"Down from Dawson?" asked the bartender hurrying forward, a magnificent creature in a check waistcoat, shirt-sleeves, four-in-hand tie, and a diamond pin.
"No, t"other way about. Up from the Lower River."
"Oh! May West or Muckluck crew? Anyhow, I guess you got a thirst on you," said the man in the mackinaws. "Come and licker up."
The bartender mixed the drinks in style, shooting the liquor from a height into the small gin-sling gla.s.ses with the dexterity that had made him famous.
When their tired eyes had got accustomed to the mingled smoke and glare, the travellers could see that in the s.p.a.ce beyond the card tables, in those back regions where the pianola reigned, there were several couples twirling about--the clumsily-dressed miners pirouetting with an astonishing lightness on their moccasined feet. And women!
White women!
They stopped dancing and came forward to see the new arrivals.
The mackinaw man was congratulating the Colonel on "gettin" back to civilization."
"See that plate-gla.s.s mirror?" He pointed behind the bar, below the moose antlers. "See them ladies? You"ve got to a place where you can rake in the dust all day, and dance all night, and go buckin" the tiger between whiles. Great place, Minook. Here"s luck!" He took up the last of the gin slings set in a row before the party.
"Have you got some property here?" asked the Boy.
The man, without putting down his gla.s.s, simply closed one eye over the rim.
"We"ve heard some bad accounts of these diggin"s," said the Colonel.
"I ain"t sayin" there"s millions for _every_body. You"ve got to get the inside track. See that feller talkin" to the girl? Billy Nebrasky tipped him the wink in time to git the inside track, just before the Fall Stampede up the gulch."
"Which gulch?"
He only motioned with his head. "Through havin" that tip, he got there in time to stake number three Below Discovery. He"s had to hang up drinks all winter, but he"s a millionaire all right. He"s got a hundred thousand dollars _in sight,_ only waitin" for runnin" water to wash it out."
"Then there _is_ gold about here?"
"There is gold? Say, Maudie," he remarked in a humourous half-aside to the young woman who was pa.s.sing with No--thumb-Jack, "this fellow wants to know if there is gold here."
She laughed. "Guess he ain"t been here long."
Now it is not to be denied that this rejoinder was susceptible of more than one interpretation, but the mackinaw man seemed satisfied, so much so that he offered Maudie the second gin-sling which the Colonel had ordered "all round." She eyed the strangers over the gla.s.s. On the hand that held it a fine diamond sparkled. You would say she was twenty-six, but you wouldn"t have been sure. She had seemed at least that at a distance. Now she looked rather younger. The face wore an impudent look, yet it was delicate, too. Her skin showed very white and fine under the dabs of rouge. The blueness was not yet faded out of her restless eyes.
"Minook"s all right. No josh about that," she said, setting down her gla.s.s. Then to the Boy, "Have a dance?"
"Not much," he replied rather roughly, and turned away to talk about the diggin"s to two men on the other side.
Maudie laid her hand on the Colonel"s arm, and the diamond twitched the light. "_You_ will," she said.
"Well, you see, ma"am"--the Colonel"s smile was charming in spite of his wild beard--"we"ve done such a lot o" dancin" lately--done nothin"
else for forty days; and after seven hundred miles of it we"re just a trifle tired, ma"am."
She laughed good-naturedly.
"Pity you"re tired," said the mackinaw man. "There"s a pretty good thing goin" just now, but it won"t be goin" long."
The Boy turned his head round again with reviving interest in his own group.
"Look here, Si," Maudie was saying: "if you want to let a lay on your new claim to _anybody_, mind it"s got to be me."
But the mackinaw man was glancing speculatively over at another group.
In haste to forestall desertion, the Boy inquired:
"Do you know of anything good that isn"t staked yet?"
"Well, mebbe I don"t--and mebbe I do." Then, as if to prove that he wasn"t overanxious to pursue the subject: "Say, Maudie, ain"t that French Charlie over there?" Maudie put her small nose in the air.
"Ain"t you made it up with Charlie yet?""
"No, I ain"t."
"Then we"ll have another drink all round."
While he was untying the drawstring of his gold sack, Maudie said, half-aside, but whether to the Colonel or the Boy neither could tell: "Might do worse than keep your eye on Si McGinty." She nodded briskly at the violet checks on the mackinaw back. "Si"s got a cinch up there on Glory Hallelujah, and n.o.body"s on to it yet."
The pianola picked out a polka. The man Si McGinty had called French Charlie came up behind the girl and said something. She shook her head, turned on her heel, and began circling about in the narrow s.p.a.ce till she found another partner, French Charlie scowling after them, as they whirled away between the faro-tables back into the smoke and music at the rear. McGinty was watching Jimmie, the man at the gold scales, pinch up some of the excess dust in the scale-pan and toss it back into the bra.s.s blower.
"Where did that gold come from?" asked the Colonel.
"Off a claim o" mine"; and he lapsed into silence.
You are always told these fellows are so anxious to rope in strangers.
This man didn"t seem to be. It made him very interesting. The Boy acted strictly on the woman"s hint, and kept an eye on the person who had a sure thing up on Glory Hallelujah. But when the lucky man next opened his mouth it was to say:
"Why, there"s b.u.t.ts down from Circle City."
"b.u.t.ts?" repeated the Boy, with little affectation of interest.
"Yep. Wonder what the son of a gun is after here." But he spoke genially, even with respect.
"Who"s b.u.t.ts?"
"b.u.t.ts? Ah--well--a--b.u.t.ts is the smartest fellow with his fingers in all "laska"; and McGinty showed his big yellow teeth in an appreciative smile.
"Smart at washin" gold out?"
"Smarter at pickin" it out." The bartender joined in Si"s laugh as that gentleman repeated, "Yes, sir! handiest feller with his fingers I ever seen."
"What does he do with his fingers?" asked the Boy, with impatient suspicion.
"Well, he don"t dare do much with "em up here. "Tain"t popular."
"What ain"t?"
"b.u.t.ts"s little game. But Lord! he is good at it." b.u.t.ts had been introduced as a stalking-horse, but there was no doubt about Si"s admiration of his "handiness." "b.u.t.ts is wasted up here," he sighed.
"There"s some chance for a murderer in Alaska, but a thief"s a goner."