"He"s got his wife with him," Shorty said.
"That"s his lookout," Stine contributed.
"And Smoke"s and mine," was Shorty"s retort.
"I forbid you," Sprague said harshly. "Smoke, if you go another step I"ll discharge you."
"And you, too, Shorty," Stine added.
"And a h.e.l.l of a pickle you"ll be in with us fired," Shorty replied.
"How"ll you get your blamed boat to Dawson? Who"ll serve you coffee in your blankets and manicure your finger-nails? Come on, Smoke. They don"t dast fire us. Besides, we"ve got agreements. If they fire us they"ve got to divvy up grub to last us through the winter."
Barely had they shoved Breck"s boat out from the bank and caught the first rough water, when the waves began to lap aboard. They were small waves, but it was an earnest of what was to come. Shorty cast back a quizzical glance as he gnawed at his inevitable plug, and Kit felt a strange rush of warmth at his heart for this man who couldn"t swim and who couldn"t back out.
The rapids grew stiffer, and the spray began to fly. In the gathering darkness, Kit glimpsed the Mane and the crooked fling of the current into it. He worked into this crooked current, and felt a glow of satisfaction as the boat hit the head of the Mane squarely in the middle. After that, in the smother, leaping and burying and swamping, he had no clear impression of anything save that he swung his weight on the steering-oar and wished his uncle were there to see. They emerged, breathless, wet through, the boat filled with water almost to the gunwale. Lighter pieces of baggage and outfit were floating inside the boat. A few careful strokes on Shorty"s part worked the boat into the draw of the eddy, and the eddy did the rest till the boat softly touched the bank. Looking down from above was Mrs. Breck. Her prayer had been answered, and the tears were streaming down her cheeks.
"You boys have simply got to take the money," Breck called down to them.
Shorty stood up, slipped, and sat down in the water, while the boat dipped one gunwale under and righted again.
"d.a.m.n the money," said Shorty. "Fetch out that whiskey. Now that it"s over I"m getting cold feet, an" I"m sure likely to have a chill."
In the morning, as usual, they were among the last of the boats to start. Breck, despite his boating inefficiency, and with only his wife and nephew for crew, had broken camp, loaded his boat, and pulled out at the first streak of day. But there was no hurrying Stine and Sprague, who seemed incapable of realizing that the freeze-up might come at any time. They malingered, got in the way, delayed, and doubled the work of Kit and Shorty.
"I"m sure losing my respect for G.o.d, seein" as he must "a" made them two mistakes in human form," was the latter"s blasphemous way of expressing his disgust.
"Well, you"re the real goods, at any rate," Kit grinned back at him. "It makes me respect G.o.d the more just to look at you."
"He was sure goin" some, eh?" was Shorty"s fashion of overcoming the embarra.s.sment of the compliment.
The trail by water crossed Lake Labarge. Here was no fast current, but a tideless stretch of forty miles which must be rowed unless a fair wind blew. But the time for fair wind was past, and an icy gale blew in their teeth out of the north. This made a rough sea, against which it was almost impossible to pull the boat. Added to their troubles was driving snow; also, the freezing of the water on their oar-blades kept one man occupied in chopping it off with a hatchet. Compelled to take their turn at the oars, Sprague and Stine patently loafed. Kit had learned how to throw his weight on an oar, but he noted that his employers made a seeming of throwing their weights and that they dipped their oars at a cheating angle.
At the end of three hours, Sprague pulled his oar in and said they would run back into the mouth of the river for shelter. Stine seconded him, and the several hard-won miles were lost. A second day, and a third, the same fruitless attempt was made. In the river mouth, the continually arriving boats from White Horse made a flotilla of over two hundred.
Each day forty or fifty arrived, and only two or three won to the northwest sh.o.r.e of the lake and did not come back. Ice was now forming in the eddies, and connecting from eddy to eddy in thin lines around the points. The freeze-up was very imminent.
"We could make it if they had the souls of clams," Kit told Shorty, as they dried their moccasins by the fire on the evening of the third day.
"We could have made it to-day if they hadn"t turned back. Another hour"s work would have fetched that west sh.o.r.e. They"re--they"re babes in the woods."
"Sure," Shorty agreed. He turned his moccasin to the flame and debated a moment. "Look here, Smoke. It"s hundreds of miles to Dawson. If we don"t want to freeze in here, we"ve got to do something. What d"ye say?"
Kit looked at him, and waited.
"We"ve got the immortal cinch on them two babes," Shorty expounded.
"They can give orders an" shed mazuma, but as you say, they"re plum babes. If we"re goin" to Dawson, we got to take charge of this here outfit."
They looked at each other.
"It"s a go," said Kit, as his hand went out in ratification.
In the morning, long before daylight, Shorty issued his call. "Come on!"
he roared. "Tumble out, you sleepers! Here"s your coffee! Kick into it!
We"re goin" to make a start!"
Grumbling and complaining, Stine and Sprague were forced to get under way two hours earlier than ever before. If anything, the gale was stiffer, and in a short time every man"s face was iced up, while the oars were heavy with ice. Three hours they struggled, and four, one man steering, one chopping ice, two toiling at the oars, and each taking his various turns. The northwest sh.o.r.e loomed nearer and nearer. The gale blew ever harder, and at last Sprague pulled in his oar in token of surrender. Shorty sprang to it, though his relief had only begun.
"Chop ice," he said, handing Sprague the hatchet.
"But what"s the use?" the other whined. "We can"t make it. We"re going to turn back."
"We"re going on," said Shorty. "Chop ice. An" when you feel better you can spell me."
It was heart-breaking toil, but they gained the sh.o.r.e, only to find it composed of surge-beaten rocks and cliffs, with no place to land.
"I told you so," Sprague whimpered.
"You never peeped," Shorty answered.
"We"re going back."
n.o.body spoke, and Kit held the boat into the seas as they skirted the forbidding sh.o.r.e. Sometimes they gained no more than a foot to the stroke, and there were times when two or three strokes no more than enabled them to hold their own. He did his best to hearten the two weaklings. He pointed out that the boats which had won to this sh.o.r.e had never come back. Perforce, he argued, they had found a shelter somewhere ahead. Another hour they labored, and a second.
"If you fellows"d put into your oars some of that coffee you swig in your blankets, we"d make it," was Shorty"s encouragement. "You"re just goin" through the motions an" not pullin" a pound."
A few minutes later, Sprague drew in his oar.
"I"m finished," he said, and there were tears in his voice.
"So are the rest of us," Kit answered, himself ready to cry or to commit murder, so great was his exhaustion. "But we"re going on just the same."
"We"re going back. Turn the boat around."
"Shorty, if he won"t pull, take that oar yourself," Kit commanded.
"Sure," was the answer. "He can chop ice."
But Sprague refused to give over the oar; Stine had ceased rowing, and the boat was drifting backward.
"Turn around, Smoke," Sprague ordered.
And Kit, who never in his life had cursed any man, astonished himself.
"I"ll see you in h.e.l.l, first," he replied. "Take hold of that oar and pull."
It is in moments of exhaustion that men lose all their reserves of civilization, and such a moment had come. Each man had reached the breaking-point. Sprague jerked off a mitten, drew his revolver, and turned it on his steersman. This was a new experience to Kit. He had never had a gun presented at him in his life. And now, to his surprise, it seemed to mean nothing at all. It was the most natural thing in the world.
"If you don"t put that gun up," he said, "I"ll take it away and rap you over the knuckles with it."
"If you don"t turn the boat around, I"ll shoot you," Sprague threatened.