Michael; got "em recorded, too."
Crowley"s sunken eyes blazed.
"Them"s no good. We don"t recko"nize "em in this district. One claim is enough for any man if it"s good, and too much if it"s bad."
"What district you alludin" at?" questioned the other, ironically.
"You"re in the Skook.u.m District now. It takes six men to organize. Well!
We organized. We made laws. We elected a recorder. I"m it. If you don"t like our rules, yonder is the divide. We"ve got the U. S. government back of us. See!"
Crowley"s language became purely local, but the other continued unruffled.
"We knew you-all was coming, so we sort of loaded up. If there"s any ground hereabouts that we ain"t got blanketed, it"s purely an oversight.
There"s plenty left farther out, though," and he swept them a mocking gesture. "Help yourselves and pa.s.s up for more. I"ll record "em."
"What"s the fee?"
"Ten dollars apiece."
Crowley swore more savagely.
"You done a fine job of hoggin", didn"t you? It"s two and a half everywhere else."
But the recorder of the Skook.u.m District laughed carelessly and resumed his windla.s.s. "Sorry you ain"t pleased. Maybe you"ll learn to like it."
As they turned away he continued: "I don"t mind giving you a hunch, though. Tackle that big creek about five miles down yonder. She prospected good last fall, but you"ll have to go clean to her head, "cause we"ve got everything below."
Eight hours later, by the guiding glare of the Northern Lights, the two stumbled back into camp, utterly broken.
They had followed the stream for miles and miles to find it staked by the powers of attorney of the six. Coming to the gulch"s head, to be sure, they found vacant ground, but refused to claim such unpromising territory. Then the endless homeward march through the darkness! Out of thickets and through drifts they burst, while fatigue settled on them like some horrid vampire from the darkness. Every step being no longer involuntary became a separate labor, requiring mental concentration.
They were half dead in slumber as they walked, but their stubborn courage and smoldering rage at the men who had caused this drove them on. They suffered silently, because it takes effort to groan, and they h.o.a.rded every atom of endurance.
Many, many times Buck repeated a poem, timing his steps to its rhythm, rendering it over and over till it wore a rut through his brain, his eyes fixed dully upon the glaring fires above the hilltops. For years a faintness came over him with the memory of these lines:
Then dark they lie, and stark they lie, rookery, dune, and floe, And the Northern Lights came down o" nights to dance with the houseless snow.
Reaching the cabin, they found an army of men sleeping heavily upon the wet moss. Among them was the great form of Knute, but nowhere did they spy Sully.
With much effort they tore off the constricting boots and, using them for pillows, sank into a painful lethargy.
Awakened early by the others, they took their stiffly frozen footgear beneath the blankets to thaw against their warm bodies, but their feet were swelled to double size and every joint had ossified rheumatically.
Eventually they hobbled about, preparing the first square meal since the start--two days and three nights.
Still they saw no Sully, though Crowley"s eyes darted careful inquiry among the horde of stampeders which moved about the cabin. Later, he seemed bent on some hidden design, so they crawled out of sight of the camp, then, commencing at the upper stake of Discovery, he stepped off the claims from post to post.
It is customary to blaze the boundaries of locations on tree trunks, but from topographical irregularities it is difficult to properly gauge these distances, hence, many rich fractions have been run over by the heedless, to fall to him who chained the ground.
Upon pacing the third one, he showed excitement.
"You walk this one again--mebbe I made a mistake."
Buck returned, crashing through the brush.
"I make it seventeen hundred."
The claim above figured likewise, and they trembled with elation as they blazed their lines.
Returning to camp, they found the recorder in the cabin with the scurvy patients. Unfolding the location notices, his face went black as he read, while he snarled, angrily:
""Fraction between Three and Four" and "Fraction between Four and Five,"
eh? You"re crazy."
"I reckon not," said Crowley, lifting his lips at the corners characteristically.
"There ain"t any fraction there," the other averred, loudly. "We own them claims. I told you we had everything covered."
"You record them fractions!"
"I won"t do it! I"ll see you in--"
Crowley reached forth suddenly and strangled him as he sat. He buried his thumbs in his throat, forcing him roughly back against a bunk.
Farther and farther he crushed him till the man lay pinioned and writhing on his back. Then he knelt on him, shaking and worrying like a great terrier.
At the first commotion the cripples scrambled out of bed, shouting l.u.s.tily through their livid gums, their bloated features mottled and sickly with fright. One lifted himself toward the Winchester, and it fell from his hands full c.o.c.ked when Buck hurled him into a corner, where he lay screaming in agony.
Drawn by the uproar, the stampeders outside rushed toward the shack to be met in the door by the young man.
"Keep back!"
"What"s up!"
"Fight!"
"Let me in!"
A man bolted forward, but was met with such a driving blow in the face that he went thrashing to the slush. Another was hurled back, and then they heard Crowley"s voice, rough and throaty, as he abused the recorder. Strained to the snapping-point, his restraint had shattered to bits and now pa.s.sion ran through him, wild and unbridled.
From his words they grasped the situation, and their sympathies changed.
They crowded the door and gazed curiously through the window to see him jam the recorder shapelessly into a chair, place pen and ink in his hand, and force him to execute two receipts. It is not a popular practice, this blanketing, as the temper of the watchers showed.
"Serves "em right, the hogs," some one said, and he voiced the universal sentiment.
That night, as they ravened over their meager meal, Knute came to them, hesitatingly. He was greatly worried and apprehension wrinkled his wooden face.
"Saay! W"at you t"ink "bout Sully?"
"I don"t know. Why?"
"By yingo, ay t"ink he"s lose!"