The next course was fish a la Pymeut.
"You"re lucky to be able to get it," said the Father, whether with suspicion or not no man could tell. "I had to send back for some by a trader and couldn"t get enough."
"We didn"t see any trader," said the Boy to divert the current.
"He may have gone by in the dusk; he was travelling hotfoot."
"Thought that steamship was chockful o" grub. What did you want o"
fish?"
"Yes; they"ve got plenty of food, but--"
"They don"t relish parting with it," suggested Potts.
"They haven"t much to think about except what they eat; they wanted to try our fish, and were ready to exchange. I promised I would send a load back from Ikogimeut if they"d--" He seemed not to care to finish the sentence.
"So you didn"t do much for the Pymeuts after all?"
"I did something," he said almost shortly. Then, with recovered serenity, he turned to the Boy: "I promised I"d bring back any news."
"Yes."
"Well?"
Everybody stopped eating and hung on the priest"s words.
"Captain Rainey"s heard there"s a big new strike--"
"In the Klond.y.k.e?"
"On the American side this time."
"Hail Columbia!"
"Whereabouts?"
"At a place called Minook."
"Where"s that?"
"Up the river by the Ramparts."
"How far?"
"Oh, a little matter of six or seven hundred miles from here."
"Glory to G.o.d!"
"Might as well be six or seven thousand."
"And very probably isn"t a bona-fide strike at all," said the priest, "but just a stampede--a very different matter."
"Well, I tell you straight: I got no use for a gold-mine in Minook at this time o" year."
"Nop! Venison steak"s more in my line than grub-stake just about now."
Potts had to bestir himself and wash dishes before he could indulge in his "line." When the grilled reindeer did appear, flanked by really-truly potatoes and the Colonel"s hot Kentucky biscuit, there was no longer doubt in any man"s mind but what this Blow-Out was being a success.
"Colonel"s a daisy cook, ain"t he?" the Boy appealed to Father Wills.
The Jesuit a.s.sented cordially.
"My family meant _me_ for the army," he said. "Seen much service, Colonel?"
The Kentuckian laughed.
"Never wasted a day soldiering in my life."
"Oh!"
"Maybe you"re wonderin"," said Potts, "why he"s a Colonel!"
The Jesuit made a deprecatory gesture, politely disclaiming any such rude curiosity.
"He"s from Kentucky, you see;" and the smile went round. "Beyond that, we can"t tell you why he"s a Colonel unless it"s because he ain"t a Judge;" and the boss of the camp laughed with the rest, for the Denver man had scored.
By the time they got to the California apricots and boiled rice everybody was feeling pretty comfortable. When, at last, the table was cleared, except for the granite-ware basin full of punch, and when all available cups were mustered and tobacco-pouches came out, a remarkably genial spirit pervaded the company--with three exceptions.
Potts and O"Flynn waited anxiously to sample the punch before giving way to complete satisfaction, and Kaviak was impervious to considerations either of punch or conviviality, being wrapped in slumber on a corner of the buffalo-skin, between Mac"s stool and the natives, who also occupied places on the floor.
Upon O"Flynn"s first draught he turned to his next neighbour:
"Potts, me bhoy, "tain"t s" bad."
"I"ll bet five dollars it won"t make yer any happier."
"Begob, I"m happy enough! Gentlemen, wud ye like I should sing ye a song?"
"Yes."
"Yes," and the Colonel thumped the table for order, infinitely relieved that the dinner was done, and the punch not likely to turn into a _casus belli_. O"Flynn began a ditty about the Widdy Malone that woke up Kaviak and made him rub his round eyes with astonishment. He sat up, and hung on to the back of Mac"s coat to make sure he had some anchorage in the strange new waters he had so suddenly been called on to navigate.
The song ended, the Colonel, as toast-master, proposed the health of--he was going to say Father Wills, but felt it discreeter to name no names. Standing up in the middle of the cabin, where he didn"t have to stoop, he lifted his cup till it knocked against the swing-shelf, and called out, "Here"s to Our Visitors, Neighbours, and Friends!"
Whereupon he made a stately circular bow, which ended by his offering Kaviak his hand, in the manner of one who executes a figure in an old-fashioned dance. The smallest of "Our Visitors," still keeping hold of Mac, presented the Colonel with the disengaged half-yard of flannel undershirt on the other side, and the speech went on, very flowery, very hospitable, very Kentuckian.
When the Colonel sat down there was much applause, and O"Flynn, who had lent his cup to Nicholas, and didn"t feel he could wait till it came back, began to drink punch out of the dipper between shouts of:
"Hooray! Brayvo! Here"s to the Kurrnul! G.o.d bless him! That"s rale oratry, Kurrnul! Here"s to Kentucky--and ould Ireland."