With a last effort, Smoke clawed his mouth free. "I got some dogs out there--dead beat," he said huskily. "Somebody go and take care of them, and I"ll tell you what"s the matter."
In a dozen brief sentences, he outlined the situation. The c.r.a.ps-player, his money still lying on the table and his slippery Joe Cotton still uncaptured, had come over to Smoke, and was now the first to speak.
"We gotta do something. That"s straight. But what? You"ve had time to think. What"s your plan? Spit it out."
"Sure," Smoke a.s.sented. "Here"s what I"ve been thinking. We"ve got to hustle light sleds on the jump. Say a hundred pounds of grub on each sled. The driver"s outfit and dog-grub will fetch it up fifty more.
But they can make time. Say we start five of these sleds p.r.o.nto--best running teams, best mushers and trail-eaters. On the soft trail the sleds can take the lead turn about. They"ve got to start at once. At the best, by the time they can get there, all those Indians won"t have had a sc.r.a.p to eat for three days. And then, as soon as we"ve got those sleds off we"ll have to follow up with heavy sleds. Figure it out yourself.
Two pounds a day is the very least we can decently keep those Indians traveling on. That"s four hundred pounds a day, and, with the old people and the children, five days is the quickest time we can bring them into Mucluc. Now what are you going to do?"
"Take up a collection to buy all the grub," said the c.r.a.ps-player.
"I"ll stand for the grub," Smoke began impatiently.
"Nope," the other interrupted. "This ain"t your treat. We"re all in.
Fetch a wash-basin somebody. It won"t take a minute. An" here"s a starter."
He pulled a heavy gold-sack from his pocket, untied the mouth, and poured a stream of coa.r.s.e dust and nuggets into the basin. A man beside him caught his hand up with a jerk and an oath, elevating the mouth of the sack so as to stop the run of the dust. To a casual eye, six or eight ounces had already run into the basin.
"Don"t be a hawg," cried the second man. "You ain"t the only one with a poke. Gimme a chance at it."
"Huh!" sneered the c.r.a.ps-player. "You"d think it was a stampede, you"re so goshdanged eager about it."
Men crowded and jostled for the opportunity to contribute, and when they were satisfied, Smoke hefted the heavy basin with both hands and grinned.
"It will keep the whole tribe in grub for the rest of the winter," he said. "Now for the dogs. Five light teams that have some run in them."
A dozen teams were volunteered, and the camp, as a committee of the whole, bickered and debated, accepted and rejected.
"Huh! Your dray-horses!" Long Bill Haskell was told.
"They can pull," he bristled with hurt pride.
"They sure can," he was a.s.sured. "But they can"t make time for sour apples. They"ve got theirs cut out for them bringing up the heavy loads."
As fast as a team was selected, its owner, with half a dozen aids, departed to harness up and get ready.
One team was rejected because it had come in tired that afternoon. One owner contributed his team, but apologetically exposed a bandaged ankle that prevented him from driving it. This team Smoke took, overriding the objection of the crowd that he was played out.
Long Bill Haskell pointed out that while Fat Olsen"s team was a crackerjack, Fat Olsen himself was an elephant. Fat Olsen"s two hundred and forty pounds of heartiness was indignant. Tears of anger came into his eyes, and his Scandinavian explosions could not be stopped until he was given a place in the heavy division, the c.r.a.ps-player jumping at the chance to take out Olsen"s light team.
Five teams were accepted and were being harnessed and loaded, but only four drivers had satisfied the committee of the whole.
"There"s Cultus George," some one cried. "He"s a trail-eater, and he"s fresh and rested."
All eyes turned upon the Indian, but his face was expressionless, and he said nothing.
"You"ll take a team," Smoke said to him.
Still the big Indian made no answer. As with an electric thrill, it ran through all of them that something untoward was impending. A restless shifting of the group took place, forming a circle in which Smoke and Cultus George faced each other. And Smoke realized that by common consent he had been made the representative of his fellows in what was taking place, in what was to take place. Also, he was angered. It was beyond him that any human creature, a witness to the scramble of volunteers, should hang back. For another thing, in what followed, Smoke did not have Cultus George"s point of view--did not dream that the Indian held back for any reason save the selfish, mercenary one.
"Of course you will take a team," Smoke said.
"How much?" Cultus George asked.
A snarl, spontaneous and general, grated in the throats and twisted the mouths of the miners. At the same moment, with clenched fists or fingers crooked to grip, they pressed in on the offender.
"Wait a bit, boys," Smoke cried. "Maybe he doesn"t understand. Let me explain it to him. Look here, George. Don"t you see, n.o.body is charging anything. They"re giving everything to save two hundred Indians from starving to death." He paused, to let it sink home.
"How much?" said Cultus George.
"Wait, you fellows! Now listen, George. We don"t want you to make any mistake. These starving people are your kind of people. They"re another tribe, but they"re Indians just the same. Now you"ve seen what the white men are doing--coughing up their dust, giving their dogs and sleds, falling over one another to hit the trail. Only the best men can go with the first sleds. Look at Fat Olsen there. He was ready to fight because they wouldn"t let him go. You ought to be mighty proud because all men think you are a number-one musher. It isn"t a case of how much, but how quick."
"How much?" said Cultus George.
"Kill him!" "Bust his head!" "Tar and feathers!" were several of the cries in the wild medley that went up, the spirit of philanthropy and good fellowship changed to brute savagery on the instant.
In the storm-center Cultus George stood imperturbable, while Smoke thrust back the fiercest and shouted:
"Wait! Who"s running this?" The clamor died away. "Fetch a rope," he added quietly.
Cultus George shrugged his shoulders, his face twisting tensely in a sullen and incredulous grin. He knew this white-man breed. He had toiled on trail with it and eaten its flour and bacon and beans too long not to know it. It was a law-abiding breed. He knew that thoroughly. It always punished the man who broke the law. But he had broken no law. He knew its law. He had lived up to it. He had neither murdered, stolen, nor lied. There was nothing in the white man"s law against charging a price and driving a bargain. They all charged a price and drove bargains. He was doing nothing more than that, and it was the thing they had taught him. Besides, if he wasn"t good enough to drink with them, then he was not good enough to be charitable with them, nor to join them in any other of their foolish diversions.
Neither Smoke nor any man there glimpsed what lay in Cultus George"s brain, behind his att.i.tude and prompting his att.i.tude. Though they did not know it, they were as beclouded as he in the matter of mutual understanding. To them, he was a selfish brute; to him, they were selfish brutes.
When the rope was brought, Long Bill Haskell, Fat Olsen, and the c.r.a.ps-player, with much awkwardness and angry haste, got the slip-noose around the Indian"s neck and rove the rope over a rafter. At the other end of the dangling thing a dozen men tailed on, ready to hoist away.
Nor had Cultus George resisted. He knew it for what it was--bluff. The whites were strong on bluff. Was not draw-poker their favorite game? Did they not buy and sell and make all bargains with bluff? Yes; he had seen a white man do business with a look on his face of four aces and in his hand a busted straight.
"Wait," Smoke commanded. "Tie his hands. We don"t want him climbing."
More bluff, Cultus George decided, and pa.s.sively permitted his hands to be tied behind his back.
"Now it"s your last chance, George," said Smoke. "Will you take out the team?"
"How much?" said Cultus George.
Astounded at himself that he should be able to do such a thing, and at the same time angered by the colossal selfishness of the Indian, Smoke gave the signal. Nor was Cultus George any less astounded when he felt the noose tighten with a jerk and swing him off the floor. His stolidity broke on the instant. On his face, in quick succession, appeared surprise, dismay, and pain.
Smoke watched anxiously. Having never been hanged himself, he felt a tyro at the business. The body struggled convulsively, the tied hands strove to burst the bonds, and from the throat came unpleasant noises of strangulation. Suddenly Smoke held up his hand.
"Slack away" he ordered.
Grumbling at the shortness of the punishment, the men on the rope lowered Cultus George to the floor. His eyes were bulging, and he was tottery on his feet, swaying from side to side and still making a fight with his hands. Smoke divined what was the matter, thrust violent fingers between the rope and the neck, and brought the noose slack with a jerk. With a great heave of the chest, Cultus George got his first breath.
"Will you take that team out?" Smoke demanded.
Cultus George did not answer. He was too busy breathing.