"I have not smoked for a long time," he said at last, in a low calm voice. "For a very long time."
"Nor eaten, from your looks," Shorty added gruffly.
Smoke nodded and waved his hand at the ptarmigan feathers that lay all about.
"Not until recently," he returned. "Do you know, I"d like a cup of coffee. It will taste strange. Also flapjacks and a strip of bacon."
"And beans?" Shorty tempted.
"They would taste heavenly. I find I am quite hungry again."
While the one cooked and the other ate, they told briefly what had happened to them in the days since their separation.
"The Klondike was breakin" up," Shorty concluded his recital, "an" we just had to wait for open water. Two polin" boats, six other men--you know "em all, an" crackerjacks--an" all kinds of outfit. An" we"ve sure been a-comin"--polin", linin" up, and portagin". But the falls"ll stick "em a solid week. That"s where I left "em a-cuttin" a trail over the tops of the bluffs for the boats. I just had a sure natural hunch to keep a-comin". So I fills a pack with grub an" starts. I knew I"d find you a-driftin" an" all in."
Smoke nodded, and put forth his hand in a silent grip. "Well, let"s get started," he said.
"Started h.e.l.l!" Shorty exploded. "We stay right here an" rest you up an"
feed you up for a couple of days."
Smoke shook his head.
"If you could just see yourself," Shorty protested.
And what he saw was not nice. Smoke"s face, wherever the skin showed, was black and purple and scabbed from repeated frost-bite. The cheeks were fallen in, so that, despite the covering of beard, the upper rows of teeth ridged the shrunken flesh. Across the forehead and about the deep-sunk eyes, the skin was stretched drum-tight, while the scraggly beard, that should have been golden, was singed by fire and filthy with camp-smoke.
"Better pack up," Smoke said. "I"m going on."
"But you"re feeble as a kid baby. You can"t hike. What"s the rush?"
"Shorty, I am going after the biggest thing in the Klondike, and I can"t wait. That"s all. Start packing. It"s the biggest thing in the world.
It"s bigger than lakes of gold and mountains of gold, bigger than adventure, and meat-eating, and bear-killing."
Shorty sat with bulging eyes. "In the name of the Lord, what is it?" he queried huskily. "Or are you just simple loco?"
"No, I"m all right. Perhaps a fellow has to stop eating in order to see things. At any rate, I have seen things I never dreamed were in the world. I know what a woman is,--now."
Shorty"s mouth opened, and about the lips and in the light of the eyes was the whimsical advertis.e.m.e.nt of the sneer forthcoming.
"Don"t, please," Smoke said gently. "You don"t know. I do."
Shorty gulped and changed his thought. "Huh! I don"t need no hunch to guess HER name. The rest of "em has gone up to the drainin" of Surprise Lake, but Joy Gastell allowed she wouldn"t go. She"s stickin" around Dawson, waitin" to see if I come back with you. An" she sure swears, if I don"t, she"ll sell her holdin"s an" hire a army of gun-fighters, an"
go into the Caribou Country an" knock the everlastin" stuffin" outa old Sna.s.s an" his whole gang. An" if you"ll hold your horses a couple of shakes, I reckon I"ll get packed up an" ready to hike along with you."