N. Y. + + + + +_To_ +J. E. DE RUYTER, ESQUIRE +this yarn is affectionately and +appreciatively dedicated + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I BLIND SAMSON 1 + +II A DIVIDED COMPANY 25 + +III TARGET PRACTISE 47 + +IV THE BOWHEAD 73 + +V RAINEY SCORES 82 + +VI SANDY SPEAKS 96 + +VII RAINEY MAKES DECISION 117 + +VIII TAMADA TALKS 132 + +IX THE POT SIMMERS 151 + +X THE SHOW-DOWN 163 + +XI HONEST SIMMS 186 + +XII DEMING BREAKS AN ARM 210 + +XIII THE RIFLE CARTRIDGES 230 + +XIV PEGGY SIMMS 241 + +XV SMOKE 266 + +XVI THE MIGHT OF NIPPON 277 + +XVII MY MATE 293 + +XVIII LUND'S LUCK 332 + + + + +A Man to His Mate + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BLIND SAMSON + + +It was perfect weather along the San Francisco water-front, and Rainey +reacted to the brisk touch of the trade-wind upon his cheek, the breeze +tempering the sun, bringing with it a tang of the open sea and a hint of +Oriental spices from the wharves. He whistled as he went, watching a +lumber coaster outward bound. The dull thump of a heavy cane upon the +timbered walk and the shuffle of uncertain feet warned him from +blundering into a man tapping his way along the Embarcadero, a giant who +halted abruptly and faced him, leaning on the heavy stick. + +"Matey," asked the giant, "could you put a blind man in the way of +finding the sealin' schooner _Karluk_?" + +The voice fitted its owner, Rainey thought--a basso voice tempered to +the occasion, a deep-sea voice that could bellow above the roar of a +gale if needed. For all his shoregoing clothes and shuffle, the man was +certainly a sailor, or had been. All the skin uncovered by cloth or hair +was weathered to leather, the great hands curled in as if they clutched +an invisible rope. He wore dark glasses with side lenses, over which +heavy brows projected in shaggy wisps of red hair. + +Blind as the man proclaimed himself with voice and action, Rainey sensed +something back of those colored glasses that seemed to be appraising +him, almost as if the will of the man was peering, or listening, focused +through those listless sockets. A kind of magnetism, not at all +attractive, Rainey decided, even as he offered help and information. + +"You're not fifty yards from the _Karluk_," Rainey replied. "But you're +bound in the wrong direction. Let me put you right. I'm going that way +myself." + +"That's kind of ye, matey," said the other. "But I picked ye for that +sort, hearin' you whistlin' as you came swingin' along. Light-hearted, I +thinks, an' young, most likely; he'll help a stranded man. Give me the +touch of yore arm, matey, an' I'll stow this spar of mine." + +He swung about, slinging the curving handle of the stick over his right +elbow as the fingers of his left hand placed themselves on Rainey's +proffered arm. Strong fingers, almost vibrant with a force manifest +through serge and linen. Fingers that could grip like steel upon +occasion. + +Rainey wonderingly sized up his consort. The stranger's bulk was +enormous. Rainey was well over the average himself, but he was only a +stripling beside this hulk, this stranded hulk, of manhood. And, for all +the spectacled eyes and shuffling feet, there was a stamp of coordinated +strength about the giant that bespoke the blind Samson. Given eyes, +Rainey could imagine him agile as a panther, strong as a bear. + +His weight was made up of thews and sinews, spare and solid flesh +without an ounce of waste, upon a mighty skeleton. His face was +heavy-bearded in hair of flaming, curling red, from high cheek-bones +down out of sight below the soft loose collar of his shirt. The bridge +of his glasses rested on the outcurve of a nose like the beak of an +osprey, the ends of the wires looped about ears that lay close to the +head, hairy about the inner-curves, lobeless, the tips suggesting the +ear-tips of a satyr. + +Mouth and jaw were hidden, but the beard could not deny the bold +projection of the latter. About thirty, Rainey judged him. Buffeted by +time and weather, but in the prime of his strength. + +"Snow-blinded, matey," said the man. "North o' Point Barrow, a year an' +more ago. Brought me up all standin'. What are you? Steamer man? Purser, +maybe?" + +"Newspaperman," answered Rainey. "Water-front detail. For the _Times_." + +"You don't say so, matey? A writer, eh?" + +Again Rainey felt the tug of that something back of the dark lenses, +some speculation going on in the man's mind concerning him. And he felt +the firm fingers contract ever so slightly, sinking into the muscles of +his forearm for a second with a hint of how they could bruise and +paralyze at will. Once more a faint sense of revulsion fought with his +natural inclination to aid the handicapped mariner, and he shook it off. + +"The _Karluk_ sails to-morrow," he said. + +"Aye, so--so they told me, matey. You've bin aboard?" + +"I had a short talk with Captain Simms when she docked. Not much of a +yarn. She didn't have a good trip, you know." + +"Why, I didn't know. But--hold hard a minnit, will ye? You see, Simms is +an old shipmate of mine. He don't dream I'm within a hundred miles o' +here. Aye, or a thousand." He gave a deep-chested chuckle. "Now, then, +matey, look here." + +Rainey was anchored by the compelling grip. They stood next to the slip +in which the sealer lay. The _Karluk's_ decks were deserted, though +there was smoke coming from the galley stovepipe. + +"Simms is likely to be aboard," went on the other. "Ye see, I know his +ways. An' I've come a long trip to see him. Nigh missed him. Only got in +from Seattle this mornin'. He ain't expectin' me, an' it's in my mind to +surprise him. By way of a joke. I don't want to be announced, ye see. +Just drop in on him. How's the deck? Clear?" + +"No one in sight," said Rainey. + +"Fine! Mates an' crew down the Barb'ry Coast, I reckon. Sealers have +liberties last shore-day. Like whalers. I've buried a few irons myself, +matey, but I'll never sight the vapor of a right whale ag'in. Stranded, +I am. So you'll do me a favor, matey, an' pilot me down into the cabin, +if so be the skipper's there. If he ain't, I'll wait for him. I've got +the right an' run o' the _Karluk's_ cabin. I know ev'ry inch of her. +You'll see when we go aboard. Let's go." + +Rainey led him down the gangway to the deck of the sealer, still +cluttered a bit with unstowed gear. Once on board, the blind man seemed +to walk with assurance, guiding himself with touches here and there that +showed his familiarity with the vessel's rig. And he no longer shuffled, +but walked lightly, grinning at Rainey through his beard, with one blunt +forefinger set to his mouth as he approached the cabin skylight, lifted +on the port side. Through it came the murmur of voices. The blind man +nodded in satisfaction and widened his grin with a warning "hush-h" to +his guide. + +"We'll fool 'em proper," he lipped rather than uttered. + +The companion doors were closed, but they opened noiselessly. The stairs +were carpeted with corrugated rubber that muffled all sound. Two men sat +at the cabin table, leaning forward, hands and forearms outstretched, +fingering something. One Rainey recognized as the captain, Simms--a +heavy, square-built man, gray-haired, clean-shaven, his flesh tanned, +yet somehow unhealthy, as if the bronze was close to tarnishing. There +were deep puffs under the gray tired eyes. + +The other was younger, tall, nervously active, with dark eyes and a dark +mustache and beard, the latter trimmed to a Vandyke. Between them was a +long slim sack of leather, a miner's poke. It was half full of something +that stuffed its lower extremity solid, without doubt the same substance +that glistened in the mouth of the sack and the palms of the two +men--gold--coarse dust of gold! + +Rainey felt himself thrust to one side as the blind man straddled across +the bottom of the companionway, towering in the cabin while he thrust +his stick with a thump on the floor and thundered, in a bellow that +seemed to fill the place and come tumbling back in deafening echo: + +"_Karluk_ ahoy!" + +The face of Captain Simms paled, the tan turned to a sickly gray, and +his jaw dropped. Rainey saw fear come into his eyes. His companion did +not stir a muscle except for the quick shift of his glance, but went on +sitting at the table, the gold in one palm, the fingers of his other +hand resting on the grains. + +"Jim Lund!" gasped the captain hoarsely. + +"That's me, you skulking sculpin? Thought I was bear meat by this, +didn't you, blast yore rotten soul to hell! But I'm back, Bill Simms. +Back, an' this time you don't slip me!" + +Jim Lund's face was purple-red with rage, great veins standing out upon +it so swollen that it seemed they must surely burst and discharge their +congested contents. Out of the purpling flesh his scarlet hair curled in +diabolical effect. His teeth gleamed through his beard, strong, yellow, +far apart. He looked, Rainey thought, like a blind Berserker, restrained +only by his affliction. + +"You left me blind on the floe, Bill Simms!" he roared. "Blind, in a +drivin' blizzard with the ice breakin' up! If I didn't have use for +yore carcass I'd twist yore head from yore scaly body like I'd pull up a +carrot." + +Lund's fingers opened and closed convulsively. Before Rainey the vision +of the threatened crime rose clear. + +"I looked for you, Jim," pleaded the captain, and to Rainey his words +lacked conviction. "I didn't know you were blind. I heard you shout just +before the blizzard broke loose." + +Lund answered with an inarticulate roar. + +"And there's others present, Jim. I can explain it to you when we're by +ourselves. When you're a mite calmer, Jim." + +Lund banged his stick down on the table with a smashing blow that made +the man with the Vandyke beard, still silent, keenly observant, draw +back his arm with a catlike swiftness that only just evaded the stroke. +The heavy wood landed fairly on the filled half of the poke and caused +some of the gold to leap out of the mouth. + + +[Illustration: "What's that I hit?" asked Lund] + + +"What's that I hit?" asked Lund. "Soft, like a rat." He lunged forward, +felt for the poke, and found it, lifted it, hefted it, his forehead +puckered with deep seams, discovered the open end, poured out some of +the colors on one palm, and used that for a mortar, grinding at the +grains with his finger for a pestle, still weighing the stuff with a +slight up-and-down movement of his hand. + +He nodded as he slipped the poke into a side pocket, and the cabin grew +very silent. Lund's face was grimly terrible. Rainey could have gone +when the blind man reached for the gold and left the ladder clear. He +had meant to go at the first opportunity, but now he was held fascinated +by what was about to happen, and Lund stepped back across the +companionway. + +"So," said Lund, his deep voice muffled by some swift restraint. "You +found it. And yo're going back after more?" His forehead was still +creased with puzzlement. "Wal, I'm going with ye, eyes or no eyes, an' +I'll keep tabs on ye, Bill Simms, by day and night. You can lay to that, +you slimy-hearted swab!" + +His voice had risen again. Rainey saw the sweat standing out on the +captain's forehead as he answered: + +"Of course you'll come, Jim. No need for you to talk this way." + +"No need to talk! By the eternal, what I've got to say's bin steamin' in +me for fourteen months o' blackness, an' it's comin' out, now it's +started! Who's this man, who was talkin' with ye when I come aboard?" + +He wheeled directly toward the man with the Vandyke, who still sat +motionless, apparently calm, looking on as if at a play that might turn +out to be either comedy or tragedy. + +"That's Doctor Carlsen. He's to be surgeon this trip, Jim," said Simms +deprecatingly, though he darted a look at Rainey half suspicious, half +resentful. + +Rainey, on the hint, turned toward the ladder quietly enough, but Lund +had nipped him by the biceps before Rainey had taken a step. + +"You'll stay right here," said Lund, "while I tell you an' this Doc +Carlsen what kind of a man Simms is, with his poke full of gold and me +with the price of my last meal spent two hours ago. I won't spin out the +yarn. + +"I rescued an Aleut off a bit of a berg one time. There warn't much of +him left to rescue. Hands an' feet an' nose was frozen so he lost 'em, +but the pore devil was grateful, an' he told me something. Told about an +island north of Bering Strait, west of Kotzebue Sound, where there was +gold on the beach richer and thicker than it ever lay at Nome. I makes +for it, gits close enough for my Aleut to recognize it--it ain't an easy +place to forget for one who has eyes--an' then we're blown south, an' we +git into ice an' trouble. The Aleut dies, an' I lose my ship. But I was +close enough to get the reckonin' of that island. + +"Finally I land at Seattle, broke. I meet up with the man they call +Hardluck Simms. Also they called him Honest Simms those days. Some said +his honesty accounted for his hard luck. I like him, an' I finally tell +him about my island. I put up the reckonin', an' he supplies the +_Karluk_, grub, an' crew. + +"Simms' luck is still ag'in' him. The _Karluk_ gits into ice, gits +nipped an' carried north, 'way north, with wind an' current, frozen +tight in a floe. It looks like we've got to winter there. Mind ye, I've +given Honest Simms the reckonin' of the island. We go out on the ice +after bear, though the weather's threatenin', for we're short of meat. +An' we kill a Kadiak bear. Me--I'll never stand for the shootin' of +another bear if I can stop it. + +"I've bin havin' trouble with my eyes. Right along. I'm on the floe not +eighty yards from Simms. No, not sixty! It was me killed the bear, an' +we're goin' back to the schooner for a sled. I stayed behind to bleed +the brute. All of a sudden, like it always hits you, snow-blindness gits +me, an' I shouts to Honest Simms. I'm blind, with my eyeballs on fire, +an' the fire burnin' back inter my brain. + +"Along comes a Point Arrow blister. That's a gale that breeds an' bursts +of a second out of nowhere. It gathers up all the loose snow an' ice +crystals an' drives 'em in a whirlwind. Presently the wind starts the +ice to buckin' an' tremblin' like a jelly under you, splitting inter +lanes. You lose yore direction even when you got eyes. I'm left in it by +that bilge-blooded skunk, blind on the rockin', breakin' floe, while he +scuds back to the schooner with his men. That's Honest Simms! Jim Lund's +left behind but Honest Simms has the position of the island." + +"I didn't hear you call out you were blind, Lund. The wind blew your +words away. I didn't know but what you were as right as the rest of us. +The gale shut us all out from each other. We found the schooner by sheer +luck before we perished. We looked for you--but the floe was broken up. +We looked--" + +"Shut up!" bellowed Lund. "You sailed inside of twenty-four hours, +Honest Simms. The natives told me so later, when I could understand talk +ag'in. D'ye know what saved me? The bear! I stumbled over the carcass +when I was nigh spent. I ripped it up and clawed some of the warm guts, +an' climbed inside the bloody body an' stayed there till it got cold an' +clamped down over me. Waitin' for you to come an' git me, Honest Simms! + +"That bear was bed and board to me until the natives found it, an' me in +it, more dead than alive. Never mind the rest. I get here the day before +you start back for more gold. + +"An' I'm goin' with you. But first I'm goin' to have a full an' fair +accountin' o' what you got already. I've got this young chap with me, +an' he'll give me a hand to'ard a square deal." + +Lund propelled Rainey forward a few steps and then loosened his grip. +The captain of the _Karluk_ appealed to him directly. + +"You're with the _Times_," he said. All through the talk Rainey was +conscious of the gaze of Doctor Carlsen, whose dark eyes appeared to be +mocking the whole proceedings, looking on with the air of a man watching +card-play with a prevision of how the game will come out. + +"Mr. Lund is unstrung," said the captain. "He is under the delusion that +we deliberately deserted him and, later, found the gold he speaks of. +The first charge is nonsense. We did all that was possible in the +frightful weather. We barely saved the ship. + +"As for the gold, we touched on the island, and we did some prospecting, +a very little, before we were driven offshore. The dust in the poke is +all we secured. We are going back for more, quite naturally. I can prove +all this to you by the log. It is manifestly not doctored, for we +imagined Mr. Lund dead. If we had been able to work the beach +thoroughly, nothing would tempt me into going back again to add to even +a moderate fortune." + +Lund had been standing with his great head thrust forward as if +concentrating all his remaining senses in an attempt to judge the +captain's talk. The doctor sat with one leg crossed, smoking a +cigarette, his expression sardonic, sphinxlike. To Rainey, a little +bewildered at being dragged into the affair, and annoyed at it, Captain +Simms' words rang true enough. He did not know what to say, whether to +speak at all. Lund supplied the gap. + +"If that ain't the truth, you lie well, Simms," he said. "But I don't +trust ye. You lie when you say you didn't hear me call out I was blind. +Sixty yards away, I was, an' the wind hadn't started. I was afraid--yes, +afraid--an' I yelled at the top of my lungs. An' you sailed off inside +of twenty-four hours." + +"Driven off." + +"I don't believe ye. You deserted me--left me blind, tucked in the +bloody, freezin' carcass of a bear. Left me like the cur you are. Why, +you--" + +The rising frenzy of Lund's voice was suddenly broken by the clear note +of a girl's voice. One of two doors in the after-end of the main cabin +had opened, and she stood in the gap, slim, yellow-haired, with gray +eyes that blazed as they looked on the little tableau. + +"Who says my father is a cur?" she demanded. "You?" And she faced Lund +with such intrepid challenge in her voice, such stinging contempt, that +the giant was silenced. + +"I was dressing," she said, "or I would have come out before. If you say +my father deserted you, you lie!" + +Captain Simms turned to her. Doctor Carlsen had risen and moved toward +her. Rainey wished he was on the dock. Here was a story breaking that +was a _saga_ of the North. He did not want to use it, somehow. The +girl's entrance, her vivid, sudden personality forbade that. He felt an +intruder as her eyes regarded him, standing by Lund's side in apparent +sympathy with him, arrayed against her father. And yet he was not +certain that Lund had not been betrayed. The remembrance of the first +look in the captain's face when he had glanced up from handling the gold +and seen Lund was too keen. + +"Go into your cabin, Peggy," said the captain. "This is no place for +you. I can handle the matter. Lund has cause for excitement; but I can +satisfy him." + +Lund stood frozen, like a pointer on scent, all his faculties united in +attention toward the girl. To Rainey he seemed attempting to visualize +her by sheer sense of hearing, by perceptions quickened in the blind. +The doctor crossed to the girl and spoke to her in a low voice. + +Lund spoke, and his voice was suddenly mild. + +"I didn't know there was a lady present, miss," he said. "Yore father's +right. You let us settle this. We'll come to an agreement." + +But, for all his swift change to placability, there was a sinister +undertone to his voice that the girl seemed to recognize. She hesitated +until her father led her back into the cabin. + +"You two'll sit down?" said the doctor, speaking aloud for the first +time, his voice amiable, carefully neutral. "And we'll have a drop of +something. Mr. Lund, I can understand your attitude. You've suffered a +great deal. But you have misunderstood Captain Simms. I have heard about +this from him, before. He has no desire to cheat you. He is rejoiced to +see you alive, though afflicted. He is still Honest Simms, Mr. Lund. + +"I haven't your name, sir," he went on pleasantly, to Rainey. "The +captain said you were a newspaperman?" + +"John Rainey, of the _Times_. I knew nothing of this before I came +aboard." + +"And you will understand, of course, what Mr. Lund overlooked in his +natural agitation, that this is not a story for your paper. We should +have a fleet trailing us. We must ask your confidence, Mr. Rainey." + +There was a strong personality in the doctor, Rainey realized. Not the +blustering, driving force of Lund, but a will that was persistent, +powerful. He did not like the man from first appearances. He was too +aloof, too sardonic in his attitudes. But his manner was friendly +enough, his voice compelling in its suggestion that Rainey was a man to +be trusted. Captain Simms came back into the cabin, closing the door of +his daughter's room. + +"We are going to have a little drink together," said the doctor. "I +have some Scotch in my cabin. If you'll excuse me for a moment? Captain, +will you get some glasses, and a chair for Mr. Lund?" + +The captain looked at Rainey a little uncertainly, and then at Lund, +whose aggressiveness seemed to have entirely departed. It was Rainey who +got the chair for the latter and seated himself. He would join in a +friendly drink and then be well shut of the matter, he told himself. + +And he would promise not to print the story, or talk of it. That was +rotten newspaper craft, he supposed, but he was not a first-class man, +in that sense. He let his own ethics interfere sometimes with his pen +and what the paper would deem its best interests. And this was a whale +of a yarn. + +But it was true that its printing would mean interference with the +_Karluk's_ expedition. And there was the girl. Rainey was not going to +forget the girl. If the _Karluk_ ever came back? But then she would be +an heiress. + +Rainey pulled himself up for a fool at the way his thoughts were racing +as the doctor came back with a bottle of Scotch whisky and a siphon. The +captain had set out glasses and a pitcher of plain water from a rack. + +"I imagine you'll be the only one who'll take seltzer, Mr. Rainey," said +the doctor pleasantly, passing the bottle. "Captain Simms, I know, uses +plain water. Siphons are scarce at sea. I suppose Mr. Lund does the +same. And I prefer a still drink." + +"Plain water for mine," said Lund. + +"We're all charged," said the doctor. "Here's to a better +understanding!" + +"Glad to see you aboard, Mr. Rainey," said the captain. + +Lund merely grunted. + +Rainey took a long pull at his glass. The cabin was hot, and he was +thirsty. The seltzer tasted a little flat--or the whisky was of an +unusual brand, he fancied. And then inertia suddenly seized him. He lost +the use of his limbs, of his tongue, when he tried to call out. He saw +the doctor's sardonic eyes watching him as he strove to shake off a +lethargy that swiftly merged into dizziness. + +Dimly he heard the scrape of the captain's chair being pushed back. From +far off he heard Lund's big voice booming, "Here, what's this?" and the +doctor's cutting in, low and eager; then he collapsed, his head falling +forward on his outstretched arms. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A DIVIDED COMPANY + + +It was not the first time that Rainey had been on a ship, a sailing +ship, and at sea. Whenever possible his play-hours had been spent on a +little knockabout sloop that he owned jointly with another man, both of +them members of the Corinthian Club. While the _Curlew_ had made no +blue-water voyages, they had sailed her more than once up and down the +California coast on offshore regattas and pleasure-trips, and, lacking +experience in actual navigation, Rainey was a pretty handy sailorman for +an amateur. + +So, as he came out of the grip of the drug that had been given him, +slowly, with a brain-pan that seemed overstuffed with cotton and which +throbbed with a dull persistent ache--with a throat that seemed to be +coated with ashes, strangely contracted--a nauseated stomach--eyes that +saw things through a haze--limbs that ached as if bruised--the sounds +that beat their way through his sluggish consciousness were familiar +enough to place him almost instantly and aid his memory's flickering +film to reel off what had happened. + +As he lay there in a narrow bunk, watching the play of light that came +through a porthole beyond his line of vision, noting in this erratic +shuttling of reflected sunlight the roll and pitch of cabin walls, +listening to the low boom of waves followed by the swash alongside that +told him the _Karluk_ was bucking heavy seas, a slow rage mastered him, +centered against the doctor with the sardonic smile and Captain Simms, +who Rainey felt sure had tacitly approved of the doctor's actions. + +He remembered Lund's exclamation of, "Here, what's this?"--the question +of a blind man who could not grasp what was happening--and acquitted +him. + +They had deliberately kidnapped him, shanghaied him, because they did +not choose to trust him, because they thought he might print the story +of the island treasure beach in his paper, or babble of it and start a +rush to the new strike of which he had seen proof in the gold dust +streaming from the poke. + +He had been willing to suppress the yarn, Rainey reflected bitterly, his +intentions had been fair and square in this situation forced upon him, +and they had not trusted him. They were taking no chances, he thought, +and suddenly wondered what position the girl would take in the matter. +He could not think of her approving it. Yet she would naturally side +with her father, as she had done against Lund's accusations. And Rainey +suspected that there was something back of Lund's charge of desertion. +The girl's face, her graceful figure, the tones of her voice, clung in +his still palsied recollection a long time before he could dismiss it +and get round to the main factor of his imprisonment--_what were they +going to do with him?_ + +There was a fortune in sight. For gold, men forget the obligations of +life and law in civilization; they revert to savage type, and their +minds and actions are swayed by the primitive urge of lust. Treachery, +selfishness, cruelty, crime breed from the shining particles even before +they are in actual sight and touch. + +Rainey knew that. He had read many true yarns that had come down from +the frozen North, in from the deserts and the mountains, tales of the +mining records of the West. + +He mistrusted the doctor. The man had drugged him. He was a man whose +profession, where the mind was warped, belittled life. Captain Simms had +been charged with leaving a blind man on a broken floe. Lund was the +type whose passions left him ruthless. The crew--they would be bound by +shares in the enterprise, a rough lot, daring much and caring little for +anything beyond their own narrow horizons. The girl was the only +redeeming feature of the situation. + +Was it because of her--it might be because of her special +pleading--that they had not gone further? Or were they still fighting +through the heads, waiting until they got well out to sea before they +disposed of him, so there would be no chance of his telltale body +washing up along the coast for recognition and search for clues? He +wondered whether any one had seen him go aboard the _Karluk_ with +Lund--any one who would remember it and mention the circumstance when he +was found to be missing. + +That might take a day or two. At the office they would wonder why he +didn't show up to cover his detail, because he had been steady in his +work. But they would not suspect foul play at first. He had no immediate +family. His landlady lodged other newspapermen, and was used to their +vagaries. And all this time the _Karluk_ would be thrashing north, well +out to sea, unsighted, perhaps, for all her trip, along that coast of +fogs. + +Rainey had disappeared, dropped out of sight. He would be a front-page +wonder for a day, then drop to paragraphs for a day or so more, and +that would be the end of it. + +But they had made him comfortable. He was not in a smelly forecastle, +but in a bunk in a cabin that must open off the main room of the +schooner. Why had they treated him with such consideration? He dozed +off, for all his wretchedness, exhausted by his efforts to untangle the +snarl. When he awoke again his mouth was glued together with thirst. + +The schooner was still fighting the sea--the wind, too, Rainey +fancied--sailing close-hauled, going north against the trade. He fumbled +for his watch. It had run down. His head ached intolerably. Each hair +seemed set in a nerve center of pain. But he was better. + +Back of his thirst lay hunger now, and the apathy that had held him to +idle thinking had given way to an energy that urged him to action and +discovery. + +As he sat up in his bunk, fully clothed as he had come aboard, the door +of his cabin opened and the doctor appeared, nodded coolly as he saw +Rainey moving, disappeared for an instant, and brought in a draft of +some sort in a long glass. + +"Take this," said Carlsen. "Pull you together. Then we'll get some food +into you." + +The calm insolence of the doctor's manner, ignoring all that had +happened, seemed to send all the blood in Rainey's body fuming to his +brain. He took the glass and hurled its contents at Carlsen's face. The +doctor dodged, and the stuff splashed against the cabin wall, only a few +drops reaching Carlsen's coat, which he wiped off with his handkerchief, +unruffled. + +"Don't be a damned fool," he said to Rainey, his voice irritatingly +even. "Are you afraid it's drugged? I would not be so clumsy. I could +have given you a hypodermic while you slept, enough to keep you +unconscious for as many hours as I choose--or forever. + +"I'll mix you another dose--one more--take it or leave it. Take it, and +you'll soon feel yourself again after Tamada has fed you. Then we'll +thrash out the situation. Leave it, and I wash my hands of you. You can +go for'ard and bunk with the men and do the dirty work." + +He spoke with the calm assumption of one controlling the schooner, +Rainey noted, rather as skipper than surgeon. But Rainey felt that he +had made a fool of himself, and he took the second draft, which almost +instantly relieved him, cleansing his mouth and throat and, as his +headache died down, clearing his brain. + +"Why did you drug me?" he demanded. "Pretty high-handed. I can make you +pay for this." + +"Yes? How? When? We're well off Cape Mendocino, heading nor'west or +thereabouts. Nothing between us and Unalaska but fog and deep water. +Before we get back you'll see the payment in a different light. We're +not pirates. This was plain business. A million or more in sight. + +"Lund nearly spilled things as it was, raving the way he did. It's a +wonder some one didn't overhear him with sense enough to tumble. + +"We didn't take any chances. Rounded up the crew, and got out. The man +who's made a gold discovery thinks everybody else is watching him. It's +a genuine risk. If they followed us, they'd crowd us off the beach. I +don't suppose any one has followed us. If they have, we've lost them in +this fog. + +"But we didn't take any risks after Lund's blowing off. He might have +done it ashore before you brought him aboard. I don't think so. But he +might. And so might you, later." + +"I'd have given you my word." + +"And meant to keep it. But you'd have been an uncertain factor, a weak +link. You might have given it away in your sleep. You heard enough to +figure the general locality of the island when Lund blurted it out. You +knew too much. Suppose the _Karluk_ fought up to Kotzebue Bay and found +a dozen power-vessels hanging about, waiting for us to lead them to the +beach? And we'd have worried all the way up, with you loose. You're a +newspaperman. The suppression of this yarn would have obsessed you, lain +on your reportorial conscience. + +"I don't suppose your salary is much over thirty a week, is it? Now, +then, here you are in for a touch of real adventure, better than +gleaning dock gossip, to a red-blooded man. If we win--and you saw the +gold--_you_ win. We expect to give you a share. We haven't taken it up +yet, but it'll be enough. More than you'd earn in ten years, likely, +more than you'd be apt to save in a lifetime. We kidnapped you for your +own good. You're a prisoner _de luxe_, with the run of the ship." + +"I can work my passage," said Rainey. He could see the force of the +doctor's argument, though he didn't like the man. He didn't trust the +doctor, though he thought he'd play fair about the gold. But it was +funny, his assuming control. + +"Yachted a bit?" asked Carlsen. + +"Yes." + +"Can you navigate?" + +Rainey thought he caught a hint of emphasis to this question. + +"I can learn," he said. "Got a general idea of it." + +"Ah!" The doctor appeared to dismiss the subject with some relief. +"Well," he went on, "are you open to reason--and food? I'm sorry about +your friends and folks ashore, but you're not the first prodigal who has +come back with the fatted calf instead of hungry for it." + +"That part of it is all right," said Rainey. There was no help for the +situation, save to make the most of it and the best. "But I'd like to +ask you a question." + +"Go ahead. Have a cigarette?" + +Rainey would rather have taken it from any one else, but the whiff of +burning tobacco, as Carlsen lit up, gave him an irresistible craving for +a smoke. Besides, it wouldn't do for the doctor to know he mistrusted +him. If he was to be a part of the ship's life, there was small sense +in acting pettishly. He took the cigarette, accepted the light, and +inhaled gratefully. + +"What's the question?" asked Carlsen. + +"You weren't on the last trip. You weren't in on the original deal. But +I find you doing all the talking, making me offers. You drugged me on +your own impulse. Where's the skipper? How does he stand in this matter? +Why didn't he come to see me? What is your rating aboard?" + +"You're asking a good deal for an outsider, it seems to me, Rainey. I +came to you partly as your doctor. But I speak for the captain and the +crew. Don't worry about that." + +"And Lund?" Rainey could not resist the shot. He had gathered that the +doctor resented Lund. + +Carlsen's eyes narrowed. + +"Lund will be taken care of," he said, and, for the life of him, Rainey +could not judge the statement for threat or friendly promise. "As for my +status, I expect to be Captain Simms' son-in-law as soon as the trip is +over." + +"All right," said Rainey. Carlsen's announcement surprised him. Somehow +he could not place the girl as the doctor's fiancee. "I suppose the +captain may mention this matter," he queried, "to cement it?" + +"He may," replied Carlsen enigmatically. "Feel like getting up?" + +Rainey rose and bathed face and hands. Carlsen left the cabin. The main +room was empty when Rainey entered, but there was a place set at the +table. Through the skylight he noted, as he glanced at the telltale +compass in the ceiling, that the sun was low toward the west. + +The main cabin was well appointed in hardwood, with red cushions on the +transoms and a creeping plant or so hanging here and there. A canary +chirped up and broke into rolling song. It was all homy, innocuous. Yet +he had been drugged at the same table not so long before. And now he was +pledged a share of ungathered gold. It was a far cry back to his desk in +the _Times_ office. + +A Japanese entered, sturdy, of white-clad figure, deft, polite, +incurious. He had brought in some ham and eggs, strong coffee, sliced +canned peaches, bread and butter. He served as Rainey ate heartily, +feeling his old self coming back with the food, especially with the +coffee. + +"Thanks, Tamada," he said as he pushed aside his plate at last. + +"Everything arright, sir?" purred the Japanese. + +Rainey nodded. The "sir" was reassuring. He was accepted as a somebody +aboard the _Karluk_. Tamada cleared away swiftly, and Rainey felt for +his own cigarettes. He hesitated a little to smoke in the cabin, +thinking of the girl, wondering whether she was on deck, where he +intended to go. Some one was snoring in a stateroom off the cabin, and +he fancied by its volume it was Lund. + +It was a divided ship's company, after all. For he knew that Lund, +handicapped with his blindness, would live perpetually suspicious of +Simms. And the doctor was against Lund. Rainey's own position was a +paradox. + +He started for the companionway, and a slight sound made him turn, to +face the girl. She looked at him casually as Rainey, to his annoyance, +flushed. + +"Good afternoon," said Rainey. "Are you going on deck?" + +It was not a clever opening, but she seemed to rob him of wit, to an +extent. He had yet to know how she stood concerning his presence aboard. +Did she countenance the forcible kidnapping of him as a possible +tattler? Or--? + +"My father tells me you have decided to go with us," she said, +pleasantly enough, but none too cordially, Rainey thought. + +"Doctor Carlsen helped me to my decision." + +She did not seem to regard this as a thrust, but stood lightly swaying +to the pitch of the vessel, regarding him with grave eyes of appraisal. + +"You have not been well," she said. "I hope you are better. Have you +eaten?" + +Rainey began to think that she was ignorant of the facts. And he made up +his mind to ignore them. There was nothing to be gained by telling her +things against her father--much less against her fiancee, the doctor. + +"Thank you, I have," he said. "I was going to look up Mr. Lund." + +The sentence covered a sudden change of mind. He no longer wanted to go +on deck with the girl. They were not to be intimates. She was to marry +Carlsen. He was an outsider. Carlsen had told him that. So she seemed to +regard him, impersonally, without interest. It piqued him. + +"Mr. Lund is in the first mate's cabin," said the girl, indicating a +door. "Mr. Bergstrom, who was mate, died at sea last voyage. Doctor +Carlsen acts as navigator with my father, but he has another room." + +She passed him and went on deck. Carlsen was acting first mate as well +as surgeon. That meant he had seamanship. Also that they had taken in no +replacements, no other men to swell the little corporation of +fortune-hunters who knew the secret, or a part of it. It was unusual, +but Rainey shrugged his shoulders and rapped on the door of the cabin. + +It took loud knocking to waken Lund. At last he roared a "Come in." + +Rainey found him seated on the edge of his bunk, dressed in his +underclothes, his glasses in place. Rainey wondered whether he slept in +them. Lund's uncanny intuition seemed to read the thought. He tapped the +lenses. + +"Hate to take them off," he said. "Light hurts my eyes, though the optic +nerve is dead. Seems to strike through. How're ye makin' out?" + +Rainey gave Lund the full benefit of his blindness. The giant could not +have known what was in the doctor's mind, but he must have learned +something. Lund was not the type to be satisfied with half answers, and +undoubtedly felt that he held a proprietary interest in the _Karluk_ by +virtue of his being the original owner of the secret. Rainey wondered +if he had sensed the doctor's attitude in that direction, an attitude +expressed largely by the expression of Carlsen's face, always wearing +the faint shadow of a sneer. + +"You know they drugged me," Rainey ended his recital of the interview he +had had with the doctor. + +"Knockout drops? I guessed it. That doctor's slick. Well, you've not +much fault to find, have ye? Carlsen talked sense. Here you are on the +road to a fortune. I'll see yore share's a fair one. There's plenty. It +ain't a bad billet you've fallen into, my lad. But I'll look out for ye. +I'm sort of responsible for yore trip, ye see, matey. And I'll need ye." + +He lowered his voice mysteriously. + +"Yo're a writer, Mister Rainey. You've got brains. You can see which way +a thing's heading. You've heard enough. I'm blind. I've bin done dirt +once aboard the _Karluk_, and I don't aim to stand for it ag'in. And I +had my eyes, then. No use livin' in a rumpus. Got to keep watch. Got to +keep yore eyes open. + +"And I ain't got eyes. You have. Use 'em for both of us. I ain't asking +ye to take sides, exactly. But I've got cause for bein' suspicious. I +don't call the skipper _Honest_ Simms no more. And I ain't stuck on that +doctor. He's too bossy. He's got the skipper under his thumb. And +there's somethin' funny about the skipper. Notice ennything?" + +"Why, I don't know him," said Rainey. "He doesn't look extra well, what +I've seen of him. Only the once." + +"He's logey," said Lund confidentially. "He ain't the same man. Mebbe +it's his conscience. But that doctor's runnin' him." + +"He's going to marry the captain's daughter," said Rainey. + +"Simms' daughter? Carlsen goin' to marry her? Ump! That may account for +the milk in the cocoanut. She's a stranger to me. Lived ashore with her +uncle and aunt, they tell me. Carlsen was the family doctor. Now she's +off with her father." + +His face became crafty, and he reached out for Rainey's knee, found it +as readily as if he had sight, and tapped it for emphasis. + +"That makes all the more reason for us lookin' out for things, matey," +he went on, almost in a whisper. "If they've played me once they may do +it ag'in. And they've got the odds, settin' aside my eyes. But I can +turn a trick or two. You an' me come aboard together. You give me a +hand. Stick to me, an' I'll see you git yore whack. + +"I'll have yore bunk changed. You'll come in with me. An' we'll put one +an' one together. We'll be mates. Treat 'em fair if they treat us fair. +But don't forget they fixed yore grog. I had nothin' to do with that. I +may be stranded, but, if the tide rises--" + +He set the clutch of his powerful fingers deep into Rainey's leg above +the knee with a grip that left purple bruises there before the day was +over. + +"We two, matey," he said. "Now you an' me'll have a tot of stuff that +ain't doped." + +He moved about the little cabin with an astounding freedom and +sureness, chuckling as he handled bottle and glasses and measured out +the whisky and water. + +"W'en yo're blind," he said, ramming his pipe full of black tobacco, +"they's other things comes to ye. I know the run of this ship, +blindfold, you might say. I c'ud go aloft in a pinch, or steer her. More +grog?" + +But Rainey abstained after the first glass, though Lund went on lowering +the bottle without apparent effect. + +"So yo're a bit of a sailor?" the giant asked presently. "An' a scholar. +You can navigate, I make no doubt?" + +"I hope to get a chance to learn on the trip," answered Rainey. "I know +the general principles, but I've never tried to use a sextant. I'm going +to get the skipper to help me out. Or Carlsen." + +"Carlsen! What in hell does a doctor know about navigation?" demanded +Lund. + +Rainey told him what the girl had said, and the giant grunted. + +"I have my doubts whether they'll ever help ye," he said. "Wish I could. +But it 'ud be hard without my eyes. An' I've got no sextant an' no book +o' tables. It's too bad." + +His disappointment seemed keen, and Rainey could not fathom it. Why had +both Lund and Carlsen seemed to lay stress on this matter? Why was the +doctor relieved and Lund disappointed at his ignorance? + +As they came out of the stateroom together, later, Lund reeking of the +liquor he had absorbed, though remaining perfectly sober, his hand laid +on Rainey's shoulder, perhaps for guidance but with a show of +familiarity, Rainey saw the girl looking at him with a glance in which +contempt showed unveiled. It was plain that his intimacy with Lund was +not going to advance him in her favor. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TARGET PRACTISE + + +The _Karluk_ was an eighty-five-ton schooner, Gloster Fisherman type, +with a length of ninety and a beam of twenty-five feet. Her enormous +stretch of canvas, spread to the limit on all possible occasions by +Captain Simms, was offset by the pendulum of lead that made up her keel, +and she could slide through the seas at twelve knots on her best point +of sailing--reaching--the wind abaft her beam. + +After Rainey had demonstrated at the wheel that he had the mastery of +her and had shown that he possessed sea-legs, a fair amount of seacraft +and, what the sailors did not possess, initiative, Captain Simms +appointed him second mate. + +"We don't carry one as a rule," the skipper said. "But it'll give you a +rating and the right to eat in the cabin." He had not brought up the +subject of Rainey's kidnapping, and Rainey let it go. There was no use +arguing about the inevitable. The rating and the cabin fare seemed +offered as an apology, and he was willing to accept it. + +Carlsen acted as first mate, and Rainey had to acknowledge him +efficient. He fancied the man must have been a ship's surgeon, and so +picked up his seamanship. After a few days Carlsen, save for taking noon +observations with the skipper and working out the reckoning, left his +duties largely to Rainey, who was glad enough for the experience. A +sailor named Hansen was promoted to acting-quartermaster, and relieved +Rainey. Carlsen spent most of his time attendant on the girl or chatting +with the hunters, with whom he soon appeared on terms of intimacy. + +The hunters esteemed themselves above the sailors, as they were, in +intelligence and earning capacity. The forecastlemen acted, on occasion, +as boat-steerers and rowers for the hunters, each of whom had his own +boat from which to shoot the cruising seals. + +There were six hunters and twelve sailors, outside of a general +roustabout and butt named "Sandy," who cleaned up the forecastle and the +hunters' quarters, where they messed apart, and helped Tamada, the cook, +in the galley with his pots and dishes. But now there was no work in +prospect for the hunters, and they lounged on deck or in the 'midship +quarters, spinning yarns or playing poker. They were after gold this +trip, not seals. + +"'Cordin' to the agreement," Lund said to Rainey, "the gold's to be +split into a hundred shares. One for each sailorman, an' they chip in +for the boy. Two for the hunters, two for the cook, four for Bergstrom, +the first mate, who died at sea. Twenty for 'ship's share.' Fifty shares +to be split between Simms an' me." + +"What's the 'ship's share'?" asked Rainey. + +"Represents capital investment. Matter of fact, it belongs to the gal," +said Lund. "Simms gave her the _Karluk_. It's in her name with the +insurance." + +"Then he and his daughter get forty-five shares, and you only +twenty-five?" + +"You got it right," grinned Lund. "Simms is no philanthropist. It wa'n't +so easy for me to git enny one to go in with me, son. I ain't the first +man to come trailin' in with news of a strike. An' I had nothin' to show +for it. Not even a color of gold. Nothin' but the word of a dead Aleut, +my own jedgment, an' my own sight of an island I never landed on. Matter +of fact, Honest Simms was the only one who didn't laff at me outright. +It was on'y his bad luck made him try a chance at gold 'stead of keepin' +after pelts. + +"An' we had a hard an' tight agreement drawn up on paper, signed, +witnessed an' recorded. 'Course it holds him as well as it holds me, but +he gits the long end of _that_ stick. W'en I read, or got it read to me, +in the Seattle _News-Courier_, that the _Karluk_ was listed as 'Arrived' +in San Francisco, it was all I could do to git carfare an' grub money. +If I hadn't bin blind, an' some of 'em half-way human to'ards a man with +his lights out, I'd never have raised it. I'd have got here someways, +matey, if I'd had to walk, but I'd have got here a bit late. Then I'd +have had to wait till Simms got back ag'in--an' mebbe starved to death. + +"But I'm here an' I've got some say-so. One thing, you're goin' to git +Bergstrom's share. I don't give a damn where the doctor comes in. If he +marries the gal he'll git her twenty shares, ennyway. Though he ain't +married her yet. And I ain't through with Simms yet," he added, with an +emphasis that was a trifle grim, Rainey thought. + +"The crew, hunters an' sailors, don't seem over glad to see me back," +Lund went on. "Mebbe they figgered their shares 'ud be bigger. Mebbe the +doc's queered me. He's pussy-footin' about with 'em a good deal. But +I'll talk with you about that later. It's me an' you ag'in' the rest of +'em, seems to me, Rainey. The doc's aimin' to be the Big Boss aboard +this schooner. He's got the skipper buffaloed. But not me, not by a +jugful." + +He slammed his big fist against the side of the bunk so viciously that +it seemed to jar the cabin. The blow was typical of the man, Rainey +decided. He felt for Lund not exactly a liking, but an attraction, a +certain compelled admiration. The giant was elemental, with a driving +force inside him that was dynamic, magnetic. What a magnificent pirate +he would have made, thought Rainey, looking at his magnificent +proportions and considering the crude philosophies that cropped out in +his talk. + +"I'm in life for the loot of it, Rainey," Lund declared. "Food an' drink +to tickle my tongue an' fill my belly, the woman I happen to want, an' +bein' able to buy ennything I set my fancy on. The answer to that is +Gold. With it you can buy most enny thing. Not all wimmen, I'll grant +you that. Not the kind of woman I'd want for a steady mate. Thet's one +thing I've found out can't be bought, my son, the honor of a good +woman. An' thet's the sort of woman I'm lookin' for. + +"I reckon yo're raisin' yore eyebrows at that?" he challenged Rainey. +"But the other kind, that'll sell 'emselves, 'll sell you jest as +quick--an' quicker. I'd wade through hell-fire hip-deep to git the right +kind--an' to hold her. An' I'll buck all hell to git what's comin' to me +in the way of luck, or go down all standin' tryin'. This is my gold, an' +I'm goin' to handle it. If enny one tries to swizzle me out of it I'm +goin' to swizzle back, an' you can lay to that. Not forgettin' them that +stands by me." + +Between Lund and Simms there existed a sort of armed truce. No open +reference was made to the desertion of Lund on the floe. But Rainey knew +that it rankled in Lund's mind. The five, Peggy Simms, her father, +Carlsen, Lund and Rainey, ostensibly messed together, but Rainey's +duties generally kept him on deck until Carlsen had sufficiently +completed his own meal to relieve him. By that time the girl and the +captain had left the table. + +Lund invariably waited for Rainey. Tamada kept the food hot for them. +And served them, Lund making good play with spoon or fork and a piece of +bread, the Japanese cutting up his viands conveniently beforehand. + +To Rainey, Tamada seemed the hardest worked man aboard ship. He had +three messes to cook and he was busy from morning until night, +efficient, tireless and even-tempered. The crew, though they +acknowledged his skill, were Californians, either by birth or adoption, +and the racial prejudice against the Japanese was apparent. + +A week of good wind was followed by dirty weather. The _Karluk_ proved a +good fighter, though her headway was materially lessened by contrary +wind and sea, and the persistence and increasing opposition of the storm +seemed to have a corresponding effect upon Captain Simms. + +He grew daily more irritable and morose, even to his daughter. Only the +doctor appeared able to get along with him on easy terms, and Rainey +noticed that, to Carlsen, the skipper seemed conciliatory even to +deference. + +Peggy Simms watched her father with worried eyes. The curious, tarnished +look of his tanned skin grew until the flesh seemed continually dry and +of an earthy color; his lips peeled, and more than once he shook as if +with a chill. + +On the eleventh day out, Rainey went below in the middle of the +afternoon for his sea-boots. The gale had suddenly strengthened and, +under reefs, the _Karluk_ heeled far over until the hissing seas flooded +the scuppers and creamed even with the lee rail. In the main cabin he +found Simms seated in a chair with his daughter leaning over him, +speaking to her in a harsh, complaining voice. + +"No, you can't do a thing for me," he was saying. "It's this sciatica. +I've got to get Carlsen." + +As Rainey passed through to his own little stateroom neither of them +noticed him, but he saw that the captain was shivering, his hands +picking almost convulsively at the table-cloth. + +"Where's Carlsen, curse him!" Rainey heard through his cabin partition. +"Tell him I can't stand this any longer. He's got to help me. Got to. +_Got to._" + +As Rainey appeared, walking heavily in his boots, the girl looked up. +Her father was slumped in his chair, his face buried on his folded arms. +The girl glanced at him doubtfully, apparently uncertain whether to go +herself to find Carlsen or stay with her father. + +"Anything I can do, Miss Simms? Your father seems quite ill." + +The hesitation of the girl even to speak to him was very plain to +Rainey. Suddenly she threw up her chin. + +"Kindly find Doctor Carlsen," she ordered, rather than requested. "Ask +him to come as soon as he can. I--" She turned uncertainly to her +father. + +"Can I help you to get him into the cabin?" asked Rainey. + +She thanked him with lips, not eyes, and he assisted her to shift the +almost helpless man into his room and bunk. He was like a stuffed sack +between them, save that his body twitched. While Rainey took most of the +weight, he marveled at the strength of the slender girl and the way in +which she applied it. Simms seemed to have fainted, to be on the verge +of unconsciousness or even utter collapse. Rainey felt his wrist, and +the pulse was almost imperceptible. + +"I'll get the doctor immediately," he said. + +She nodded at him, chafing her father's hands, her own face pale, and a +look of anxious fear in her eyes. + +"Mighty funny sort of sciatica," Rainey told himself as he hurried +forward. He knew where Carlsen was, in the hunters' cozy quarters, +playing poker. From the chips in front of him he had been winning +heavily. + +"The skipper's ill," said Rainey. "No pulse. Almost unconscious." + +Carlsen raised his eyebrows. + +"Didn't know you were a physician," he said. "Just one of his spells. +I'll finish this hand. Too good to lay down. The skipper can wait for +once." + +The hunters grinned as Carlsen took his time to draw his cards, make his +bets and eventually win the pot on three queens. + +"I wonder what your real game is?" Rainey asked himself as he affected +to watch the play. According to his own announcement Carlsen was +deliberately neglecting the father of the girl he was to marry and at +the same time slighting the captain to his own men. Carlsen drew in his +chips and leisurely made a note of the amount. + +"Quite a while yet to settling-day," he said to the players. "Luck may +swing all round the compass before then, boys. All right, Rainey, you +needn't wait." + +Rainey ignored the omitted "Mister." He held the respect of the sailors, +since he had shown his ability, but he knew that the hunters regarded +him with an amused tolerance that lacked disrespect by a small margin. +To them he was only the amateur sailor. Rainey fancied that the doctor +had contributed to this attitude, and it did not lessen his score +against Carlsen. + +The captain did not make his appearance for that day, the next, or the +next. The men began to roll eyes at one another when they asked after +his health. Carlsen kept his own counsel, and Peggy Simms spent most of +her time in the main cabin with her eyes always roving to her father's +door. Rainey noticed that Tamada brought no food for the sick man. +Carlsen was the apparent controller of the schooner. Lund was quick to +sense this. + +"We got to block that Carlsen's game," he said to Rainey. "There's a +nigger in the woodpile somewhere an' you an' me got to uncover him, +matey, afore we reach Bering Strait, or you an' me'll finish this trip +squattin' on the rocks of one of the Four Mountain Islands makin' faces +at the gulls. + +"I wish you c'ud git under the skin of that Jap. No use tryin' to git in +with the crew or the hunters. They're ag'in' both of us--leastwise +the hunters are. The hands don't count. They're jest plain hash." + +Lund spoke with an absolute contempt of the sailors that was +characteristic of the man. + +"You think they'd put a blind man ashore that way?" asked Rainey. + +"Carlsen would. In a minnit. He'd argy that you c'ud look out for me, +seein' as we are chums. As for you, you've bin useful, but you can't +navigate, an' you've helped train Hansen to yore work. You were in the +way at the start, an' he'd jest as soon git rid of you that road as enny +other. He don't intend you to have Bergstrom's share, by a jugful." + +Lund grinned as he spoke, and Rainey felt a little chill raise +gooseflesh all over his body. It was not exactly fear, but-- + +"They don't look on us two as _mascots_," went on Lund. "But to git back +to that Jap. Forewarned is forearmed. He ain't over an' above liked, but +they've got used to him goin' back an' forth with their grub, an' they +sort of despise him for a yellow-skinned coolie. + +"Now Tamada ain't no coolie. I know Japs. He's a cut above his job. +Cooks well enough for a swell billet ashore if he wanted it. An' there +ain't much goin' on that Tamada ain't wise to. See if you can't get next +to him. Trubble is he's too damn' neutral. He knows he's safe, becoz +he's cook an' a damn' good one. But he's wise to what Carlsen's playin' +at. + +"Carlsen don't care for man, woman, God, or the devil. Neither do I," he +concluded. "An' I've got a card or two up my sleeve. But I'd sure like +to git a peep at what the doc's holdin'." + +The storm blew out, and there came a spell of pleasant weather, with the +_Karluk_ gliding along, logging a fair rate where a less well-designed +vessel would barely have found steerage way, riding on an almost even +keel. Simms was still confined to his cabin, though now his daughter +took him in an occasional tray. + +Except for observations and the details of navigation, Carlsen left the +schooner to Rainey. They were well off the coast, out of the fogs, +apparently alone upon the lonely ocean that ran sparkling to the far +horizon. It was warm, there was little to do, the sailors, as well as +the hunters, spent most of their time lounging on the deck. + +Save at meal-times, Carlsen, for one who had announced himself as an +accepted lover, neglected the girl, who had devoted herself to her +father. Yet she seldom went into her cabin, never remained there long, +and time must have hung heavily on her hands. A girl of her spirit must +have resented such treatment, Rainey imagined, but reminded himself it +was none of his business. + +Lund hung over the rail, smoking, or paced the deck, always close to +Rainey. The manner in which he went about the ship was almost uncanny. +Except that his arms were generally ahead of him when he moved, his +hands, with their woolly covering of red hair, lightly touching boom or +rope or rail, he showed no hesitation, made no mistakes. + +He no longer shuffled, as he had on shore, but moved with a pantherlike +dexterity, here and there at will. When the breeze was steady he would +even take the wheel and steer perfectly by the "feel of the wind" on his +cheek, the slap of it in the canvas, or the creak of the rigging to tell +him if he was holding to the course. And he took an almost childish +delight in proclaiming his prowess as helmsman. + +The booms were stayed out against swinging in flaws and the roll of the +sea, and Lund strode back and forth behind Rainey, who had the wheel. +The hunters were grouped about Carlsen, who, seated on the skylight, was +telling them something at which they guffawed at frequent intervals. + +"Spinnin' them some of his smutty yarns," growled Lund, halting in his +promenade. "Bad for discipline, an' bad for us. He's the sort of +fine-feathered bird that wouldn't give those chaps a first look ashore. +Gittin' in solid with 'em that way is a bad steer. You can't handle a +man you make a pal of, w'en he ain't yore rank." + +"Carlsen's slack, but he's a good sailorman," said Rainey casually. + +"Damn' sight better sailorman than he is doctor," retorted Lund. "Hear +him the other mornin' w'en I asked him if he c'ud give me somethin' to +help my eyes hurtin'? 'I'm no eye specialist,' sez he. 'Try some boracic +acid, my man.' I wouldn't put ennything in my eyes _he'd_ give me, you +can lay to that. He'd give me vitriol, if he thought I'd use it. I +wouldn't let him treat a sick cat o' mine. He's the kind o' doctor that +uses his title to give him privileges with the wimmin. I know his sort." + +Rainey wondered why Lund had asked Carlsen for a lotion if he did not +mean to use it, but he did not provoke further argument. Lund was going +on. + +"He don't do the skipper enny good, thet's certain." + +"Captain Simms seems to believe in him," answered Rainey. He wondered +how much of Carlsen's increasing dominance over the skipper Lund had +noticed. + +"Simms is Carlsen's dog!" exploded Lund. "The doc's got somethin' on +him, mark me. Carlsen's a bad egg an', w'en he hatches, you'll see a +buzzard. An' you wait till he's needed as a doctor on somethin' that +takes more'n a few kind words or a lick out a bottle." + +There was a stir among the hunters. Lund turned his spectacled eyes in +their direction. + +"What are they up to now?" he queried. "Goin' to play poker? Wish I had +my eyes. I'd show 'em how to read the pips." + +Hansen came aft, offering to take the wheel. + +"They bane goin' to shute at targets," he said. "Meester Carlsen he put +up prizes. For rifle an' shotgun. Thought you might like to watch it, +sir." + +Rainey gave over the spokes and went to the starboard rail with Lund, +watching the preparations between fore and main masts for the +competition, and telling Lund what was happening. Carlsen gave out some +shotgun cartridges from cardboard boxes, twelve to each of the six +hunters. + +"Hunters pay for their own shells," said Lund. "But they buy 'em from +the ship. Mate's perkisite. They usually have some shells on hand for +the rifles, but the paper cases o' the shotgun cartridges suck up the +damp an' they keep better in the magazine in the cabin. What they +shootin' at? Bottles?" + +Sandy, the roustabout, had been requisitioned to toss up empty bottles, +and those who failed cursed him for a poor thrower. A hunter named +Deming made no misses, and secured first prize of ten dollars in gold, +with a man named Beale scoring two behind him, and getting half that +amount from Carlsen. + +Then came the test with the rifles. The weapons were all of the same +caliber, well oiled, and in perfect condition. As Lund had said, each of +the hunters had a few shells in his possession, but they lacked the +total of six dozen by a considerable margin. + +Carlsen went below for the necessary ammunition while the target was +completed and set in place. A keg had been rigged with a weight +underslung to keep it upright, and a tin can, painted white, set on a +short spar in one end of the keg. A light line was attached to a bridle, +and the mark lowered over the stern, where it rode, bobbing in the tail +of the schooner's wake, thirty fathoms from the taffrail where the crowd +gathered. + +Carlsen, returning, ordered Hansen to steer fine. He gave each +competitor a limit of ten seconds for his aim, contributing an element +of chance that made the contest a sporting one. Without the counting, +each would have deliberately waited for the most favorable moment when +the schooner hung in the trough and the white can was backed by green +water. As it was, it made a far-from-easy mark, slithering, lurching, +dipping as the _Karluk_ slid down a wave or met a fresh one, the can +often blurred against the blobs of foam. + +More bullets hit the keg than the can, and Carlsen was often called upon +as umpire. But the tin gradually became ragged and blotched where the +steel-jacketed missiles tore through. Beale and Deming both had five +clean, undisputed hits, tying for first prize. Beale offered to shoot it +off with six more shells apiece, and Deming consented. + +"Can't be done," declared Carlsen. "Not right now, anyway. I gave out +the last shell there was in the magazine. If there are any more the +skipper's got them stowed away, and I can't disturb him." + +"Derned funny," said Deming, "a sealer shy on cartridges! Lucky we ain't +worryin' about thet sort of a cargo." + +"Probably plenty aboard somewhere," said Carlsen, "but I don't know +where they are. Sorry to break up the shooting. You boys have got me +beaten on rifles and shotguns," he went on, producing from his hip +pocket a flat, effective-looking automatic pistol of heavy caliber. "How +are you on small arms?" + +The hunters shook their heads dubiously. + +"Never use 'em," said Deming. "Never could do much with that kind, +ennyhow. Give me a revolver, an' I might make out to hit a whale, if he +was close enough, but not with one o' them." + +"Not much difference," said, Carlsen. "Any of you got revolvers?" + +No one spoke. It was against the unwritten laws of a vessel for pistols +to be owned forward of the main cabin. Beale finally answered for the +rest. + +"Nary a pistol, sir." + +"Then," said Carlsen, "I'll give you an exhibition myself. Any bottles +left? Beale, will you toss them for me?" + +There were eight shots in the automatic, and Carlsen smashed seven +bottles in mid-air. He missed the last, but retrieved himself by +breaking it as it dipped in the wake. The hunters shouted their +appreciation. + +"Break all of 'em?" Lund asked Rainey. "Enny bottles left at all?" + +He walked toward the taffrail, addressing Carlsen. + +"Kin you shoot by _sound_ as well as by sight, Doc?" he challenged. + +"I fancy not," said Carlsen. + +"If I had my eyes I'd snapshoot ye for a hundred bucks," said Lund. "As +it is, I might target one or two. Rainey, have some one run a line, +head-high, an' fix a bottle on it, will ye? I ain't got a gun o' my own, +Doc," he continued, "will you lend me yours?" Carlsen filled his clip +and Lund turned toward Rainey, who was rigging the target. + +"I'll want you to tap it with a stick," he said. "Signal-flag staff'll +do fine." + +Rainey got the slender bamboo and stood by. Lund felt for the cord, +passed his fingers over the suspended bottle and stepped off five paces, +hefting the automatic to judge its balance. + +"Ruther have my own gun," he muttered. "All right, tetch her up, +Rainey." + +Rainey tapped the bottle on the neck and it gave out a little tinkle, +lost immediately in the crash of splintering glass as the bottle, hit +fairly in the torn label, broke in half. + +"How much left?" asked Lund. "Half? Tetch it up." + +Again he fired and again the bullet found the mark, leaving only the +neck of the bottle still hanging. Lund grinned. + +"Thet's all," he said. "Jest wanted to show ye what a blind man can do, +if he's put to it." + +There was little applause. Carlsen took his gun in silence and moved +forward with the hunters and the onlookers, disappearing below. Rainey +took the wheel over from Hansen and ordered him forward again. + +"Given 'em something to talk about," chuckled Lund. "Carlsen wanted to +show off his fancy shootin'. Wal, I've shown 'em I ain't entirely +wrecked if I ain't carryin' lights. An' I slipped more'n one over on +Carlsen at that." + +Rainey did not catch his entire meaning and said nothing. + +"Did you get wise to the play about the shells?" asked Lund. "A smart +trick, though Deming almost tumbled. Carlsen got those dumb fools of +hunters to fire away every shell they happened to have for'ard. If the +magazine's empty, I'll bet Carlsen knows where they's plenty more +shells, if we ever needed 'em bad. But now those rifles an' shotguns +ain't no more use than so many clubs--_not to the hunters_. An' he's +found out they ain't got enny pistols. _He's_ got one, an' shows 'em how +straight he shoots, jest in case there should be enny trubble between +'em. Plays both ends to the middle, does Carlsen. Slick! But he ain't +won the pot. They's a joker in this game. Mebbe he holds it, mebbe not." + +He nodded mysteriously, well pleased with himself. + +"Don't suppose _you_ brought a gun along with ye?" he asked Rainey. +"Might come in handy." + +"I wasn't expecting to stay," Rainey replied dryly, "or I might have." + +Lund laughed heartily, slapping his leg. + +"That's a good un," he declared. "It would have bin a good idea, though. +It sure pays to go heeled when you travel with strangers." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BOWHEAD + + +Captain Simms appeared again in the cabin and on deck, but he was not +the same man. His illness seemed to have robbed him permanently of what +was left him of the spring of manhood. It was as if his juices had been +sucked from his veins and arteries and tissues, leaving him flabby, +irresolute, compared to his former self. Even as Lund shadowed Rainey, +so Simms shadowed Carlsen. + +The fine weather vanished, snuffed out in an hour and, day after day, +the _Karluk_ flung herself at mocking seas that pounded her bows with +blows that sounded like the noise of a giant's drum. The sun was never +seen. Through daylight hours the schooner wrestled with the elements in +a ghastly, purplish twilight, lifting under double reefs over great +waves that raised spuming crests to overwhelm her, and were ridden down, +hissing and roaring, burying one rail and covering the deck to the +hatches with yeasty turmoil. + +The _Karluk_ charged the stubborn fury of the gale, rolling from side to +side, lancing the seas, gaining a little headway, losing leeway, +fighting, fighting, while every foot of timber, every fathom of rope, +groaned and creaked perpetually, but endured. + +To Rainey, this persistent struggle--as he himself controlled the +schooner, legs far astride, his oilskins dripping, his feet awash to the +ankles, spume drenching and whipping him, the wind a lash--brought +exultation and a sense of mastery and confidence such as he had never +before held suggestion of. To guide the ship, constantly to baffle the +sea and wind, the turbulence, buffeting bows and run and counter, +smashing at the rudder, leaping always like a pack of yapping +hounds--this was a thing that left the days of his water-front detail +far behind. + +And then he had thought himself in the whirl of things! Even as Simms +seemed to be declining, so Rainey felt that he was coming into the +fulness of strength and health. + +Lund was ever with him. Sometimes the girl would come up on deck in her +own waterproofs and stand against the rail to watch the storm, silent as +far as the pair were concerned. And presently Carlsen would come from +below or forward and stand to talk with her until she was tired of the +deck. + +They did not seem much like lovers, Rainey fancied. They lacked the +little intimacies that he, though he made himself somewhat of an +automaton at the wheel, could not have failed to see. If the girl +slipped, Carlsen's hand would catch and steady her by the arm; never go +about her waist. And there was no especial look of welcome in her face +when the doctor came to her. + +Carlsen seldom took over the wheel. Rainey did more than his share from +sheer love of feeling the control. But one day, at a word from the +girl, Carlsen and she came up to Rainey as he handled the spokes. + +"I'll take the wheel a while, Rainey," said the doctor. + +Rainey gave it up and went amidships. Out of the tail of his eye he +could see that the girl was pleading to handle the ship, and that +Carlsen was going to let her do so. + +Rainey shrugged his shoulders. It was Carlsen's risk. It was no child's +play in that weather to steer properly. The _Karluk_, with her narrow +beam, was lithe and active as a great cat in those waves. It took not +only strength, but watchfulness and experience to hold the course in the +welter of cross-seas. + +Lund, whose recognition of voices was perfect, moved amidships as soon +as Carlsen and Peggy Simms came aft. There was no attempt at disguising +the fact that the schooner's afterward was a divided company and, save +for the fact of his blindness tempering the action, the manner of Lund's +showing them his back and deliberately walking off would have been a +deliberate insult. + +Not to the girl, Rainey thought. At first he had considered Lund's +character as comparatively simple--and brutal--but he had qualified +this, without seeming consciousness, and he felt that Lund would never +deliberately insult a woman--any sort of woman. He was beginning to feel +something more than an admiration for Lund's strength; a liking for the +man himself had, almost against his will, begun to assert itself. + +They stood together by the weather-rail. It was still Rainey's +deck-watch, and at any moment Carlsen might relinquish the wheel back to +him as soon as the girl got tired. Suddenly shouts sounded from forward, +a medley of them, indistinct against the quartering wind. Sandy, the +roustabout, came dashing aft along the sloping deck, catching clumsily +at rail and rope to steady himself, flushed with excitement, almost +hysterical with his news. + +"A bowhead, sir!" he cried when he saw Rainey. "And killers after him! +Blowin' dead ahead!" + +Beyond the bows Rainey could see nothing of the whale, that must have +sounded in fear of the killers, but he saw half a dozen scythe-like, +black fins cutting the water in streaks of foam, all abreast, their high +dorsals waving, wolves of the sea, hunting for the gray bowhead whale, +to force its mouth open and feast on the delicacy of its living tongue. +So Lund told him in swift sentences while they waited for the whale to +broach. + +"Ha'f the time the bowheads won't even try an' git away," said Lund. +"Lie atop, belly up, plain jellied with fear while the killers help +'emselves. Ha'f the bowheads you git have got chunks bitten out of their +tongues. If they're nigh shore when the killers show up the whales'll +slide way out over the rocks an' strand 'emselves." + +Rainey glanced aft. Sandy had carried his warning to Carlsen and the +girl, and now was craning over the lee rail, knee-deep in the wash, +trying to see something of the combat. Peggy Simms' lithe figure was +leaning to one side as she, too, gazed ahead, though she still paid +attention to her steering and held the schooner well up, her face bright +with excitement, wet with flying brine, wisps of yellow hair streaming +free in the wind from beneath the close grip of her woolen +tam-o'-shanter bonnet of scarlet. Carlsen was pointing out the racing +fins of the killers. + +"Bl-o-ows!" started the deep voice of a lookout, from where sailors and +hunters had grouped in the bows to witness this gladiatorial combat +between sea monsters, staged fittingly in a sea that was running wild. +Rainey strained his gaze to catch the steamy spiracle and the outthrust +of the great head. + +"_Bl-o-ows!_" The deep voice almost leaped an octave in a sudden shrill +of apprehension. Other voices mingled with his in a clamor of dismay. + +"Look out! Oh, look out! Dead ahead!" + +The enormous bulk of the whale had appeared, not to spout, but to lie +belly up, rocking on the surface with fins outspread, paralyzed with +terror, directly in the course of the _Karluk_, while toward it, intent +only on their blood lust, leaped the killers, thrusting at its head as +the schooner surged down. In that tremendous sea the impact would be +certain to mean the staving in of something forward, perhaps the +springing of a butt. + +"Hard a lee!" yelled Rainey. "Up with her! Up!" + +It was desire to vent his own feelings, rather than necessity for the +command, that made Rainey yell the order, for he could see the girl +striving with the spokes, Carlsen lending his strength to hers. The +sheets were well flattened, the wind almost abeam, and there was no need +to change the set of fore and main. + +Forward, the men jumped to handle the headsails. The _Karluk_ started to +spin about on its keel, instinct to the changing plane of the rudder. +But the waves were running tremendously high, and the wind blowing with +great force, the water rolling in great mountains of sickly greenish +gray, topped with foam that blew in a level scud. + +As the schooner hung in a deep trough, the wind struck at her, bows on. +With the gale suddenly spilled out of them, the topsails lashed and +shivered, and the fore broke loose with the sharp report of a gunshot +and disappeared aft in the smother. + +Rainey saw one huge billow rising, curving, high as the gaff of the +main, it seemed to him, as he grasped at the coil of the main halyards. +Down came the tons of water, booming on the deck that bent under the +blow, spilling in a great cataract that swashed across the deck. + +His feet were swept from under him, for a moment he seemed to swing +horizontal in the stream, clutching at the halyards. The sea struck the +opposite rail with a roar that threatened to tear it away, piling up and +then seething overboard. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RAINEY SCORES + + +With it went a figure. Rainey caught sight of a ghastly face, a mouth +that shouted vainly for help in the pandemonium, and was instantly +stoppered with strangling brine, pop-eyes appealing in awful fright as +Sandy was washed away in the cascade. The halyards were held on the pin +with a turn and twist that Rainey swiftly loosened, lifting the coil +free, making a fast loop, and thrusting head and arms through it as he +flung himself after the roustabout. + +Even as he dived he heard the bellow of Lund, knowing instinctively the +peril of the schooner by its actions, though ignorant of the accident. + +"Back that jib! Back it, blast yore eyes! Ba-ck--" + +Then Rainey was clubbing his way through the race of water to where he +glimpsed an upflung arm. Sandy was in oilskins and sea-boots, he had +hardly a chance to save himself, however expert. And it flashed over +Rainey's mind that, like many sailors, the lad had boasted that he could +not swim. His boots would pull him under as soon as the force of the +waves, that were tossing him from crest to crest, should be suspended. +Rainey himself was borne on their thrust, clogged by his own equipment, +linked to life only by the halyard coil. + +A great bulk wallowed just before him, the helpless body of the bowhead +whale, the killers darting in a mad melee for its head. Then a figure +was literally hurled upon the slippery mass of the mammal, its gray +belly plain in the welter, a living raft against which the waves broke +and tossed their spray. + +Clawing frantically, Sandy clutched at the base of the enormous pectoral +fin, clinging with maniacal strength, mad with fear. Striking out to +little purpose, save to help buoy himself, blinded by the flying scud +and broken crests, Rainey felt himself upreared, swept impotently on and +slammed against the slimy hulk, just close enough to Sandy to grasp him +by the collar, as the whale, stung by a killer's tearing at its oily +tongue, flailed with its fin and the two of them slid down its body, +deep under water. + +Rainey fought against the suffocation and the fierce desire to gasp and +relieve his tortured lungs. The lad's weight seemed to be carrying him +down as if he was a thing of lead, but Rainey would not relax his grip. +He could not. He had centered all his energy upon the desire to save +Sandy, and his nerve centers were still tense to that last conscious +demand. + +There came a swift, painful constriction of his chest that his failing +senses interpreted only as the end of things. Then his head came out +into the blessed air and he gulped what he could, though half of it was +water. + +The _Karluk_ was into the wind and they were in what little lee there +was, dragging aft at the end of the halyards, being fetched in toward +the rail by the mighty tugs of Lund, a weird sight to Rainey's smarting +eyes as he caught sight of the giant, with red hair uncovered, his beard +whipping in the wind, his black glasses still in place, making some sort +of a blessed monster out of him. + +Rainey had his left fist welded to the line, his right was set in +Sandy's collar, and Sandy's death clutch had twined itself into Rainey's +oilskins, though the lad was limp, and his face, seen through the watery +film that streamed over it, set and white. + +A dozen arms shot down to grasp him. He felt the iron grip of Lund upon +his left forearm, almost wrenching his arm from its socket as he was +inhauled, caught at by body and legs and deposited on the deck of the +schooner, that almost instantly commenced to go about upon its former +course. Again he heard the bellow of the blind giant, as if it had been +a continuation of the order shouted as he had gone overboard. + +"Ba-ack that jib to win'ard! Ba-ck it, you swabs!" + +The _Karluk_ came about more smartly this time, swinging on the upheaval +of a wave and rushing off with ever-increasing speed. Lund bent over +him, asking him with a note that Rainey, for all his exhaustion, +interpreted as one of real anxiety: + +"How is it with you, matey? Did ye git lunged up?" + +Rainey managed to shake his head and, with Lund's boughlike arm for +support, got to his feet, winded, shaken, aching from his pounding and +the crash against the whale. + +"Good man!" cried Lund, thwacking him on the shoulder and holding him up +as Rainey nearly collapsed under the friendly accolade. + +Sandy was lying face down, one hunter kneeling across him, kneading his +ribs to bellows action, lifting his upper body in time to the pressure, +while another worked his slack arms up and down. + +"I tank he's gone," said Hansen. "Swallowed a tubful." + +"That was splendid, Mr. Rainey! Wonderful! It was brave of you!" + +Peggy Simms stood before Rainey, clinging to the mainstays, a different +girl to the one that he had known. Her red lips were apart, showing the +clean shine of her teeth, above her glowing cheeks her gray eyes +sparkled with friendly admiration, one slender wet hand was held out +eagerly toward him. + +"Why," said Rainey, in that embarrassment that comes when one knows he +has done well, yet instinctively seeks to disclaim honors, "any one +would have done that. I happened to be the only one to see it." + +"I'm not so sure of that," replied the girl, and Rainey thought her lip +curled contemptuously as she glanced toward Carlsen at the wheel. Yet +Carlsen, he fancied, had full excuse for not having made the attempt, +busied as he had been adding needed strength to the wheel. + +"Oh, it was not what he did, or failed to do," said the girl, and this +time there was no mistaking the fact that she emphasized her voice with +contempt and made sure that it would carry to Carlsen. "He said it +wasn't worth while." + +Her eyes flashed and then she made a visible effort to control herself. +"But it was very brave of you, and I want to ask your pardon," she +concluded, with the crimson of her cheeks flooding all her face before +she turned away, and made abruptly for the companion. + +A little bewildered, the touch of her slim but strong fingers still +sensible to his own, Rainey went to the wheel. + +"Shall I take it over, Mr. Carlsen?" he asked. "It's my watch." + +Carlsen surveyed him coolly. Either he pretended not to have heard the +girl's innuendo or it failed to get under his skin. + +"You'd better get into some dry togs, Rainey," he said. "And I'll +prescribe a stiff jorum of grog-hot. Take your time about it." Rainey, +conscious of a wrenched feeling in his side, a growing nausea and +weakness, thanked him and took the advice. Half an hour later, save for +a general soreness, he felt too vigorous to stay below, and went on deck +again. Sandy had been taken forward. He encountered the hunter, Deming, +and asked after the roustabout. + +"Born to be hanged," answered the hunter with more friendliness than he +had ever exhibited. "They pumped it out of him, and got his own pump to +workin'. He'll be as fit as a fiddle presently. Asking for you." + +"I'll see him soon," said Rainey, and again offered relief to Carlsen, +which the doctor this time accepted. + +"Miss Simms misunderstood me, Rainey," he said easily. "My intent was, +that Sandy could never stay on top in those seas, and that it was idle +to send a valuable man after a lout who was as good as dead. If it +hadn't been for the whale you'd never have landed him. And the killers +got the whale," he added, with his cynical grin. + +So he had overheard. Rainey wondered whether the girl would accept the +amended statement if it was offered. At its best interpretation it was +callous. + +When Hansen took over the watch Rainey went below to Sandy. Lund had +disappeared, but he found the giant in the triangular forecastle by +Sandy's bunk. + +"That you, Rainey?" Lund asked as he heard the other's tread. Then he +dropped his voice to a whisper: + +"The lad's grateful. Make the most of it. If he wants to spill +ennything, git all of it." + +But Sandy seemed able to do nothing but grin sheepishly. He was half +drunk with the steaming potion that had been forced down him. + +"I'll see you later, Mister Rainey," he finally stammered out. "See you +later, sir. You--I--" + +Lund suddenly nudged Rainey in the ribs. + +"Never mind now," he whispered. + +A sailor had come into the forecastle with an extra blanket for Sandy, +contributed from the hunters' mess. + +"That's all right, Sandy," said Rainey. "Better try to get some sleep." + +The roustabout had already dropped off. The seaman touched his temple in +an old-fashioned salute. + +"That was a smart job you did, sir," he said to Rainey. + +The latter went aft with Lund through the hunters' quarters. They were +seated under the swinging lamp which had been lit in the gloom of the +gale, playing poker, as usual. But all laid down their cards as Rainey +appeared. + +"Good work, sir!" said one of them, and the rest chimed in with +expressions that warmed Rainey's heart. He felt that he had won his way +into their good-will. They were human, after all, he thought. + +"Glad to have you drop in an' gam a bit with us, or take a hand in a +game, sir," added Deming. + +Rainey escaped, a trifle embarrassed, and passed through the alley that +went by the cook's domain into the main cabin. Tamada was at work, but +turned a gleam of slanting eyes toward Rainey as they passed the open +door. The main cabin was empty. + +"Come into my room," suggested Lund. "I want to talk with you." + +He stuffed his pipe and proffered a drink before he spoke. + +"Best day's work you've done in a long while, matey," he said quietly. +"Take Deming's offer up, an' mix in with them hunters. An' pump thet +kid, Sandy. Pump him dry. He'll know almost as much as Tamada, an' he'll +come through with it easier." + +"Just what are you afraid of?" asked Rainey. + +"Son," said Lund simply, "I'm afraid of nothing. But they're primed for +somethin', under Carlsen. We'll be makin' Unalaska ter-morrer or the +next day. Here's hopin' it's the next. An' we've got to know what to +expect. Did you know that the skipper has had another bad spell?" + +"No. When?" + +"Jest a few minnits ago. Cryin' for Carlsen like a kid for its nurse an' +bottle. The doc's with him now. An' I'm beginnin' to have a hunch what's +wrong with him. Here's somethin' for you to chew on: Inside of +forty-eight hours there's goin' to be an upset aboard this hooker an' +it's up to me an' you to see we come out on top. If not--" + +He spread out his arms with the great, gorilla-like hands at the end of +them, in a gesture that supplanted words. Beyond any doubt Lund expected +trouble. And Rainey, for the first time, began to sense it as something +approaching, sinister, almost tangible. + +"You drop in on the hunters an' have a little game of poker ter-night," +said Lund emphatically. + +"I haven't got much money with me," said Rainey. + +"Money, hell!" mocked Lund. "They don't play for money. They play for +shares in the gold. They've got the big amount fixed at a million, each +share worth ten thousand. 'Cordin' to the way things stand at present, +you've got forty thousand dollars' worth in chips to gamble with. Put it +up to 'em that way. I figger they'll accept it. If they don't, wal, +we've learned something. An' don't forget to git next to Sandy." + +A good deal of this was enigmatical to Rainey, but there was no +mistaking Lund's tremendous seriousness and, duly impressed, Rainey +promised to carry out his suggestions. + +As he crossed the main cabin to go to his own room, Carlsen came out of +the skipper's. He did not see Rainey at first and was humming a little +air under his breath as he slipped a small article into his pocket. His +face held a sneer. Then he saw Rainey, and it changed to a mask that +revealed nothing. His tune stopped. + +"I hear the captain's sick again," said Rainey. "Not serious, I hope." + +Carlsen stood there gazing at him with his look of a sphinx, his eyes +half-closed, the scoffing light showing faintly. + +"Serious? I'm afraid it is serious this time, Rainey. Yes," he ended +slowly. "I am inclined to think it is really serious." He turned away +and rapped at the door of the girl's stateroom. In answer to a low reply +he turned the handle and went in, leaving Rainey alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SANDY SPEAKS + + +The next morning Rainey, going on deck to relieve Hansen at eight bells, +in the commencement of the forenoon watch, found Lund in the bows as he +walked forward, waiting for the bell to be struck. The giant leaned by +the bowsprit, his spectacled eyes seeming to gaze ahead into the gray of +the northern sky, and it seemed to Rainey as if he were smelling the +wind. The sun shone brightly enough, but it lacked heat-power, and the +sea had gone down, though it still ran high in great billows of dull +green. There was a bite to the air, and Rainey, fresh from the warm +cabin, wished he had brought up his sweater. + +Lightly as he trod, the giant heard him and instantly recognized him. + +"How'd ye make out with the hunters last night?" he queried. "I turned +in early." + +"We had quite a session," said Rainey. "They got me in the game, all +right." + +"Enny objections 'bout yore stakin' yore share in the gold?" + +"Not a bit. I fancy they thought it a bit of a joke. More of one after +we'd finished the game. I lost two thousand seven hundred dollars," he +added with a laugh. "No chips under a dollar. Sky limit. And Deming had +all the luck, and a majority of the skill, I fancy." + +"Don't seem to worry you none." + +"Well, it was sort of ghost money," laughed Rainey. + +"You've seen the color of it," retorted Lund. "Hear ennything special?" + +"No." Rainey spoke thoughtfully. "I had a notion I was being treated as +an outsider, though they were friendly enough. But, somehow I fancy they +reserved their usual line of talk." + +"Shouldn't wonder," grunted Lund. "Seen Sandy yet?" + +"I haven't had a chance. I imagined it would be best not to be seen +talking to him." + +"Right. Matey, things are comin' to a head. There's ice in the air. I +can smell it. Feel the difference in temperature? Ice, all right. An' +that means two things. We're nigh one of the Aleutians, an' Bering +Strait is full of ice. Early, a bit, but there's nothin' reg'lar 'bout +the way ice forms. I've got a strong hunch something'll break before we +make the Strait. + +"There's one thing in our favor. Yore savin' Sandy has set you solid +with the hunters. They won't be so keen to maroon you. An' they'll think +twice about puttin' me ashore blind. I used to git along fine with the +hunters. All said an' done, they're men at bottom. Got their hearts +gold-plated right now. But--" + +He seemed obsessed with the idea that the crew, with Carlsen as prime +instigator, had determined to leave them stranded on some volcanic, +lonely barren islet. Rainey wondered what actual foundations he had for +that theory. + +"The sailors--" he started. + +"Don't amount to a bunch of dried herrin'. A pore lot. Swing either way, +like a patent gate. I ain't worryin' about them. I'm goin' to git my +coffee. I was up afore dawn, tryin' to figger things out. You git to +Sandy soon's you can, matey." And Lund went below. + +Rainey saw nothing more of him until noon, at the midday meal. And he +found no chance to talk with Sandy. He noticed the boy looking at him +once or twice, wistfully, he thought, and yet furtively. A thickening +atmosphere of something unusual afoot seemed present. And the actual +weather grew distinctly colder. He had got his sweater, and he needed +it. The sailors had put on their thickest clothes. Carlsen did not +appear during the morning, neither did the hunters. Nor the girl. + +At noon Carlsen came up to take his observation. He said nothing to +Rainey, but the latter noticed the doctor's face seemed more sardonic +than usual as he tucked his sextant under his arm. + +With Hansen on deck they all assembled at the table with the exception +of the captain. Tamada served perfectly and silently. The doctor +conversed with the girl in a low voice. Once or twice she smiled across +the table at Rainey in friendly fashion. + +"Skipper enny better?" asked Lund, at the end of the meal. + +Carlsen ignored him, but the girl answered: + +"I am afraid not." It was not often she spoke to Lund at all, and Rainey +wondered if she had experienced any change of feeling toward the giant +as well as himself. + +Carlsen got up, announcing his intention of going forward. Lund nodded +significantly at Rainey as if to suggest that the doctor was going to +foregather with the hunters, and that this might be an opportunity to +talk with Sandy. + +"Goin' to turn in," he said. "Eyes hurt me. It's the ice in the wind." + +"Is there ice?" Peggy Simms asked Rainey as Lund disappeared. Carlsen +had already vanished. + +"None in sight," he answered. "But Lund says he can smell it, and I +think I know what he means. It's cold on deck." + +The girl went to the door of her own room and then hesitated and came +back to the table where Rainey still sat. He had four hours off, and he +meant to make an opportunity of talking to the roustabout. + +"Mr. Carlsen told me he expects to sight land by to-morrow morning," she +said. "Unalaska or Unimak, most likely. How is the boy you saved?" + +She seemed so inclined to friendliness, her eyes were so frank, that +Rainey resolved to talk to her. He held a notion that she was lonely, +and worried about her father. There were pale blue shadows under her +eyes, and he fancied her face looked drawn. + +"May I ask you a question?" he asked. + +"Surely." + +"Just why did you beg my pardon? And, I may be wrong, but you seemed to +make a point of doing so rather publicly." + +She flushed slowly, but did not avoid his gaze, coming over to the table +and standing across from him, her fingers resting lightly on the +polished wood. + +"It was because I thought I had misunderstood you," she said. "And I +have thought it over since. I do not think that any man who would risk +his life to save that lad could have joined the ship with such motives +as you did. I--I hope I am not mistaken." + +Rainey stared at her in astonishment. + +"What motives?" he asked. "Surely you know I did not intend to go on +this voyage of my own free will?" + +The changing light in her eyes reminded Rainey of the look of her +father's when he was at his best in some time of stress for the +schooner. They were steady, and the pupils had dilated while the irises +held the color of steel. There was something more than ordinary feminine +softness to her, he decided. She sat down, challenging his gaze. + +"Do you mean to tell me," she asked, "that you did not use your +knowledge of this treasure to gain a share in it, under a covert threat +of disclosing it to the newspaper you worked for?" + +It was Rainey's turn to flush. His indignation flooded his eyes, and the +girl's faltered a little. His wrath mastered his judgment. He did not +intend to spare her feelings. What did she mean by such a charge? She +must have known about the drugging. If not--she soon would. + +"Your fiance, Mr. Carlsen, told you that, I fancy," he said, "if you did +not evolve it from your own imagination." Now her face fairly flamed. + +"My fiance?" she gasped. "Who told you that?" + +"The gentleman himself," answered Rainey. + +"Oh!" she cried, closing her eyes, her face paling. + +"The same gentleman," went on Rainey vindictively, "who put chloral in +my drink and deliberately shanghaied me aboard the _Karluk_, so that I +only came to at sea, with no chance of return. He, too, was afraid I +might give the snap away to my paper, though I would have given him my +word not to. He told me it was a matter of business, that he had +kidnapped me for my own good," he went on bitterly, recalling the talk +with Carlsen when he had come out of the influence of the drug. "You +don't have to believe me, of course," he broke off. + +"I don't think you are quite fair, Mr. Rainey," the girl answered. "To +me, I mean. I will give you _my_ word that I knew nothing of this. I--" +She suddenly widened her eyes and stared at him. "Then--my father--he?" + +Rainey felt a twinge of compassion. + +"He was there when it happened," he said. "But I don't know that he had +anything to do with it. Mr. Carlsen may have convinced him it was the +only thing to do. He seems to have considerable influence with your +father." + + +[Illustration: "The same gentleman who put chloral in my drink"] + + +"He has. He--Mr. Rainey, I have begged your pardon once; I do so again. +Won't you accept it? Perhaps, later, we can talk this matter out. I am +upset. But--you'll accept the apology, and believe me?" + +She put out her hand across the table and Rainey gripped it. + +"We'll be friends?" she asked. "I need a friend aboard the _Karluk_, Mr. +Rainey." + +He experienced a revulsion of feeling toward her. She was undoubtedly +plucky, he thought; she would stand up to her guns, but she suddenly +looked very tired, a pathetic figure that summoned his chivalry. + +"Why, surely," he said. + +They relinquished hands slowly, and again Rainey felt something more +than her mere grasp lingering, a slight tingling that warmed him to +smile at her in a manner that brought a little color back to her cheeks. + +"Thank you," she said. + +He watched her close the door of her cabin behind her before he +remembered that she had not denied that she was to marry Carlsen. But he +shrugged his shoulders as he started to smoke. At any rate, he told +himself, she knows what kind of a chap he is--in what he calls business. + +Presently he thought he heard her softly sobbing in her room, and he got +up and paced the cabin, not entirely pleased with himself. + +"I was a bit of a cad the way I went at her," he thought, "but that chap +Carlsen sticks in my gorge. How any decent girl could think of mating up +with him is beyond me--unless--by gad, I'll bet he's working through her +father to pull it off! For the gold! If he's in love with her he's got a +damned queer way of not showing it." + +The door from the galley corridor opened, and a head was poked in +cautiously. Then Sandy came into the cabin. + +"Beg pardon, Mister Rainey, sir," said the roustabout, "I was through +with the dishes. I wanted to have a talk with yer." His pop-eyes roamed +about the cabin doubtfully. + +"Come in here," said Rainey, and ushered Sandy into his own quarters. + +"Now, then," he said, established on the bunk, while Sandy stood by the +partition, slouching, irresolute, his slack jaw working as if he was +chewing something, "what is it, my lad?" + +"They'd kick the stuffin' out of me if they knew this," said Sandy. +"I've bin warned to hold my tongue. Deming said he'd cut it out if I +chattered. An' he would. But--" + +"But what? Sit down, Sandy; I won't give you away." + +"You went overboard after me, sir. None of them would. I've heard what +Mr. Carlsen said, that I didn't ermount to nothin'. Mebbe I don't, but +I've got my own reasons for hangin' on. Me, of course I don't ermount to +much. Why would I? If I ever had mother an' father, I never laid eyes on +'em. I've made my own livin' sence I was eight. I've never 'ad enough +grub in my belly till I worked for Tamada. The Jap slips me prime +fillin'. He's only a Jap, but he's got more heart than the rest o' that +bloody bunch put tergether." + +Rainey nodded. + +"Tell me what you know, quickly. You may be wanted any minute." + +The words seemed to stick in the lad's dry throat, and then they came +with a gush. + +"It's the doc! It's Carlsen who's turned 'em into a lot of bloody +bolsheviks, sir. Told 'em they ought to have an ekal share in the gold. +Ekal all round, all except Tamada--an' me. I don't count. An' Tamada's a +Jap. The men is sore at Mr. Lund becoz he sez the skipper left him +be'ind on the ice. Carlsen's worked that up, too. Said Lund made 'em all +out to be cowards. 'Cept Hansen, that is. He don't dare say too much, or +they'd jump him, but Hansen sort of hints that Cap'n Simms ought to have +gone back after Lund, could have gone back, is the way Hansen put it. So +they're all goin' to strike." + +Rainey's mind reacted swiftly to Sandy's talk. It seemed inconceivable +that Carlsen would be willing to share alike with the hunters and the +crew. Sandy's imagination had been running wild, or the men had been +making a fool of him. The girl's share would be thrown into the common +lot. And then flashed over him the trick by which Carlsen had disposed +of all the ammunition in the hunters' possession. He had a deeper scheme +than the one he fed to the hunters, and which he merely offered to serve +some present purpose. Rainey's jaw muscles bunched. + +"Go on, Sandy," he said tersely. + +"There ain't much more, sir. They're goin' to put it up to Lund. First +they figgered some on settin' him ashore with you an' the Jap. That's +what Carlsen put up to 'em. But they warn't in favor of that. Said Lund +found the gold, an' ought to have an ekal share with the rest. An' +they're feelin' diff'runt about you, sir, since you saved me. Not becoz +it was me, but becoz it was what Deming calls a damn plucky thing to +do." + +"How did you learn all this?" demanded Rainey. + +"Scraps, sir. Here an' there. The sailors gams about it nights when +they thinks I'm asleep in the fo'c's'le. An' I keeps my ears open when I +waits on the hunters. But they ain't goin' to give you no share becoz +you warn't in on the original deal. But they ain't goin' to maroon you, +neither, unless Lund bucks an' you stand back of him." + +"How about Captain Simms?" + +"Carlsen sez he'll answer for him, sir. He boasts how he's goin' to +marry the gal. That'll giv' him three shares--countin' the skipper's. +The men don't see that, but I did. He's a bloody fox, is Carlsen." + +"When's this coming off?" asked Rainey. + +"Quick! They're goin' to sight land ter-morrer, they say. I heard that +this mornin'. I hid in my bunk. It heads ag'inst the wall of the +hunters' mess an', if it's quiet, you can hear what they say. + +"They ain't goin' in to Bering Strait through Unimak Pass. They're goin' +in through Amukat or Seguam Pass. An' they'll put it up to Lund an' the +skipper somewheres close by there. An' that's where you two'll get put +off, if you don't fall in line." + +"All right, Sandy. You're smarter than I thought you were. Sure of all +this?" + +"I ain't much to look at, sir, but I ain't had to buck my own way +without gittin' on ter myself. You won't give me away, though? They'd +keelhaul me." + +"I won't. You cut along. And if we happen to come out on top, Sandy, +I'll see that you get a share out of it." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"I'll come out with you," said Rainey. "If any one comes in before you +get clear, I'll give you an order. I sent for you, understand." + +But Sandy got back into the galley without any trouble. Rainey began to +pace the cabin again, and then went back into his own room to line the +thing up. Lund was asleep, but he would waken him, he decided, filled +with admiration at the blind man's sagacity and the way he had foreseen +the general situation. + +There was not much time to lose. He did not see what they could do +against the proposition. He was sure that Lund would not consent to it. +And he might have some plan. He had hinted that he had cards up his +sleeve. + +What Carlsen's ultimate plans were Rainey did not bother himself with. +That it meant the fooling of the whole crew he did not doubt. He +intended eventually to gather all the gold. And the girl--she would be +in his power. But perhaps she wanted to be? Rainey got out of his blind +alley of thought and started into the main cabin to give Lund the news. + +The girl was coming out of her father's room. + +"Any better?" asked Rainey. + +"No. I can't understand it. He seems hardly to know me. Doctor Carlsen +came along because of father's sciatica, but--there's something +else--and the doctor can't help it any. I can't quite understand--" + +She stopped abruptly. + +"Have you known the doctor long?" asked Rainey. + +"For a year. He lives in Mill Valley, close to my uncle. I live with my +father's brother when father is at sea. But this time I wanted to be +near him. And the doctor--" + +Again she seemed to be deliberately checking herself from a revelation +that wanted to come out. + +"Did he practise in Mill Valley? Or San Francisco?" asked Rainey, +remembering Lund's outburst against Carlsen's professional powers. + +"No, he hasn't practised for some years. That was how it happened he was +able to go along. Of course, father promised him a certain share in the +venture. And he was a friend." + +She trailed off in her speech, looking uncertainly at Rainey. The latter +came to a decision. + +"Miss Simms," he said, "are you going to marry Doctor Carlsen?" + +Suddenly Rainey was aware that some one had come into the cabin. It was +Carlsen, now swiftly advancing toward him, his face livid, his mouth +snarling, and his black eyes devilish with mischief. + +"I'll attend to this end of it," he said. "Peggy, you had better go in +to your father. I'll be in there in a minute. He's a pretty sick man," +he added. + +His snarl had changed to a smile, and he seemed to have swiftly +controlled himself. The girl looked at both of them and slowly went into +the captain's room. Carlsen wheeled on Rainey, his face once more a mask +of hate. + +"I'll put you where you belong, you damned interloper," he said. "What +in hell do you mean by asking her that question?" + +"That is my business." + +"I'll make it mine. And I'll settle yours very shortly, once and for +all. I suppose you're soft on the girl yourself," he sneered. "Think +yourself a hero! Do you think she'd look at you, a beggarly news-monger? +Why, she--" + +"You can leave her out of it," said Rainey, quietly. "As for you, I +think you're a dirty blackguard." + +Carlsen's hand shot back to his hip pocket as Rainey's fist flashed +through the opening and caught him high on the jaw, sending him +staggering back, crashing against the partition and down into the +cushioned seat that ran around the place. + +But his gun was out. As he raised it Rainey grappled with him. Carlsen +pulled trigger, and the bullet smashed through the skylight above them, +while Rainey forced up his arm, twisting it fiercely with both hands +until the gun fell on the seat. + +Simultaneously the girl and Lund appeared. + +"Gun-play?" rumbled the giant. "That'll be you, Carlsen! You're too fond +of shooting off that gat of yores." + +Rainey had stepped back at the girl's exclamation. Carlsen recovered his +gun and put it away, while Peggy Simms advanced with blazing eyes. + +"You coward!" she said. "If I had thought--oh!" + +She made a gesture of utter loathing, at which Carlsen sneered. + +"I'll show you whether I'm a coward or not, my lady," he said, "before I +get through with all of you. And I'll tell you one thing: The captain's +life is in my hands. And he and I are the only navigators aboard this +vessel, except a fool of a blind man," he added, as he strode to the +door of Simms' cabin, turned to look at them, laughed deliberately in +their faces, and shut the door on them. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RAINEY MAKES DECISION + + +"Well?" asked Lund, "what are you goin' to do about it, Rainey? Stick +with me, or line up with the rest of 'em, work yore passage, an' thank +'em for nothing when they divvy the stuff an' leave you out? You've got +to decide one way or the other damn' quick, for the show-down's on the +program for ter-morrer." + +"You haven't said outright what you are going to do yourself," replied +Rainey. "As for me, I seem to be between the devil and the deep sea. +Carlsen has got some plan to outwit the men. It's inconceivable that +he'll be willing to give them equal shares. And he has no use for me." + +"You ought to have grabbed that gun of his before he did," said Lund. +"He'll put you out of the way if he can, but, now his temper's b'iled +over a bit, he'll not shoot you. Not afore the gold's in the hold. One +thing, he knows the hunters wouldn't stand for it. They've got dust in +their eyes right now--gold-dust, chucked there by Carlsen, but if he'd +butchered you he'd likely lose his grip on 'em. I think he would. I +don't believe yo're in enny danger, Rainey, if you want to buckle in an' +line up with the crowd. + +"As for me," he went on, his voice deepening, "I'm goin' to tell 'em to +go plumb to hell. I'll tell Carlsen a few things first. Equal shares! A +fine bunch of socialists they are! Settin' aside that Carlsen's bullin' +'em, as you say. Equal? They ain't my equal, none of 'em, man to man. +All men are born free an' equal, says the Constitution an' by-laws of +this country of ours. Granted. But they don't stay that way long. +They're all lined up to toe the mark on the start, but watch 'em +straggle afore they've run a tenth of the distance. + +"I found this gold, an' they didn't. I don't have to divvy with 'em, +an' I won't. A lot of I. W. W.'s, that's what they are, an' I'll tell +'em so. More'n that, if enny of 'em thinks he's my equal all he's got to +do is say so, an' I'll give him a chance to prove it. Feel those arms, +matey, size me up. Man to man, I c'ud break enny of 'em in half. Put me +in a room with enny three of 'em, an' the door locked, an' one 'ud come +out. That 'ud be me." + +This was not bragging, not blustering, but calm assurance, and Rainey +felt that Lund merely stated what he believed to be facts. And Rainey +believed they were facts. There was a confident strength of spirit aside +from his physical condition that emanated from Lund as steam comes from +a kettle. It was the sort of strength that lies in a steady gale, a wind +that one can lean against, an elastic power with big reserves of force. +But the conditions were all against Lund, though he proceeded to put +them aside. + +"Man to man," he repeated, "I c'ud beat 'em into Hamburg steak. An' I've +got brains enough to fool Carlsen. I've outguessed him so far." + +"He's got the gun," warned Rainey. + +"Never mind his gun. I ain't afraid of his gun." He nodded with such +supreme confidence that Rainey felt himself suddenly relegating the +doctor's possession of the gun to the background. "If his gun's the only +thing trubblin' you, forget it. You an' me got to know where we stand. +It's up to you. I won't blame you for shiftin' over. An' I can git along +without you, if need be. But we've got along together fine; I've took a +notion to you. I'd like to see you get a whack of that gold, an' all the +devils in hell an' out of it ain't goin' to stop me from gittin' it!" + +He talked in a low voice, but it rumbled like the distant roar of a +bull. Rainey looked at the indomitable jaw that the beard could not +hide, at the great barrel of his chest, the boughlike arms, the swelling +thighs and calves, and responded to the suggestion that Lund could rise +in Berserker rage and sweep aside all opposition. + +It was absurd, of course; his next thought adjusted the balance that had +been weighed down by the compelling quality of the man's vigor but, for +the moment, remembering his earlier simile, Lund appeared a blind Samson +who, by some miracle, could at the last moment destroy his enemies by +pulling down their house--or their ship--about them. + +"Carlsen says that the skipper's life is in his hands," he said, still +evading Lund's direct question. "What do you make of that?" + +"I don't know what to make of it," answered Lund. "If it is, God help +the skipper! I reckon he's in a bad way. Ennyhow, he's out of it for the +time bein', Rainey. I don't think he'll be present at the meetin' if +he's that ill. Carlsen speaks for him. Count Simms out of it for the +present." + +"There's the girl," said Rainey. "I don't believe she wants to marry +Carlsen." + +"If she does," said Lund, "she ain't the kind we need worry about. +Carlsen 'ud marry her if he thought it was necessary to git her share by +bein' legal. He may try an' squeeze her to a wedding through the +skipper. Threaten to let her dad die if she don't marry him, likely'll +git the skipper to tie the knot. It 'ud be legal. But if you're +interested about the gal, Rainey, an' I take it you are, I'm tellin' you +that Carlsen'll marry her if it suits his book. If it don't, he won't. +An', if he wins out, he'll take her without botherin' about prayer-books +an' ceremonies. I know his breed. All men are more or less selfish an' +shy on morals, in streaks more or less wide, but that Carlsen's just +plain skunk." + +"The men wouldn't permit that," said Rainey tersely. "If Carlsen started +anything like that I'd kill him with my own hands, gun or no gun. And +any white man would help me do it." + +"You would, mebbe," said Lund, nodding sagely. "You'd have a try at it. +But you don't know men, matey, not like I do. This ship's got a skipper +now. A sick one, I grant you. But so far he's boss. An' he's the gal's +father. All's usual an' reg'lar. But you turn this schooner into a +free-an'-easy, equal shares-to-all, go-as-you-please outfit, let 'em git +their claws on the gold, an' be on the way home to spend it--for +Carlsen'll let 'em go that far afore he pulls his play, whatever it +is--an' discipline will go by the board. + +"Grog'll be served when they feel like it, they'll start gamblin', some +of 'em'll lose all they got. There'll be sore-heads, an' they'll +remember there's a gal in the after-cabin, which won't be the +after-cabin enny more, for they'll all have the run of it, bein' equal; +then all hell's goin' to break loose, far's that gal's concerned. + +"A bunch of men who've bin at sea for weeks, half drunk, crazy over +havin' more gold than they ever dreamed of, or havin' gambled it away. +Jest a bunch of beasts, matey, whenever they think of that gal. They'll +be too much for Carlsen to handle--an'"--he tapped at Rainey's +knee--"Carlsen don't think enough of enny woman to let her interfere +with his best interests." + +Rainey's jaw was set and his fists clenched, his blood running hot and +fast. His imagination was instinct to conjure up full-colored scenes +from Lund's suggestions. + +"You mean--" he began. + +"Under his hide, when there ain't nothin' to hinder him, a man's plain +animal," said Lund. "What do these water-front bullies know about a good +gal--or care? They only know one sort. Ever think what happened to a +woman in privateer days when they got one aboard, alone, on the high +seas? Why, if they pushed Carlsen, he'd turn her over to 'em without +winkin'." + +"You hinted I was different," said Rainey. "How about you, Lund, how +would you act?" + +"If Carlsen wins out, I'd be chewin' mussels on a rock, or feedin' +crabs," said Lund simply. "I'm no saint, but, so long as I can keep +wigglin', there ain't enny hunter or seaman goin' to harm a decent gal. +That's another way they ain't my equal, Rainey. Savvy? Nor is Carlsen. +There ain't enough real manhood in that Carlsen to grease a skillet. How +about it, Rainey; are you lined up with me?" + +"Just as far as I can go, Lund. I'm with you to the limit." + +Lund brought down his hand with a mighty swing, and caught at Rainey's +in mid-air, gripping it till Rainey bit his lips to repress a cry of +pain. + +"You've got the guts!" cried the giant, checking the loudness of his +voice abruptly. "I knew it. It ain't all goin' to go as they like it. +Watch my smoke. Now, then, keep out of Carlsen's way all you can. He may +try an' pick a row with you that'll put you in wrong all around. Go easy +an' speak easy till land's sighted. If you ain't invited to this +I. W. W. convention, horn in. + +"Carlsen'll try an' keep you on deck, I fancy. Don't stay there. Turn +the wheel over to Sandy if you have to. I'll insist on havin' you +there. That'll be better. They'll probably have some fool agreement to +sign. Carlsen would do that. Make 'em all feel it's more like a bizness +meetin'. They'll love to scrawl their names an' put down their marks. +I'll have to have you there to read it over to me; savvy?" + +"What do you think Carlsen's game is, if it goes through?" + +"He's fox enough to think up a dozen ways. Run the schooner ashore +somewhere in the night. Wreck her. Git 'em in the boats with the gold. +Inside of a week, Deming an' one or two others would have won it all. +Then--he'd have the only gun--he'd shoot the lot of 'em an' say they +died at sea. He ain't got enny more warm blood than a squid. Or he might +land, and accuse 'em all of piracy. What do we care about his plans? He +ain't goin' to put 'em over." + +Rainey had to relieve Hansen. He left Lund primed for resistance against +Carlsen, against all the crew, if necessary, resolved to save the girl, +but, as Lund stayed below and the time slid by, his confidence oozed out +of him, and the odds assumed their mathematical proportion. + +What could they do against so many? But he held firm in his +determination to do what he could, to go down with the forlorn hope, +fighting. Blind as he was, Lund was the better man of the two of them, +Rainey felt; it was better to attempt to seize the horns of the dilemma +than weakly to give way and, with Lund killed, or marooned, try +single-handed to protect Peggy Simms against the horrors that would come +later. + +He did not believe himself in love with her. The environment had not +been conducive to that sort of thing. But the thought of her, their +hands clasped, her eyes appealing, saying she needed a friend aboard the +_Karluk_; the young clean beauty of her, nerved him to stand with Lund +against the odds. Lund was fighting for his rights, for his gold, but he +had said that he would not see a decent girl harmed as long as he could +wiggle. Rough sea-bully as the giant was, he had his code. Rainey +tingled with contempt of his own hesitancy. + +The _Karluk_ was bowling along northward toward landfall and the crisis +between Lund and Carlsen at good speed. The weather had subsided and the +half gale now served the schooner instead of hindering her. Rainey +turned over the wheel to a seaman and paced the deck. The bite in the +air had increased until even the smart walk he maintained failed to +circulate the blood sufficiently to keep his fingers from becoming +benumbed, so that he had to beat his arms across his chest. + +It was well below the freezing point. If they had been sailing on fresh +water, instead of salt, he fancied that the rigging would have been +glazed where the spray struck it. As it was, the canvas seemed to him +stiffer than usual, and there was a whitish haze about the northern +horizon that suggested ice. + +The tall, olive-tinted seas ranged up in dissolving hills, the wind's +whistle was shrill in the rigging. Over the mainmast a gray-breasted +bird with wide, unmoving pinions hung without apparent motion, its ruby +eyes watching the ship, as if it was a spy sent out from the Arctic to +report the adventurous strangers about to dare its dangers. + +As the day passed to sunset the gloom quickly deepened. The sun sank +early into banks of leaden clouds, and the _Karluk_ slid on through the +seething seas in a scene of strange loneliness, save for the suspended +albatross that never varied its position by an inch or by a flirt of its +plumes. + +Rainey felt the dreary suggestion of it all as he walked up and down, +trying to evolve some plan. Lund's mysterious hints were unsatisfactory. +He could not believe them without some basis, but the giant would never +go further than vague talk of a "joker" or a card up his sleeve. And +they would need more than one card, Rainey thought. + +He wondered whether they could win over Hansen, who had spoken for Lund +against the skipper. And had then kept his counsel. But he dismissed +Hansen as an ally. The Scandinavian was too cautious, too apt to +consider such things as odds. Sandy was useless, aside from his +good-will. He was cowed by Deming, scared of Carlsen, too puny to do +more than he had done, given them warning. + +Tamada? Would he fight for the share of gold he expected to come to him? +Lund had described him as neutral. But, if he knew that he was to be +left out of the division? It was not likely that he would be called to +the conference. The Japanese undoubtedly knew the racial prejudice +against him, a prejudice that Rainey considered short-sighted, taking +some pains to show that he did not share it. At any rate, Tamada might +provide him with a weapon, a sharp-bladed vegetable knife if nothing +better. + +But, if it came to downright combat, they must be overwhelmed. Carlsen's +gun again assumed proper proportions. Lund might not be afraid of it, +but Rainey was, very frankly. He should have snatched it from the cabin +cushions. But Tamada? He could not dismiss Tamada as an important +factor. There was no question to Rainey but that Tamada was, by caste, +above his position as sealer's cook. It was true that a Japanese +considered no means menial if they led to the proper end. + +Was that end merely to gain possession of his share of the gold, or did +Tamada have some deeper, more complicated reason for signing on to run +the galley of the _Karluk_? Somehow Rainey thought there was such a +reason. He treated Tamada with a courtesy that he had found other +Japanese appreciated, and fancied that Tamada gradually came to regard +him with a certain amount of good-will. But it was hard to determine +anything that went on back of those unfathomable eyes, or to read +Tamada's face, smooth and placid as that of an ivory image. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TAMADA TALKS + + +Tamada's galley was as orderly and efficient as the operating-room of a +first-class hospital. And Tamada at his work had all the deftness and +some of the dignity of a surgeon. There was no wasted move, there was no +litter of preparation, every article was returned to its specified place +as soon as used, and every implement and utensil was shining and +spotless. + +It was an hour from the third meal of the day. Tamada was juggling the +food for three messes, and he was doing it with the calm precision of +one who has every detail well mapped out and is moving on schedule. The +boy Sandy was not there, probably engaged in laying the table for the +hunters' mess, Rainey imagined. + +Tamada regarded him with eyes that did not lack a certain luster, as a +sloeberry might hold it, but which, beneath their hooded lids, revealed +neither interest, nor curiosity, nor friendliness. They belonged in his +unwrinkled face, they were altogether neutral. Yet they seemed covertly +to suggest to Rainey that they might, on occasion, flame with wrath or +hatred, or show the burning light of high intelligence. Seldom, he +thought, while their gaze rested on him impassively, would they soften. + +"Tamada," he queried, "you think I am your friend, that I would rather +help you than otherwise?" + +"I think that--yes?" answered the Japanese without hesitation and +without servility. And his eyes slowly searched Rainey's face with +appraising pertinacity for a second or two. His English, save for the +oddness of his idioms and a burr that made _r's_ of most his _l's_, and +sometimes reversed the process, was almost perfect. His vocabulary +showed study. "You are not hating me because you are Californian and I +Japanese," he said. "I know that." + +There was little time to spare, and there was likelihood of +interruption, so Rainey plunged into his subject without introduction. + +"They promised you a share of this treasure, Tamada?" he asked. + +"They promised me that, yes." + +"They do not intend to give it to you." There was a tiny, dancing +flicker in the dark eyes that died like a spark in the night air. Rainey +recalled Lund's opinion that little went on that Tamada did not know. +"You may have guessed this," he hurried on, "but I am sure of it. I, +too, am promised some of the gold, but they do not intend to give it to +me. They will offer Mr. Lund only a small portion of what was originally +arranged, the same amount as the rest of them are to get. He will refuse +that to-morrow, when a meeting is to be called. Then there will be +trouble. I shall stand with Mr. Lund. If we win you will get your share, +whether you help us or not. If you help us I can promise you at least +twice the amount you were to get." + +"How can I help you? If this is to be talked over at a meeting I shall +not be allowed to be present. If trouble starts it will do so +immediately. Mr. Lund"--he called it Rund--"is not patient man. What can +I do? How can I help you?" + +Rainey was nonplused. He had seized the first opportunity +of sounding the Japanese, and he had nothing outlined. + +"I do not know," he said. "I must talk that over with Mr. Lund. I wanted +to know if you would be on our side." + +"Mr. Lund will not want me to help you. He does not like color of my +skin, he does not like Japanese because he thinks they make too good +living in California, and making more money than some of his countrymen. +I do not think it help you for me to join. I do not see how you can win. +If you can show some way out I will do what I can. But I like to see way +out." + +He mollified the bald acknowledgment of his neutrality with a little bow +and a hissing-in breath. Back of it all was a will that was inflexible, +thought Rainey. + +"If we lose, you lose," he went on lamely. He had come on a fool's +errand, he decided. + +"I think I shall get my money," said Tamada, and something looked out of +his eyes that betrayed a purpose already gained, Rainey fancied, as a +chess player might gain assurance of victory by the looking ahead to all +conceivable moves against him, and providing a counter-play that would +achieve the game. It was borne in upon him that Tamada had resources he +could not fathom. The Oriental gave a swift smile, that held no mirth, +no friendship, rather, a sardonic appreciation of the situation, without +rancor. + +"They are very foolish," he said. "They make me cook, they eat what I +serve. They say Tamada is very good cook. But he is Jap, damn him. +Suppose I put something in that food, that they would not taste? I could +send them all to sleep. I could kill them. I could do it so they never +suspect, but would go to their beds--and never get up from them. It +would be very easy. Yet they trust me." + +The statement was so matter-of-fact that Rainey felt his horror gather +slowly as he stared at the impassive Oriental. + +"You would do that? What good would it do you? You would have to kill +them all, or the rest would tear you apart. And if you murdered the +whole ship where would you be? You talk as if you were a little mad. +Suppose I told Carlsen of this?" + +Tamada was smiling again. He seemed to know that Rainey was in no +position to betray him--if he wished to do so. + +"I did not say I would do it. And, except under certain circumstances, +it do me little good. I do not expect to do it. But it would be easy. +Yet, as you say, it would not help you to kill only few, those who will +be at the meeting, for example, even if I wish to do. No, I do not see +way out. If, at any time there should seem way out and I can help you, I +will." + +He turned abruptly to a simmering pot and rattled the lid. The hunter, +Deming, stuck his head in at the door. + +"Smells good," he said. "Evening, Mr. Rainey." + +He seemed disposed to linger, and Rainey, not to excite suspicion toward +himself or Tamada, went back on deck. What did Tamada mean by "except +under certain circumstances"? he asked himself. For one thing he felt +sure that Tamada had some basis for his expression that he expected to +get his money. _He knew something_. Was it merely the Oriental method of +_jiu-jitsu_, practised mentally as well as physically, the belief in a +seemingly passive resistance against circumstances, waiting for some +move that, by its own aggressiveness, would give him an opening for a +trick that would secure him the advantage? What could one Japanese hope +to do against the crowd? + +A thought suddenly flashed over Rainey. Was Tamada in league with +Carlsen? Had he mistaken his man? Did Carlsen plan to have Tamada +undertake a wholesale poisoning to secure the gold himself, providing +the drugs? Was it a friendly hint from the Japanese? + +Still mulling over it he went down to supper. The girl was not present. +Carlsen appeared in an unusual mood. + +"I was a bit hasty, Rainey," he said, with all appearance of sincerity. +"I've been worried a bit over the skipper. He's in a bad way. + +"Forget what happened, if you can. I apologize. Though I still think +your interference in my private affairs unwarranted. I'll call it +square, if you will." + +He nodded across the table at Rainey, saving the latter a reply which he +was rather at a loss how to word. Amenities from Carlsen were likely a +Greek gift. And Carlsen rattled on during the meal in high good spirits, +rallying Rainey about his poker game with the hunters, joking Lund about +his shooting, talking of the landfall they expected the next day. + +To Rainey's surprise Lund picked up the talk. There was a subtle, +sardonic flavor to it on both sides and, once in a while, as Tamada, +like an animated sphinx, went about his duties, Rainey saw the eyes of +Carlsen turned questioningly upon the giant as if a bit puzzled +concerning the exact spirit of his sallies. + +Rainey admired while he marveled at the sheer skill of Lund in this sort +of a fencing bout. He never went far enough to arouse Carlsen's +suspicions, yet he showed a keen sense of humorous appreciation of +Carlsen's half-satirical sallies that, in the light of Sandy's +revelation, showed the doctor considered himself the master of the +situation, the winner of a game whose pieces were already on the board, +though the players had not yet taken their places. Yet Rainey fancied +that Carlsen qualified his dismissal of Lund as a "blind fool" before +they rose from the table, without disturbing his own equanimity as the +craftier of the two. + +Later, when his watch was ended and he was closeted with Lund in the +latter's cabin, the giant promptly quashed all discussion of Tamada's +attitude. + +"I'll put no trust in any slant-eyed, yellow-skinned rice-eater," he +announced emphatically. "They're against us, race an' religion. They +want California, or rather, the Pacific coast, an' they think they're +goin' to git it. They're no more akin to us than a snake is a cousin to +an eel. They're not of our breed, an' you can't mix the two. I'll have +no deal with Tamada, beyond gettin' dope out of him. If he helped us it +'ud be only to further his own ends. Not that he can do much--unless--" + +He lowered his voice to a husky whisper. + +"There's one thing may slip in our gold-gettin', matey," he said--"the +Japanese. I doubt if this island is set down on American or British +charts. But I'll bet it is on the Japanese. I don't know as any nation +has openly claimed it, but it's a sure thing the Japs know of its +existence. They don't know of the gold, or it wouldn't be there. +Rightly, the island may belong to Russia, but, since the war, Russia's +in a bad way, an' ennything loose from the mainland'll be gobbled by +Japan. + +"What the Japs grab they don't let go of. On general principles they +patrol the west side of Bering Strait. If one of their patrols sees us +we'll be inside the sealin' limit, an' they'll have right of search. +They'd take it, ennyway, if they sighted us. They go by _power_ of +search, not right. They won't find enny pelts on us, we've got hunters +aboard, we're pelagic sealers, they won't be able to hang up enny +clubbin' of herds on us. + +"But, if they should suspicion us of gittin' gold off enny island they +c'ud trump up to call theirs, if they found gold on us at all, it 'ud be +all off with us an' the _Karluk_. We'd be dumped inside of some Jap +prison an' the schooner confiscated. + +"An', if things go right with us, an' we ever sight the smoke of a Jap +gunboat comin' our way, the first thing I'll be apt to do will be to +scrag Tamada or he'll blow the whole proposition, whether we've got the +gold aboard or not. Even if he didn't want to tell becoz of his own +share, they'd git it out of him what we was after." + +Did this, wondered Rainey, explain Tamada's "certain circumstances"? Was +he calculating on the arrival of a Japanese patrol? Had he already +tipped off to his consul in San Francisco the purpose of the expedition, +sure of a reward equal to what his share would have been? If so, Rainey +had made a muddle of his attempt to sound Tamada. He felt guilty, glad +that Lund could not see his face, and he dropped the subject abruptly. + +Lund seemed to know that something was amiss. + +"Nervous, Rainey?" he asked. "That's becoz you've not bin livin' a man's +life. All yore experience has bin second-hand, an' you've never gone +into a rough-an'-tumble, I take it. You'll make out all right if it +comes to that at all. Yo're well put up, an' you've got solid of late. +Now yo're goin' to git a taste of life in the raw. Not story-book stuff. +It's strong meat sometimes, an' liable to turn some people's stomachs. +I've got an appetite for it, an' so'll you have, after a bit. + +"Ever play much at cards?" he went on. "Play for yore last red when you +don't know where to turn for another, an' have all the crowd thinkin' +yo're goin' broke as they watch the play? An' then you slap down a card +they've all overlooked an' larf in the other chap's face? + +"That's what I'm goin' to do with Carlsen. I've got that kind of a card, +matey, an' I ain't goin' to spoil my fun by tellin' even you what it is, +though yo're my partner in this gamble. It's a trump, an' Carlsen's +overlooked it. He figgers he's stacked the deck an' fixed it so's he +deals himself all the winnin' cards. But there's one he don't know is +there becoz he's more of a blind fool than I am, is Doctor Carlsen." + +Lund chuckled hugely as he mixed himself some whisky and water. Rainey +refused a drink. Lund was right, he was nervous, bothering over what the +outcome might be, and how he might handle himself. He was not at all +sure of his own grit. + +Lund had hit the nail on the head. All his experience had lain in +listening to the stories of others and writing them down. He did not +know whether he would act in a manner that would satisfy himself. There +was a nasty doubt as to his own prowess and his own courage that kept +cropping up. And that state of mind is not a pleasant one. + +"All be over this time ter-morrer," put in Lund, "so far as our bisness +with Carlsen is concerned. You git all the sleep you can ter-night, +Rainey. An' don't you worry none about that gal. She's a damn' sight +more capable of lookin' after herself than you imagine. You ain't +counted her in as bein' more than a clingin' vine proposition. Not that +she could buck it on her own, but she's no fool, an' I bet she's game. + +"Soft on her?" he challenged unexpectedly. + +"I haven't thought of her in that way," Rainey answered, a bit shortly. + +"Ah!" the giant ejaculated softly. "You haven't? Wal, mebbe it's jest as +well." + +Rainey took that last remark up on deck and pondered over it in the +middle watch, but he could make nothing out of it. Yet he was sure that +Lund had meant something by it. + +In the middle of the night the cold seemed to concentrate. Rainey had +found mittens in the schooner's slop-chest, and he was glad of them at +the wheel. The sailors, with but little to do, huddled forward. One man +acted as lookout for ice. The smell of this was now unmistakable even to +Rainey's inexperience. On certain slants of wind a sharper edge would +come that bit through ordinary clothes. It was, he thought, as if some +one had suddenly opened in the dark the doors of an enormous +refrigerator. He knew what that felt like, and this was much the same. + +The weather was still clearing. In the sky of indigo the stars were +glittering points, not of gold, but steel, hard and cold. Ahead, the +northern lights were projected above the horizon in a low arch of +quivering rose. And, out of the north, before the wind, the sea advanced +in the long, smooth folds of a weighty swell over which the _Karluk_ +wore her way into the breeze, clawing steadily on to the Aleutians and a +passage through to Bering Strait. + +At two bells the hunters began to come on deck for a breath or so of +fresh air after the closeness of their quarters, as they invariably did +following a poker session. They did not come aft or give any greeting to +Rainey, but walked briskly about in couples, discussing something that +Rainey did not doubt was the next day's meeting. Doubtless, in the +confidence of their numbers, they considered it a mere formality. Lund +would take what they offered--or nothing. And Carlsen had guaranteed the +skipper's signature to an agreement. + +They got their lungs recharged with good air, and then the cold drove +them below, and Rainey, with the length of the schooner between him and +the watch, was practically alone. He went over and over the situation +as a squirrel might race around the bars of his revolving cylinder, and +came to only one conclusion, the inevitable one, to let the matter +develop itself. Lund's winning card he had bothered about until his +brain was tired. The only thing he got out of all his fussing was the +one new thought that seemed to fly out at a tangent and mock him. + +If Carlsen was deposed, and the skipper continued ill--to face the worst +but still plausible--if Carlsen, being deposed, refused to act, and the +skipper was too sick to leave his room--who was going to navigate the +schooner? Not a blind man. And Rainey couldn't learn navigation in a +day. There was more to it in these perilous seas than mere reckoning. +Ice was ahead. + +What could Lund make of that? Supposing that card of his did win, how +could they handle the schooner? He, in his capacity of eyes for Lund, +would be about as competent as a poodle trying to lead a blind pedler +out of a maze. + +The lookout broke in on his mulling over with a sudden shout. + +"_Ice! Ice!_ Close on the starboard bow!" + +Rainey put the helm over, throwing the _Karluk_ on the opposite tack. + +The berg slipped by them, not as he had imagined it, a thing of +sparkling minarets and pinnacles, but a hill of snow that materialized +in the soft darkness and floated off again to dissolution like the ghost +of an island, leaving behind the bitter chill of death, rising and +falling until, in a moment, it was gone, with its threat of shipwreck +had the night been less clear. + +Five times before eight bells the cry came from forward, and the heaps +of shining whiteness would take form, gather a certain sharpness of +outline, and go past the beam with the seas surging about them and +breaking with a hollow boom upon their cavernous sides. And this was in +the open sea. Lund had suggested that the strait would be full of ice. +Rainey felt his sailing experience, that he came to be rather proud of, +pitifully limited and inadequate in the face of coming conditions. + +When he turned in at last, despite his determination to follow Lund's +admonition concerning sleep, it would not come to him. Hansen had taken +over the deck stolidly enough, with no show of misgivings as to his +ability to handle things, but his words had not been cheering to Rainey. + +"Plenty ice from now on, Mr. Rainey. Now we bane goin' to have one hard +yob on our hands, by yiminy, you an' me!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE POT SIMMERS + + +Rainey was awakened at half past seven by the swift rush of men on deck +and a confused shouting. The sun was shining brightly through his +porthole and then it became suddenly obscured. He looked out and saw a +turreted mass of ice not half a cable's length away from the schooner, +water cascading all over its hills and valleys, that were distinct +enough, but so smoothed that the truth flashed over him. Here was a berg +that had suddenly turned turtle and exposed its greater, under-water +bulk to the air. + +About it the sea was dark and vivid blue, and the berg sparkled in the +sun with prismatic reflections that gave all the hues of the rainbow to +its prominences, while the bulk glowed like a fire opal. Between it and +the schooner the sea ran in a lasher of diminishing turmoil. Hansen had +carelessly sailed too close. The momentum of the _Karluk_ and its slight +wave disturbance must have sufficed to upset the equilibrium of the +berg, floating with only a third of its bulk above the water. And the +displacement had narrowly missed the schooner's side. + +He got a cup of coffee after dressing warmly, and went up. Carlsen and +the girl had preceded him and were gazing at the iceberg. The doctor +seemed to be in the same rare vein of humor as overnight. Lund stood at +the rail with his beak of a nose wrinkled, snuffing toward the icy crags +that were spouting a dazzle of white flame, set about with smaller, +sudden flares of ruby, emerald and sapphire. + +"Close shave, that, Rainey," called Carlsen. "She turned turtle on us." + +"Too close to be pleasant," said Rainey, and went to the wheel. The girl +had given him a smile, but he marked her face as weary from +sleeplessness and strain. Rainey left the spokes in charge of Hansen for +a minute--Hansen stolid and chewing like an automaton, undisturbed by +the incident now it had passed--and asked the girl how her father was. + +"I am afraid--" she began, then glanced at Carlsen. + +"He is not at all well," said the doctor, facing Rainey, his face away +from the girl. As he spoke he left his mouth open for a moment, his +tongue showing between his white teeth, in a grin that was as mocking as +that of a wolf, mirthless, ruthless, triumphant. And for a fleeting +second his eyes matched it. + +Rainey restrained a sudden desire to smash his fist into that sardonic +mask. This was the day of Carlsen's anticipated victory, the first of +his calculated moves toward check-mate, and he was palpably enjoying it. + +"Not--at--all--well," repeated Carlsen slowly. "He needs something to +bring him out of himself, as he now is. A little excitement. Yet he +should not be crossed in any way. We shall see." + +He shifted his position and looked at the girl much as a wolf, not +particularly hungry, might look at a tethered lamb. His tongue just +touched the inner edges of his lips. It was as if the wolf had licked +his chops. + +"Carlsen would be a bad loser," Lund had once said, "and a nasty winner. +He'd want to rub it in as soon as he knew he had you beat." + +Rainey gripped the spokes hard until he felt the pressure of his bones +against the wood. Carlsen's attitude had had one good effect. His +nervousness had disappeared, and a cold rage taken its place. He could +cheerfully have attempted to throttle Carlsen without fear of his gun. +For that matter, he had faced the pistol once and come off best. What a +fool he had been, though, to let Carlsen regain his automatic! Now he +was anxious for the landfall, keen for the show-down. + +Far on the horizon, northward, he sighted glimmering flashes of milky +whiteness that came and went to the swing of the schooner. This could +not be land, he decided, or they would have announced it. It was ice, +pack-ice, or floes. He tried to recollect all that he had heard or read +of Arctic voyages, and succeeded only in comprehending his own +ignorance. Of the rapidly changing conditions the commonest sailor +aboard knew more than he. Blind Lund, sniffing to windward, smelled and +heard far more than he could rightfully imagine. + +Tamada appeared and announced breakfast. + +"You'll be coming later, Rainey?" asked Carlsen. "You and Lund?" + +He started for the companionway and the girl followed. As she passed the +wheel Rainey spoke to her: + +"I am sorry your father is worse, Miss Simms," he said. + +She looked at him with eyes that were filled with sadness, that seemed +liquid with tears bravely held back. + +"I am afraid he is dying," she answered in a low voice. "Thank you, for +you sympathy. I--" + +She stopped at some slight sound that Rainey did not catch. But he saw +the face of Carlsen framed in the shadow of the companion, his mouth +open in the wolf grin, and the man's eyes were gleaming crimson. He held +up a hand for the girl. She passed down without taking it. + +Lund came over to Rainey. + +"Clear weather, they tell me?" he said. "That's unusual. Fog off the +Aleutians three hundred an' fifty days of the year, as a rule. Soon as +we sight land, which'll be Unalaska or thereabouts, he'll have the +course changed. There's a considerable fleet of United States revenue +cutters at Unalaska, an' Carlsen won't pull ennything until we're well +west of there. He's pretty cocky this mornin'. Wal, we'll see." + +There had always been a certain rollicking good-humor about Lund. This +morning he was grim, his face, with its beak of a nose and aggressive +chin beneath the flaming whiskers, and his whole magnificent body gave +the impression of resolve and repressed action. Rainey fancied +whimsically that he could hear a dynamo purring inside of the giant's +massiveness. He had seen him in open rage when he had first denounced +Honest Simms, but the serious mood was far more impressive. + +The big man stepped like a great cat, his head was thrust slightly +forward, his great hands were half open. One forgot his blindness. +Despite the unsightly black lenses, Lund appeared so absolutely prepared +and, in a different way, fully as confident as Carlsen. A certain +audacious assurance seemed to ooze out of him, to permeate his +neighborhood, and a measure of it extended to Rainey. + +"We'll sight Makushin first," muttered Lund, as if to himself. + +"Makushin?" + +"Volcano, fifty-seven hundred feet high. Much ice in sight?" + +Rainey described the horizon. + +"All fresh-water ice," said Lund. "An' melting." + +"Melting? It must be way below freezing," said Rainey. Lund chuckled. + +"This ain't cold, matey. Wait till we git _north_. Never saw it lower +than five above in Unalaska in my life. It's the rainiest spot in the +U. S. A. Rains two days out of three, reg'lar. This ice is comin' out of +the strait. Sure sign it's breakin' up. The winter freeze ain't due for +six weeks yet." + +Carlsen, before he went below, had sent a man into the fore-spreaders, +and now he shouted, cupping his hands and sounding his news as if it had +been a call to arms. + +"_Land-ho!_" + +"What is it?" called Rainey back. + +"High peak, sir. Dead ahead! Clouds on it, or smoke." + +He came sliding down the halyards to the deck as Lund said: "That'll be +Makushin. Now the fun'll commence." + +From below the sailors off watch came up on deck, and the hunters, the +latter wiping their mouths, fresh from their interrupted breakfast, all +crowding forward to get a glimpse of the land. Rainey kept on the +course, heading for the far-off volcano. Minutes passed before Carlsen +came on deck. He had not hurried his meal. + +"I'll take her over, Rainey," he said briefly. + +Rainey and Lund were barely seated before the heeling of the schooner +and the scuffle of feet told of Lund's prophesied change of course. +Rainey looked at the telltale compass above his head. + +"Heading due west," he told Lund. + +"West it is," said the giant. "More coffee, Tamada. Fill your belly, +Rainey. Get a good meal while the eatin' is good." + +Although it was Hansen's watch below, Rainey found him at the wheel +instead of the seaman he had left there. Carlsen came up to him smiling. + +"Better let Hansen have the deck, Mr. Rainey," he said. "We're going to +have a conference in the cabin at four bells, and I'd like you to be +present." + +"All right, sir," Rainey answered, getting a thrill at this first actual +intimation of the meeting. Hansen, it seemed, was not to be one of the +representatives of the seamen. And Carlsen had been smart enough to +forestall Lund's demand for Rainey by taking some of the wind out of the +giant's sails and doing the unexpected. Unless the hunters had suggested +that Rainey be present. But that was hardly likely, considering that he +was to be left out of the deal. + +"In just what capacity are you callin' this conference?" Lund asked, +when Carlsen notified him in turn. "The skipper ain't dead is he?" + +"I represent the captain, Lund," replied the doctor. "He entirely +approves of what I am about to suggest to you and the men. In fact I +have his signature to a document that I hope you will sign also. It will +be greatly to your interest to do so. I am in present charge of the +_Karluk_." + +"You ain't a reg'lar member of this expedition," objected Lund stolidly. +"Neither am I a member of the crew, just now. But the skipper's my +partner in this deal, signed, sealed and recorded. Afore I go to enny +meetin' I'd like to have a talk with him personally. Thet's fair enough, +ain't it?" + +Several of the hunters had gathered about, and Lund's question seemed a +general appeal. Carlsen shrugged his shoulders. + +"If you had your eyesight," he said almost brutally, "you could soon see +that the skipper was in no condition to discuss matters, much less be +present." + +"Here's my eyesight," countered Lund. "Mr. Rainey here. Let him see the +skipper and ask him a question or two." + +"What kind of question? I'm asking as his doctor, Lund." + +"For one thing if he's read the paper you say he signed. I want to be +sure of that. An' I don't make it enny of yore bizness, Carlsen, what I +want to say to my partner, by proxy or otherwise. Second thing, I'd like +to be sure he's still alive. As for yore standin' as his doctor, all +I've got to say is that yo're a damned pore doctor, so fur as the +skipper's concerned, ennyway." + +The two men stood facing each other, Carlsen looking evilly at the +giant, whose black glasses warded off his glance. It was wasting looks +to glare at a blind man. Equally to sneer. But the bout between the two +was timed now, and both were casting aside any veneer of diplomacy, +their enmity manifesting itself in the raw. The issue was growing tense. + +Rainey fancied that Carlsen was not entirely sure of his following, and +relied upon Lund's indignant refusal of terms to back up his plans of +getting rid of him decisively. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SHOW-DOWN + + +"Rainey can see the skipper," said Carlsen carelessly. + +"All right," said Lund. "Will you do that, Rainey? Now?" And Rainey had +a fleeting fancy that the giant winked one of his blind eyes at him, +though the black lenses were deceiving. + +He went below immediately and rapped on the door, a little surprised to +see the girl appear in the opening. He had expected to find the skipper +alone, and he was pretty sure that Carlsen had also expected this. The +drawn expression of her face, the strained faint smile with which she +greeted him, the hopeless look in her eyes, startled him. + +"I wanted to see your father," he said in a low voice. + +She told him to enter. + +Captain Simms was lying in his bunk, apparently fully dressed, with the +exception of his shoes. His cheeks had sunken, dark hollows showed under +his closed eyes, the bones of his skull projected, and his flesh was the +color of clay. Rainey believed that he was in the presence of death +itself. He looked at the girl. + +"He is in a stupor," she said. "He has been that way since last night, +following a collapse. I can barely find his pulse, but his breath shows +on this." + +She produced a small mirror, little larger than a dollar, and held it +before her father's lips. When she took it away Rainey saw a trace of +moisture. + +"Carlsen can not rouse him?" he asked. + +"Can not--or will not," she answered in a voice that held a hard quality +for all its despondency. Rainey glanced at the door. It was shut. + +"What do you mean by that?" he asked, speaking low. + +She looked at him as if measuring his dependency. + +"I don't know," she answered dully. "I wish I did. Father's illness +started with sciatica, through exposure to the cold and damp. It was +better during the time the _Karluk_ was in San Francisco though he had +some severe attacks. He said that Doctor Carlsen gave him relief. I know +that he did, for there were days at first when father had to stay in bed +from the pain. It was in his left leg, and then it showed in frightful +headaches, and he complained of pain about the heart. But he was bent on +the voyage, and Doctor Carlsen guaranteed he could pull him through. +But--lately--the doctor has seemed uncertain. He talks of perverted +nerve functions, and he has obtained a tremendous influence over father. + +"You heard what he said when--the night he tried to shoot you? You see, +I am trusting you in all this, Mr. Rainey. I _must_ trust some one. If I +don't I can't stand it. I think I shall go mad sometimes. The doctor has +changed. It is as if he was a dual personality--like Jekyll and +Hyde--and now he is always Hyde. It is the gold that has turned his +brain, his whole behavior from what he was in California before father +returned and he learned of the island. He said last night that he could +save father or--or--that he would let father die. I told him it was +sheer murder! He laughed. He said he would save him--for a price." + +She stopped, and Rainey supplied the gap, sure that he was right. + +"If you would marry him?" + +The girl nodded. "Father will do anything he tells him. I sometimes +think he tortures father and only relieves him when father promises what +he wants. Otherwise I could not understand. Last night father asked me +to do this thing. Not because of any threat--he did not seem conscious +of anything underhanded. He told me he looked upon the doctor as a son, +that it would make him happy for me to marry him--now. That he would +perform the ceremony. That he did not think he would live long and he +wanted to see me with a protector. + +"It was horrible. I dare not hint anything against the doctor. It brings +on a nervous attack. Last night my refusal caused convulsions, and +then--the collapse! What can I do? If I made the sacrifice how can I +tell that Doctor Carlsen could--_would_ save him? What shall I do?" + +She was in an agony of self-questioning, of doubt. + +"To see him lie there--like that. I can not bear it." + +"Miss Simms," said Rainey, "your father is not in his right mind or he +would see Carlsen as you do, as I do. Carlsen's brain is turned with the +lure of the gold. If he marries you, I believe it is only for your +share, for what you will get from your father. It can not be right to do +a wrong thing. No good could come from it. But--something may happen +this morning--I can not tell you what. I do not know, except that Lund +is to face Carlsen. It may change matters." + +"Lund," she said scornfully. "What can he do? And he accused my father +of deserting him. I--" + +A knock came at the door, and it started to open. Carlsen entered. + +"Ah," he said. "I trust I have not disturbed you. I had no idea I should +interrupt a tete-a-tete. Are you satisfied as to the captain's +condition, Mr. Rainey?" + +Rainey looked the scoffing devil full in his eyes, and hot scorn mounted +to his own so swiftly that Carlsen's hand fell away from the door jamb +toward his hip. Then he laughed softly. + +"We may be able to bring him round, all right again, who knows?" he +said. + +Rainey went on deck, raging but impotent. He told Lund briefly of the +talk between him and Peggy Simms, and described the general symptoms of +the skipper's strange malady. It was nine o'clock, an hour to the +meeting. He went down to his own room and sat on the bunk, smoking, +trying to piece up the puzzle. If Carlsen was a potential murderer, if +he intended to let Simms die, why should he want to marry the girl? He +thought he solved that issue. + +As his wife Carlsen would retain her share. If he gave her up, it would +go into the common purse. But, if he expected to trick the men out of it +all, that would be unnecessary. Did he really love the girl? Or was his +lust for gold mingled with a passion for possession of her? He might +know that the girl would kill herself before she would submit to +dishonor. Perhaps he knew she had the means! + +One thing became paramount. To save Peggy Simms. Lund might fight for +the gold; Rainey would battle for the girl's sanctity. And, armed with +that resolve, Rainey went out into the main cabin. + +Carlsen took the head of the table. Lund faced him at the other end. All +six of the hunters, as privileged characters, were present, but only +three of the seamen, awkward and diffident at being aft. The nine, with +Rainey, ranged themselves on either side of the table, five and five, +with Rainey on Lund's right. + +Tamada had brought liquor and glasses and cigars, and gone forward. The +door between the main cabin and the corridor leading to the galley was +locked after him by Deming. The girl was not present. Yet her share was +an important factor. + +Lund sat with folded arms, his great body relaxed. Now that the table +was set, the cards all dealt, and the first play about to be made, the +giant shed his tenseness. Even his grim face softened a trifle. He +seemed to regard the affair with a certain amount of humor, coupled with +the zest of a gambler who loves the game whether the stakes are for +death or dollars. + +Carlsen had a paper under his hand, but deferred its reading until he +had addressed the meeting. + +"A ship," he said, "is a little community, a world in itself. To its +safety every member is a necessity, the lookout as much as the man at +the wheel, the common seaman, the navigator. And, when a ship is engaged +in a certain calling, those who are hired as experts in that line are +equally essential with the rest." + +"All the way from captain to--cook?" drawled Lund. + +"Each depends upon his comrade's fulfilment of duty," went on Carlsen. +"So an absolute equality is evolved. Each man's responsibility being +equal, his reward should be also equal. It seems to me that this status +of affairs is arrived at more naturally aboard the _Karluk_ than it +might be elsewhere. We are a small company, and not easily divided. The +will of the majority may easily become that of all, may easily be +applied. + +"Payment for all services comes on this voyage from an uncertain amount +of gold that Nature, Mother of us all, and therefore intending that all +her children shall share her heritage, has washed up on a beach from +some deep-sea vein and thus deposited upon an uncharted, unclaimed +island. It is discovered by an Indian, the discovery is handed on to +another." + +"Meanin' me." Lund seemed to be enjoying himself. Despite the fact that +Carlsen was presiding and most evidently assumed the attributes of +leader, despite the fact that ten of the twelve at the table were +arrayed against him, with the rest of the seamen behind them, Lund was +decidedly enjoying himself. + +To Rainey, the matter of the gold was but a mask for the license that +would inevitably be manifested in such a crude democracy if it was +established, a license that threatened the girl, now, he imagined, +watching her father, the captain of the vessel, tottering on the verge +of death. His pulses raced, he longed for the climax. + +"This gold," went on Carlsen, "is not a commodity made in a factory, +obtained through the toil of others, through the expenditure of +capital. If it were, it would not alter the principle of the thing. It +is of nature's own providing for those of her sons who shall find it and +gather it. Sons that, as brothers, must willingly share and share +alike." + +Lund yawned, showing his strong teeth and the red cavern of his mouth. +The hunters gazed at him curiously. The seamen, lacking initiative, +lacking imagination, a crude collection of water-front drifters, more or +less wrecked specimens of humanity who went to sea because they had no +other capacity--were apathetic, listening to Carlsen with a sort of awe, +a hypnosis before his argument that street rabble exhibit before the +jargon of a soap-box orator. + +Carlsen promised them something, therefore they followed him. But the +hunters, more independent, more intelligent, seemed expecting an +outburst from Lund and, because it was not forthcoming, they were a +little uneasy. + +"Share and share alike," said Lund. "I've got yore drift, Carlsen. Let's +get down to brass tacks. The idea is to divvy the gold into equal +parts, ain't it? How does she split? There's twenty-five souls aboard. +Does that mean you split the heap into a hundred parts an' each one gits +four?" + +"No." It was Deming who answered. "It don't. The Jap don't come in, for +one." + +"A cook ain't a brother?" + +"Not when he's got a yellow skin," answered Deming. "We'll take up a +collection for Sandy. Rainey ain't in on the deal. We split it just +twenty-two ways. What have you got to say about it?" + +His tone was truculent, and Carlsen did not appear disposed to check +him. He appeared not quite certain of the temper of the hunters. Deming, +like Rainey, evidently chafed under the preliminaries. + +"You figger we're all equal aboard," said Lund slowly, "leavin' out Mr. +Rainey, Tamada an' Sandy. You an' me, an' Carlsen an' Harris there"--he +nodded toward one of the seaman delegates who listened with his slack +mouth agape, scratching himself under the armpit--"are all equal?" + +Deming cast a glance at Harris and, for just a moment, hesitated. + +Harris squirming under the look of Deming, which was aped by the sudden +scrutiny of all the hunters, found speech: "How in hell did you know I +was here?" he demanded of Lund. "I ain't opened my mouth yit!" + +"That ain't the truth, Harris," replied Lund composedly. "It's allus +open. But if you want to know, I smelled ye." + +There was a guffaw at the sally. Carlsen's voice stopped it. + +"I'll answer the question, Lund. Yes, we're all equal. The world is not +a democracy. Harris, so far, hasn't had a chance to get the equal share +that belongs to him by rights. That's what I meant by saying that the +_Karluk_ was a little world of its own. We're all equal on board." + +"Except Rainey, Tamada an' Sandy. Seems to me yore argumint's got holes +in it, Carlsen." + +"We are waiting to know whether you agree with us?" replied Carlsen. His +voice had altered quality. It held the direct challenge. Lund accepted +it. + +"I don't," he answered dryly. "There ain't enny one of you my equal, an' +you've showed it. There ain't enny one of you, from Carlsen to Harris, +who'd have the nerve to put it up to me alone. You had to band together +in a pack, like a flock of sheep, with Carlsen for sheepherder. _I'm +talking_," he went on in a tone that suddenly leaped to thunder. "None +of you have got the brains of Carlsen, becoz he had to put this scheme +inter yore noddles. Deming, you think yo're a better man than Harris, +you know damn' well you play better poker than the rest, an' you agreed +to this becoz you figger you'll win most of the gold afore the v'yage is +over. The rest of you suckers listened becoz some one tells you you are +goin' to get more than what's rightly comin' to you. + +"This gold is mine by right of discovery. I lose my ship through bad +luck, an' I make a deal whereby the skipper gets the same as I do, an' +the ship, which is the same as his daughter, gets almost as much. You +men were offered a share on top of yore wages if you wanted to take the +chance--two shares to the hunters. It was damned liberal, an' you +grabbed at it. I got left on the ice, blind on a breakin' floe, an' you +sailed off an' grabbed a handful or so of gold, enough to set you crazy. + +"What in blazes would you know what to do with it, enny of you? Spill it +all along the Barb'ry Coast, or gamble it off to Deming. Is there one of +you 'ud have got off thet floe an', blind as I was, turned up ag'in? Not +one of ye. An' when I _did_ show you got sore becoz you'd figgered there +'ud be more with me away. + +"A fine lot of skunks. You can take yore damned bit of paper an' light +yore pipes with it, for all of me. To hell with it! + +"_Shut up_!" His voice topped the murmurs at the table. Rainey saw +Carlsen sitting back with his tongue-tip showing in a grin, tapping the +table with the folded paper in one hand, the other in his lap, leaning +back a little. He was like a man waiting for the last bet to be made +before he exposed the winning hand. + +"As for bein' equal, I've told you Carlsen's got the brains of you all. +The skipper's dyin', Carlsen expects to marry his gal. An' he figgers +thet way on pullin' down three shares to yore one. You say Rainey ain't +in on the deal. He's as much so as Carlsen. Carlsen butts in as a doctor +an' a fine job he's made of it. Skipper nigh dead. A hell of a doctor! +Smoke up, all of you." + +Carlsen sat quiet, sometimes licking his lips gently, listening to Lund +as he might have listened to the rantings of a melodramatic actor. But +Rainey sensed that he was making a mistake. He was letting Lund go too +far. The men were listening to Lund, and he knew that the giant was +talking for a specific purpose. Just to what end he could not guess. +The big booming voice held them, while it lashed them. + +"Equal to me? Bah! I'm a _man_. Yo're a lot of fools. Talk about me +bein' blind. It was ice-blink got me. Then ophthalmy matterin' up my +eyes. It's gold-blink's got you. Yo're cave-fish, a lot of blind +suckers." + +He leaned over the table pointing a massive square finger, thatched with +red wool, direct at Carlsen, as if he had been leveling a weapon. + +"Carlsen's a fake! He's got you hipped. He thinks he's boss, becoz he's +the only navigator of yore crowd. I ain't overlooked that card, Carlsen. +That ain't the only string he's got on ye. Nor the three shares he +expects to pull down. He made you pore suckers fire off all your shells; +he found out you ain't got a gun left among you that's enny more use +than a club. He's got a gun an' he showed you how he could use it. He's +sittin' back larfin' at the bunch of you!" + +The men stirred. Rainey saw Carlsen's grin disappear. He dropped the +paper. His face paled, the veins showed suddenly like purple veins in +dirty marble. + +"I've got that gun yet, Lund," he snarled. + +Lund laughed, the ring of it so confident that the men glanced from him +to Carlsen nervously. + +"Yo're a fake, Carlsen," he said. "And I've got yore number! To hell +with you an' yore popgun. You ain't even a doctor. I saw real doctors +ashore about my eyes. Niphablepsia, they call snow-blindness. I'll bet +you never heard of it. Yo're only a woman-conning dope-shooter! Else +you'd have known that niphablepsia ain't _permanent_! I've bin' gettin' +my sight back ever sence I left Seattle. An' now, damn you for a moldy +hearted, slimy souled fakir, stand up an' say yo're my equal!" + +He stood up himself, towering above the rest as they rose from their +chairs, tearing the black glasses from his eyes and flinging them at +Carlsen, who was forced to throw up a hand to ward them off. Rainey got +one glimpse of the giant's eyes. They were gray-blue, the color of +agate-ware, hard as steel, implacable. + +Carlsen swept aside the spectacles and they shattered on the floor as he +leaped up and the automatic shone in his hand. Lund had folded his arms +above his great chest. He laughed again, and his arms opened. + +In an instant Rainey caught the object of Lund's speech-making. He had +done it to enrage Carlsen beyond endurance, to make him draw his gun. +Giant as he was, he moved with the grace of a panther, with a swiftness +too fast for the eye to register. Something flashed in his right hand, a +gun, that he had drawn from a holster slung over his left breast. + +The shots blended. Lund stood there erect, uninjured. A red blotch +showed between Carlsen's eyes. He slumped down into his chair, his arms +clubbing the table, his gun falling from his nerveless hand, his +forehead striking the wood like the sound of an auctioneer's gavel. Lund +had beaten him to the draw. + +Lund, no longer a blind Samson, with contempt in his agate eyes, +surveyed the scattering group of men who stared at the dead man dully, +as if gripped by the exhibition of a miracle. + +"It's all right, Miss Simms," he said. "Jest killed a skunk. Rainey, git +that gun an' attend to the young lady, will you?" + +The girl stood in the doorway of her father's cabin, her face frozen to +horror, her eyes fixed on Lund with repulsion. As Rainey got the +automatic, slipped it into his pocket, and went toward her, she shrank +from him. But her voice was for Lund. + +"You murderer!" she cried. + +Lund grinned at her, but there was no laughter in his eyes. + +"We'll thrash that out later, miss," he said. "Now, you men, jump +for'ard, all of you. Deming, unlock that door. _Jump!_ Equals, are you? +I'll show you who's master on this ship. Wait!" + +His voice snapped like the crack of a whip and they all halted, save +Deming, who sullenly fitted the key to the lock of the corridor +entrance. + +"Take this with you," said Lund, pointing to Carlsen's sagging body. +"When you git tired of his company, throw him overboard. Jump to it!" + +The nearest men took up the body of the doctor and they all filed +forward, silently obedient to the man who ordered them. + +"They ain't all whipped yit," said Lund. "Not them hunters. They're +still sufferin' from gold-blink, but I'll clean their eyesight for 'em. +Look after the lady an' her father, Rainey." + +Tamada entered as if nothing had happened. He carried a tray of dishes +and cutlery that he laid down on the table. + +"Never mind settin' a place for Carlsen, Tamada," said Lund. "He's lost +his appetite--permanent." The Oriental's face did not change. + +"Yes, sir," he answered. + +The girl shuddered. Rainey saw that Lund was exhilarated by his +victory, that the primitive fighting brute was prominent. Carlsen had +tried to shoot first, goaded to it; his death was deserved; but it +seemed to Rainey that Lund's exhibition of savagery was unnecessary. But +he also saw that Lund would not heed any protest that he might make, he +was still swept on by his course of action, not yet complete. + +"I'll borrow Carlsen's sextant," said Lund. "Nigh noon, an' erbout time +I got our reckonin'." He went into the doctor's cabin and came out with +the instrument, tucking it under his arm as he went on deck. + +Tamada went stolidly on with his preparations. He paused at the little +puddle of blood where Carlsen's head had struck the table, turned, and +disappeared toward his galley, promptly emerging with a wet cloth. + +The girl put her hands over her eyes as Tamada methodically mopped up +the telltale stains. + +"The brute!" she said. Then took away her hands and extended them toward +Rainey. + +"What will he do with my father?" she said. "He thinks that dad deserted +him. And the doctor, who might have saved him, is dead. My God, what +shall I do? What shall I do?" + +Rainey found himself murmuring some attempts at consolation, a defense +of Lund. + +"You too?" she said with a contempt that, unmerited as it was, stung +Rainey to the quick. "You are on his side. Oh!" + +She wheeled into her father's room and shut the door. Rainey heard the +click of the bolt on the other side. Tamada was going on with his +table-laying. Rainey saw that he had left Carlsen's place vacant. He +listened for a moment, but heard nothing within the skipper's cabin. The +swift rush of events was still a jumble. Slowly he went up the +companionway to the deck. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HONEST SIMMS + + +Lund greeted Rainey with a curt nod. Hansen was still at the helm. The +crew on duty were standing about alert, their eyes on Lund. They had +found a new master, and they were cowed, eager to do their best. + +"It ain't noon yet," said Lund. "I hardly need to shoot the sun with the +land that close." + +Rainey looked over the starboard bow to where a series of peaks and +lower humps of dark blue proclaimed the Aleutian island bridge +stretching far to the west. + +"I'll show this crew they've got a skipper aboard," said Lund. "How's +the cap'en?" + +Rainey told him. + +"We'll see what we can do for him," said Lund. "He's better off without +that fakir, that's a cinch. Called me a murderer," he went on with a +good-humored laugh. "Got spunk, she has. And she's a trim bit. A slip of +a gal, but she's game. An' good-lookin' eh, Rainey?" + +He shot a keen glance at the newspaperman. + +"You're in her bad hooks, too, ain't ye? We'll fix that after a bit. She +don't know when she's well off. Most wimmin don't. An' she's the sort +that needs handlin' right. She's upset now, natural, an' she hates me." + +He smiled as if the prospect suited him. A suspicion leaped into +Rainey's brain. Lund had said he would not see a decent girl harmed. But +the man was changed. He had fought and won, and victory shone in his +eyes with a glitter that was immune from sympathy, for all his air of +good-nature. + +He had said that a man under his skin was just an animal. His appraisal +of the girl struck Rainey with apprehension. "To the victor belong the +spoils." Somehow the quotation persisted. What if Lund regarded the girl +as legitimate loot? He might have talked differently beforehand, to +assure himself of Rainey's support. + +And Rainey suddenly felt as if his support had been uncalled upon, a +frail reed at best. Lund had not needed him, would he need him, save as +an aid, not altogether necessary, with Hansen aboard, to run the ship? + +He said nothing, but thrust both hands into the side pockets of the +pilot coat he had acquired from the ship's stores. The sudden touch of +cold steel gave him new courage. He had sworn to protect the girl. If +Lund, seeming more like a pirate than ever, with his cold eyes sweeping +the horizon, his bulk casting Rainey's into a dwarf's by comparison, +attempted to harm Peggy Simms, Rainey resolved to play the part of +champion. + +He could not shoot like Lund, but he was armed. There were undoubtedly +more cartridges in the clip. And he must secure the rest from Carlsen's +cabin immediately. + +The sun reached its height, and Lund busied himself with his sextant. +Rainey determined to ask him to teach him the use of it. His consent or +refusal would tell him where he stood with Lund. + +He felt the mastery of the man. And he felt incompetent beside him. +Carlsen had been right. A ship at sea was a little world of its own, and +Lund was now lord of it. A lord who would demand allegiance and enforce +it. He held the power of life and death, not by brute force alone. He +was the only navigator aboard, with the skipper seriously ill. As such +alone he held them in his hand, once they were out of sight of land. + +"Hansen," said Lund, "Mr. Rainey'll relieve you after we've eaten. Come +on, Rainey. You ain't lost yore appetite, I hope. Watch me discard that +spoon for a knife an' fork. I don't have to play blind man enny longer." + +Food did not appeal to Rainey. He could not help thinking of the spot +under the cloth where Tamada had wiped up the blood of the man just +killed by Lund, sitting opposite him, making play for a double helping +of victuals. + +It was Lund's apparent callousness that affected him more than his own +squeamishness. He could not regret Carlsen's death. With the doctor +alive, his own existence would have been a constant menace. But he was +not used to seeing a killing, though, in his water-front detail, he had +not been unacquainted with grim tragedies of the sea. + +It was Lund's demeanor that gripped him. The giant had dismissed Carlsen +as unceremoniously as he might have flipped the ash from a cigar, or +tossed the stub overside. + +"I've got to tackle those hunters," Lund said. "I expect trouble there, +sooner or later. But I'm goin' to lay down the law to 'em. If they come +clean, well an' good, they git their original two shares. If not, they +don't get a plugged nickel. An' Deming's the one who'll stir up the +trouble, take it from me. Tell Hansen to turn in his watch-off, I shan't +take a deck for a day or two, you'll have to go on handlin' it between +you. I've got to make my peace with the gal, an' do what I can with the +skipper." + +"She'll not make peace easily. But the skipper's in a bad way." + +Lund lit his pipe. + +"I'd jest as soon it was war. I don't see as we can help the skipper +much 'less we try reverse treatment of what Carlsen did. If we knew what +that was? If he gits worse she'll let us know, I reckon. Mebbe you can +suggest somethin'?" + +Rainey shook his head. + +"I suppose she can do more than any of us," he said. + +Lund nodded, then whistled to Tamada, leaving the cabin. + +"Take a bottle of whisky to the hunters' mess, with my compliments. +That'll give 'em about three jolts apiece," he said to Rainey. "Long as +we've won out we may as well let 'em down easy. But they'll work for +their shares, jest the same. A drink or two may help 'em swaller what +I'm goin' to give 'em by way of dessert in the talkin' line. See you +later." + +Rainey took the dismissal and went up to the relief of Hansen. He did +not mention what had happened until the Scandinavian referred to it +indirectly. + +"They put the doc overboard, sir, soon's Mr. Lund an' you bane go +below." + +It seemed a summary dismissal of the dead, without ceremony. Yet, for +the rite to be authentic, Lund must have presided, and the sea-burial +service would have been a mockery under the circumstances. It was the +best thing to have done, Rainey felt, but he could not avoid a mental +shiver at the thought of the man, so lately vital, his brain alive with +energy, sliding through the cold water to the ooze to lie there, sodden, +swinging with the sub-sea currents until the ocean scavengers claimed +him. + +"All right, Hansen," he said in answer, and the man hurried off after +his extra detail. + +Lund came up after a while, and Rainey told him of the fate of Carlsen's +body. + +"I figgered they'd do about that," commented Lund. "They savvied he'd +aimed to make suckers out of 'em, an' they dumped him. But they ain't on +our side, by a long sight. Not that I give a damn. If they want to sulk, +let 'em sulk. But they'll stand their watches, an', when we git to the +beach, they'll do their share of diggin'. If they need drivin', I'll +drive 'em. + +"That Deming is a better man than I thought. He's the main grouch among +'em. Said if I hadn't had a gun he'd have tackled me in the cabin. Meant +it, too, though I'd have smashed him. He's sore becoz I said he warn't +my equal. I told him, enny time he wanted to try it out, I'd accommodate +him. He didn't take it up, an' they'll kid him about it. He'll pack a +grudge. I ain't afraid of their knifin' me, not while the skipper's +sick. They need me to navigate." + +"This might be a good chance for me to handle a sextant," suggested +Rainey casually. + +Lund shook his head, smiling, but his eyes hard. + +"Not yet, matey," he said. "Not that I don't trust you, but for me to be +the only one, jest now, is a sort of life insurance that suits me to +carry. They might figger, if you was able to navigate, that they c'ud +put the screws on you to carry 'em through, with me out of the way. I +don't say they could, but they might make it hard for you, an' you ain't +got quite the same stake in this I have." + +Here was cold logic, but Rainey saw the force of it. Hansen came up +early to split the watch and put their schedule right again, and Lund +went below with Rainey. Lund ordered Tamada to bring a bottle and +glasses, and they sat down at the table. Rainey needed the kick of a +drink, and took one. + +As Lund was raising his glass with a toast of "Here's to luck," the +skipper's door opened and the girl appeared. She looked like a ghost. +Her hair was disheveled and her eyes stared at them without seeming +recognition. But she spoke, in a flat toneless voice. + +"My father is dead! I--" she faltered, swayed, and seemed to swoon as +she sank toward the floor. Rainey darted forward, but Lund was quicker +and swooped her up in his arms as if she had been a feather, took her to +the table, set her in a chair, dabbled a napkin in some water and +applied it to her brows. + +"Chafe her wrists," he ordered Rainey. "Undo that top button of her +blouse. That's enough; she ain't got on corsets. She'll come through. +Plumb worn out. That's all." + +He handled her, deftly, as a nurse would a child. Rainey chafed the +slender wrists and beat her palms, and soon she opened her eyes and +sighed. Then she pulled away from Lund, bending over her, and got to her +feet. + +"I must go to my father," she said. "He is dead." + +They followed her into the cabin, and Lund bent over the bunk. + +"Looks like it," he whispered to Rainey. Then he tore open the skipper's +vest and shirt and laid his head on his chest. The girl made a faint +motion as if to stop him, but did not hinder him. She was at the end of +her own strength from weariness and worry. Lund suddenly raised his +head. + +"There's a flutter," he announced. "He ain't gone yit. Get Tamada an' +some brandy." + +The Japanese, by some intuition, was already on hand, and produced the +brandy. Rainey poured out a measure. The captain's teeth were tightly +clenched. Lund spraddled one great hand across his jaws, pressing at +their junction, forcing them apart, firmly, but gently enough, while +Rainey squeezed in a few drops of brandy from the corner of his soaked +handkerchief. Lund stroked the sick man's throat, and he swallowed +automatically. + +"More brandy," ordered Lund. + +With the next dose there came signs of revival, a low moan from the +skipper. The girl flew to his side. Tamada, standing by with the +bottle, stepped forward, handed the brandy to Rainey, and rolled up the +lid of an eye, looking closely at the pupil. + +"I study medicine at Tokio," he said. + +"Why didn't ye say so before?" demanded Lund. It did not occur to any of +them to doubt Tamada's word. There was an air of professional assurance +and an efficiency about him that carried weight. "What can you do for +him? There's a medicine chest in Carlsen's room." + +"I was hired to cook," said Tamada quietly. "I should not have been +permit to interfere. It is not my business if a white man makes a fool +of himself. Now we want morphine and hypodermic syringe." + +Tamada rolled up the captain's sleeve. The flesh, shrunken, pallid, was +closely spotted with dot-like scars that showed livid, as if the captain +had been suffering from some strange rash. + +Lund whistled softly. Rainey, too, knew what it meant. The skipper had +been a veritable slave to the drug. Carlsen had administered it, +prescribed it, used it as a means to bring Simms under his subjection. +The girl looked strangely at Tamada. + +"Would he have taken that for sciatica?" she asked. + +"I think, perhaps, yes. Injection over muscle gives relief. Sometimes +makes cure. But Captain Simms take too much. Suppose this supply cut off +very suddenly, then come too much chills, maybe collapse, maybe--" The +girl clutched his arm. + +"You meant more than you said. It might mean death?" + +"I don't know," replied Tamada gravely. "Perhaps, if now we have +morphine, presently we give him smaller dose every time, it will be all +right." He lifted up the sick man's hand and examined the nails +critically. They were broken, brittle. + +Rainey had gone to Carlsen's room in search of the drug and the +injecting needle. + +"How much d'ye suppose he took at once?" Lund asked the Japanese in a +low voice. + +"Fifteen grains, I think. Maybe more. Too much! Always too much drug in +his veins. Much worse than opium for man." + +"Carlsen's work," growled Lund. "Increased the stuff on him till he +couldn't do without it. Made him a slave to dope an' Carlsen his boss. +He deserved killin' jest for that, the skunk." + +Rainey frantically searched through the medicine chest and, finding only +five tablets marked _Morphine 1 gr._ in a bottle, sought elsewhere in +vain. And he could find no needle. But he ran across some automatic +cartridges and put them in his pockets before he hurried back. + +"This is not enough," said Tamada. "And we should have needle. But I +dissolve these in galley." And he hurried out. The girl had slipped down +on her knees beside the bed, holding her father's hand against her lips, +her eyes closed. She seemed to be praying. + +Rainey and Lund looked at each other. Rainey was trying to recall +something. It came at last, the memory of Carlsen slipping something in +his pocket as he had come out of the captain's room. That had been the +hypodermic case! As the thought lit up' his eyes he saw a flash in +Lund's. + +"Carlsen had the morphine on him," said Lund in a whisper, not to +disturb the girl. + +"And the needle!" said Rainey. "What if?" He raced out of the cabin +forward, passing Tamada, coming out of the galley with the dissolved +tablets in a glass that steamed with hot water. Swiftly he told his +suspicions. + +"They may have searched him first," he said, and went on to the hunters' +cabin. They were seated about their table, talking. On seeing Rainey +they stopped abruptly and viewed him suspiciously. Deming rose. + +"What's the idea?" he asked and his tone was not friendly. + +Rainey hurriedly explained. Deming shrugged his shoulders. + +"They sewed him up in canvas in the fo'k'le," he said indifferently. +"None of us went through him. I think they made the kid do the job." + +Rainey found Sandy in his bunk, asleep, trying to get one of the catnaps +by which he made up his lack of definitely assigned rest. The roustabout +woke with a shudder, flinching under Rainey's hand. + +"They made me do it," he said in answer. "None of 'em 'ud touch it till +I had it sewed in an old staysail, an' a boatkedge tied on for weight. I +didn't go inter his pockets. I was scared to touch it more'n I had to." + +"Is that the truth, Sandy? I don't care what you took besides this +little case and a bottle of tablets. You can keep the rest." + +"It's the bloody truth, Mister Rainey, s'elp me," whined Sandy. And the +truth was in his shifty eyes. + +Rainey went back with his news. He imagined that the five grains would +prove temporarily sufficient. And they could put in for Unalaska. There +were surgeons there with the revenue fleet. He thought there was +probably a hospital. + +They would have to explain Carlsen's death. They would be asked about +the purpose of the voyage, the crew examined. It might mean detention, +the defeat of the expedition, the very thing that Lund had feared, the +following of them to the island. He wondered how Lund would take to the +plan. + +He found that Tamada had administered the morphine. Already the +beneficial results were apparent. The dry, frightfully sallow skin had +changed and Simms was breathing freely while Tamada, feeling his pulse, +nodded affirmatively to the girl's questioning glance. + +"Got it?" asked Lund. + +Rainey gave the result of his search. + +"We'll have to put in to Unalaska," he said. "There are doctors there." +The girl turned toward Lund. He smiled at the intensity of her gaze and +pose. + +"I play fair, Miss Peggy," he said. "Rainey, change the course." + +Peggy Simms seized Lund's great paw in both her hands, and, for the +first time, the tears overflowed her eyes. The _Karluk_ came about as +Rainey reached the deck and gave his orders. Then he returned to the +cabin. The captain had opened his eyes. + +"Peggy!" he murmured. "Carlsen, where is he? Lund! Good God, Lund, you +can see?" + +"Keep quiet as you can," said Tamada. Something in his voice made the +skipper shift his look to the Japanese. + +"Where's Carlsen?" he asked again. + +"He can't come now," said Tamada. + +Under the urge of the drug the skipper's brain seemed abnormally clear, +his intuition heightened. + +"Carlsen's dead?" he asked. Then, shifting to Lund. "You killed him, +Jim?" + +Lund nodded. + +"How much morphine did you give me?" + +"Five grains." + +"It's not enough. It won't last. _There isn't any more?_" he flashed +out, with sudden energy, trying to raise himself. + +"We're puttin' in for Unalaska, Simms," said Lund. + +"How far?" + +"'Bout seventy miles." + +"Then it's too late. Too late. The pain's shifted of late--to my heart. +It'll get me presently." + +The girl darted a look of hate at Lund, an accusation that he met +composedly, swift as the change had come from the almost reverence with +which she had clasped his hand. + +"I'll be gone in an hour or two," said the skipper. "Got to talk while +this lasts. Jim--about leavin' you that time. I could have come back. I +had words about it--with Hansen. He knows. But the gale was bad, an' the +ice. It wasn't the gold, Jim. I swear it. I had the ship an' crew to +look out for. An' Peggy, at home. + +"I might have gone back sooner, Jim, I'll own up to that. But it wasn't +the gold that did it. An'--I didn't hear what you shouted, Jim. The +storm came up. We were frozen by the time we found the ship. Numb. + +"Then, then; oh, God, my heart!" He sat upright, clutching at his chest, +his face convulsed with spasms of pain. Tamada got some brandy between +the chattering teeth. Sweat poured out on the skipper's forehead, and he +sank back, exhausted but temporarily relieved. The girl wiped his brows. + +"It'll get me next attack," he said presently in a weak voice. "Jim, +this trouble hit me the day after we left the floe. Not sciatica, at +first, but in the head. I couldn't think right. I was just numb in the +brain. An' when it cleared off, it was too late. The ice had closed. We +couldn't go back. I read up in my medical book, Jim, later, when the +sciatica took me. + +"Had to take to my bunk. Couldn't stand. I had morphine, an' it relieved +me. Took too much after a while. Had to have it. Got better in San +Francisco for a bit. Then Carlsen prescribed it. Morphine was my boss, +an' then Carlsen, he was boss of the morphine. Seemed like--seemed +like--_More brandy, Tamada_." + +His voice was weaker when he spoke again. They came closer to catch his +whispers. + +"Carlsen--mind wasn't my own. Peggy--I wasn't in my right mind, +honey. Not when--Carlsen--he was angel when he gave me what I +wanted--devil--when he wouldn't. Made me--do things. But he's dead. And +I'm going. Never reach Unalaska. Peggy--forgive. Meant for +best--but--not in right mind. Jim--it wasn't the gold. Not Peggy's +fault--anyway." + +"She'll get hers, Simms," said Lund. "Yours too." + +The skipper's eyes closed and his frame settled under the clothes. The +girl flung herself on the bed in uncontrollable weeping. Lund raised his +eyebrows at Tamada, who shrugged his shoulders. + +"Better get out o' here," whispered Lund. He and Rainey went out +together. In a few minutes Tamada joined them, his face sphinxlike as +ever. + +"He is dead," he said. + +Rainey and Lund went on deck. The schooner thrashed toward the volcano, +the bearing-mark for Unalaska, hidden behind it. They paced up and down +in silence. + +"I guess he was 'Honest Simms,' after all," said Lund at last. "The gal +blames me for the morphine, but Carlsen never meant him to live. She'll +see that after a bit, mebbe." + +Rainey glanced at him curiously. He was getting fresh lights on Lund. + +Then the girl appeared, pale, composed, coming straight up to Lund, who +halted his stride at sight of her. + +"Will you change the course, Mr. Lund?" she said. + +He looked at her in surprise. + +"Father spoke once more. After you left. He does not want you to go on +to Unalaska. He said it would mean a rush for the gold; perhaps you +would have to stay there. He does not want you to lose the gold. He +wants me to have my share. He made me promise. And he wants--he +wants"--she bit her lip fiercely in repression of her feelings--"to be +buried at sea. That was his last request." + +She turned and looked over the rail, struggling to wink back her tears. +Rainey saw the giant's glance sweep over her, full of admiration. + +"As you wish, Miss Peggy," he said. "Hansen, 'bout ship. Hold on a +minnit. How about you, Miss Peggy? If you want to go home, we can find +ways at Unalaska. I play fair. I'll bring back yore share--in full." + +"I am not thinking about the gold," the girl said scornfully. "But I +want to carry out my father's last wishes, if you will permit me. I +shall stay with the ship. Now I am going back to him. You--you"--she +quelled the tremble of her mouth, and her chin showed firm and +determined--"you can arrange for the funeral to-morrow at dawn, if you +will. I want him to-night." + +Her face quivered piteously, but she conquered even that and walked to +the companionway. + +"Game, by God, game as they make 'em!" said Lund. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +DEMING BREAKS AN ARM + + +Rainey, dozing in his bunk, going over the sudden happenings of the day, +had placed Carlsen's automatic under his pillow after loading it. He +found that it lacked four shells of full capacity, the two that Lund had +fired at his bottle target, the one fired by Carlsen at Rainey, and the +last ineffective shot at Lund, a shot that went astray, Rainey decided, +largely through Lund's _coup-de-theatre_ of tearing off his glasses and +flinging them at the doctor. + +The dynamo that he had idly fancied he could hear purring away inside of +Lund was apparent with vengeance now, driving with full force. That was +what Lund would be from now on, a driver, imperative, relentless, +overcoming all obstacles; as he had himself said, selfish at heart, keen +for his own ends. + +Rainey was neither a weakling nor a coward, but he shrank from open +encounter with Lund, and knew himself, without fear, the weaker man. The +challenge of Lund, splendidly daring any one of them to come out against +him alone, and challenging them _en masse_, had found in Rainey an +acknowledgment of inferiority that was not merely physical. + +Lund knew far more than he did about the class of men that made up the +inhabitants of the _Karluk_. Rainey had once fondly hugged the delusion +that he knew something of the nature of those who "went down to the sea +in ships." + +Now he knew that his ignorance was colossal. Such men were not complex, +they moved by instinct rather than reason, they were not guided by +conscience, the values of right and wrong were not intuitive with them, +muscle rather than mind ruled their universe. + +Yet Rainey could not solve them, and Lund knew them as one may know a +favorite book. + +Lund had brains, cunning, brute force that commanded a respect not all +bred of being weaker. In a way he was magnificent. And Rainey vaguely +heralded trouble when Captain Simms was at last given to the deep. He +felt certain that the hunters under Deming were hatching something but, +in the main, his mental prophecy of trouble coming was connected with +the girl. + +Lund had shown no disrespect to her, rather the opposite. But the girl +showed hatred of Lund and, in minor measure, of Rainey. Some of this +would die out, naturally. Rainey intended to attempt an adjustment in +his own behalf. But he held the feeling that Lund would not tolerate +this hatred against him on the part of the girl. Such scorn would arouse +something in the giant's nature, something that would either strike +under the lash, or laugh at it. + +Dimly, Rainey saw these things as the giant gropings of sex, not as he +had known it, surrounded by conventionalities, by courtesies of +twentieth-century veneering, but a law, primitive, irresistible, +sweeping away barriers and opposition, a thing bigger even than the lust +of gold; the lure of woman for man, and man for woman. + +Both Lund and the girl, he felt, would have this thing in greater +measure than he would. He shared his life with too many things, with +books, with amusements, with the social ping-pong of the level in which +he ordinarily moved. + +There had been once a girl, perhaps there still was a girl, whom Rainey +had known on a visit to the camp-palace of a lumber king, high in the +Sierras, a girl who rode and hunted and lived out-of-doors, and yet +danced gloriously, sang, sewed and was both feminine and masculine, a +maddening latter-day Diana, who had swept Rainey off his feet for the +time. + +But he had known that he was not up to her standards, that he was but a +paper-worm, aside from his lack of means. That latter detail would, he +knew, have bothered him far more than her. But she announced openly that +she would only mate with a man who had lived. He rather fancied that it +had been a challenge--one he had not taken up. The matrix of his own +life just then was too snug a bed. Well, he was living now, he told +himself. + +On the border of dreams he was brought back by a strange noise on deck, +a rush of feet, many voices, and topping them all, the bellow of Lund, +roaring, not for help, but in challenge. + +Rainey, half asleep, jumped from his bunk and rushed out of the room. He +had no doubt as to what had happened; the hunters had attacked Lund! +And, unused to the possession of firearms, still drowsy, he forgot the +automatic, intent upon rallying to the cry of the giant. As he made for +the companionway, the girl came out of her father's room. + +"What is it?" she cried. + +"Lund--hunters!" Rainey called back as he sped up the stairs. He thought +he heard a "wait" from her, but the stamping and yelling were loud in +his ears, and he plunged out on deck. As he emerged he saw the stolid +face of Hansen at the wheel, his pale blue eyes glancing at the set of +his canvas and then taking on a glint as they turned amidships. + +Lund looked like a bear surrounded by the dog-pack. He stood upright +while the six hunters tore and smashed at him. Two had caught him by the +middle, one from the front and one from the rear, and, as the fight +raged back and forth, they were swung off their feet, bludgeoned and +kicked by Lund to stop them getting at the gun in its holster slung +under his coat close to his armpit. + +Lund's arms swung like clubs, his great hands plucked at their holds, +while he roared volleys of deep-sea, defiant oaths, shaking or striking +off a man now and then, who charged back snarlingly to the attack. + +Brief though the fight had been when Rainey arrived, there was ample +evidence of it. Clothes were torn and faces bloody, and already the men +were panting as Lund dragged them here and there, flailing, striking, +half-smothered, but always coming up from under, like a rock that +emerges from the bursting of a heavy wave. + +And the voice of the combat, grunts and snarls, gasping shouts and +broken curses, was the sound of ravening beasts. So far as Rainey could +vision in one swift moment before he ran forward, no knives were being +used. + +A hunter lunged out heavily and confidently to meet him as the others +got Lund to his knees for a fateful moment, piling on top of him, +bludgeoning blows with guttural cries of fancied victory. + +Rainey's man struck, and the strength of his arm, backed by his hurling +weight, broke down Rainey's guard and left the arm numb. The next +instant they were at close quarters, swinging madly, rife with the one +desire to down the other, to maim, to kill. A blow crashed home on +Rainey's cheek, sending him back dazed, striking madly, clinching to +stop the piston-like smashes of the hunter clutching him, trying to +trip him, hammering at the fierce face above him as they both went down +and rolled into the scuppers, tearing at each other. + +He felt the man's hands at his throat, gradually squeezing out sense and +breath and strength, and threw up his knee with all his force. It struck +the hunter fairly in the groin, and he heard the man groan with the +sudden agony. But he himself was nearly out. The man seemed to fade away +for the second, the choking fingers relaxed, and Rainey gulped for air. +His eyes seemed strained from bulging from their sockets in that fierce +grip, and there was a fog before them through which he could hear the +roar of Lund, sounding like a siren blast that told he was still +fighting, still confident. + +Then he saw the hunter's face close to his again, felt the whole weight +of the man crushing him, felt the bite of teeth through cloth and flesh, +nipping down on his shoulder as the man lay on him, striving to hold him +down until he regained the strength that the blow in the groin had +temporarily broken down. + +For just a moment Rainey's spirit sagged, his own strength was spent, +his will sapped, his lungs flattened. For a moment he wanted to lie +there--to quit. + +Then the hunter's body tautened for action, and, at the feel, Rainey's +ebbing pride came surging back, and he heaved and twisted, clubbing the +other over his kidneys until the roll of the schooner sent them +twisting, tumbling over to the lee once more. + +He felt as if he had been fighting for an hour, yet it had all taken +place during the leap of the _Karluk_ between two long swells that she +had negotiated with a sidelong lurch to the cross seas and wind. + +Rainey came up uppermost. The hunter's head struck the rail heavily. His +shoulder was free, but he could see ravelings of his coat in the other's +teeth. The pain in his shoulder was evident enough, and the sight of the +woolly fragments maddened him. The tactics of boyish fights came back +to him, and he broke loose from the arms that hugged him, hitched +forward until he sat on the hunter's chest, set a knee on either bicep +and battered at the other's face as it twisted from side to side +helplessly, making a pulp of it, keen to efface all semblance of +humanity, a brute like the rest of them, intent upon bruising, on +blood-letting, on beating all resistance down to a quivering, +spirit-broken mass. + +The hunter lay still beneath him at last, his nerve centers shattered by +some blow that had short-circuited them, and Rainey got wearily to his +feet. The hunter's thumbs had pressed deep on each side of his neck, and +his head felt like wood for heaviness, but shot with pain. The vigor was +out of him. He knew he could not endure another hand-to-hand battle with +one of the crowd still raging about Lund, who was on his feet again. + +Rainey saw his face, one red mask of blood and hair, with his agate eyes +flaring up with the glory of the fight. He roared no longer, saving his +breath. Hands clutched for him and fists fell, a man was tugging at each +knee of his legs, set far apart, sturdy as the masts themselves. + +Lund's arm came up, lifting a hunter clean from the deck, shook him off +somehow, and crashed down. One of the men tackling his legs dropped +senseless from the buffet he got on the side of his skull, and Lund's +kick sent him scudding across the deck, limp, out of the fight that +could not last much longer. + +All this came as Rainey, still dazed, helped himself by the skylight +toward the companion, going as fast as he could to get his gun. If he +did not hurry he was certain they would kill Lund. No man could +withstand those odds much longer. + +And, Lund killed, hell would break loose. It would be his turn next, and +the girl would be left at their mercy. The thought spurred him, cleared +his throbbing head, jarred by the smashes of his still senseless +opponent who would be coming to before long. + +Then he saw the girl, standing by the rail, not crouching, as he had +somehow expected her to be, shutting out the sight of the fight with +trembling hands, but with her face aglow, her eyes shining, watching, as +a Roman maid might have watched a gladiatorial combat; thrilled with the +spectacle, hands gripping the rail, leaning a little forward. + +She did not notice Rainey as he crept by Hansen, still guiding the +schooner, holding her to her course, imperturbable, apparently careless +of the issue. As he staggered down the stairs the line of thought he had +pursued in his bunk, broken by the noise of the fight and his +participation, flashed up in his brain. + +This was sex, primitive, predominant! The girl must sense what might +happen to her if Lund went down. She had no eyes for Rainey, her soul +was up in arms, backing Lund. The shine in her eyes was for the strength +of his prime manhood, matched against the rest, not as a person, an +individual, but as an embodiment of the conquering male. + +He got the gun, and he snatched a drink of brandy that ran through his +veins like quick fire, revivifying him so that he ran up the ladder and +came on deck ready to take a decisive hand. + +But he found it no easy matter to risk a shot in that swirling mass. +They all seemed to be arm weary. Blows no longer rose and fell. Lund was +slowly dragging the dead weight of them all toward the mast. The two men +on the deck still lay there. Rainey's opponent was trying to get up, +wiping clumsily at the blood on his face, blinded. + +The girl still stood by the rail. Back of the wrestling mass stood the +seamen, offering to take no part, their arms aswing like apes, their +dull faces working. Tamada stood by the forward companion, his arms +folded, indifferent, neutral. + + +[Illustration: Then he saw the girl standing by the rail] + + +All this Rainey saw as he circled, while the mass whirled like a +teetotum. The action raced like an overtimed kinetoscopic film. A man +broke loose from the scrimmage, on the opposite side from Rainey, who +barely recognized the disheveled figure with the bloody, battered face +as Deming. The hunter had managed to get hold of Lund's gun. Rainey's +aim was screened by a sudden lunge of the huddle of men. He saw Lund +heave, saw his red face bob up, mouth open, roaring once more, saw his +leg come up in a tremendous kick that caught Deming's outleveling arm +close to the elbow, saw the gleam of the gun as it streaked up and +overboard, and Deming staggering back, clutching at his broken limb, +cursing with the pain, to bring up against the rail and shout to the +seamen: + +"Get into it, you damned cowards! Get into it, and settle him!" + +Even in that instant the sarcasm of the cry of "cowards" struck home to +Rainey. The next second the girl had jumped by him, a glint of metal in +her hand as she brought it out of her blouse. This time she saw him. +"Come on!" she cried. And darted between the fighters and the storming +figure of Deming, who tried to grasp her with his one good arm, but +failed. + +Rainey sped after her just as Lund reached the mast. The girl had a +nickeled pistol in her hand and was threatening the sullen line of +irresolute seamen. Rainey with his gun was not needed. He heard Lund +shout out in a triumphant cry and saw him battering at the heads of +three who still clung to him. + +All through the fight Lund had kept his head, struggling to the purpose +he had finally achieved, to reach the mast-rack of belaying pins, seize +one of the hardwood clubs and, with this weapon, beat his assailants to +the deck. + +He stood against the mast, his clothes almost stripped from him, the +white of his flesh gleaming through the tatters, streaked with blood. +Save for his eyes, his face was no longer human, only a mass of flayed +flesh and clotted beard. But his eyes were alight with battle and then, +as Rainey gazed, they changed. Something of surprise, then of delight, +leaped into them, followed by a burning flare that was matched in those +of the girl who, with Rainey herding back the seamen, had turned at +Lund's yell of victory. + +Lund took a lurching step forward over the prone bodies of the men on +the deck, that was splotched with blood. + +"By God!" he said slowly, his arms opening, his great fingers outspread, +his gaze on the girl, "by God!" + +The girl's face altered. Her eyes grew frightened, cold. The retreating +blood left her cheeks pale, and she wheeled and fled, dodging behind +Tamada, who gave way to let her pass, his ivory features showing no +emotion, closing up the fore companionway as Peggy Simms dived below. + +Lund did not follow her. Instead, he laughed shortly and appeared to see +Rainey for the first time. + +"Jumped me, the bunch of 'em!" he said, his chest heaving, his breath +coming in spurts from his laboring lungs. "Couldn't use my gun. But I +licked 'em. Damn 'em! _Equals?_ Hell!" + +He seemed to have a clear recollection of the fight. He smiled grimly at +Deming, who glared at him, nursing his broken arm, then glanced at the +man that Rainey had mastered. + +"Did him up, eh? Good for you, matey! You didn't have to use your gun. +Jest as well, you might have plugged me. An' the gal had one, after +all." + +He seemed to ruminate on this thought as if it gave him special cause +for reflection. + +"Game!" he said. "Game as they make 'em!" + +He surveyed the rueful, groaning combatants with the smile of a +conqueror, then turned to the seamen. + +"Here, you!" he roared, and they jumped as if galvanized into life by +the shout. "Chuck a bucket of water over 'em! Chuck water till they git +below. Then clean the decks. Off-watch, you're out of this. Below with +you, where you belong. Jump! + +"They all fought fair," he went on. "Not a knife out. Only Deming there, +when he knew he was licked, tried to git my gun. Yo're yeller, Deming," +he said, with contempt that was as if he had spat in the hunter's face. +"I thought you were a better man than the rest. But you've got yores. +Git down below an' we'll fix you up." + +He strode over to Hansen, stolid at the wheel. + +"Wal, you wooden-faced squarehead," he said, "which way did you think it +was coming out? Damn me if you didn't play square, though! You kept her +up. If you'd liked you could have chucked us all asprawl, an' that would +have bin the end of it, with me down. You git a bottle of booze for +that, Hansen, all for yore own Scandinavian belly. Come on, Rainey. +Tamada, I want you." + +While Tamada got splints and did what he could for the badly shattered +arm, Lund taunted Deming until the hunter's face was seamed with useless +ferocity, like a weasel's in a trap. + +"I wonder you fix him at all, Tamada," he said. "He wanted to cut you +out of yore share. Called you a yellow-skinned heathen, Tamada. What +makes you gentle him that way? You've got him where you want him." + +Tamada, binding up the splints professionally, looked at Deming with +jetty eyes that revealed no emotion. + +Lund passed his hand over his face. + +"I'm some mess myself," he said, stretching his great arms. "Give me a +five-finger drink, Rainey, afore I clean up. Some scrap. Hell popping on +deck, and a dead man in the cabin! And the gal! Did you see the gal, +Rainey?" + +Out of the bloody mask of his face his agate eyes twinkled at Rainey +with a sort of good-natured malice. Rainey did not answer as he poured +the liquor. + +"Make it four finger," exclaimed Lund. "Deming's goin' to faint. One for +Doc Tamada." + +The Japanese excused himself, helping Deming, worn out with pain and +consumed by baffled hate, forward through the galley corridor. Then he +came back with warm water in a basin--and towels. + +"After this cheery little fracas," said Lund, mopping at his face, +"we'll mebbe have a nice, quiet, genteel sort of ship. My gun went +overboard, didn't it? Better let me have that one you've got, Rainey." + +He stretched out his hand for it. Rainey delivered it, reluctantly. +There was nothing else to do, but he felt more than ever that the +_Karluk_ was henceforth to be a one-man ship, run at the will of Lund. + +But the girl, too, had a weapon. He hugged that thought. She carried it +for her own protection, and she would not hesitate to use it. What a +girl she was! What a woman rather! A woman who would _mate_--not marry +for the quiet safety of a home. Rainey thought of her as one does of a +pool that one plumbs with a stone, thinking to find it fairly shallow, +only to discover it a gulf with unknown depth and currents, capable of +smiling placidness or sudden storm. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE RIFLE CARTRIDGES + + +The girl did not appear for the evening meal. She had refused Tamada's +suggestions through the door. Lund drank heavily, but without any +effect, save to sink him in comparative silence, as he and Rainey sat +together, after the Japanese had cleared the table. In contrast to the +excitement of the fight, their moods had changed, sobered by the thought +of the girl sitting up with her dead in the captain's room. + +Rainey was bruised and stiffened, and Lund moved with less of his usual +ease. The flesh of his face had been so pounded that it was turning dull +purple in great patches, giving him a diabolical appearance against his +naming beard. + +"We've got to git hold of those cartridges," he said, after a +long-pause. "Carlsen had 'em planted somewhere, an' it's likely in his +room. Best thing to do is to chuck 'em overboard. Cheaper to dump the +cartridges an' shells than the rifles an' shotguns. + +"You see," he went on, "Deming ain't quit. That's one thing with a man +who's streaked with yeller, when he gits licked in the open an' knows +he's licked proper, he tries to git even underhanded. He knows jest as +well as I do that Carlsen was lyin' that time about there bein' no more +shells. O' course the skipper may have stowed 'em away, but I doubt it. +An' jest so long as he thinks there's a chance of gittin' at 'em, he'll +figger on turning' the tables some day. An' he'll be workin' the rest of +'em up to the job." + +"They can't do much without a navigator," suggested Rainey. + +"Mebbe they figger a man'll do a lot o' things he don't want to with a +rifle barrel stuck in his neck or the small of his back," said Lund +grimly. "It's a good persuader. Might even have some influence on me. +Then ag'in it might not." + +"Where is the magazine?" asked Rainey. + +"In the little room aft o' the galley. We'll look there first. Come on." + +"How about keys? Carlsen's must have been in his pockets. I didn't see +them when I was hunting the morphine. We can't go in there." Rainey made +a motion toward the skipper's room. Lund chuckled. + +"I had my keys to the safe an' the magazine when I was aboard last +trip," he said. "They was with me when we went on the ice. An' I hung on +to 'em. Allus thought I might have a chance to use 'em ag'in." + +The strong room of the _Karluk_ was a narrow compartment, heavily +partitioned off from the galley and the corridor. There was a lamp +there, and Rainey lit it while Lund closed the door behind them. The +magazine was an iron chest fastened to the floor and the side of the +vessel with two padlocks, opened by different keys. It was quite empty. + +"Thorough man, Carlsen," said Lund. "Prepared for a show-down, if +necessary. Might have put 'em in the safe. Wonder if he changed the +combination? I bet Simms didn't, year in an' out." + +He worked at the disk and grunted as the tumblers clicked home. + +"It ain't changed," he said. "No use lookin' here." But he swung back +the door and rummaged through books and papers, disturbing a chronometer +and a small cash-box that held the schooner's limited amount of ready +cash. There was no sign of any cartridges. + +"We'll tackle Carlsen's room next," he announced. "I don't suppose you +looked between the bunk mattresses, did you?" + +"I never thought of it," said Rainey. "I didn't imagine there would be +more than one." + +"I've got a hunch you'll find two on Carlsen's bunk. An' the shells +between 'em. He kep' his door locked when he was out of the main cabin +an' slep' on 'em nights. That's what I'd be apt to do." + +As they came into the main cabin Rainey caught Lund by the arm. + +"I'm almost sure I saw Carlsen's door closing," he whispered. "It might +have been the shadow." + +"But it might not. Shouldn't wonder. One of 'em's sneaked in. Saw the +cabin empty, an' figgered we'd turned in. While we was in the +strong-room." + +He took the automatic from his pocket and went straight to the door of +Carlsen's room. It was locked or bolted from within. + +"The fool!" said Lund. "I've got a good mind to let him stay there till +he swallers some o' the drugs to fill his belly." He rapped on the panel +with the butt of the gun. + +"Come on out before I start trouble." + +There was no answer. Lund looked uncertainly at Rainey. + +"I hate to start a rumpus ag'in," he said, jerking his head toward the +skipper's room. "'Count of her. Reckon he can stay there till after +we've buried Simms. He's safe enough." + +Rainey was a little surprised at this show of thoughtfulness, but he did +not remark on it. He was beginning to think pretty constantly of late +that he had underestimated Lund. + +The giant's hand dropped automatically to the handle as if to assure +himself of the door being fast. Suddenly it opened wide, a black gap, +with only the gray eye of the porthole facing them. Lund had brought up +the muzzle of his pistol to the height of a man's chest, but there was +nothing to oppose it. + +"Hidin', the damn fool! What kind of a game is this? Come out o' there." + +Something scuttled on the floor of the room--then darted swiftly out +between the legs of Lund and Rainey, on all fours, like a great dog. +Curlike, it sprawled on the floor with a white face and pop-eyes, with +hands outstretched in pleading, knees drawn up in some ludicrous attempt +at protection, calling shrilly, in the voice of Sandy: + +"Don't shoot, sir! Please don't shoot!" + +Lund reached down and jerked the roustabout to his feet, half +strangling him with his grip on the collar of the lad's shirt, and flung +him into a chair. + +"What were you doin' in there?" + +Sandy gulped convulsively, feeling at his scraggy throat, where an +Adam's apple was working up and down. Speech was scared out of him, and +he could only roll his eyes at them. + +"You damned young traitor!" said Lund. "I'll have you keelhauled for +this! Out with it, now. Who sent ye? Deming?" + +"You've got him frightened half to death," intervened Rainey. "They +probably scared him into doing this. Didn't they, Sandy?" + +The lad blinked, and tears of self-pity rolled down his grimy cheeks. +The relief of them seemed to unstopper his voice. That, and the kinder +quality of Rainey's questioning. + +"Deming! He said he'd cut my bloody heart out if I didn't do it. Him an' +Beale. Lookit." + +He plucked aside the front of his almost buttonless shirt and worn +undervest and showed them on his left breast the scoring where a sharp +blade had marked an irregular circle on his skin. + +"Beale did that," he whined. "Deming said they'd finish the job if I +come back without 'em." + +"Without the shells?" + +"Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Rainey. Oh, Gord, they'll kill me sure! Oh, my +Gord!" His staring eyes and loose mouth, working in fear, made him look +like a fresh-landed cod. + +"You ain't much use alive," said Lund. + +"Mebbe I ain't," returned the lad, with the desperation of a cornered +rat. "But I got a right to live. And I've lived worse'n a dorg on this +bloody schooner. I'm fair striped an' bruised wi' boots an' knuckles an' +ends o' rope. I'd 'ave chucked myself over long ago if--" + +"If what?" + +The lad turned sullen. + +"Never mind," he said, and glared almost defiantly at Lund. + +"Is that door shut?" the giant asked Rainey. "Some of 'em might be +hangin' 'round." Rainey went to the corridor and closed and locked the +entrance. + +"Now then, you young devil," said Lund. "What they did to you for'ard +ain't a marker on what I'll do to you if you don't speak up an' answer +when I talk. _If what?_" + +Sandy turned to Rainey. + +"They said they was goin' to give me some of the gold," he said. "They +said all along I was to have the hat go 'round for me. I told you I was +dragged up, but there's--there's an old woman who was good to me. She's +up ag'in' it for fair. I told her I'd bring her back some dough an' if I +can hang on an' git it, I'll hang on. But they'll do me up, now, for +keeps." + +Rainey heard Lund's chuckle ripen to a quiet laugh. + +"I'm damned if they ain't some guts to the herrin' after all," he said. +"Hangin' on to take some dough back to an old woman who ain't even his +mother. Who'd have thought it? Look here, my lad. I was dragged up the +same way, I was. An' I hung on. But you'll never git a cent out of that +bunch. I don't know as they'll have enny to give you." + +His face hardened. "But you come through, an' I'll see you git somethin' +for the old woman. An' yoreself, too. What's more, you can stay aft an' +wait on cabin. If they lay a finger on you, I'll lay a fist on them, an' +worse." + +"You ain't kiddin' me?" + +"I don't kid, my lad. I don't waste time that way." + +Sandy stood up, his face lighting. He began to empty his pockets, laying +shells and shotgun cartridges upon the table. + +"I couldn't begin to git harf of 'em," he said. "The rest's under the +mattresses. They said they on'y needed a few. I thought you was both +turned in. When you come out of the corridor I was scared nutty." + +Between the mattresses, as Lund had guessed, they found the rest of the +shells, laid out in orderly rows save where the lad's scrambling +fingers had disturbed them. Lund stripped off a pillow-case and dumped +them in, together with those on the table. + +"You can bunk here," he told the grateful Sandy. "Now I'll have a few +words with Deming, Beale and Company. Want to come along, Rainey?" + +Lund strode down the corridor, bag in one hand, his gun in the other. +Rainey threw open the door of the hunters' quarters and discovered them +like a lot of conspirators. Deming was in his bunk; also another man, +whose ribs Lund had cracked when he had kicked him along the deck out of +his way. The bruised faces of the rest showed their effects from the +fight. As Lund entered, covering them with the gun, while he swung down +the heavy slip on the table with a clatter, their looks changed from +eager expectation to consternation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PEGGY SIMMS + + +"Caught with the goods!" said Lund. "Two tries at mutiny in one day, my +lads. You want to git it into your boneheads that I'm runnin' this ship +from now on. I can sail it without ye and, by God, I'll set the bunch of +ye ashore same's you figgered on doin' with me if you don't sit up an' +take notice! The rifles an' guns"--he glanced at the orderly display of +weapons in racks on the wall--"are too vallyble to chuck over, but here +go the shells, ev'ry last one of them. So that nips _that_ little plan, +Deming." + +He turned back the slip to display the contents. + +"Open a port, Rainey, an' heave the lot out." + +Rainey did so while the hunters gazed on in silent chagrin. + +"There's one thing more," said Lund, grinning at them. "If enny of you +saw a man hurtin' a dog, you'd probably fetch him a wallop. But you +don't think ennything of scarin' the life out of a half-baked kid an' +markin' up his hide like a patchwork quilt. Thet kid's stayin' aft after +this. One of you monkey with him, an' you'll do jest what he's bin +doin', wish you was dead an' overboard." + +He turned on his heel and walked to the door, Rainey following. + +"Burial of the skipper at dawn," said Lund. "All hands on deck, clean +an' neatly dressed to stand by. An' see yore behavior fits the occasion. +Deming, you'll turn out, too. No malingerin'." + +It was plain that the news of the captain's death was known to them. +They showed no surprise. Rainey was sure that Tamada had not mentioned +it. It had leaked out through the grape-vine telegraphy of all ships. +Doubtless, he thought, the after-cabin and its doings was always being +spied upon. + +"Will you take the service ter-morrer?" Lund asked Rainey when they +were back in the cabin. "Bein' as yo're an eddicated chap?" + +"Why--I don't know it. Is there a prayer-book aboard? I thought the +skipper always presided." + +"I'm only deputy-skipper w'en it comes down to that," said Lund. "It +ain't my ship. I'm jest runnin' it under contract with my late partner. +The ship belongs to the gal. And yo're top officer now, in the regular +run. As to a prayer-book, there ain't sech an article aboard to my +knowledge. But I'd like to have it go off shipshape. For Simms' sake as +well as the gal's. I reckon he used his best jedgment 'bout puttin' back +after me on the floe. I might have done the same thing myself." + +Rainey doubted that statement, and set it down to Lund's generosity. +Many of his late words and actions had displayed a latent depth of +feeling that he had never credited Lund with possessing. He could not +help believing that, in some way, the girl had brought them to the +surface. + +"I thought I saw a Bible in the safe," he said, "when we were looking +for the shells. There may be a prayer-book. I suppose there have been +occasions for it. The mate died at sea last trip." + +"There may be," returned Lund. "That's where Simms 'ud keep it. He +warn't what you'd call a religious man. We'll take a look afore we turn +in." + +There were offices to be performed for the dead captain that the girl, +with all her willingness, could not attempt. Lund did not mention them, +and Rainey vacillated about disturbing her until he saw Tamada go +through the cabin with folded canvas and a flag. The Japanese tapped on +the door, which was instantly opened to him. He had been expected. + +There was no doubt that Tamada, with his medical experience, was best +fitted for the task, but it seemed to Rainey also that the girl had +deliberately ignored their services and that, despite her involuntary +admiration of Lund's fight against odds, or in revulsion of it, she +reckoned them hostile to her sentiments. Lund roused him by talking of +the burial-service for Simms. + +"You're a writer," he said. "What's the good of knowin' how to handle +words if you can't fake up some sort of a service? One's as good as +another, long as it sounds like the real thing. + +"I reckon there's a God," he went on. "Somethin' that started things, +somethin' that keeps the stars from runnin' each other down, but, after +He wound up the clock He made, I don't figger He bothers much about the +works. + +"Luck's the big thing that counts. We're all in on the deal. Some of us +git the deuces an' treys, an' some git the aces. If yo're born lucky +things go soft for you. But, if it warn't for luck, for the chance an' +the hope of it, things 'ud be upside down an' plain anarchy in a jiffy. +If it warn't the pore devil's idea that his luck has got to change for +the better, mebbe ter-morrer, he'd start out an' cut his own throat, or +some one else's, if he had ginger enough." + +"It's hardly all luck, is it?" asked Rainey. "Look at you! You're bigger +than most men, stronger, better equipped to get what you want." + +"Hell!" laughed Lund. "I was lucky to be born that way. But you've got +to fudge up some sort of a service to suit the gal. You've got that +Bible. It ought to be easy. Simms wouldn't give a whoop, enny more'n I +would. When yo're dead yo're through, so far's enny one can prove it to +you. A dead body's a nuisance, an' the sooner it's got rid of the +better. But if it's goin' to make the livin' feel enny better for +spielin' off some fine words, why, hop to it an' make up yore speech." + +Peggy Simms saved Rainey by producing a prayer-book, bringing it to +Lund, her face pale but composed enough, and her shadowed eyes calm as +she gave it to him. + +"I reckon Rainey here 'ud read it better'n me," he said. "He's a +scholar." + +"If you will," asked the girl. She seemed to have outworn her first +sorrow, to have obtained a grip of herself that, with the dignity of her +bereavement, the very control of her undoubted grief, set up a barrier +between her and Lund. Rainey was conscious of this fence behind which +the girl had retreated. She was polite, but she did not ask this service +as a favor, as a friendly act. Refusal, even, would not have visibly +affected her, he fancied. There was an invisible armor about her that +might be added to at any moment by a shield of silent scorn. Somehow, if +sex had, for a swift moment, brought her and Lund into any contact, that +same sex, showing another aspect, set them far apart. + +Lund showed that he felt it, running his splay fingers through his beard +in evident embarrassment, while Rainey took the book silently, looking +through the pages for the ritual of "Burial at Sea." + +Arrangements had been made on deck long before dawn. A section of the +rail had been removed and a grating arranged that could be tipped at +the right moment for the consignment of the captain's body to the deep. + +The sea was running in long heaves, and the sun rose in a clear sky. The +ocean was free from ice, though the wind was cold. Here and there a +berg, far off, caught the sparkle of the sun and, to the north, parallel +to their course, the peaks of the Aleutian Isles, broken buttresses of +an ancient seabridge, showed sharply against the horizon. + +At four bells in the morning watch all hands had assembled, save for +Tamada and Hansen, who appeared bearing the canvas-enveloped, +flag-draped body of Simms, his sea-shroud weighted by heavy pieces of +iron. Peggy Simms followed them, and, as the crew, with shuffling feet +and throats that were repeatedly cleared, gathered in a semicircle, she +arranged the folds of the Stars and Stripes that Hansen attached to a +light line by one corner. + +Whatever Lund affected, the solemnity of the occasion held the men. They +uncovered and stood with bowed heads that hid the bruised faces of the +hunters. Lund's own damaged features were lowered as Rainey commenced to +read. Only Deming's face, gray from the effort of coming on deck and the +pain in his arm, held the semblance of a sneer that was largely bravado. +A hunter had his arm tucked in that of his comrade with the broken ribs. +A seaman was told off to the wheel and the schooner was held to the wind +with all sheets close inboard, rising and falling on an almost level +keel. + +"_And the body shall be cast into the sea._" + +At the words Lund and Hansen tilted the grating. There was a slight +pause as if the body were reluctant to start on its last journey, and +then it slid from the platform and plunged into the sea, disappearing +instantly under the urge of the weights, with a hissing aeration of the +water. The flag, held inboard by the line, fluttered a moment and +subsided over the grating. The girl turned toward them, her head up. + +"Thank you," she said, and went below. + +"That's over," said Lund, letting out whatever emotions he might have +repressed in a long breath. "Now, then, trim ship! Watch-off, get below. +We're goin' to drive her for all she's worth." + +He took the wheel himself as the men jumped to the sheets and soon Lund +was getting every foot of possible speed out of the schooner. He was as +good a sailor as Simms, inclined to take more chances, but capable of +handling them. + +The girl kept below and seldom came out of her cabin, Tamada serving her +meals in there. Rainey could see Lund's resentment growing at this +attitude that seemed to him normal enough, though it might present +difficulty later if persisted in. But the morning that they headed up +through Sequam Pass between the spouting reefs of Sequam and Amlia +Islands, she came on deck and went forward to the bows, taking in deep +breaths of the bracing air and gazing north to the free expanse of +Bering Strait. Rainey left her alone, but Lund welcomed her as she came +back aft. + +"Glad to see you on deck again, Miss Peggy," he said. "You need sun and +air to git you in shape again." + +His glance held vivid admiration of her as he spoke, a glance that ran +over her rounded figure with a frank approval that Rainey resented, but +to which the girl paid no attention. She seemed to have made up her mind +to a change of attitude. + +"How far have we yet to go?" she asked. + +"A'most a thousan' miles to the Strait proper," said Lund. "The +Nome-Unalaska steamer lane lies to the east. Runs close to the +Pribilofs, three hundred miles north, with Hall an' St. Matthew three +hundred further. Then comes St. Lawrence Isle, plumb in the middle of +the Strait, with Siberia an' Alaska closin' in." + +He was keen to hold her in conversation, and she willing to listen, +assenting almost eagerly when he offered to point out their positions +on the chart, spread on the cabin table. Lund talked well, for all his +limited and at times luridly inclined vocabulary, whenever he talked of +the sea and of his own adventures, stating them without brag, but +bringing up striking pictures of action, full of the color and savor of +life in the raw. From that time on Peggy Simms came to the table and +talked freely with Lund, more conservatively with Rainey. + +The newspaperman was no experienced analyst of woman nature, but he saw, +or thought he saw, the girl watching Lund closely when he talked, +studying him, sometimes with more than a hint of approbation, at others +with a look that was puzzled, seeming to be working at a problem. The +giant's liking for her, boyish at times, or swiftly changing to bolder +appraisal, grew daily. + +The girl, Rainey decided, was humoring Lund, seeking to know how with +her feminine methods she might control him, keep him within bounds. Her +coldness, it seemed, she had cast aside as an expedient that might prove +too provoking and worthless. + +And Rainey's valuation of her resources increased. She was handling her +woman's weapons admirably, yet when he sometimes, at night, under the +cabin lamp, saw the smoldering light glowing in Lund's agate eyes, he +knew that she was playing a dangerous game. + +"What d'ye figger on doin' with yore share, Rainey?" Lund asked him the +night that they passed Nome. It was stormy weather in the Strait, and +the _Karluk_ was snugged down under treble reefs, fighting her way +north. Ice in the Narrows was scarce, though Lund predicted broken floes +once they got through. The cabin was cozy, with a stove going. Peggy +Simms was busied with some sewing, the canary and the plants gave the +place a domestic atmosphere, and Lund, smoking comfortably, was +eminently at ease. + +"'Cordin' to the way the men figgered it out," he went on, "though I +reckon they're under the mark more'n over it, you'll have forty +thousan' dollars. That's quite a windfall, though nothin' to Miss Peggy, +here, or me, for that matter. I s'pose you got it all spent already." + +"I don't know that I have," said Rainey. "But I think, if all goes well, +I'll get a place up in the Coast Range, in the redwoods looking over the +sea, and write. Not newspaper stuff, but what I've always wanted to. +Stories. Yarns of adventure!" + +Peggy Simms looked up. + +"You've never done that?" she asked. + +"Not satisfactorily. I suppose that genius burns in a garret, but I +don't imagine myself a genius and I don't like garrets. I've an idea I +can write better when I don't have to stand the bread-and-butter strain +of routine." + +"Goin' to write second-hand stuff?" asked Lund. "Why don't you _live_ +what you write? I don't see how yo're goin' to git under a man's skin by +squattin' in a bungalow with a Jap servant, a porcelain bathtub, an' +breakfast in bed. Why don't you travel an' see stuff as it is? How in +blazes are you goin' to write Adventure if you don't live it? + +"Me, I'm goin' to git a schooner built accordin' to my own ideas. Have a +kicker engine in it, mebbe, an' go round the world. What's the use of +livin' on it an' not knowin' it by sight? Books and pictures are all +right in their way, I reckon, but, while my riggin' holds up, I'm for +travel. Mebbe I'll take a group of islands down in the South Seas after +a bit an' make somethin' out of 'em. Not jest _copra_ an' pearl-shell, +but cotton an' rubber." + +"A king and his kingdom," suggested the girl. + +"Aye, an' mebbe a queen to go with it," replied Lund, his eyes wide open +in a look that made the girl flush and Rainey feel the hidden issue that +he felt was bound to come, rising to the surface. + +"That's a _man's_ life," went on Lund. "Travel's all right, but a man's +got to do somethin', buck somethin', start somethin'. An' a red-blooded +man wants the right kind of a woman to play mate. Polish off his rough +edges, mebbe. I'd rather be a rough castin' that could stand filin' a +bit, than smooth an' plated. An', when I find the right woman, one of my +own breed, I'm goin' to tie to her an' her to me. + +"I'm goin' to be rich. They've cleaned up the sands of Nome, but there's +others'll be found yit between Cape Hope an' Cape Barry. Meantime, we've +got a placer of our own. With plenty of gold they ain't much limit to +what a man can do. I've roughed it all my life, an' I'm not lookin' for +ease. It makes a man soft. But--" + +He swept the figure of the girl in a pause that was eloquent of his line +of thought. She grew uneasy of it, but Lund maintained it until she +raised her eyes from her work and challenged his. Rainey saw her breast +heave, saw her struggle to hold the gaze, turn red, then pale. He +thought her eyes showed fear, and then she stiffened. Almost +unconsciously she raised her hand to where Rainey was sure she kept the +little pistol, touched something as though to assure herself of its +presence, and went on sewing. Lund chuckled, but shifted his eyes to +Rainey. + +"Why don't you write up _this_ v'yage? When it's all over? There's +adventure for you, an' we ain't ha'f through with it. An' romance, too, +mebbe. We ain't developed much of a love-story as yit, but you never can +tell." + +He laughed, and Peggy Simms got up quietly, folded her sewing, and said +"Good night" composedly before she went to her room. + +"How about it, Rainey?" quizzed Lund. "How about the love part of it? +She's a beauty, an' she'll be an heiress. Ain't you got enny red blood +in yore veins? Don't you want her? You won't find many to hold a candle +to her. Looks, built like a racin' yacht, smooth an' speedy. Smart, an' +rich into the bargain. Why don't you make love to her?" + +Rainey felt the burning blood mounting to his face and brain. + +"I am not in love with Miss Simms," he said. "If I was I should not try +to make love to her under the circumstances. She's alone, and she's +fatherless. I do not care to discuss her." + +"She's a woman," said Lund. "And yo're a damned prig! You'd like to bust +me in the jaw, but you know I'm stronger. You've got some guts, Rainey, +but yo're hidebound. You ain't got ha'f the git-up-an'-go to ye that she +has. She's a woman, I tell you, an' she's to be won. If you want her, +why don't you stand up an' try to git her 'stead of sittin' around like +a sick cat whenever I happen to admire her looks? + +"I've seen you. I ain't blind enny longer, you know. She's a woman an' +I'm a man. I thought you was one. But you ain't. Yore idea of makin' +love is to send the gal a box of candy an' walk pussy-footed an' write +poems to her. You want to _write_ life an' I want to _live_ it. So does +a gal like that. She's more my breed than yores, if she has got +eddication. An' she's flesh and blood. Same as I am. Yo're half sawdust. +Yo're stuffed." + +He went on deck laughing, leaving Rainey raging but helpless. Lund +appeared to think the situation obvious. Two men, and a woman who was +attractive in many ways. The _only_ woman while they were aboard the +schooner, therefore the more to be desired, admired by men cut off from +the rest of the world. + +He expected Rainey to be in love with her, to stand up and say so, to +endeavor to win her. Lund sought the ardor of competition. He might be +looking for the excuse to crush Rainey. + +But he had said she was of his breed, and that was a true saying. If +Lund was a son of the sea, she was a daughter of a line of seamen. Lund, +sooner or later, meant to take her, willing or unwilling. He had said +so, none too covertly, that very evening. And, if Rainey meant to stand +between her and Lund as a protector, Lund would accept him in that +character only as the girl's lover and his rival. + +And Rainey did not know whether he was in love with her or not. He could +not even be certain of the girl. There were times when Lund seemed to +fascinate her. One thing he braced himself to do, to be ready to aid her +against Lund if occasion came, and she needed protection. The luck, as +Lund phrased it, that had given brawn to the giant, had given Rainey +brains. When the time came he would use them. + +After this the girl avoided Lund's company as much as possible by +seeking Rainey's. They worked through the Strait and headed into the +Arctic Ocean. Ice was all about them, fields formed of vast blocks of +frozen water divided by broad lanes through which the _Karluk_ slowly +made her way, a maze of ice, always threatening, calling for all of +Lund's skill while he fumed at every barrier, every change of the +weather that grew steadily colder. + +The sky was never entirely unveiled by mist, and at night, as they +sailed down a frozen fiord with lookouts doubled, the grinding smashing +noises of the ice seemed the warning voice of the North, as they sailed +on into the wilderness. + +The hunters kept below. Lund bossed the ship. Deming, it seemed, managed +to hold his cards and deal them despite his mending arm in splints. And +he was steadily winning. The girl talked with Rainey of her own life +ashore and at sea on earlier trips with her father, of his own desire to +write, of his ambitions, until there was little he had not told her, +even to the girl who was the daughter of the Lumber King. + +And the spell of her nearness, her youth, her beauty, naturally held +him. When he was on deck duty she remained in her room. When Lund +relieved him, the day's work giving Lund, Hansen, and Rainey each two +regular watches of four hours, though Lund put in most of the night as +the ice grew more difficult to navigate, Rainey occasionally saw the +giant's eyes sizing him up with a sardonic twinkle. + +For the time being, the safety of the _Karluk_ and the successful +carrying out of the purpose of the trip took all of Lund's attention and +energy. Twice he had been thwarted by the weather from gleaning his +golden harvest, and it began to look as if the third attempt might be no +more fortunate. + +"The _Karluk's_ stout," he said once, "but she ain't built for the +Arctic. If we git nipped badly she'll go like an eggshell." + +"And then what?" Rainey asked. + +"Git the gold! That's what we come for. If we have to make sleds an' use +the hunters for a dorg-team." He laughed indomitably. "We'll make a man +of you yit, Rainey, afore we git back." + +Lund was snatching sleep in scraps, seeking always to feel a way toward +the position of the island through the ice that continually baffled +progress. Several times they risked the schooner in a narrow lane when +a lull of the often uncertain wind would have seen them ground between +the edges of the floe. Twice Lund ordered out the boats to save them. +Once all hands fended desperately with spars to keep her clear, and only +the schooner's overhung stern saved her rudder from the savagely +clashing masses that closed behind them. + +But he showed few signs of strain. Once in a while he would sit with +closed eyes or pass his hands across his brows as if they pained him. +But he never complained, and the ice, taking on the dull hues of sea and +sky, gave off no glare that should affect the sight. Against all +opposition Lund forced his way until, just after sunset one night, as +the dusk swept down, he gave a shout and pointed to a fitful flare over +the port bow. Rainey thought it the aurora, but Lund laughed at him. + +"It's the crater atop the island," he said. "Nothin' dangerous. Reg'lar +lighthouse. Now, boys," he went on, his deep voice ringing with +exhilaration, "there's gold in sight! Whistle for a change of weather, +every mother's son of you!" + +The deck was soon crowded. On the previous trip the schooner had +approached the island from a different angle, but the men were swift to +acknowledge the glow of the volcano as the expected landfall. Lund +remained on deck, and it was late before any of the crew turned in. +Rainey, during his watch, saw the mountain fire-pulse, glowing and +winking like the eye of a Cyclops, its gleam reflected in the eyes of +the watchers who were about to invade the island and rob it of its +golden sands. + +The change of weather came about three in the morning, though not as +Lund had hoped. A sudden wind materialized from the north, stiffening +the canvas with its ice-laden breath, glazing the schooner wherever +moisture dripped, bringing up an angry scud of clouds that fought with +the moon. The sea appeared to have thickened. The _Karluk_ went +sluggishly, as if she was sailing in a sea of treacle. + +"Half slush already," said Lund. "We're in for a real cold snap. +There'll be pancake ice all around us afore dawn. That is sure a hard +beach to fetch. But it's too early for winter closing. After this nip +we'll have a warm spell. An' we got to git the stuff aboard an' start +kitin' south afore the big freeze-up catches us." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SMOKE + + +When Rainey came on deck the next morning he found the schooner floating +in a small lagoon that made the center of a floe. The water in it was +slush, half solid. Main and fore were close furled, the headsails also, +and the _Karluk_ was nosing against the far end of the rapidly +diminishing basin. The wind was still lively. + +All about were other floes, but they were widely separated, and between +them crisp waves of indigo were curling snappily. + +The island stood up sharp and jagged, much larger than Rainey had +anticipated. It boasted two cones, from one of which smoke was lazily +trailing. Ice was piled in wild confusion about its shores, wrecked by +the gale that had blown hard from four till eight, and was now +subsiding with the swift change common to the Arctic. + +A deep hum of bursting surf undertoned all other noises and, prisoned as +she was, the schooner and her floe were sweeping slowly toward the land +in the grip of a current rather than before the gusty wind. + +Lund had fendered the schooner's bows effectively before he went below +with old sails that enveloped stem and swell, stuffed with ropes and +bits of canvas. + +Within an hour the wind had ceased and the slush in the lagoon had +pancaked into flakes of forming ice that bid fair to become solid within +a short time, for the day was bitterly cold and tremendously bright. The +sky rose from filmy silver-azure to richest sapphire, and the rolling +waters between the floes were darkest purple-blue. As the whip of the +wind ceased they settled to a vast swell on which the great clumps of +ice rose and fell with dazzling reflections. + +Lund came up within the hour and stood blinking at the brilliance. + +"My eyes ain't as strong yit as they should be," he said to Rainey. "I +shouldn't have slung them glasses so hasty at Carlsen, though they +sp'iled his aim, at that. If this weather keeps up I'll have to make +snow-specs; there ain't another pair of smokes aboard." He made a shade +of his curved hand as he gazed at the island. + +"Current's got us," he said, "an' we'll fetch up mighty close to the +beach. It lies between those two ridges, close together, buttin' out +from the volcano. Long Strait current splits on Wrangell Island, and +we're in the trend of the northern loop. That's why the sea don't freeze +up more solid. It's freezin' fast enough round us, where there ain't +motion." + +He seemed well satisfied with the prospect. "Had breakfast?" he asked +Rainey, and then: "All right. We'll git the men aft." + +He bellowed an order, and soon every one came trooping, to gather in two +groups either side of the cabin skylight. Their faces were eager with +the proximity of the gold, yet half sullen as they waited to hear what +Lund had to say. Since the attempt against him Lund had said nothing +about their shares. They acknowledged him as master, but they still +rebelled in spirit. + +"There's the island," said Lund. "We'll make it afore sundown. The beach +is there, waitin' for us to dig it up. It'll be some job. I don't reckon +it's frozen hard, on'y crusted. If it is we'll bust the crust with +dynamite. But we got to hop to it. There'll be another cold spell after +this one peters out an' the next is like to be permanent. I want the +gold washed out afore then, an' us well down the Strait. It's up to you +to hump yoreselves, an' I'll help the humpin'. + +"We'll cradle most of the stuff an', if they's time, we'll flume the +silt tailin's for the fine dust. Providin' we can git a fall of water. +There'll be plenty for all hands to do. An' the shares go as first +fixed. I ain't expectin' you to do the diggin' an' not git a pinch or +two of the dust." + +The men's faces lighted, and they shuffled about, looking at one another +with grins of relief. + +"No cheers?" asked Lund ironically. "Wall, I hardly expected enny. +Hansen, you'll be one of the foremen, with pay accordin'. Deming." + +"I can't dig," said the hunter truculently. "Neither can Beale, with his +ribs." + +"You've got a sweet nerve," said Lund. "I reckon you've won enough to be +sure of yore shares, if the boys pay up. Enough for you to do some +diggin' in yore pockets for Beale. His ribs 'ud be whole if you hadn't +started the bolshevik stunt. But I'll find something for both of you to +do. Don't let that worry you none. + +"We've got mercury aboard somewhere," Lund continued, to Rainey, when +the men had dispersed, far more cheerful than they had gathered. "We'll +use that for concentration in the film riffles. Hansen'll have rockers +made that'll catch the big stuff. If the worst comes to the worst, +we'll load up the old hooker with the pay dirt an' wash it out on the +way home. I'll strip that beach down to bedrock if I have to work the +toes an' fingers off 'em." + +By noon the schooner was glazed in as firmly as a toy model that is +mounted in a glass sea. The wind blew itself entirely out, but the +current bore them steadily on to the clamorous shore, where the swells +were creating promontories, bays, cliffs and chasms in the piled-up +confusion of the floes pounding on the rocks, breaking up or sliding +atop one another in noisy confusion. + +The marble-whiteness of the ice masses was set off by the blues and soft +violets of their shadows, and by a pearly sheen wherever the planes +caught the light at a proper slant for the play of prisms. Beautiful as +it was, the sight was fearful to Rainey, in common with the crew. Only +Lund surveyed it nonchalantly. + +"It's bustin' up fast," he said. "All we need is a little luck. If we +ain't got that there's no use of worryin'. We can't blast ourselves out +o' this without riskin' the schooner. We ought to be thankful we froze +in gentle. There ain't a plank started. The floe'll fend us off. There +ain't enny big chunks enny way near us aft. Luck--to make a decent +landin'--is all we need, an' it's my hunch it's comin' our way." + +His "hunch" was correct. Though they did not actually make the little +bay on which the treasure beach debouched, they fetched up near it +against a broken hill of ice that had lodged on the sharp slopes of a +little promontory, making the connection without further damage than a +splitting of the forward end of their encasing floe, with hardly a jar +to the _Karluk_. + +Lund sent men ashore over the ice, climbing to the promontory crags with +hawsers by which they tied up schooner, floe and all, to the land. If +the broken hill suffered further catastrophe, which did not seem likely, +its fragments would fall upon the floe. In case of emergency Lund +ordered men told off day and night to stand by the hawsers, to cast +loose or cut, as the extremity needed. + +The main danger threatened from following floes piling up on theirs and +ramming over it to smash the schooner, but that was a risk that must be +met as it evolved, and there did not seem much prospect of the +happening. + +It was dark before they were snugged. The men volunteered, through +Hansen, to commence digging that night by the light of big fires, so +crazy were they at the nearness of the gold. But Lund forbade it. + +"You'll work reg'lar shifts when you git started," he said. "An' you +won't start till ter-morrer. We've got to stand by the ship ter-night +until we find out by mornin' how snug we're goin' to be berthed." + +All night long they lay in a pandemonium of noise. After a while they +would become used to it as do the workers in a stampmill, but that night +it deafened them, kept them awake and alert, fearful, with the +tremendous cannonading. The bite of the frost made the timbers of the +_Karluk_ creak and its thrust continually worked among the stranded +masses with groaning thunders and shrill grindings, while the surf ever +boomed on the resonant sheets of ice. + +The place held a strange mystery. On top of the main cone the volcanic +glow hung above the crater chimney, reflected waveringly on the rolling +clouds of smoke that blotted out the stars. There were no tremors, no +rumblings from the hidden furnace, only the flare of its stoking. The +stars that were visible were intensely brilliant points, and, when the +moon rose, it was accompanied by four mock moons bound in a halo that +widely encircled the true orb. The moon-dogs shone intermittently with +prismatic colors, like disks of mother-of-pearl, and the moon itself was +four-rayed. + +Under moon and stars the coast snaked away to end in a deceptive glimmer +that persisted beyond the eye-range of definite dimensions. And, despite +all the sound, muffled and sharp, of splinterings and explosions, of +the reverberation of the swell, outside all this clamor, silence seemed +to gather and to wait. Silence and loneliness. It awed the crew, it +invested the spirits of Peggy Simms and Rainey, gazing at the mystic +beauty of the Arctic landscape. + +The walls of forced-up ice shifted about them and came clattering down, +booming on their floe as if it had been a drum, and threatening to tilt +it by sheer weight had they not been fairly grounded forward. Other +floes came from seaward to batter at the cliffs, but the eddy that had +brought them to their resting-place seemed to have been dissolved in the +main current and, save for an occasional alarm, their stern was not +seriously invaded. + +Only, as the night wore on, the floating masses became cemented to one +another and the shore. The _Karluk_ was hard and fast within two hundred +yards of her Tom Tiddler's ground, just over the promontory. If a thaw +came, all should go well. If Lund had been deceived, and the true +winter was setting in early, the prospects were far from cheerful, +though no one seemed to think of that possibility. + +Beneath the glamour of the magic night, the weird paraselene of the +moon's phenomenon, the glow of the volcano, the noises, the men +whispered of one thing only--Gold! + +Dawn came before they were aware of it, a sudden rush of light that dyed +the ice in every hue of red and orange, that tipped the frozen coast +with bursts of ruby flame that flared like beacons and gilded the crests +of the long swells, tinging all their world with a wild, unnatural +glory. + +Lund, striding the deck, his red beard iced with his breath, suddenly +stopped and stared into the east. There, in the very eye of the dawn, +was a trail of smoke, like a plume against the flaming, three-quarters +circle of the rising sun! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE MIGHT OF NIPPON + + +Lund's face, on which the bruises were fast fading, changed purple-black +with rage. He whirled upon Sandy, gaping near, and ordered him to fetch +his binoculars. Through them he stared long at the smoke. Then he turned +to the girl and Rainey. + +"Come down inter the cabin," he said. "We'll need all our wits." + +"That's a gunboat patrol," he said. "Japanese, for a million! None other +this far west. An' it's damned funny it should come up right at this +minnit. We've made the trip on schedule time, an' here they show. But +we'll let that slide. We've got to think fast. They'll board us. They'll +overhaul us lookin' for seal pelts. At least, I hope so. + +"We've got none. Our hunters an' our rifles an' shotguns'll prove our +claim to be pelagic sealers. We got to trust they believe us. If there +was a hide aboard or a club, or a sign of a dead seal on the beaches +they'd nail us. They may, ennyway, jest on suspicion. + +"They run things out this way with a high hand. If they ever clap us in +prison it'll be where we can't let a peep out of us. A lot they worry +about our consuls. They's too many good sealers dropped out of sight in +one of their stinkin' jails to starve on millet an' dried, moldy fish. I +know what I'm talkin' about. + +"It's lucky we didn't start mussin' up that beach. But they'll go over +everything. I know 'em. They claim to own the seas hereabouts, an' +they're cockier than ever, since the war. Rainey you got to git busy on +the log. If yore father didn't keep it up, Miss Peggy, so much the +better. If he has, you got to fake it someways, Rainey. + +"I'm Simms, get me, until we're clear of 'em. An' you, Rainey, are Doc +Carlsen. Nothin' must show in the log about enny deaths." + +"But why?" asked the girl. "Why do we have to masquerade? If we haven't +touched the seals?" + +Lund barked at her: + +"I gave you credit for sharper wits," he said. "We've got to have +everything so reg'lar they can't find an excuse for haulin' us in an' +settin' fire to the schooner. They'd do it in a jiffy. We got to show +'em our clearance papers, an' we've got to tally up all down the line. +Rainey ain't on the ship's books--Carlsen is. Lund ain't, but Simms is. +I'm Simms. An' you"--he stopped to grin at her--"you're my daughter. +I'll dissolve the relationship after a while, I'll promise you that. An' +I'll drill the men. They know what's ahead of 'em if the Japs git +suspicious. + +"That ain't the worst of it! _They may know what we're after._ If they +do, we're goners. Ever occur to you, Rainey, that Tamada, who is a deep +one, may have tipped off the whole thing to his consul while the +schooner was at San Francisco? He was along the last trip. He'd know the +approximate position. Might have got the right figgers out o' the log, +him havin' the run of the cabin. A cable would do the rest. He'd git his +whack out of it, with the order of the Golden Chrysanthemum or some +jig-arig to boot, an' git even with the way he feels to'ard our outfit +for'ard, that ain't bin none too sweet to him." + +The suggestion held a foundation of conviction for Rainey. He had +thought of the consul. He had always sensed depths in Tamada's reserve, +he remembered bits of his talk, the "certain circumstances" that he had +mentioned. It looked plausible. Lund rose. + +"I'll fix Tamada," he said. But the girl stopped him. + +"You don't _know_ that's true. Tamada has been wonderful--to me. What do +you intend to do with him?" + +"I'll make up my mind between here and the galley," said Lund grimly. +"This is my third time of tackling this island, an' no Jap is goin' to +stand between me an' the gold, this trip. Why, even if he ain't blown on +us, he'll give the whole thing away. If he didn't want to they'd make +him come through if they laid their eyes on him. They've got more tricks +than a Chinese mandarin to make a man talk. Stands to reason he'll tell +'em. If he can talk when they git here," he added ominously, standing +half-way between the table and the door to the corridor, his hand +opening and closing suggestively. "The crew'd settle his hash if I +didn't. They ain't fools. They know what's ahead of 'em in Japan. You, +Rainey, git busy with that log. That gunboat'll have a boat alongside +this floe inside of ninety minnits." + +But Peggy Simms was between him and the door. + +"You shan't do it," she said, her eyes hard as flints, if Lund's were +like steel. "You don't know what he was to me when--when dad was buried. +Call him in and let him talk for himself or--or _I'll tell the Japanese +myself what we have come for!_" + +Lund stood staring at her, his face hard, his beard thrust out like a +bush with the jut of his jaw. Still she faced him, resolute, barely up +to his shoulder, slim, defiant. Gradually his features crinkled into a +grin. + +"I believe you would," he said at last. "An' I'd hate to fix you the way +I would Tamada. But, mind you, if I don't git a definite promise out of +him that rings true, I'll have to stow him somewheres, where they won't +find him. An' that won't be on board ship." + +The girl's face softened. + +"You said you played fair," she said with a sigh of relief. She stepped +to the door, opened it, and called for Tamada. The Japanese appeared +almost instantly. Lund closed the door behind him and locked it. + +"You know there's a patrol comin' up, Tamada?" he asked. "A Jap patrol?" + +"Yes." + +"What do you intend tellin' 'em if they come on board?" + +"Nothing, if I can help it. I think I can. I am not friendly with +Japanese government. It would be bad for me if they find me. One time I +belong Progressive Party in Japan. I make much talk. Too much. The +government say I am too progressive." + +Rainey imagined he caught a glint of humor in Tamada's eyes as he made +his clipped syllables. + +"So, I leave my country. Suppose I go on steamer I think that government +they stop me. I think even in California they may make trouble, if they +find me. So I go in _sampan_. Sometimes Japanese cross to California in +_sampan_." + +"That's right," said Rainey. He had handled more than one story of +Japanese crews landing on some desolate portion of the coast to avoid +immigration laws and steamer fares. Generally they were rounded up after +their perilous, daring crossing of the Pacific. Tamada's story held the +elements of truth. Even Lund nodded in reserved affirmation. + +"Also I ship on _Karluk_ as cook because of perhaps trouble if some one +know me in San Francisco. I think much better if they do not see me. I +have a plan. Also I want my share of gold. Suppose that gunboat find me, +find out about gold, they will not give me reward. You do not know +Japanese. They will put me in prison. It will be suggest to me, because +I am of _daimio_ blood"--Tamada drew himself up slightly as he claimed +his nobility--"that I make _hari-kari_. That I do not wish. I am +Progressive. I much rather cook on board _Karluk_ and get my share of +gold." + +Lund surveyed him moodily, half convinced. The girl was all eager +approval. + +"What is your plan, Tamada?" + +"We're losin' time on that log," cut in Lund. "Git busy, Rainey. Look +among Carlsen's stuff. He may have kept one. Dope up one of 'em, an' +burn the other. Now then, Tamada, dope out yore scheme; it's got to be +a good one." + +Both Lund and the girl were laughing when Rainey came out into the main +cabin again with the records. Tamada had disappeared. + +"He's some fox," said Lund. "Miss Peggy, you better superintend the +theatricals. It's got to be done right. Rainey, not to interrupt you, +what do you know about enteric fever?" + +"Nothing." + +"Well, it's the same as typhoid. There'll be a surgeon aboard that +gunboat. You got to bluff him. Say little an' look wise as an' owl. +Don't let him mix in with yore patient." + +"My patient?" + +"Tamada! He's got enteric fever. If there's time he'll give you all the +dope." + +"But I don't see how that--" + +"You will see when you see Tamada," Lund grinned. "How about them logs? +Can you fix 'em?" + +"I think so." + +"Then hop to it. I'm goin' to wise up the men and arrange a reception +committee. Don't forgit yore name's Carlsen, an' mine's Simms." + +Rainey wrote rapidly in his log, erasing, eliminating pages without +trace, imitating the skipper's phrasing. Fortunately Simms had made +scant entries at first and, later on, as the drug held him, none at all. +Carlsen had kept no record that he could find. The girl had gone forward +to aid with Tamada's plan which Lund had evidently accepted. + +Before he had quite finished he heard the tramp of men on deck and the +blast of a steam whistle. He ended his task and went up to see the +gunboat, gray and menacing, its brasses glistening, men on her decks at +their tasks, oblivious of the schooner, and officers on her bridge +watching the progress of a launch toward the floe. + +It made landing smartly, and a lieutenant, diminutive but highly +effective in appearance, led six men toward the _Karluk_. He wore a +sword and revolver; the men carried carbines. Their disciplined rank and +smartness, the waiting launch, the gunboat in the offing, were ominous +with the suggestion of power, the will to administer it. The officer in +command carried his chin at an arrogant tilt. Lund had rigged a gangway +and stood at the head of it, saluting the lieutenant as the latter +snappily answered the greeting. + +Rainey found the girl and put a hurried question. + +"What about Tamada? Where is he? What's the plan?" + +She turned to him with eyes that danced with excitement. + +"He's in the galley, Doctor Carlsen. But he isn't Tamada any more. He's +Jim Cuffee, nigger cook, sick with enteric fever, not to be disturbed." + +Rainey stared. It was a clever device, if Tamada could carry it out, and +he bear his own part in the masquerade. The willingness of Tamada to +risk the disguise was assurance of his fidelity. + +"Lund should have told me," he said. "I've got to change his name on +the papers. It won't take a minute though; he doesn't appear in the +log." + +The Japanese officer wasted no time on deck. For precaution, Rainey made +his alteration in the skipper's cabin, leaving the log there on the +built-in desk. + +"This is Lieutenant Ito, Doctor Carlsen," said Lund. "You want to see +our papers, Lieutenant?" + +"My orders are to examine the schooner," said Ito, in English, even more +perfect than Tamada's. His face was officially severe, though his slant +eyes shifted constantly toward the girl. Evidently she was an unexpected +feature of the visit. + +"I'll get the papers first," said Lund. "Doctor, you an' Peggy entertain +the lieutenant." Rainey set out some whisky, which the Japanese refused, +some cigars that he passed over with a motion of his hand. He sat down +stiffly and ran through the papers. + +"We're pelagic, you know," said Lund. "We ain't trespassin' on purpose. +Didn't even know you owned the island." + +"It is on our charts," said Ito crisply, as if that settled the right of +dominion. "How did you come here at all?" + +"We was brought," said Lund. "Got froze in north o' Wrangell. Gale set +us west as we come out o' the Strait. We're bound for Corwin. Nothin' +contraband. All reg'lar. Six hunters, two damaged in the gale, though +the doc's fixed 'em up. Twelve seamen, one boy, an' a nigger cook who's +pizened himself with his own cookin'. Doc's bringin' him round, too, +though he don't deserve it. Want to make yore inspection? We're in no +hurry to git away until the ice melts. Take yore time." + +The little, dapper officer with his keen, high-cheeked face, and his +shoe-brush hair, got up and bowed, with a side glance at Peggy Simms. + +"It is not usual for young ladies to be so far north." His endeavor at +gallantry was obvious. + +"I am with my father," said the girl, looking at Rainey, enjoying the +situation. + +"Where I go she goes," said Lund. And looked in turn at her with relish +in his double suggestion. He, too, was playing the game, gambling, +believing in his luck, reckless, now he had set the board. + +They passed through the corridor. Lund opened up the strong-room, and +then the galley. It was orderly, and there was a moaning figure in +Tamada's bunk, a tossing figure with a head bound in a red bandanna +above the black face and neck that showed above the blankets. The eyes +were closed. The black hands, showing lighter palms, plucked at the +coverings. + +"Delirious," said Lund. "Serves him right. He's a rotten cook." + +"Have you all the medicines you need?" asked Ito. "I can send our +surgeon." + +"I can manage," returned Rainey, _alias_ Carlsen. "It's enteric. I've +reduced the fever." + +They passed on through the hunters' quarters. The girl fell behind with +Rainey. + +"A good make-up and a good actor," she whispered. "I helped him to be +sure he covered everything that would show. It was my idea about the +bandanna. Just what a sick negro might wear, and it hid his straight +hair." + +The lieutenant appeared fairly satisfied, but requested that Lund go on +board his ship. He stayed there until sundown, returning in hilarious +mood. + +"We've slipped it over on 'em this time," he said. "I left 'em aswim +with _sake_, an' bubblin' over with polite regrets. But they'll be back +in three weeks, they said, if the ice is open. An', if the luck holds, +we'll be out of it. I don't want them searchin' the ship ag'in." He +slapped Tamada on the back as he came to serve supper after Sandy had +laid the table. + +"A reg'lar vodeville skit," he exclaimed. "You're some actor, Tamada! +But why didn't you say the island was down on their charts? They've even +got a name for it. Hiyama." + +"It means hot mountain," said Tamada. "The government names many +islands." + +"You can bet yore life they do," said Lund. "They're smart, but they +overlooked that beach an' they've given us three weeks to cash in." + +Lund himself had imbibed enough of the _sake_ to make him loose of +tongue, added to his elation at the success he had achieved. The gunboat +was gone on its patrol, and he had a free hand. He half filled a glass +with whisky. "Here's to luck," he cried. And spilled a part of the +liquor on the floor before he set the glass to his lips. + +"Here's to you, Doc," he added. "An' to Peggy!" He rolled eyes that were +a trifle bloodshot at the girl. + +"Our relations have gone back as usual, Mr. Lund," she said quietly. +Lund glared at her half truculently. + +"I'm agreeable," he said. "As a daughter, I disown you from now on, Miss +Peggy. Here's to ye, jest the same!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MY MATE + + +From the day following the arrival and departure of the Japanese +gunboat, they attacked the little U-shaped beach that lay between two +buttresses of the volcano and sloped sharply down to the sea. Twenty-one +men, a lad and a woman, they went at the despoiling of it with a sort of +obsession, led, rather than driven, by Lund, who worked among the rest +of them like a Hercules. + +From the beginning the tongue of shingle promised to be almost +incredibly rich. Between these two spurs of mountain the tide had washed +and flung the rich, free-flaking gold of a submarine vein, piling it up +for unguessable years. Ebb tides had worked it in among the gravel, +floods had beaten it down; the deeper they went to bedrock, the richer +the pan. + +The men's fancy estimate of a million dollars began speedily to seem +small as the work progressed, systematically stripping the rocky floor +of all its shingle, foot by foot, and cubic yard by cubic yard, cradling +it in crude rockers, fluming it, vaporizing the amalgam of gold and +mercury, and adding pound after pound of virgin gold to the sacks in the +schooner's strong-room. + +They worked at first in alternating shifts of four hours, by day and +night, under the sun, the moon, the stars and the flaming aurora. The +crust was drilled here and there where it had frozen into conglomerate, +and exploded by dynamite, carefully placed so as not to dislodge the +masses of ice that overhung the schooner. Fires to thaw out the ground +were unavailable for sheer lack of fuel; there was no driftwood between +these forestless shores. What fuel could be spared was conserved for use +under the boilers that melted ice to provide water for the cradles and +flumes, and help to cook the meals that Tamada prepared out-of-doors for +the workers. + +Buckets of coffee, stews, and thick soups of peas and lentils, masses of +beans with plenty of fat pork, these were what they craved after hours +of tremendous endeavor. Despite the cold, they sweated profusely at +their tasks, stripping off over-garments as they picked and shoveled or +crowbarred out the rich gravel. + +Peggy Simms worked with the rest, assisting Tamada, helping to serve +with Sandy. Deming, and Beale, the man with the damaged ribs, were given +odd jobs that they could handle: feeding the fires, washing up, or +assisting at the little forge where the drills were sharpened. + +Through all of it Lund was supreme as working superintendent. There was +no job that he could not, did not, handle better than any two of them, +and, though Rainey could see a shrinkage, or a compression, of his bulk +as day by day he called upon it for heroic service, he never seemed to +tire. + +"Got to keep 'em at it," he would say in the cabin. "No time to lose, +an' the odds all against us, in a way. Barring Luck. That's what we got +to count on, but we don't want them thinkin' that. If the weather don't +break--an' break jest right--as soon as we've cleaned up, we're stung. +Though I'll blast a way out of this shore ice, if it comes to the worst. +I saved out some dynamite on purpose." + +"We ought to have brought a steam-shovel along," said Rainey. He was +hard as iron, but he had served a tough apprenticeship to labor, and his +hands and nails, he fancied, would never get into shape again. + +"Now you're talkin'," agreed Lund. "We c'ud have handled it in fine +shape an' left the machine behind as junk or a souvenir for our Jap +friends. We've got to cut out this four-hour shift. Too much time wasted +changin'. Too many meals. We'll make it one long, steady shift of all +hands long as we can stand up to it, an' all git reg'lar sleep. I'm +needin' some myself." + +Rainey knew that neither he nor Hansen got within two-thirds as much +out of their shifts as when Lund was in command, though he had given +them the pick of the men. It was not that the men malingered, they +simply, neither of them, had the knack of keeping the work going at top +speed and top effectiveness. + +But, with Lund handling all of them as a unit, it was not long before +the shovels began to scrape on the bare rock that underlay the gravel at +tide edge, and work swiftly back to the end of the U. The outdoors +kitchen had been established on top of the promontory between the +schooner and the beach, a primitive arrangement of big pots slung from +tripods over fires kindled on a flat area that was partly sheltered from +the sea and the prevailing winds by outcrops of weathered lava. + +At dawn the men trooped from the schooner to be fed and warmed, and then +they flung themselves at their task. The more they got out the more +there was in it for them. But Lund was their overlord, their better, and +they knew it. Only Deming worked with one hand the handle of the forge +bellows, or fed the fires, and sneered. + +Lund stood a full head above the tallest of them, which was Rainey, and +he was always in the thick of the work, directing, demanding the utmost, +and setting example to back command. His eyes had bothered him, and he +had made a pair of Arctic snow-glasses, mere circles of wood with slits +in them. But under these the sweat gathered, and he discarded them, +resorting to the primitive device of smearing soot all about his eyes. +This, he said, gave him relief, but it made him a weird sort of Caliban +in his labors. + +On the fifteenth day, with the work better than half done, with more +than a ton of actual gold in colors, that ranged from flour dust to +nuggets, in the strong-room, the weather began to change. It misted +continually, and Lund, rejoicing, prophesied the breaking up of the cold +snap. + +By the eighteenth day a regular Chinook was blowing, melting the sharper +outlines of the icy crags and pinnacles, and providing streams of +moisture that, in the nights now gradually growing longer, glazed every +yard of rock with peril. + +The men worked in a muck with their rubber sea-boots worn out by +constant chafing, sweaters torn, the blades of their shovels reduced by +the work demanded of them, the drills, shortened by steady sharpening, +gone like the spare flesh of the laborers, who, at last, began to show +signs of quicker and quicker exhaustion with occasional mutterings of +discontent, while Lund, intent only upon cleaning off the rock as a +dentist cleans a crumbling tooth, coaxed and cursed, blamed and praised +and bullied, and did the actual work of three of them. + +Dead with fatigue, filled with food, drowsy from the liberal grog +allowance at the end of the day, the men slept in a torpor every night +and showed less and less inclination to respond, though the end of their +labors was almost in sight. + +"What's the use, we got enough," was the comment beginning to be heard +more and more frequently. "Lund, he's got more'n he can spend in a +lifetime!" + +Rainey could not trace these mutterings to Deming's instigation, but he +suspected the hunter. There was no poker; all hands were too tired for +play. + +The ice in which the schooner was packed began to show signs of +disintegration. The surface rotted by day and froze again by night and +this destroyed its compactness. If the sun's arc above the horizon had +been longer, its rays more vertical, the ice must infallibly have melted +and freed the _Karluk_, for it was salt-water ice, and there were times +when the thermometer stayed above its freezing point for two or three +hours around noon. + +Lund gave the holding floe scant attention. So long as the present +weather kept up he declared that he could dynamite his way out inside of +four hours. + +The effect of all this on Rainey was a bit bewildering. He was judging +life by new standards far apart from his own modes and, though he, too, +worked with a will, and rejoiced in the freer effort of his muscles, the +result comparing favorably with the best of the others--save Lund--he +could not assimilate the general conditions. + +They were too purely physical, he told himself; he missed his old +habits, the reading and discussion of books, new and old, the good +restaurants of San Francisco, and the chat he had been used to hold over +their tables, companionable, witty, the exchange and stimulation of +ideas. + +He missed the theaters, the concerts, the passing show of well-dressed +women, a hodge-podge of flesh-pots and mental uplift. He got to dreaming +of these things nights. + +Daytimes, he saw plainly that, in this environment at least, Lund was +big, and the rest of them comparatively small. He believed that Lund +could actually form a little kingdom of his own, as he had suggested, +and make a success of it. But it would not be a kingdom that fostered +the arts. It would cultivate the sciences, or at least encourage them +and adopt results as applied to land development, and, if necessary, the +defense of the kingdom. + +Lund would be a figure in war and peace, peace of the practical sort, +the kind of peace that went with plenty. He was no dreamer, but a +utilitarian. Perhaps, after all, the world most needed such men just +now. + +As for Peggy Simms, she did not lose the polish of her culture, she was +always feminine, even dainty at times, despite her work, that could not +help but be coarse to a certain extent. She was full of vigor, she +showed unexpected strength, she was a source of encouragement to the men +as she waited on them. And also a source of undisguised admiration, all +of which she shed as a duck sheds water. She was filled with abounding +health, she moved with a free grace that held the eye and lingered in +the mind. She was eminently a woman, and she also was big. + +Rainey gained an increasing respect in her prowess, and a swift +conversion to the equality of the sexes. There were times when he +doubted his own equality. Had she met him on his own ground, in his own +realm of what he considered vaguely as culture, he would have known a +mastery that he now lacked. As it was, she averaged higher, and she had +an attraction of sex that was compelling. + +Here was a girl who would demand certain standards in the man with whom +she would mate, not merely accompany through life. There were times when +Rainey felt irresistibly the charm of her as a woman, longed for her in +the powerful sex reactions that inevitably follow hard labor. There were +times when he felt that she did not consider that he measured up to her +gages, and he would strive to change the atmosphere, to dominate the +situation in which Lund was the greater figure of the two men. + +The rivalry that Lund had suggested between them as regards the girl, +Rainey felt almost thrust upon him. There were moods which Peggy Simms +turned to him for sharing, but there was scant time in the waking hours +for love-making, or even its consideration. + +Lund was centered on one achievement, the gold harvest. He ordered the +girl with the rest; there were even times when he reprimanded her, while +Rainey burned with the resentment she apparently did not share. + +A little before dawn on the eighteenth day of the work upon the beach, +Lund was out upon the floe examining the condition of the ice. He had +declared that two days more of hard endeavor would complete their +labors. What dirt remained at the end of that time they would transship. +Rainey had joined the girl and Tamada at the cook fires. + +The sky was bright with the aurora borealis that would pale before the +sun. The men were not yet out of their bunks. They were bone and muscle +tired, and Rainey doubted whether Lund, gaunt and lean himself, could +get two days of top work out of them. Near the fires for the cooking, +the melting of water and the forge, that were kept glowing all night, +the tools were stacked, to help preserve their temper. + +The aurora quivered in varying incandescence as Rainey watched Lund +prodding at the floe ice with a steel bar. The girl was busy with the +coffee, and Tamada was compounding two pots of stew and bubbling peas +pudding for the breakfast, food for heat and muscle making. + +Sandy appeared on deck and came swiftly over the side of the vessel and +up the worn trail to the fires. He showed excitement, Rainey fancied, +sure of it as the lad got within speaking distance. + +"Where is Mr. Lund?" he panted. + +Rainey pointed to Lund, now examining a crack that had opened up in the +floe, a possible line of exit for the _Karluk_, later on. The men were +beginning to show on the schooner. They, too, he noted somewhat idly, +acted differently this morning. Usually they were sluggish until they +had eaten, sleepy and indifferent until the coffee stimulated them, and +Lund took up this stimulus and fanned it to a flame of work. This +morning they walked differently, abnormally active. + +"They're drunk, an' they're goin' on strike," said Sandy. "You know the +big demijohn in the lazaretto?" + +Rainey nodded. It was a two-handled affair holding five gallons, a +reserve supply of strong rum from which Lund dispensed the grog +allowances and stimulations for extra work toward the end of the shift, +the night-caps and occasional rewards. + +"They've swiped it," he said. "Put an empty one from the hold in its +place. We got plenty without usin' that one for a while, an' I only +happened to notice it this morning by chance. They've bin drinkin' all +night, I reckon. They're ugly, Mr. Rainey. It's the crew this time. They +got the booze. The hunters are sober. Deming ain't in on this. They did +it on their own. I don't know how they got it. I didn't get it for 'em, +sir. They must have worked plumb through the hold an' got to it that +way." + +"All right, Sandy. Thanks. Mr. Lund can handle them, I guess. He's +coming now." + +The men had got to the ice, hidden from Lund, who was walking to the +_Karluk_ on the opposite side of the vessel. The seamen were +gesticulating freely; the sound of their voices came up to him where he +stood, tinged with a new freedom of speech, rough, confident, menacing. +As they climbed the trail their legs betrayed them and confirmed the +boy's story. Behind them came the four hunters, with Hansen, walking +apart, watching the sailors with a certain gravity that communicated +itself despite the distance. + +Lund showed at the far rail of the schooner with his bar. He glanced +toward the men going to work, went below, and came up with a sweater. He +had left the bar behind him in the cabin, where it was used for a stove +poker. + +The men filed by Rainey, their faces flushed and their eyes unusually +bright. They seemed to share a prime joke that wanted to bubble up and +over, yet held a restraint upon themselves that was eased by digs in one +another's ribs, in laughs when one stumbled or hiccoughed. + +But Hansen was stolid as ever, and the hunters had evidently not shared +the stolen liquor. Only Deming's eyes roved over the group of men as +they gathered round for their cups and pannikins of food. He seemed to +be calculating what advantage he could gain out of this unexpected +happening. + +Peggy Simms, under cover of pouring the coffee, sweetened heavily with +condensed milk, found time to speak to Rainey. + +"They're all drunk," she said. + +"Not all of them. Here comes Lund. He'll handle it." + +Lund seemed still pondering the problem of the floe. At first he did not +notice the condition of the sailors. Then he apparently ignored it. But, +after they had eaten, he talked to all the men. + +"Two more days of it, lads, and we're through. The beach is nigh +cleared. We can git out of the floe to blue water easy enough, an' we'll +git a good start on the patrol-ship. We'll go back with full pockets an' +heavy ones. The shares'll be half as large again as we've figgered. I +wouldn't wonder if they averaged sixteen or seventeen thousand dollars +apiece." + +Rainey had picked out a black-bearded Finn as the leader of the sailors +in their debauch. The liquor seemed to have unchained in him a spirit of +revolt that bordered on insolence. He stood with his bowed legs apart, +mittened hands on hips, staring at Lund with a covert grin. + +Next to Lund he was the biggest man aboard. With the rum giving an +unusual coordination to his usually sluggish nervous system, he promised +to be a source of trouble. + +Rainey was surprised to see him shrug his shoulders and lead the way to +the beach. Perhaps breakfast had sobered them, though the fumes of +liquor still clung cloudily on the air. + +Lund went down, with Rainey beside him, reporting Sandy. + +"I'll work it out of 'em," said Lund. "That booze'll be an expensive +luxury to 'em, paid for in hard labor." + +They found the men ranged up in three groups. Deming and Beale, against +custom, had gone down to the beach. They were supposed to help clean the +food utensils, and aid Tamada after a meal, besides replenishing the +fires. + +They stood a little away from the hunters and Hansen and the sailors. +The Finn, talking to his comrades in a low growl, was with a separate +group. + +There was an air of defiance manifest, a feeling of suspense in the tiny +valley, backed by the frowning cone, ribbed by the two icy promontories. +Lund surveyed them sharply. + +"What in hell's the matter with you?" he barked. "Hansen, send up a man +for the drills an' shovels. Yore work's laid out; hop to it!" + +"We ain't goin' to work no more," said the Finn aggressively. "Not fo' +no sich wage like you give." + +"Oh, you ain't, ain't you?" mocked Lund. He was standing with Rainey in +the middle of the space they had cleared of gravel, the seamen lower +down the beach, nearer the sea, their ranks compacted. "Why, you +booze-bitten, lousy hunky, what in hell do you want? You never saw +twenty dollars in a lump you c'u'd call yore own for more'n ten minnits. +You boardin'-house loafer an' the rest of you scum o' the seven seas, +git yore shovels an' git to diggin', or I'll put you ashore in San +Francisco flat broke, an' glad to leave the ship, at that. _Jump!_" + +The Finn snarled, and the rest stood firm. Not one of them knew the real +value of their promised share. Money represented only counters exchanged +for lodging, food and drink enough to make them sodden before they had +spent even their usual wages. Then they would wake to find the rest +gone, and throw themselves upon the selfish bounty of a boarding-house +keeper. + +But they had seen the gold, they had handled it, and they were inflamed +by a sense of what it ought to do for them. Perhaps half of them could +not add a simple sum, could not grasp figures beyond a thousand, at +most. And the sight of so much gold had made it, in a manner, cheap. It +was there, a heap of it, and they wanted more of that shining heap than +had been promised them. + +"You talk big," said the Finn. "Look my hands." He showed palms +calloused, split, swollen lumps of chilblained flesh worn down and +stiffened. "I bin seaman, not goddam navvy." + +Lund turned to the hunters. + +"You in on this?" he asked. Deming and Beale moved off. Two of the +others joined them. "Neutral?" sneered Lund. "I'll remember that." +Hansen and the two remaining came over beside Lund and Rainey. + +"Five of us," said Lund. "Five men against twelve fo'c'sle rats. I'll +give you two minnits to start work." + +"You talk big with yore gun in pocket," said the Finn. "Me good man as +you enny day." + +Lund's face turned dark with a burst of rage that exploded in voice and +action. + +"You think I need my gun, do ye, you pack of rats? Then try it on +without it." + +His hand slid to his holster inside his heavy coat. His arm swung, there +was a streak of gleaming metal in the lifting sun-rays, flying over the +heads of the seamen. It plunked in the free water beyond the ice. + +"Come on," roared Lund, "or I'll rush you to the first bath you've had +in five years." The Finn lowered his head, and charged; the rest +followed their leader. The hot food had steadied their motive control to +a certain extent, they were firmer on their feet, less vague of eye, but +the crude alcohol still fumed in their brains. Without it they would +never have answered the Finn's call to rebellion. + +He had promised, and their drunken minds believed, that refusing in a +mass to work would automatically halt things until they got their +"rights." They had not expected an open fight. The spur of alcohol had +thrust them over the edge, given them a swifter flow of their +impoverished blood, a temporary confidence in their own prowess, a mock +valor that answered Lund's contemptuous challenge. + +Lund, thought Rainey, had done a foolhardy thing in tossing away his +gun. It was magnificent, but it was not war. Pure bravado! But he had +scant time for thinking. Lund tossed him a scrap of advice. "Keep +movin'! Don't let 'em crowd you!" Then the fight was joined. + +The girl leaned out from the promontory to watch the tourney. Tamada, +impassive as ever, tended his fires. Sandy crept down to the beach, +drawn despite his will, and shuffled in and out, irresolute, too weak to +attempt to mix in, but excited, eager to help. Deming, Beale, and the +two neutral hunters, stood to one side, waiting, perhaps, to see which +way the fight went, reserves for the apparent victor. + +The Finn, best and biggest of the sailors, rushed for Lund, his little +eyes red with rage, crazy with the desire to make good his boast that he +was as good as Lund. In his barbaric way he was somewhat of a dancer, +and his legs were as lissome as his arms. He leaped, striking with fists +and feet. + +Lund met him with a fierce upper-cut, short-traveled, sent from the hip. +His enormous hand, bunched to a knuckly lump of stone, knocked the Finn +over, lifting him, before he fell with his nose driven in, its bone +shattered, his lips broken like overripe fruit, and his discolored teeth +knocked out. + +He landed on his back, rolling over and over, to lie still, half +stunned, while two more sprang for Lund. + +Lund roared with surprise and pain as one caught his red beard and swung +to it, smiting and kicking. He wrapped his left arm about the man, +crushing him close up to him, and, as the other came, diving low, +butting at his solar plexus, the giant gripped him by the collar, using +his own impetus, and brought the two skulls together with a thud that +left them stunned. + +The two dropped from Lund's relaxed arms like sacks, and he stepped over +them, alert, poised on the balls of his feet, letting out a shout of +triumph, while he looked about him for his next adversary. + +The bedrock on which they fought was slippery where ice had formed in +the crevices. Two seamen tackled Hansen. He stopped the curses of one +with a straight punch to his mouth, but the man clung to his arm, +bearing it down. Hansen swung at the other, and the blow went over the +shoulder as he dodged, but Hansen got him in chancery, and the three, +staggering, swearing, sliding, went down at last together, with Hansen +underneath, twisting one's neck to shut off his wind while he warded off +the wild blows of the second. With a wild heave he got on all-fours, +and then Lund, roaring like a bull as he came, tore off a seaman and +flung him headlong. + +"Pound him, Hansen!" he shouted, his eyes hard with purpose, shining +like ice that reflects the sun, his nostrils wide, glorying in the +fight. + +The Finn had got himself together a bit, wiping the gouts of blood from +his face and spitting out the snags of his broken teeth. He drew a knife +from inside his shirt, a long, curving blade, and sidled, like a crab, +toward Lund, murder in his piggy, bloodshot eyes, waiting for a chance +to slip in and stab Lund in the back, calling to a comrade to help him. + +"Come on," he called, "Olsen, wit' yore knife. Gut the swine!" + +Another blade flashed out, and the pair advanced, crouching, knees and +bodies bent. Lund backed warily toward the opposite cliff, looking for a +loose rock fragment. He had forbidden knives to the sailors since the +mutiny, and had forced a delivery, but these two had been hidden. A +knife to the Finn was a natural accessory. Only his drunken frenzy had +made him try to beat Lund at his own game. + +One of the two hunters, lamed with a kick on the knee, howling with the +pain, clinched savagely and bore the seaman down, battering his head +against a knob of rock. The other friendly hunter had bashed and +buffeted his opponent to submission. But Rainey was in hard case. + +A seaman, half Mexican, flew at him like a wildcat. Rainey struck out, +and his fists hit at the top of the breed's head without stopping him. +Then he clinched. + +The Mexican was slippery as an eel. He got his arms free, his hands shot +up, and his thumbs sought the inner corners of Rainey's eyes. The +sudden, burning anguish was maddening and he drove his clasped fists +upward, wedging away the drilling fingers. + +Two hands clawed at his shoulders from behind. Some one sprang fairly on +his back. A knee thrust against his spine. + +The agony left him helpless, the vertebrae seemed about to crack. +Strength and will were shut off, and the world went black. And then one +of the hunters catapulted into the struggle, and the four of them went +down in a maddened frenzy of blows and stifled shouts. + +The sailors fought like beasts, striving for blows barred by all codes +of decency and fair play, intent to maim. Lund had got his shoulders +against the rocks and stood with open hands, watching the two with their +knives, who crept in, foot by foot, to make a finish. + +Peggy Simms, a strand of her pale yellow hair whipped loose, flung it +out of her eyes as she stood on the edge of the cliff, her lips apart, +her breasts rising stormily, watching; her features changing with the +tide of battle as it surged beneath her, punctuated with muffled shouts +and wind-clipped oaths. She saw Lund at bay, and snatched out her +pistol. But the distance was too great. She dared not trust her aim. + +Sandy, dancing in and out, willing but helpless, bound by fear and lack +of muscle, saw Deming, followed by Beale, stealing up the trail, +unnoticed by the girl, who leaned far forward, watching the fight, her +eyes on Lund and the two creeping closer with their knives, cautious but +determined. Tamada stood farther back and could not see them. + +The lad's wits, sharpened by his forecastle experience, surmised what +Deming and Beale were after as they gained the promontory flat and ran +toward the fires. + +"Hey!" he shrilled. "Look out; they're after the tools!" + +Deming's hand was stretched toward a shovel, its worn steel scoop sharp +as a chisel. Beale was a few feet behind him. They were going to toss +the shovels and drills down to the seamen. + +Tamada turned. His face did not change, but his eyes gleamed as he +thrust a dipper in the steaming remnants of the pea-soup and flung the +thick blistering mass fair in Deming's face. At the same moment the +girl's pistol cracked with a stab of red flame. Beale dropped, shot in +the neck, close to the collarbone, twisting like a scotched snake, +rolling down the trail to the beach again. + +Deming, howling like a scorched devil, clawed with one hand at the +sticky mass that masked him as he ran blind, wild with pain. He tripped, +clutched, and lost his hold, slid on a plane of icy lava, smooth as +glass, struck a buttress that sent him off at a tangent down the face of +the cliff, bounding from impact with an outthrust elbow of the rock, +whirling into space, into the icy turmoil of the waves, flooding into +the inlet. + +Peggy Simms fled down the trail with a steel drill in either hand, +straight across the beach toward Lund. The Finn turned on her with a +snarl and a side-swipe of his knife, but she leaped aside, dodged the +other slow-foot, and thrust a drill at Lund, who grasped it with a cry +of exultation, swinging it over his head as if it had been a bamboo. +Hansen had shaken off his men, and came leaping in for the second drill. + +The knife fell tinkling on the frozen rock as Lund smashed the wrist of +the Finn. The girl's gun made the second would-be stabber throw up his +hands while Hansen snatched his weapon, flung it over the farther cliff, +and knocked the seaman to the ground before he joined Lund, charging the +rest, who fled before the sight of them and the threat of the bars of +steel. + +Lund laughed loud, and stopped striking, using the drill as a goad, +driving them into a huddled horde, like leaderless sheep, knee-deep, +thigh-deep, into the water, where they stopped and begged for mercy +while Hansen turned to put a finish to the separate struggles. + +It ended as swiftly as it had begun. One hunter could barely stand for +his kicked knee, Rainey's back was strained and stiffening, Lund had +lost a handful of his beard, and Hansen's cheek was laid open. + +On the other side the casualties were more severe. Deming was drowned, +his body flung up by the tide, rolling in the swash. Beale was coughing +blood, though not dangerously wounded. The Finn was crying over his +broken wrist, all the fight out of him. Ribs were sore where not +splintered from the drills, and the two bumped by Lund sat up with +sorely aching heads. The courage inspired by the liquor was all gone; +oozed, beaten out of them. They were cowed, demoralized, whipped. + +Lund took swift inventory, lining them up as they came timorously out of +the water or straggled against the cliff at his order. Tamada had come +down from the fires. Peggy had told of his share, and Sandy's timely +shout. Lund nodded at him in a friendly manner. + +"You're a white man, Tamada," he said. "You, too, Sandy. I'll not forget +it. Rainey, round up these derelicts an' help Tamada fix 'em up. I'll +settle with 'em later. Hansen, put the rest of 'em to work, an' keep 'em +to it! Do you hear? They got to do the work of the whole bunch." + +They went willingly enough, limping, nursing their bruises, while +Hansen, his stolidity momentarily vanished in the rush of the fight and +not yet regained, exhibited an unusual vocabulary as he bossed them. +Lund turned to the two hunters, who had stood apart. + +"Wal, you yellow-bellied neutrals," he said, his voice cold and his eyes +hard. "Thought I might lose, and hoped so, didn't you? Pick up that +skunk Beale an' tote him aboard. Then come back an' go to work. You'll +git yore shares, but you'll not git what's comin' to those who stood by. +Now git out of my sight. You can bury That when you come back." He +nodded at the sodden corpse of Deming, flung up on the grit. "You can +take yore pay as grave-diggers out of what you owe him at poker. He +ain't goin' to collect this trip." + +Rainey, lame and sore, helped Tamada patch up the wounded, turning the +hunters' quarters into a sick bay, using the table for operation. Beale +was the worst off, but Tamada pronounced him not vitally damaged. After +he had finished with them he insisted upon Rainey's lying, face down, on +the table, stripped to the waist, while he rubbed him with oil and then +kneaded him. Once he gave a sudden, twisting wrench, and Rainey saw a +blur of stars as something snapped into place with a click. + +"I think you soon all right, now," said Tamada. + +"You and Miss Simms turned the tide," said Rainey. "If they'd got those +tools first they'd have finished us in short order." + +"Fools!" said Tamada. "Suppose they kill Lund, how they get away? No one +to navigate. Presently the gunboat would find them. I think Mr. Lund +will maybe trust me now," he said quietly. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Mr. Lund think in the back of his head I arrange for that gunboat to +come. He can not understand how they know the schooner at island. He +think to come jus' this time too much curious, I think." + +"It was a bit of a coincidence." + +Tamada shrugged his shoulders slightly. + +"I think Japanese government know all that goes on in North Polar +region," he said. "There is wireless station on Wrangell Island. We pass +by that pretty close." + +Rainey chewed that information as he put on his clothes, wondering if +they had seen the last of the gunboat. They would have to pass south +through Bering Strait. It would be easy to overhaul them, halt them, +search the schooner, confiscate the gold. They were not out of trouble +yet. + +When he went into the cabin to replace his torn coat--he had hardly a +button intact above the waist, from jacket to undershirt--he found the +girl there with Lund. Apparently, they had just come in. Peggy Simms, +with face aglow with the excitement that had not subsided, was +proffering Lund her pistol. + +"Keep it," he said. "You may need it. I've got mine." + +"But you threw it into the water. I saw you." + +"No," He laughed. "That wasn't my gun. They thought it was. I wanted +to bring the thing to grips. But I wasn't fool enough to chuck away my +gun. That was a wrench I was usin' this mornin' to fix the cabin +stove--looks jest like an ottermatic. I stuck it in my inside pocket. I +was ha'f a mind to shoot when they showed their knives, but I didn't +want to use my gun on that mess of hash." + +He stood tall and broad above her, looking down at the face that was +raised to his. Rainey, unnoticed as yet, saw her eyes bright with +admiration. + +"You are a wonderful fighter," she said softly. + +"Wonderful? What about you? A man's woman! You saved the day. Comin' to +me with them drills. An' we licked 'em. We. God!" + +He swept her up into his arms, lifting her in his big hands, making no +more of her than if she had been a feather pillow, up till her face was +on a level with his, pressing her close, while in swift, indignant rage +she fought back at him, striking futilely while he held her, kissed her, +and set her down as Rainey sprang forward. + +Lund seemed utterly unconscious of the girl's revulsion. + +"Comin' to me with the drills!" he said. "We licked 'em. You an' me +together. My woman!" + +Peggy Simms had leaped back, her eyes blazing. Lund came for her, his +face lit with the desire of her, arms outspread, hands open. Before +Rainey could fling himself between them, the girl had snatched the +little pistol that Lund had set on the table and fired point-blank. She +seemed to have missed, though Lund halted, his mouth agape, astounded. + +"You big bully!" said Rainey. Now that the time had come he found that +he was not afraid of Lund, of his gun, of his strength. "Play fair, do +you? Then show it! You asked me once why I didn't make love to her. I +told you. But you, you foul-minded bully! All you think of is your big +body, to take what it wants. + +"Peggy. Will you marry me? I can protect you from this hulking brute. If +it's to be a show-down between you and me," he flared at Lund, still +gazing as if stupefied, "let it come now. Peggy?" + +The girl, tears on her cheeks that were born from the sobs of anger that +had shaken her, swung on him. + +"You?" she said, and Rainey wilted under the scorn in her voice. "Marry +you?" She began to laugh hysterically, trying to check herself. + +"I didn't mean you enny harm," said Lund slowly, addressing Peggy. "Why, +I wouldn't harm you, gal. You're my woman. You come to me. I was +jest--jest sorter swept off my bearin's. Why," he turned to Rainey, his +voice down-pitching to a growl of angry contempt, "you pen-shovin' +whippersnapper, I c'ud break you in ha'f with one hand. You ain't her +breed. But"--his voice changed again--"if it's a show-down, all right. + +"If I was to fight you, over her, I'd kill you. D'ye think I don't +respect a good gal? D'ye think I don't know how to love a gal right? +She's _my_ mate. Not yours. But it's up to you, Peggy Simms. I didn't +mean to insult you. An' if you want him--why, it's up to you to choose +between the two of us." + +She went by Rainey as if he had not existed, straight into Lund's arms, +her face radiant, upturned. + +"It's you I love, Jim Lund," she said. "A man. _My_ man." + +As her arms went round his neck she gave a little cry. + +"I wounded you," she said, and the tender concern of her struck Rainey +to the quick. "Quick, let me see." + +"Wounded, hell!" laughed Lund. "D'ye think that popgun of yores c'ud +stop me? The pellet's somewheres in my shoulder. Let it bide. By God, +yo're my woman, after all. Lund's Luck!" + +Rainey went up on deck with that ringing in his ears. His humiliation +wore off swiftly as he crossed back toward the beach. By the time he +crossed the promontory he even felt relieved at the outcome. He was not +in love with her. He had known that when he intervened. He had not even +told her so. His chivalry had spoken--not his heart. And his thoughts +strayed back to California. The other girl, Diana though she was, would +never, in almost one breath, have shot and kissed the man she loved. A +lingering vision of Peggy Simms' beauty as she had gone to Lund remained +and faded. + +"Lund's right," he told himself. "She's not of my breed." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LUND'S LUCK + + +Lund glanced at the geyser of spray where the shell from the pursuing +gunboat had fallen short, and then at the bank of mist ahead. They were +in the narrows of Bering Strait, between the Cape of Charles and Prince +Edward's Point, the gold aboard, a full wind in their sails, making +eleven knots to the gunboat's fifteen. + +It was mid-afternoon, three hours since they had seen smoke to the north +and astern of them. Either the patrol had found them gone from the +island, freed by blasting from the floe, and followed on the trail full +speed, or the wireless from some Japanese station on the Tchukchis coast +had told of their homing flight. + +The great curtain of fog was a mile ahead. The last shell had fallen two +hundred yards short. Five minutes more would settle it. Hansen had the +wheel. Lund stood by the taffrail, his arm about Peggy Simms. He shook a +fist at the gunboat, vomiting black smoke from her funnel, foam about +her bows. + +"We'll beat 'em yet," he cried. + +The next shell, with more elevation, whined parallel with them, sped +ahead, and smashed into the waves. + +"Hold yore course, Hansen! No time to zigzag. Got to chance it. Damn it, +they know how to shoot!" + +A missile had gone plump through main and foresails, leaving round holes +to mark the score. Another fairly struck the main topmast, and some +splinters came rattling down, while the remnants of the top-sail flapped +amid writhing ends of halyard and sheet. + +They entered the beginning of the fog, curling wisps of it reached out, +twining over the bowsprint and headsails, enveloping the foremast, +swallowing the schooner as a hurtling shell crashed into the stern. The +next instant the mist had sheltered them. Lund released the girl and +jumped to the wheel. + +"Now then," he shouted, "we'll fool 'em!" He gripped the spokes, and the +men ran to the sheets at command while the _Karluk_ shot off at right +angles to her previous course, skirting the fog that blanketed the wind +but yet allowed sufficient breeze to filter through to give them +headway, gliding like a ghost on the new tack to the east. + +Rainey, tense from the explosion of the shell, jumped below at last and +came back exultant. + +"It was a dud, Lund!" he shouted. "Or else they didn't want to blow us +up on account of the gold. But they've wrecked the cabin. The fog's +coming in through the hole they made. Tamada's galley's gone. It's raked +the schooner!" + +"So long's it's above the water line, to hell with it! We'll make out. +Listen to the fools. They've gone in after us, straight on." + +The booming of the gunboat's forward battery sounded aft of them, +dulled by the fog--growing fainter. + +"Lund's luck! We've dodged 'em!" + +"They'll be waiting for us at the passes," said Rainey. "They've got the +speed on us." + +"Let 'em wait. To blazes with the Aleutians! Ready again there for a +tack! Sou'-east now. We'll work through this till we git to the wind +ag'in. It's all blue water to the Seward Peninsula. We're bound for +Nome." + +"For Nome?" asked Peggy Simms. + +"Nome, Peggy! An American port. The nearest harbor. An' the nearest +preacher!" + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man to His Mate, by J. Allan Dunn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN TO HIS MATE *** + +***** This file should be named 28597.txt or 28597.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/9/28597/ + +Produced by Brian Janes, Suzanne Lybarger, Pilar Somoza +FernAindez and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/28597.zip b/28597.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9186e01 --- /dev/null +++ b/28597.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5af0b84 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #28597 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28597) |
