The seaman raised a pair of twinkling eyes in his guest"s direction.
"It"s mostly my experience. Providence generally figgers to hand you things at--inconvenient times. This darn sound"s tricky when there ain"t breeze enough to clear your smoke away. It"s fierce when it"s blowing. Guess you"ll be glad to see your outfit ash.o.r.e."
"Ye-es."
"Up country again this year?"
Kars laughed.
"Sure."
The seaman regarded him enviously.
"Guess it must be great only having the weather to beat. A piece of hard soil under your feet must be bully to work on. That ain"t been mine since I was fourteen. That"s over forty years ago."
"There"s something to it--sure." Kars sipped his coffee. "But there"s other things," he added, as he set his cup down.
The seaman smiled.
"Wouldn"t be Life if there weren"t."
"No."
"You"re shipping arms," John Dunne went on significantly. "Guns an"
things don"t signify all smiles an" sunshine. No, I guess we sea folks got our troubles. It"s only they"re diff"rent from other folks. You ain"t the only feller shipping arms. We got cases else. An" a big outfit of cartridges. I was looking into the lading schedule yesterday. Say, the Yukon ain"t makin" war with Alaska?"
The man"s curiosity was evident, but he disguised it with a broad smile.
Kars" steady eyes regarded him thoughtfully. Then he, too, smiled.
"I don"t reckon the Yukon"s worrying to sc.r.a.p. But folks inside--I mean right inside beyond Leaping Horse where the p"lice are--need arms.
There"s a lot of low type Indians running loose. They aren"t to be despised, except for their manners. Guess the stuff you speak of is for one of the trading posts?"
"Can"t say. It"s billed to a guy named Murray McTavish at Blackrock Flat. There"s a thousand rifles an" nigh two million rounds of cartridges. Guess he must be carryin" on a war of his own with them Injuns. Know the name?"
Kars appeared to think profoundly.
"Seems to me I know the name. Can"t just place it for---- Say--I"ve got it. He"s the partner of the feller the neches murdered up at Fort Mowbray, on the Snake River. Sure, that explains it. Oh, yes. The folks up that way are up against it. The neches are pretty darn bad."
He laughed. "Guess he"s out for a war of extermination with such an outfit as that."
"Seems like it." The skipper went on eating for some moments in silence. His curiosity was satisfied. Nor did Kars attempt to break the silence. He was thinking--thinking hard.
"It beats me," Dunne went on presently, "you folk who don"t need to live north of "sixty." What is it that keeps you chasing around in a cold that "ud freeze the vitals of a tin statue?"
Kars shook his head.
"You can search me," he said, with a shrug. "Guess it sort of gets in the blood, though. There"s times when I cuss it like you cuss the waters that hand you your life. Then there"s times when I love it like--like a pup loves offal. You can"t figger it out any more than you can figger out why the sun and moon act foolish chasing each other around an earth that don"t know better than to spend its time buzzing around on a pivot that don"t exist. You can"t explain these things any more than you can explain the reason why no two folks can think the same about things, except it is their own way of thinking it"s the right way. Nor why it is you mostly get rain when you"re needin" sun, and wind when you"re needin" calm, and anyway it"s coming from the wrong quarter. If you guess you"re looking for gold, it"s a thousand dollars to a dime you find coal, or drown yourself in a "gush" of oil.
If you"re married, an" you"re looking for a son, it"s a sure gamble you get a gal. Most everything in life"s just about as crazy as they"ll allow outside a foolish house, and as for life itself, well, it"s a darn nuisance anyway, but one you"re mighty glad keeps busy your way."
At that moment, the speaking tube from the bridge emitted a sharp whistle, and the skipper, with a broad smile on his weather-beaten face, went to answer it.
The clatter of the winches ceased. The creaking of straining hawsers lessened. The voices of men only continued their hoa.r.s.e-throated shoutings. The gangways had been secured in place, and while the crew were feverishly opening the vessel"s hatches the few pa.s.sengers who had made the journey under John Dunne"s watchful care hustled down the high-angled gangway to the quay, glad enough to set foot on the slush-laden land.
The days of the wild rush of gold-mad incompetents were long since past. The human freight of John Dunne"s vessel, with the exception of John Kars, was commercial. They were mostly men whose whole work was this new great trade with the north.
Kars was one of the first to land, and he swiftly searched the faces of the crowd of longsh.o.r.emen.
It was a desolate quay-side of a disreputable town. But though all picturesqueness was given over to utility, there was a sense of homeliness to the traveler after the stormy pa.s.sage of the North Pacific. Blackrock crouched under the frowning ramparts of hills which barred the progress of the waters. It was dwarfed, and rendered even more desolate, by the sterile snow-laden crags with which it was crowded. But these first impressions were quickly lost in the life that strove on every hand. In the familiar clang of the locomotive bell, and the movement of railroad wagons which were engaged in haulage for Leaping Horse.
Kars" search ended in a smile of greeting, as a tall, lean American detached himself from the crowd and came towards him. He greeted the arrival with the easy casualness of the northlander.
"Glad to see you, Chief," he said, shaking hands. "Stuff aboard?
Good," as the other nodded. "Guess the gang"ll ship it right away jest as soon as they haul it out o" the guts of the old tub. You goin" on up with the mail? She"s due to get busy in two hours, if she don"t get colic or some other fool trouble."
Abe Dodds refused to respond to his friend and chief"s smile of greeting. He rarely shed smiles on anything or any one. He was a mining engineer of unusual gifts, in a country where mining engineers and flies vied with each other for preponderance. He was a man who bristled with a steady energy which never seemed to tire, and he had been in the service of John Kars from the very early days.
Kars indicated the snub-nosed vessel he had just left.
"The stuff"s all there," he said. "Nearly fifty tons of it. You need to hustle it up to Leaping Horse, and on to the camp right away. Guess we break camp in two weeks."
The man nodded.
"Sure. That"s all fixed. Anything else?"
His final inquiry was his method of dismissing his employer. But Kars did not respond. His keen eyes had been searching the crowd. Now they came back to the plain face of Abe, whose jaws were working busily on the wreck of the end of a cigar. He lowered his voice to a confidential tone.
"There"s a big outfit of stuff aboard for Murray McTavish, of Fort Mowbray. Has he an outfit here to haul it? Is he still around Leaping Horse?"
Abe"s eyes widened. He was quite unconcerned at the change of tone.
"Why, yes," he replied promptly. "Sure he"s an outfit here. He"s shipping it up to Leaping Horse by the Yukon Transport--express. He quit the city last November, an" come along down again a week ago.
Guess he"s in the city right now. He"s stopping around Adler"s Hotel."
Kars" eyes were on the "hauls" of the cargo boat which were already busy.
"You boys kept to instructions?" he demanded sharply. "No one"s wise to your camp?"
"Not a thing."
"There"s not a word of me going around the city?"
"Not a word."
"The outfit"s complete?"
"Sure. To the last boy. You can break camp the day after this stuff"s hauled and we"ve packed it."
"Good." Kars sighed as if in relief. "Well, I"ll get on. Hustle all you know. And, say, get a tally of McTavish"s outfit. Get their time schedule. I"ll need it. So long."