Pretty Lucille Arral was gazing forlornly at the strip of breakfast bacon and the tinned mashed potatoes on her plate when Slavovitch placed before her two shirred eggs.
"Compliments of Mr. Wild Water," they at the next table heard him say.
Smoke acknowledged to himself that it was a fine bit of acting--the quick, joyous flash in the face of her, the impulsive turn of the head, the spontaneous forerunner of a smile that was only checked by a superb self-control which resolutely drew her face back so that she could say something to the restaurant proprietor.
Smoke felt the kick of Wild Water"s moccasined foot under the table.
"Will she eat "em?--that"s the question--will she eat "em?" the latter whispered agonizingly.
And with sidelong glances they saw Lucille Arral hesitate, almost push the dish from her, then surrender to its lure.
"I"ll take them eggs," Wild Water said to Smoke. "The contract holds.
Did you see her? Did you see her! She almost smiled. I know her. It"s all fixed. Two more eggs to-morrow an" she"ll forgive an" make up. If she wasn"t here I"d shake hands, Smoke, I"m that grateful. You ain"t a robber; you"re a philanthropist."
Smoke returned jubilantly up the hill to the cabin, only to find Shorty playing solitaire in black despair. Smoke had long since learned that whenever his partner got out the cards for solitaire it was a warning signal that the bottom had dropped out of the world.
"Go "way, don"t talk to me," was the first rebuff Smoke received.
But Shorty soon thawed into a freshet of speech.
"It"s all off with the big Swede," he groaned. "The corner"s busted.
They"ll be sellin" sherry an" egg in all the saloons to-morrow at a dollar a flip. They ain"t no starvin" orphan child in Dawson that won"t be wrappin" its tummy around eggs. What d"ye think I run into?--a geezer with three thousan" eggs--d"ye get me? Three thousan", an" just freighted in from Forty Mile."
"Fairy stories," Smoke doubted.
"Fairy h.e.l.l! I seen them eggs. Gautereaux"s his name--a whackin" big, blue-eyed French-Canadian husky. He asked for you first, then took me to the side and jabbed me straight to the heart. It was our cornerin" eggs that got him started. He knowed about them three thousan" at Forty Mile an" just went an" got "em. "Show "em to me," I says. An" he did. There was his dog-teams, an" a couple of Indian drivers, restin" down the bank where they"d just pulled in from Forty Mile. An" on the sleds was soap-boxes--teeny wooden soap-boxes.
"We took one out behind a ice-jam in the middle of the river an" busted it open. Eggs!--full of "em, all packed in sawdust. Smoke, you an" me lose. We"ve been gamblin". D"ye know what he had the gall to say to me?--that they was all ourn at ten dollars a egg. D"ye know what he was doin" when I left his cabin?--drawin" a sign of eggs for sale. Said he"d give us first choice, at ten a throw, till 2 P. M., an" after that, if we didn"t come across, he"d bust the market higher"n a kite. Said he wasn"t no business man, but that he knowed a good thing when he seen it--meanin" you an" me, as I took it."
"It"s all right," Smoke said cheerfully. "Keep your shirt on an" let me think a moment. Quick action and team play is all that"s needed. I"ll get Wild Water here at two o"clock to take delivery of eggs. You buy that Gautereaux"s eggs. Try and make a bargain. Even if you pay ten dollars apiece for them, Wild Water will take them off our hands at the same price. If you can get them cheaper, why, we make a profit as well.
Now go to it. Have them here by not later than two o"clock. Borrow Colonel Bowie"s dogs and take our team. Have them here by two sharp."
"Say, Smoke," Shorty called, as his partner started down the hill.
"Better take an umbrella. I wouldn"t be none surprised to see the weather rainin" eggs before you get back."
Smoke found Wild Water at the M. & M., and a stormy half-hour ensued.
"I warn you we"ve picked up some more eggs," Smoke said, after Wild Water had agreed to bring his dust to the cabin at two o"clock and pay on delivery.
"You"re luckier at finding eggs than me," Wild Water admitted. "Now, how many eggs have you got now?--an" how much dust do I tote up the hill?"
Smoke consulted his notebook. "As it stands now, according to Shorty"s figures, we"ve three thousand nine hundred and sixty-two eggs. Multiply by ten--"
"Forty thousand dollars!" Wild Water bellowed. "You said there was only something like nine hundred eggs. It"s a stickup! I won"t stand for it!"
Smoke drew the contract from his pocket and pointed to the PAY ON DELIVERY. "No mention is made of the number of eggs to be delivered. You agreed to pay ten dollars for every egg we delivered to you. Well, we"ve got the eggs, and a signed contract is a signed contract. Honestly, though, Wild Water, we didn"t know about those other eggs until afterward. Then we had to buy them in order to make our corner good."
For five long minutes, in choking silence, Wild Water fought a battle with himself, then reluctantly gave in.
"I"m in bad," he said brokenly. "The landscape"s fair sproutin" eggs.
An" the quicker I get out the better. There might come a landslide of "em. I"ll be there at two o"clock. But forty thousand dollars!"
"It"s only thirty-nine thousand six hundred an" twenty," Smoke corrected. "It"ll weigh two hundred pounds," Wild Water raved on. "I"ll have to freight it up with a dog-team."
"We"ll lend you our teams to carry the eggs away," Smoke volunteered.
"But where"ll I cache "em? Never mind. I"ll be there. But as long as I live I"ll never eat another egg. I"m full sick of "em."
At half-past one, doubling the dog-teams for the steep pitch of the hill, Shorty arrived with Gautereaux"s eggs. "We dang near double our winnings," Shorty told Smoke, as they piled the soap-boxes inside the cabin. "I holds "m down to eight dollars, an" after he cussed loco in French he falls for it. Now that"s two dollars clear profit to us for each egg, an" they"re three thousan" of "em. I paid "m in full. Here"s the receipt."
While Smoke got out the gold-scales and prepared for business, Shorty devoted himself to calculation.
"There"s the figgers," he announced triumphantly. "We win twelve thousan" nine hundred an" seventy dollars. An" we don"t do Wild Water no harm. He wins Miss Arral. Besides, he gets all them eggs. It"s sure a bargain-counter all around. n.o.body loses."
"Even Gautereaux"s twenty-four thousand to the good," Smoke laughed, "minus, of course, what the eggs and the freighting cost him. And if Wild Water plays the corner, he may make a profit out of the eggs himself."
Promptly at two o"clock, Shorty, peeping, saw Wild Water coming up the hill. When he entered he was brisk and businesslike. He took off his big bearskin coat, hung it on a nail, and sat down at the table.
"Bring on them eggs, you pirates," he commenced. "An" after this day, if you know what"s good for you, never mention eggs to me again."
They began on the miscellaneous a.s.sortment of the original corner, all three men counting. When two hundred had been reached, Wild Water suddenly cracked an egg on the edge of the table and opened it deftly with his thumbs.
"Hey! Hold on!" Shorty objected.
"It"s my egg, ain"t it?" Wild Water snarled. "I"m paying ten dollars for it, ain"t I? But I ain"t buying no pig in a poke. When I cough up ten bucks an egg I want to know what I"m gettin"."
"If you don"t like it, I"ll eat it," Shorty volunteered maliciously.
Wild Water looked and smelled and shook his head. "No, you don"t, Shorty. That"s a good egg. Gimme a pail. I"m goin" to eat it myself for supper."
Thrice again Wild Water cracked good eggs experimentally and put them in the pail beside him.
"Two more than you figgered, Shorty," he said at the end of the count.
"Nine hundred an" sixty-four, not sixty-two."
"My mistake," Shorty acknowledged handsomely. "We"ll throw "em in for good measure."
"Guess you can afford to," Wild Water accepted grimly. "Pa.s.s the batch.
Nine thousan" six hundred an" twenty dollars. I"ll pay for it now. Write a receipt, Smoke."
"Why not count the rest," Smoke suggested, "and pay all at once?"
Wild Water shook his head. "I"m no good at figgers. One batch at a time an" no mistakes."
Going to his fur coat, from each of the side pockets he drew forth two sacks of dust, so rotund and long that they resembled bologna sausages.
When the first batch had been paid for, there remained in the gold-sacks not more than several hundred dollars.
A soap-box was carried to the table, and the count of the three thousand began. At the end of one hundred, Wild Water struck an egg sharply against the edge of the table. There was no crack. The resultant sound was like that of the striking of a sphere of solid marble.