The Yukon Trail: A Tale of the North Read online

  CHAPTER II

  ENTER A MAN

  The whistle of the Hannah blew for the Tatlah Cache landing while Strongand Elliot were talking. Wally Selfridge had just bid three hundredseventy and found no help in the widow. He pushed toward each of theother players one red chip and two white ones.

  "Can't make it," he announced. "I needed a jack of clubs."

  The men counted their chips and settled up in time to reach the deckrail just as the gangplank was thrown out to the wharf. The crewtransferred to the landing a pouch of mail, half a ton of sackedpotatoes, some mining machinery, and several boxes containing provisionsand dry goods.

  A man came to the end of the wharf carrying a suitcase. He was well-set,thick in the chest, and broad-shouldered. He came up the gangplank withthe strong, firm tread of a man in his prime. Looking down from above,Gordon Elliot guessed him to be in the early thirties.

  Mrs. Mallory was the first to recognize him, which she did with adrawling little shout of welcome. "Oh you, Mr. Man. I knew you first.I speak for you," she cried.

  The man on the gangplank looked up, smiled, and lifted to her his broadgray Stetson in a wave of greeting.

  "How do you do, Mrs. Mallory? Glad to see you."

  The miners from Frozen Gulch were grouped together on the lower deck.At sight of the man with the suitcase a sullen murmur rose among them.Those in the rear pushed forward and closed the lane leading to thecabins. One of the miners was flung roughly against the new passenger.With a wide, powerful sweep of his arm the man who had just come aboardhurled the miner back among his companions.

  "Gangway!" he said brusquely, and as he strode forward did not evenglance in the direction of the angry men pressing toward him.

  "Here. Keep back there, you fellows. None of that rough stuff goes,"ordered the mate sharply.

  The big Cornishman who had been tossed aside crouched for a spring. Helaunched himself forward with the awkward force of a bear. The suitcasedescribed a whirling arc of a circle with the arm of its owner as theradius. The bag and the head of the miner came into swift impact. Likea bullock which has been pole-axed the man went to the floor. He turnedover with a groan and lay still.

  The new passenger looked across the huge, sprawling body at the groupof miners facing him. They glared in savage hate. All they needed was aleader to send them driving at him with the force of an avalanche. Theman at whom they raged did not give an inch. He leaned forward slightly,his weight resting on the balls of his feet, alert to the finger tips.But in his eyes a grim little smile of derisive amusement rested.

  "Next," he taunted.

  Then the mate got busy. He hustled his stevedores forward in front ofthe miners and shook his fist in their faces as he stormed up and down.If they wanted trouble, by God! it was waiting for 'em, he swore inapoplectic fury. The Hannah was a river boat and not a dive for wharfrats. No bunch of roughnecks could come aboard a boat where he was mateand start anything. They could not assault any passengers of his andmake it stick.

  The man with the suitcase did not wait to hear out his tirade. Hefollowed the purser to his stateroom, dropped his baggage beside theberth, and joined the Kusiak group on the upper deck.

  They greeted him eagerly, a little effusively, as if they were anxiousto prove themselves on good terms with him. The deference they paid andhis assured acceptance of it showed him to be a man of importance. Butapart from other considerations, he dominated by mental and physicalvirility the circle of which he instantly became the center. Only Mrs.Mallory held her own, and even she showed a quickened interest. Herindolent, half-disdainful manner sheathed a soft sensuousness that heldthe provocation of sex appeal.

  "What was the matter?" asked Selfridge. "How did the trouble start?"

  The big man shrugged his shoulders. "It didn't start. Some of the outfitthought they were looking for a row, but they balked on the job whenTrelawney got his." Turning to Mrs. Mallory, he changed the subjectabruptly. "Did you have a good time down the river?"

  Gordon, as he watched from a little distance, corrected earlierimpressions. This man had passed the thirties. Salt and pepper sprinkledthe temples of his strong, lean head. He had the thick neck and solidtrunk of middle life, but he carried himself so superbly that his wholebearing denied that years could touch his splendid physique. The suit hewore was a wrinkled corduroy, with trouser legs thrust into high-lacedboots. An outdoor tan had been painted upon his face and neck, from thepoint where the soft flannel shirt fell away to show the fine slope ofthe throat line to the shoulders.

  Strong had stepped to the wharf to talk with an old acquaintance, butwhen the boat threw out a warning signal he made a hurried good-bye andcame on board. He rejoined Elliot.

  "Well, what d'you think of him? Was I right?"

  The young man had already guessed who this imperious stranger was. "Inever saw anybody get away with a hard job as easily as he did that one.You could see with half an eye that those fellows meant fight. They wereall primed for it--and he bluffed them out."

  "Bluffed them--huh! If that's what you call bluffing. I was where Icould see just what happened. Colby Macdonald wasn't even looking atTrelawney, but you bet he saw him start. That suitcase traveled likea streak of light. You'd 'a' thought it weighed about two pounds. Thatain't all either. Mac used his brains. Guess what was in that grip."

  "The usual thing, I suppose."

  "You've got another guess--packed in among his socks and underwear wasabout twenty pounds of ore samples. The purser told me. It was thatquartz put Trelawney to sleep so thorough that he'd just begun to wakeup when I passed a minute ago."

  The young man turned his eyes again upon the big Canadian Scotchman.He was talking with Mrs. Mallory, who was leaning back luxuriouslyin a steamer chair she had brought aboard at St. Michael's. It wouldhave been hard to conceive a contrast greater than the one betweenthis pampered heiress of the ages and the modern business berserk wholooked down into her mocking eyes. He was the embodiment of the dominantmale,--efficient to the last inch of his straight six feet. What hewanted he had always taken, by the sheer strength that was in him. Backof her smiling insolence lay a silken force to match his own. She toohad taken what she wanted from life, but she had won it by indirection.Manifestly she was of those women who conceive that charm and beautyare tools to bend men to their wills. Was it the very width of the gulfbetween them that made the appeal of the clash in the sex duel uponwhich they had engaged?

  The dusky young woman with the magazine was the first of those onthe upper deck to retire for the night. She flitted so quietly thatGordon did not notice until she had gone. Mrs. Selfridge and her friendsdisappeared with their men folks, calling gay good-nights to one anotheras they left.

  Macdonald and Mrs. Mallory still talked. After a time she too vanished.

  The big promoter leaned against the deck rail, where he was joined bySelfridge. For a long time they talked in low voices. The little man hadmost to say. His chief listened, but occasionally interrupted to ask asharp, incisive question.

  Elliot, sitting farther forward with Strong, judged that Selfridge wasmaking a report of his trip. Once he caught a fragment of their talk,enough to confirm this impression.

  "Did Winton tell you that himself?" demanded the Scotchman.

  The answer of his employee came in a murmur so low that the words werelost. But the name used told Gordon a good deal. The Commissioner of theGeneral Land Office at Washington signed his letters Harold B. Winton.

  Strong tossed the stub of his cigarette overboard and noddedgood-night. A glance at his watch told Elliot that it was past twoo'clock. He rose, stretched, and sauntered back to his stateroom.

  The young man had just taken off his coat when there came the hurriedrush of trampling feet upon the hurricane deck above. Almost instantlyhe heard a cry of alarm. Low voices, quick with suppressed excitement,drifted back to him. He could hear the shuffling of footsteps and thesound of heavy bodies moving.

  Some one lifted a frightened shout. "Help! Hel
p!" The call had come, hethought, from Selfridge.

  Gordon flung open the door of his room, raced along the deck, and tookthe stairs three at a time. A huddle of men swayed and shifted heavilyin front of him. So close was the pack that the motion resembled thewrithing of some prehistoric monster rather than the movements ofindividual human beings. In that half-light tossing arms and legs lookedlike tentacles flung out in agony by the mammoth reptile. Its progresswas jerky and convulsive, sometimes tortuous, but it traveled slowlytoward the rail as if by the impulsion of an irresistible pressure.

  Even as he ran toward the mass, Elliot noticed that the only sounds weregrunts, stertorous breathings, and the scraping of feet. The attackerswanted no publicity. The attacked was too busy to waste breath in futilecries. He was fighting for his life with all the stark energy nature andhis ancestors had given him.

  Two men, separated from the crowd, lay on the deck farther aft. One wason top of the other, his fingers clutching the gullet of his helplessopponent. The agony of the man underneath found expression only in thedrumming heels that beat a tattoo on the floor. The spasmodic feet wereshod in Oxford tans of an ultra-fashionable cut. No doubt the owner ofthe smart footwear had been pulled down as he was escaping to shout thealarm.

  The runner hurdled the two in his stride and plunged straight at thestruggling tangle. He caught one man by the shoulders from behind andflung him back. He struck hard, smashing blows as he fought his way tothe heart of the melee. Heavy-fisted miners with corded muscles landedupon his face and head and neck. The strange excitement of the battlelust surged through his veins. He did not care a straw for the odds.

  The sudden attack of Elliot had opened the pack. The man battlingagainst a dozen was Colby Macdonald. The very number of his foes hadsaved him so far from being rushed overboard or trampled down. In theirdesire to get at him they hindered each other, struck blows that foundthe wrong mark. His coat and shirt were in rags. He was bruised andbattered and bleeding from the chest up. But he was still slogging hard.

  They had him pressed to the rail. A huge miner, head down, had his armsaround the waist of the Scotchman and was trying to throw him overboard.Macdonald lashed out and landed flush upon the cheek of a man attemptingto brain him with a billet of wood. He hammered home a short-arm joltagainst the ear of the giant who was giving him the bear grip.

  The big miner grunted, but hung on like a football tackler. With a jerkhe raised Macdonald from the floor just as three or four others rushedhim again. The rail gave way, splintered like kindling wood. TheScotchman and the man at grips with him went over the side together.

  Clear and loud rang the voice of Elliot. "Man overboard!"

  The wheelsman had known for some minutes that there was trouble afoot.He signaled to the engine room to reverse and blew short, sharp shrieksof warning. Already deckhands and officers, scantily clad, wereappearing from fore and aft.

  "Men overboard--two of 'em!" explained Elliot in a shout from the boatwhich he was trying to lower.

  The first mate and another man ran to help him. The three of themlowered and manned the boat. Gordon sat in the bow and gave directionswhile the other two put their backs into the stroke. Quite casuallyElliot noticed that the man in the waist had a purple bruise on his leftcheek bone. The young man himself had put it there not three minutessince.

  Across the water came a call for help. "I'm sinking--hurry!"

  The other man in the river was a dozen yards from the one in distress.With strong, swift, overhand strokes he shot through the water.

  "All right," he called presently. "I've got him."

  The oarsmen drew alongside the swimmer. With one hand Macdonald caughthold of the edge of the boat. The other clutched the rescued man by thehair of his head.

  "Look out. You're drowning him," the mate warned.

  "Am I?" Macdonald glanced with mild interest at the head that had beenuntil that moment submerged. "Shows how absent-minded a man gets. I wasthinking about how he tried to drown me, I expect."

  They dragged the miner aboard.

  "Go ahead. I'll swim down," Macdonald ordered.

  "Better come aboard," advised the mate.

  "No. I'm all right."

  The Scotchman pushed himself back from the boat and fell into an easystroke. Nevertheless, there was power in it, for he reached the Hannahbefore the rescued miner had been helped to the deck.

  A dozen passengers, crowded on the lower deck, pushed forward eagerlyto see. Among them was Selfridge, his shirt and collar torn loose atthe neck and his immaculate checked suit dusty and disheveled. He waswearing a pair of up-to-date Oxford tans.

  The Scotch-Canadian shook himself like a Newfoundland dog. He lookedaround with sardonic amusement, a grin on his swollen and disfiguredface.

  "Quite a pleasant welcome home," he said ironically, his cold eyes fixedon a face that looked as if it might have been kicked by a healthy mule."Eh, Trelawney?"

  The Cornishman glared at him, and turned away with a low, savage oath.

  "Are you hurt, Mr. Macdonald?" asked the captain.

  "Hurt! Not at all, Captain. I cut myself while I was shaving thismorning--just a scratch," was the ironic answer.

  "There's been some dirty work going on. I'll see the men are punished,sir."

  "Forget it, Captain. I'll attend to that little matter." His jaunty,almost insolent glance made the half-circle again. "Sorry you were toolate for the party, gentlemen,--most of you. I see three or four of youwho were 'among those present.' It was a strictly exclusive affair. Andnow, if you don't mind, I'll say good-night."

  He turned on his heel, went up the stairway to the deck above, anddisappeared into his stateroom.

  The rescued miner, propped against the cabin wall where he had beenplaced, broke into sudden excited protest. "Ach! He tried to drown me.Mein head--he hold it under the water."

  "Ain't that just like a Swede?" retorted the mate in disgust. "Mac saveshis life. Then the roughneck kicks because he got a belly full of Yukon.Sure Mac soused him some. Why shouldn't he?"

  "I ain't no Swede," explained the big miner sullenly.

  The mate did not think it worth his while to explain that "Swede" wasmerely his generic term of contempt for all foreigners.