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diff --git a/36121.txt b/36121.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93c718e --- /dev/null +++ b/36121.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10906 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Snow-Burner, by Henry Oyen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Snow-Burner + +Author: Henry Oyen + +Release Date: May 16, 2011 [EBook #36121] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SNOW-BURNER *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: THE SNOW-BURNER TOPPLED AND FELL FACE DOWNWARD ON THE +GROUND] + +THE SNOW-BURNER + +BY HENRY OYEN + +Author of "The Man-Trail" + +NEW YORK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +PUBLISHERS + +Copyright, 1916, + +By George H. Doran Company + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + +COPYRIGHT 1914, 1915, BY THE RIDGWAY COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART ONE: THE NATURAL MAN + + I. "Help!" 9 + II. The Girl 16 + III. Toppy Gets A Job 21 + IV. "Hell-Camp" Reivers 31 + V. Toppy Overhears a Conversation 39 + VI. "Nice Boy!" 44 + VII. The Snow-Burner's Creed 51 + VIII. Toppy Works 62 + IX. A Fresh Start 67 + X. The Duel Begins 74 + XI. "Hell-Camp" Court 77 + XII. Toppy's First Move 94 + XIII. Reivers Replies 100 + XIV. "Joker and Deuces Wild" 106 + XV. The Way of the Snow-Burner 115 + XVI. The Screws Tighten 131 + XVII. Tilly's Warning 139 + XVIII. "Canny by Nature" 145 + XIX. The Fight 150 + XX. Toppy's Way 162 + XXI. The End of the Boss 165 + +PART TWO: THE SUPER MAN + + XXII. The Cheating of the River 175 + XXIII. The Girl Who Was Not Afraid 183 + XXIV. The Woman's Way 193 + XXV. Gold! 202 + XXVI. The Look in a Woman's Eyes 212 + XXVII. On the Trail of Fortune 219 + XXVIII. The Snow-Burner Hunts 229 + XXIX. The White Man's Will 233 + XXX. Any Means to an End 238 + XXXI. The Squaw-Man 241 + XXXII. The Scorn of a Pure Woman 245 + XXXIII. Shanty Moir 251 + XXXIV. The Bargain 256 + XXXV. The Test of the Bottle 261 + XXXVI. The Snow-Burner Begins To Weaken 265 + XXXVII. Into the Jaws of the Bear 270 + XXXVIII. MacGregor Roy 277 + XXXIX. James MacGregor's Story 283 + XL. The White Man's Sentiment 293 + XLI. Shanty-Moir-Temperance Advocate 301 + XLII. The Snow-Burner Works for Two 305 + XLIII. "The Penalty of a White Man's Mind" 309 + XLIV. The Madness of "Hell-Camp" Reivers 316 + XLV. A Surprise for Shanty Moir 320 + XLVI. A Fight that was a Fight 327 + XLVII. The Snow-Burner Pays 332 + + + + +THE SNOW BURNER + + +PART ONE: THE NATURAL MAN + + + + +CHAPTER I--HELP + + +The brisk November sunrise, breaking over the dark jack-pines, lighted +up the dozen snow-covered frame buildings comprising the so-called town +of Rail Head, and presently reached in through the uncurtained windows +of the Northern Light saloon, where it shone upon the curly head of +young Toppy Treplin as, pillowed on his crossed forearms, it lay in +repose on one of the saloon tables. + +It was a sad, strange place to find Toppy Treplin, one-time All-American +halfback, but for the last four years all-around moneyed loafer and +waster. Rail Head was far from the beaten path. It lay at the end of +sixty miles of narrow-gauge track that rambled westward into the Big +Woods from the Iron Range Railroad line, and it consisted mainly of a +box-car depot, an alleged hotel and six saloons--none of the latter being +in any too good repute with the better element round about. + +The existence of the saloons might have explained Toppy's presence in +Rail Head had their character and wares been of a nature to attract one +of his critical tastes; but in reality Toppy was there because the Iron +Range Limited, bearing Harvey Duncombe's private hunting-car, had +stopped for a moment the night before out where the narrow-gauge met the +Iron Range Railroad tracks. + +Toppy, at that fated moment, was out on the observation platform alone. +There had been a row and Toppy had rushed out in a black rage. Within, +the car reeked with the mingled odours of cigarette-smoke and spilled +champagne. Out of doors the first snowfall of the season, faintly tinted +by a newly risen moon, lay unmarked, undefiled. + +A girl--small, young, brisk and business-like--alighted from the car ahead +and walked swiftly across the station platform to the narrow-gauge train +that stood waiting. The anger and champagne raging in him had moved +Toppy to one of those wild pranks which had made his name among his +fellows synonymous with irresponsibility. + +He would get away from it all, away from Harvey Duncombe and his +champagne, and all that sort of thing. He would show them! + +Toppy had stepped off. The Limited suddenly glided away. Toppy lurched +over to the narrow gauge, and that was the last thing he had remembered +of that memorable night. + +As the sun now revealed him, Mr. Robert Lovejoy Treplin, in spite of his +deplorable condition, was a figure to win attention of a not entirely +unfavourable sort. Still clad in mackinaw and hunting-clothes, his two +hundred pounds of bone and muscle and just a little too much fat were +sprawled picturesquely over the chair and table, the six-foot +gracefulness of him being obvious despite his rough apparel and awkward +position. + +His cap had fallen off and the sun glinted on a head of boyish brown +curls. It was only in the lazy, good-natured face, puffy and +loose-lipped, that one might read how recklessly Toppy Treplin had lived +since achieving his football honours four years before. + +The sun crept up and found his eyes, and Toppy stirred. Slowly, even +painfully, he raised his head from the table and looked around him. The +crudeness of his surroundings made him sit up with a start. He looked +first out of the window at the snow-covered "street." Across the way he +saw a small, unpainted building bearing a scraggly sign, "Hotel." Beyond +this the jack-pines loomed in a solid wall. + +Toppy shuddered. He turned his face toward the man behind the bar, who +had been regarding him for some time with a look of mingled surprise and +amusement. Toppy shuddered again. + +The man was a half-breed, and he wore a red woollen shirt. Worse, there +was not a sign of a mirror behind the bar. It was distressing. + +"Good morning, brother," said Toppy, concealing his repugnance. "Might I +ask you for a little information this pleasant morning?" + +The half-breed grinned appreciatively but sceptically. + +"Little drink, I guess you mean, don't you?" said he. "Go 'head." + +Toppy bowed courteously. + +"Thank you, brother, thank you. I am sorely puzzled about two little +matters--where am I anyway, and if so, how did I get here?" + +The grin on the half-breed's face broadened. He pointed at the table in +front of Toppy. + +"You been sleeping there since 'bout midnight las' night," he exclaimed. + +Toppy waved his left hand to indicate his displeasure at the inadequacy +of the bartender's reply. + +"Obvious, my dear Watson, obvious," he said. "I know that I'm at this +table, because here I am; and I know I've been sleeping here because I +just woke up. Let's broaden the range of our information. What town is +this, if it is a town, and if it is, how did I happen to come here, may +I ask?" + +The half-breed's grin disappeared, gradually to give place to an +expression of amazement. + +"You mean to say you come to this town and don't know what town it is?" +he demanded. "Then why you come? What you do here?" + +Toppy's brow corrugated in an expression of deep puzzlement. + +"That's another thing that's rather puzzling, too, brother," he replied. +"Why did I come? I'd like to know that, too. Like very, very much to +know that. Where am I, how did I come here, and why? Three questions I'd +like very, very much to have answered." + +He sat for a moment in deep thought, then turned toward the bartender +with the pleased look of a man who has found an inspiration. + +"I tell you what you do, brother--you answer the first two questions and +in the light of that information I'll see if I can't ponder out the +third." + +The half-breed leaned heavily across the single-plank bar and watched +Toppy closely. + +"This town is Rail Head," he said slowly, as if speaking to some one of +whose mental capacity he had great doubts. "You come here by last +night's train. You bring the train-crew over to have a drink; then you +fall asleep. You been sleeping ever since. Now you remember?" + +"Ah!" + +The puzzled look went out of Toppy's eyes. + +"Now I remember. Row with Harvey Duncombe. Wanted me to drink two to his +one. Stepped outside. Saw little train. Saw little girl. Stepped off big +train, got on little train, and here I am. Fine little business." + +"You went to sleep in the train coming up, the conductor told me," +volunteered the half-breed. "You told them you wanted to go as far as +you could, so they took you up here to the end of the line. You remember +now, eh, why you come here?" + +"Only too well, brother," replied Toppy wearily. "I--I just came to see +your beautiful little city." + +The bartender laughed bitterly. + +"You come to a fine place. Didn't you ever hear 'bout Rail Head?" he +asked. "I guess not, or you wouldn't have come. This town's the +jumping-off place, that's what she is. It's the most God-forsaken, +hopeless excuse for a town in the whole North Country. There's only two +kind of business here--shipping men out to Hell Camp and skinning them +when they come back. That's all. What you think of that for a fine town +you've landed in, eh?" + +"Fine," said Toppy. "I see you love it dearly, indeed." + +The half-breed nodded grimly. + +"It's all right for me; I own this place. Anybody else is sucker to come +here, though. You ain't a Bohunk fool, so I don't think you come to hire +out for Hell Camp. You just got too drunk, eh?" + +"I suppose so," said Toppy, yawning. "What's this Hell Camp thing? +Pleasant little name." + +"An' pleasant little place," supplemented the man mockingly. "Ain't you +never heard 'bout Hell Camp? 'Bout its boss--Reivers--the 'Snow-Burner'? +Huh! Perhaps you want hire out there for job?" + +"Perhaps," agreed Toppy. "What is it?" + +"Oh, it ain't nothing so much. Just big log-camp run by man named +Reivers--that's all. Indians call him Snow-Burner. Twenty-five, thirty +miles out in the bush, at Cameron Dam. That's all. Very big camp. +Everybody who comes to this town is going out there to work, or else +hiding out." + +"I see. But why the name?" + +"Hell Camp?" The bartender's grin appeared again; then, as if a second +thought on the matter had occurred to him, he assumed a noncommittal +expression and yawned. "Oh, that's just nickname the boys give it. You +see, the boys from camp come to town here in the Spring. Then sometimes +they raise ----. That's why some people call it Hell Camp. That's all. +Cameron Dam Camp is the right name." + +"I see." Toppy was wondering why the man should take the trouble to lie +to him. Of course he was lying. Even Toppy, with his bleared eyes, could +see that the man had started to berate Hell Camp even as he had berated +Rail Head and had suddenly switched and said nothing. It hurt Toppy's +head. It wasn't fair to puzzle him this morning. "I see. Just--just a +nickname." + +"That's all," said the bartender. Briskly changing the subject he said: +"Well, how 'bout it, stranger? You going to have eye-opener this +morning?" + +"I suppose so," said Toppy absently. He again turned his attention to +the view from the window. On the low stairs of the hotel were seated +half a dozen men whose flat, ox-like faces and foreign clothing marked +them for immigrants, newly arrived, of the Slavic type. Some sat on +wooden trunks oddly marked, others stood with bundles beneath their +arms. They waited stolidly, blankly, with their eyes on the hotel door, +as oxen wait for the coming of the man who is going to feed them. Toppy +looked on with idle interest. + +"I didn't think you could see anything like that this far away from +Ellis Island," he said. "What are those fellows, brother?" + +"Bohunks," said the bartender with a contemptuous jerk of the head. +"They waiting to hire out for the Cameron Dam Camp. The agent he comes +to the hotel. Well, what you going to have?" + +"Bring me a whisky sour," said Toppy, without taking his eyes off the +group across the street. The half-breed grinned and placed before him a +bottle of whisky and a glass. Toppy frowned. + +"A whisky sour, I said," he protested. + +"When you get this far in the woods," laughed the man, "they all come +out of one bottle. Drink up." + +Once more Toppy shuddered. He was bored by this time. + +"Your jokes up here are worse than your booze," he said wearily. + +He poured out a scant drink and sat with the glass in his hand while his +eyes were upon the group across the street. He was about to drink when a +stir among the men drew his attention. The door of the hotel opened +briskly. Toppy suddenly set down his glass. + +The girl who had got on the narrow-gauge out at the junction the night +before had come out and was standing on the stairs, looking about her +with an expression which to Toppy seemed plainly to spell, "Help!" + + + + +CHAPTER II--THE GIRL + + +Toppy sat and stared across the street at her with a feeling much like +awe. The girl was standing forth in the full morning sunlight, and +Toppy's first impulse was to cross the street to her, his second to hide +his face. She was small and young, the girl, and beautiful. She was a +blonde, such a blonde as is found only in the North. The sun lighted up +the aureole of light hair surrounding her head, so that even Toppy +behind the windows of the Northern Light caught a vision of its +fineness. Her cheeks bore the red of perfect health showing through a +perfect, fair complexion, and even the thick red mackinaw which she wore +did not hide the trimness of the figure beneath. + +"What in the dickens is she doing here?" gasped Toppy. "She doesn't +belong in a place like this." + +But if this were true the girl apparently was entirely unconscious of +it. Among that group of ox-like Slavs she stood with her little chin in +the air, as much at home, apparently, as if those men were all her good +friends. Only she looked about her now and then as if anxiously seeking +a way out of a dilemma. + +"What can she be doing here?" mused Toppy. "A little, pretty thing like +her! She ought to be back home with mother and father and brother and +sister, going to dancing-school, and all the rest of it." + +Toppy was no stranger to pretty girls. He had met pretty girls by the +score while at college. He had been adored by dozens. After college he +had met still more. None of them had interested him to any inconvenient +extent. After all, a man's friends are all men. + +But this girl, Toppy admitted, struck him differently. He had never seen +a girl that struck him like this before. He pushed his glass to one +side. He was bored no longer. For the first time in four years the full +shame of his mode of living was driven home to him, for as he feasted +his eyes on the sun-kissed vision across the street his decent instincts +whispered that a man who squandered and swilled his life away just +because he had money had no right to raise his eyes to this girl. + +"You're a waster, that's what you are," said Toppy to himself, "and +she's one of those sweet----" + +He was on his feet before the sentence was completed. In her perplexity +the girl had turned to the men about her and apparently had asked a +question. At first their utter unresponsiveness indicated that they did +not understand. + +Then they began to smile, looking at one another and at the girl. The +brutal manner in which they fixed their eyes upon her sent the blood +into Toppy's throat. White men didn't look at a woman that way. + +Then one of the younger men spoke to the girl. Toppy saw her start and +look at him with parted lips. The group gathered more closely around. +The young man spoke again, grimacing and smirking bestially, and Toppy +waited for no more. He was a waster and half drunk; but after all he was +a white man, of the same breed as the girl on the stairs, and he knew +his job. + +He came across the snow-covered street like Toppy Treplin of old bent +upon making a touchdown. Into the group he walked, head up, shouldering +and elbowing carelessly. Toppy caught the young speaker by both +shoulders and hurled him bodily back among his fellows. For an instant +they faced Toppy, snarling, their hands cautiously sliding toward hidden +knives. Then they grovelled, cringing instinctively before the better +breed. + +Toppy turned to the girl and removed his cap. She had not cried out nor +moved, and now she looked Toppy squarely in the eye. Toppy promptly hung +his head. He had been thinking of her as something of a child. Now he +saw his mistake. She was young, it is true--little over twenty +perhaps--but there was an air of self-reliance and seriousness about her +as if she had known responsibilities beyond her years. And her eyes were +blue, Toppy saw--the perfect blue that went with her fair complexion. + +"I beg pardon," stammered Toppy. "I just happened to see--it looked as if +they were getting fresh--so I thought I'd come across and--and see if +there was anything--anything I could do." + +"Thank you," said the girl a little breathlessly. "Are--are you the +agent?" + +Toppy shook his head. The look of perplexity instantly returned to the +girl's face. + +"I'm sorry; I wish I was," said Toppy. "If you'll tell me who the agent +is, and so on--" he included most of the town of Rail Head in a +comprehensive glance--"I'll probably be able to find him in a hurry." + +"Oh, I couldn't think of troubling you. Thank you ever so much, though," +she said hastily. "They told me in the hotel that he was outside here +some place. I'll find him myself, thank you." + +She stepped off the stairs into the snow of the street, every inch and +line of her, from her solid tan boots to her sensible tassel cap, +expressing the self-reliance and independence of the girl who is +accustomed and able to take care of herself under trying circumstances. + +The bright sun smote her eyes and she blinked, squinting deliciously. +She paused for a moment, threw back her head and filled her lungs to the +full with great drafts of the invigorating November air. Her mackinaw +rose and fell as she breathed deeply, and more colour came rushing into +the roses of her cheeks. Apparently she had forgotten the existence of +the Slavs, who still stood glowering at her and Toppy. + +"Isn't it glorious?" she said, looking up at Toppy with her eyes +puckered prettily from the sun. "Doesn't it just make you glad you're +alive?" + +"You bet it does!" said Toppy eagerly. He saw his opportunity to +continue the conversation and hastened to take advantage. "I never knew +air could be as exciting as this. I never felt anything like it. It's my +first experience up here in the woods; I'm an utter stranger around +here." + +Having volunteered this information, he waited eagerly. The girl merely +nodded. + +"Of course. Anybody could see that," she said simply. + +Toppy felt slightly abashed. + +"Then you--you're not a stranger around here?" he asked. + +She shook her head, the tassels of her cap and her aureole of light hair +tossing gloriously. + +"I'm a stranger here in this town," she said, "but I've lived up here in +the woods, as you call it, all my life except the two years I was away +at school. Not right in the woods, of course, but in small towns around. +My father was a timber-estimator before he was hurt, and naturally we +had to live close to the woods." + +"Naturally," agreed Toppy, though he knew nothing about it. He tried to +imagine any of the girls he knew back East accepting a stranger as a man +and a brother who could be trusted at first hand, and he failed. + +"I say," he said as she stepped away. "Just a moment, please. About this +agent-thing. Won't you please let me go and look for him?" He waved his +hands at the six saloons. "You see, there aren't many places here that a +lady can go looking for a man in." + +She hesitated, frowning at the lowly groggeries that constituted the +major part of Rail Head's buildings. + +"That's so," she said with a smile. + +"Of course it is," said Toppy eagerly. "And the chances are that your +man is in one of them, no matter who he is, because that's about the +only place he can be here. You tell me who he is, or what he is, and +I'll go hunt him up." + +"That's very kind of you." She hesitated for a moment, then accepted his +offer without further parley. "It's the employment agent of the Cameron +Dam Company that I'm looking for. I am to meet him here, according to a +letter they sent me, and he is to furnish a team and driver to take me +out to the Dam." + +Then she added calmly, "I'm going to keep books out there this Winter." + + + + +CHAPTER III--TOPPY GETS A JOB + + +Toppy gasped. In the first place, he had not been thinking of her as a +"working girl." None of the girls that he knew belonged to that class. +The notion that she, with the childish dimple in her chin and the roses +in her cheeks, was a girl who made her own living was hard to +assimilate; the idea that she was going out to a camp in the woods--out +to Hell Camp--to work was absolutely impossible! + +"Keep books?" said Toppy, bewildered. "Do they keep books in a--in a +logging-camp?" + +It was her turn to look surprised. + +"Do you know anything about Cameron Dam?" she asked. + +"Nothing," admitted Toppy. "It's a logging-camp, though, isn't it?" + +"Rather more than that, as I understand it," she replied. "They are +building a town out there, according to my letter. There are over two +hundred people there now. At present they're doing nothing but logging +and building the dam; but they say they've found ore out there, and in +the Spring the railroad is coming and the town will open up." + +"And--and you're going to keep books there this Winter?" + +She nodded. "They pay well. They're paying me seventy-five dollars a +month and my board." + +"And you don't know anything about the place?" + +"Except what they've written in the letter engaging me." + +"And still you're going out there--to work?" + +"Of course," she said cheerfully. "Seventy-five-dollar jobs aren't to be +picked up every day around here." + +"I see," said Toppy. He remembered Harvey Duncombe's champagne bill of +the night before and grew thoughtful. He himself had shuddered a short +while before, at waking in a bar where there was no mirror, and he had +planned to wire Harvey for five hundred to take him back to +civilisation. And here was this delicate little girl--as delicate to look +upon as any of the petted and pampered girls he knew back +East--cheerfully, even eagerly, setting her face toward the wilderness +because therein lay a job paying the colossal sum of seventy-five +dollars a month! And she was going alone! + +A reckless impulse swayed Toppy. He decided not to wire Harvey. + +"I see," he said thoughtfully. "I'll go find this agent. You'd better +wait inside the hotel." + +He crossed the street and systematically began to search through the six +saloons. In the third place he found his man shaking dice with an +Indian. The agent was a lean, long-nosed individual who wore thick +glasses and talked through his nose. + +"Yes, I'm the Cameron Dam agent," he drawled, curiously eying Toppy from +head to toe. "Simmons is my name. What can I do for you?" + +"I want a job," said Toppy. "A job out at Hell Camp." + +The agent laughed shortly at the name. + +"You're wise, are you?" he said. "And still you want a job out there? +Well, I'm sorry. That load of Bohunks across the street fills me up. I +can't use any more rough labour just at present. I'm looking for a +blacksmith's helper, but I guess that ain't you." + +"That's me," said Toppy resolutely. "That's the job I want--blacksmith's +helper. That's my job." + +The agent looked him over with the critical eye of a man skilfully +appraising bone and muscle. + +"You're big enough, that's sure," he drawled. "You've got the shoulders +and arms, too, but--let's see your hands." + +Toppy held up his hands, huge in size, but entirely innocent of +callouses or other signs of wear. The agent grinned. + +"Soft as a woman's," he said scornfully. "When did you ever do any +blacksmithing? Long time ago, wasn't it? Before you were born, I guess." + +Toppy's right hand shot out and fell upon the agent's thin arm. Slowly +and steadily he squeezed until the man writhed and grimaced with pain. + +"Wow! Leggo!" The agent peered over his thick glasses with something +like admiration in his eyes. "Say, you're there with the grip, all +right, big fellow. Where'd you get it?" + +"Swinging a sledge," lied Toppy solemnly. "And I've come here to get +that job." + +Simmons shook his head. + +"I can't do it," he protested. "If I should send you out and you +shouldn't make good, Reivers would be sore." + +"Who's this man Reivers?" + +The agent's eyes over his glasses expressed surprise. + +"I thought you were wise to Hell Camp?" he said. + +"Oh, I'm wise enough," said Toppy impatiently. "I know what it is. But +who's this Reivers?" + +"He's the boss," said Simmons shortly. "D'you mean to say you never +heard about Hell-Camp Reivers, the Snow-Burner?" + +"No, I haven't," replied Toppy impatiently. "But that doesn't make any +difference. You send me out there; I'll make good, don't worry." He +paused and sized his man up. "Come over here, Simmons," he said with a +significant wink, leading the way toward the door. "I want that job; I +want it badly." Toppy dived into his pockets. Two bills came to +light--two twenties. He slipped them casually into Simmons' hand. "That's +how bad I want it. Now how about it?" + +The fashion in which Simmons' thin fingers closed upon the money told +Toppy that he was not mistaken in the agent's character. + +"You'll be taking your own chances," warned Simmons, carefully pocketing +the money. "If you don't make good--well, you'll have to explain to +Reivers, that's all. You must have an awful good reason for wanting to +go out." + +"I have." + +"Hiding from something, mebbe?" suggested Simmons. + +"Maybe," said Toppy. "And, say--there's a young lady over at the hotel +who's looking for you. Said you were to furnish her with a sleigh to get +out to Cameron Dam." + +An evil smile broke over the agent's thin face as he moved toward the +door. + +"The new bookkeeper, I suppose," he said, winking at Toppy. "Aha! Now I +understand why you----" + +Toppy caught him two steps from the door. His fingers sank into the +man's withered biceps. + +"No, you don't understand," he hissed grimly. "Get that? You don't +understand anything about it." + +"All right," snapped the cowed man. "Leggo my arm. I was just joshing. +You can take a joke, can't you? Well, then, come along. As long as +you're going out you might as well go at once. I've got to get a double +team, anyhow, for the lady, and you've got to start now to make it +before dark. Ready to start now?" + +"All ready," said Toppy. + +At the door the agent paused. + +"Say, you haven't said anything about wages yet," he said quizzically. + +"That's so," said Toppy, as if he had forgotten. "How much am I going to +get?" + +"Sixty a month." + +The agent couldn't understand why the new man should laugh. It struck +Toppy as funny that a little girl with a baby dimple in her chin should +be earning more money than he. Also, he wondered what Harvey Duncombe +and the rest of the bunch would have thought had they known. + +Toppy followed the agent to the stable behind the hotel, where Simmons +routed out an old hunchbacked driver who soon brought forth a team of +rangy bays drawing a light double-seated sleigh. + +"Company outfit," explained Simmons. "Have to have a team; one horse +can't make it. You can ride in the front seat with the driver. The lady +will ride behind." + +As Toppy clambered in Simmons hurriedly whispered something in the ear +of the driver, who was fastening a trace. The hunchback nodded. + +"I got this job because I can keep my mouth shut," he muttered. "Don't +you worry about anybody pumping me." + +He stepped in beside Toppy; and the bays, prancing in the snow, went +around to the front of the hotel on the run. There was a wait of a few +minutes; then Simmons came out, followed by the girl carrying her +suitcase. Toppy sprang out and took it from her hand. + +"You people are going to be together on a long drive, so I'd better +introduce you," said Simmons. "Miss Pearson, Mr. ----" + +"Treplin," said Toppy honestly. + +"Treplin," concluded Simmons. "New bookkeeper, new blacksmith's helper. +Get in the back seat, Miss Pearson. Cover yourself well up with those +robes. Bundle in--that's right. Put the suitcase under your feet. That's +right. All right, Jerry," he drawled to the driver. "You'd better keep +going pretty steady to make it before dark." + +"Don't nobody need to tell me my business," said the surly hunchback, +tightening the lines; and without any more ado they were off, the snow +flying from the heels of the mettlesome bays. + +For the first few miles the horses, fresh from the stable and +exhilarated to the dancing-point by the sun, air and snow, provided +excitement which prevented any attempt at conversation. Then, when their +dancing and shying had ceased and they had settled down to a steady, +long-legged jog that placed mile after mile of the white road behind +them with the regularity of a machine, Toppy turned his eyes toward the +girl in the back seat. + +He quickly turned them to the front again. Miss Pearson, snuggled down +to her chin in the thick sleigh-robes, her eyes squinting deliciously +beneath the sharp sun, was studying him with a frankness that was +disconcerting, and Toppy, probably for the first time in his life, felt +himself gripped by a great shyness and confusion. There was wonderment +in the girl's eyes, and suspicion. + +"She's wise," thought Toppy sadly. "She knows I've been hitting it up, +and she knows I made up my mind to come out here after I talked with +her. A fine opinion she must have of me! Well, I deserve it. But just +the same I've got to see the thing through now. I can't stand for her +going out all alone to a place with a reputation like Hell Camp. I'm a +dead one with her, all right; but I'll stick around and see that she +gets a square deal." + +Consequently the drive, which Toppy had hoped would lead to more +conversation and a closer acquaintance with the girl, resolved itself +into a silent, monotonous affair which made him distinctly +uncomfortable. He looked back at her again. This time also he caught her +eyes full upon him, but this time after an instant's scrutiny she looked +away with a trace of hardness about her lips. + +"I'm in bad at the start with her, sure," groaned Toppy inwardly. "She +doesn't want a thing to do with me, and quite right at that." + +His tentative efforts at opening a conversation with the driver met +instant and convincing failure. + +"I hear they've got quite a place out here," began Toppy casually. + +"None of my business if they have," grunted the driver. + +Toppy laughed. + +"You're a sociable brute! Why don't you bark and be done with it?" + +The driver viciously pulled the team to a dead stop and turned upon +Toppy with a look that could come only from a spirit of complete +malevolence. + +"Don't try to talk to me, young feller," he snapped, showing old yellow +teeth. "My job is to haul you out there, and that's all. I don't talk. +Don't waste your time trying to make me. Giddap!" + +He cut viciously at the horses with his whip, pulled his head into the +collar of his fur coat with the motion of a turtle retiring into its +shell, and for the rest of the drive spoke only to the horses. + +Toppy, snubbed by the driver and feeling himself shunned, perhaps even +despised, by Miss Pearson, now had plenty of time to think over the +situation calmly. The crisp November air whipping his face as the sleigh +sped steadily along drove from his brain the remaining fumes of Harvey +Buncombe's champagne. He saw the whole affair clearly now, and he +promptly called himself a great fool. + +What business was it of his if a girl wanted to go out to work in a +place like Hell Camp? Probably it was all right. Probably there was no +necessity, no excuse for his having made a fool of himself by going with +her. Why had he done it, anyhow? Getting interested in anything because +of a girl was strange conduct for him. He couldn't call to mind a single +tangible reason for his actions. He had acted on the impulse, as he had +done scores of times before; and, as he had also done scores of times +before, he felt that he had made a fool of himself. + +He tried to catch the girl's eyes once more, to read in them some sign +of relenting, some excuse for opening a conversation. But as he turned +his head Miss Pearson also turned and looked away with uncompromising +severity. Toppy studied the purity of her profile, the innocence of the +baby dimple in her chin, out of the corner of his eye. And as he turned +and glanced at the evil face of the hunchback driver he settled himself +with a sigh, and thought-- + +"Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the fact that I've been a fool, I am +glad that I'm here." + +At noon the road plunged out of the scant jack-pine forest into the +gloom of a hemlock swamp. Toppy shuddered as he contemplated what the +fate of a man might be who should be unfortunate enough to get lost in +that swamp. A mile in the swamp, on a slight knoll, they came to a tiny +cabin guarding a gate across the road. An old, bearded woodsman came out +of the cabin and opened the gate, and the hunchback pulled up and +proceeded to feed his team. + +"Dinner's waiting inside," called the gate-tender. "Come in and eat, +miss--and you, too; I suppose you're hungry?" he added to Toppy. + +"And hurry up, too," growled the hunchback. "I give you twenty minutes." + +"Thank you very much," said the girl, diving into her suitcase. "I've +brought my own lunch." + +She brought out some sandwiches and proceeded to nibble at them without +moving from the sleigh. Toppy tumbled into the cabin in company with the +hunchback driver. A rough meal was on the table and they fell to without +a word. Toppy noticed that the old woodsman sat on a bench near the door +where he could keep an eye on the road. Above the bench hung a pair of +field-glasses, a repeating shotgun and a high-power Winchester rifle. + +"Any hunting around here?" asked Toppy cheerily. + +"Sometimes," said the old watcher with a smile that made Toppy wonder. + +He did not pursue the subject, for there was something about the lonely +cabin, the bearded old man, and the rifle on the wall that suggested +something much more grim than sport. + +The driver soon bolted his meal and went back to the sleigh. Toppy +followed, and twenty minutes after pulling up they were on the road +again. With each mile that they passed now the swamp grew wilder and the +gloom of the wilderness more oppressive. To right and left among the +trees Toppy made out stretches of open water, great springs and little +creeks which never froze and which made the swamp even in Winter a +treacherous morass. + +Toward the end of the short afternoon the swamp suddenly gave way to a +rough, untimbered ridge. Red rocks, which Toppy later learned contained +iron ore, poked their way like jagged teeth through the snow. The sleigh +mounted the ridge, the runners grating on bare rock and dirt, dipped +down into a ravine between two ridges, swung off almost at right angles +in a cleft in the hills--and before Toppy realised that the end of the +drive had come, they were in full view of a large group of log buildings +on the edge of a dense pine forest and were listening to the roar of the +waters of Cameron Dam. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--"HELL-CAMP" REIVERS + + +In the face of things there was nothing about the place to suggest that +it deserved the title of Hell Camp. The Cameron Dam Camp, as Toppy saw +it now, consisted of seven neat log buildings. Of these the first six +were located on the road which led into the camp, three on each side. +These buildings were twice as large as the ordinary log buildings which +Toppy had seen in the woods; but they were thoroughly dwarfed and +overshadowed by the seventh, which lay beyond them, and into the +enormous doorway of which the road seemed to disappear. This building +was larger than the other six combined--was built of huge logs, +apparently fifteen feet high; and its wall, which stretched across the +road, seemed to have no windows or openings of any kind save a great +double door. + +Toppy had no time for a careful scrutiny of the place, as the hunchback +swiftly pulled up before the first building of the camp, a well-built +double-log affair with large front windows and a small sign, "Office and +Store." Directly across the road from this building was one bearing the +sign, "Blacksmith Shop," and Toppy gazed with keen curiosity at a short +man with white hair and broad shoulders who, with a blacksmith's hammer +in his hand, came to the door of the shop as they drove up. Probably +this was the man for whom he was to work. + +"Hey, Jerry," greeted the blacksmith with a burr in his speech that +labelled him unmistakably as a Scot. + +"Hey, Scotty," replied the hunchback. + +"Did ye bring me a helper?" + +"Yes," grunted Jerry. + +"Good!" said the blacksmith, and returned to his anvil. + +The hunchback turned to the girl as soon as the team had come to a +standstill. + +"This is where you go," he said, indicating the office with a nod. +"You," he grunted to Toppy, "sit right where you are till we go see the +boss." + +An Indian squaw, nearly as broad as she was tall, came waddling out of +the store as Miss Pearson stepped stiffly from the sleigh. Toppy wished +for courage to get out and carry the girl's suitcase, but he feared that +his action would be misinterpreted; so he sat still, eagerly watching +out of the corner of his eyes. + +"I carry um," said the squaw as the girl dragged forth her baggage. "You +go in." + +Then the sleigh drove abruptly ahead toward the great building at the +end of the road, and Toppy's final view of the scene was Miss Pearson +stumping stiffly into the office-building with the squaw, the suitcase +held in her arms, waddling behind. Miss Pearson did not look in his +direction. + +And now Toppy had his first shock. For he saw that the building toward +which they were hurrying was not a building at all, but merely a +stockade-wall, which seemed to surround all of the camp except the six +buildings which were outside. What he had thought a huge doorway was in +reality a great gate. + +This gate swung open at their approach, and Toppy's second shock came +when he saw that the two hard-faced men who opened it carried in the +crooks of their arms wicked-looking, short-barrelled repeating shotguns. +One of the men caught the horses by the head as soon as they were +through the gate, and brought them to a dead stop, while the other +closed the gate behind them. + +"Can't you see the boss is busy?" snapped the man who had stopped the +team. "You wait right here till he's through." + +Toppy now saw that they had driven into a quadrangle, three sides of +which were composed of long, low, log buildings with doors and windows +cut at frequent intervals, the fourth side being formed by the +stockade-wall through which they had just passed. The open space which +thus lay between four walls of solid logs was perhaps fifty yards long +by twenty-five yards wide. In his first swift sight of the place Toppy +saw that, with the stockade-gate closed and two men with riot-guns on +guard, the place was nothing more nor less than an effective prison. +Then his attention was riveted spellbound by what was taking place in +the yard. + +On the sunny side of the yard a group of probably a dozen men were +huddled against the log wall. Two things struck Toppy as he looked at +them--their similarity to the group of Slavs he had seen back in Rail +Head, and the complete terror in their faces as they cringed tightly +against the log wall. Perhaps ten feet in front of them, and facing +them, stood a man alone. And Toppy, as he beheld the terror with which +the dozen shrank back from the one, and as he looked at the man, knew +that he was looking upon Hell-Camp Reivers, the man who was called The +Snow-Burner. + +Toppy Treplin was not an impressionable young man. He had lived much and +swiftly and among many kinds of men, and it took something remarkable in +the man-line to surprise him. But the sight of Reivers brought from him +a start, and he sat staring, completely fascinated by the Manager's +presence. + +It was not the size of Reivers that held him, for Toppy at first glance +judged correctly that Reivers and himself might have come from the same +mold so far as height and weight were concerned. Neither was it the +terrible physical power which fairly reeked from the man; for though +Reivers' rough clothing seemed merely light draperies on the huge +muscles that lay beneath, Toppy had played with strong men, +professionals and amateurs, enough to be blase in the face of a physical +Colossus. It was the calm, ghastly brutality of the man, the complete +brutality of an animal, dominated by a human intelligence, that held +Toppy spellbound. + +Reivers, as he stood there alone, glowering at the poor wretches who +cowered from him like pygmies, was like a tiger preparing to spring and +carefully calculating where his claws and fangs might sink in with most +damage to his victims. He stood with his feet close together, his thumbs +hooked carelessly in his trousers pockets, his head thrust far forward. +Toppy had a glimpse of a long, thin nose, thin lips parted in a sneer, +heavily browed eyes, and, beneath the back-thrust cap, a mass of curly +light hair--hair as light as the girl's! Then Reivers spoke. + +"Rosky!" he said in a voice that was half snarl, half bellow. + +There was a troubled movement among the dozen men huddled against the +wall, but there came no answer. + +"Rosky! Step out!" commanded Reivers in a tone whose studied ferocity +made Toppy shudder. + +In response, a tall, broad-shouldered Slav, the oldest and largest man +in the group, stepped sullenly out and stood a yard in front of his +fellows. He had taken off his cap and held it tightly in his clenched +right hand, and the expression on his flat face as he stood with hanging +head and scowled at Reivers was one half of fear and half of defiance. + +"You no can hit me," he muttered doggedly. "I citizen; I got first +papers." + +Reivers's manner underwent a change. + +"Hit you?" he repeated softly. "Who wants to hit you? I just want to +talk with you. I hear you're thinking of quitting. I hear you've planned +to take these fellows with you when you go. How about it, Rosky?" + +"I got papers," said the man sullenly. "I citizen; I quit job when I +want." + +"Yes?" said Reivers gently. It was like a tiger playing with a hedgehog, +and Toppy sickened. "But you signed to stay here six months, didn't +you?" + +The gentleness of the Manager had deceived the thick-witted Slav and he +grew bold. + +"I drunk when I sign," he said loudly. "All these fellow drunk when they +sign. I quit. They quit. You no can keep us here if we no want stay." + +"I can't?" Still Reivers saw fit to play with his victim. + +"No," said the man. "And you no dare hit us again, no." + +"No?" purred Reivers softly. "No, certainly not; I wouldn't hit you. +You're quite right, Rosky. I won't hit you; no." + +He was standing at least seven feet from his man, his feet close +together, his thumbs still hooked in his trousers pockets. Suddenly, and +so swiftly that Rosky did not have time to move, Reivers took a step +forward and shot out his right foot. His boot seemed barely to touch the +shin-bone of Rosky's right leg, but Toppy heard the bone snap as the +Slav, with a shriek of pain and terror, fell face downward, prone in the +trampled snow at Reivers' feet. + +And Reivers did not look at him. He was standing as before, as if +nothing had happened, as if he had not moved. His eyes were upon the +other men, who, appalled at their leader's fate, huddled more closely +against the log wall. + +"Well, how about it?" demanded Reivers icily after a long silence. "Any +more of you fellows think you want to quit?" + +Half of the dozen cried out in terror: + +"No, no! We no quit. Please, boss; we no quit." + +A smile of complete contempt curled Reivers' thin upper lip. + +"You poor scum, of course you ain't going to quit," he sneered. "You'll +stay here and slave away until I'm through with you. And don't you even +dare think of quitting. Rosky thought he'd kept his plans mighty +secret--thought I wouldn't know what he was planning. You see what +happened to him. + +"I know everything that's going on in this camp. If you don't believe +it, try it out and see. Now pick this thing up--" he stirred the groaning +Rosky contemptuously with his foot--"and carry him into his bunk. I'll be +around and set his leg when I get ready. Then get back to the rock-pile +and make up for the time it's taken to teach you this lesson." + +The brutality of the thing had frozen Toppy motionless where he sat in +the sleigh. At the same time he was conscious of a thrill of admiration +for the dominant creature who had so contemptuously crippled a fellow +man. A brute Reivers certainly was, and well he deserved the name of +Hell-Camp Reivers; but a born captain he was, too, though his dominance +was of a primordial sort. + +Turning instantly from his victim as from a piece of business that is +finished, Reivers looked around and came toward the sleigh. Some +primitive instinct prompted Toppy to step out and stretch himself +leisurely, his long arms above his head, his big chest inflated to the +limit. At the sight of him a change came over Reivers' face. The +brutality and contempt went out of it like a flash. His eyes lighted up +with pleasure at the sight of Toppy's magnificent proportions, and he +smiled a quick smile of comradeship, such as one smiles when he meets a +fellow and equal, and held out his hand to Toppy. + +"University man, I'll wager," he said, in the easy voice of a man of +culture. "Glad to see you; more than glad! These beasts are palling on +me. They're so cursed physical--no mind, no spirit in them. Nothing but +so many pounds of meat and bone. Old Campbell, my blacksmith, is the +only other intelligent being in camp, and he's Scotch and believes in +predestination and original sin, so his conversation's rather trying for +a steady diet." + +Toppy shook hands, amazed beyond expression. Except for his shaggy +eyebrows--brows that somehow reminded Toppy of the head of a bear he had +once shot--Reivers now was the sort of man one would expect to meet in +the University Club rather than in a logging-camp. The brute had +vanished, the gentleman had appeared; and Toppy was forced to smile in +answer to Reivers' genial smile of greeting. And yet, somewhere back in +Reivers' blue eyes Toppy saw lurking something which said, "I am your +master--doubt it if you dare." + +"I hired out as blacksmith's helper," he explained. "My name's Treplin." + +He did not take his eyes from Reivers'. Somehow he had the sensation +that Reivers' will and his own had leaped to a grapple. + +Reivers laughed aloud in friendly fashion. + +"Blacksmith's helper, eh?" he said. "That's good; that's awfully good! +Well, old man, I don't care what you hired out for, or what your right +name is; you're a developed human being and you'll be somebody to talk +to when these brutes grow too tiresome." He turned to Jerry, the driver. +"Well?" he said curtly. + +"She's in the office now," he said. + +"All right." Reivers turned and went briskly toward the gate. "Turn Mr. +Treplin over to Campbell. You'll live with Campbell, Treplin," he called +over his shoulder, as he went through the gate. "And you hit the back +trail, Jerry, right away." + +As Jerry swung the team around Toppy saw that Reivers was going toward +the office with long, eager strides. + + + + +CHAPTER V--TOPPY OVERHEARS A CONVERSATION + + +Old Campbell, the blacksmith, had knocked off from the day's work when, +a few minutes later, Toppy stepped from the sleigh before the door of +the shop. + +"Go through the shop to that room in the back," said Jerry. "You'll find +him in there." And he drove off without another word. + +Toppy walked in and knocked at a door in a partition across the rear of +the shop. + +"Come in," spluttered a moist, cheery voice, and Toppy entered. The old +blacksmith, naked to the waist and soaped from shoulders to ears, looked +up from the steaming tub in which he was carefully removing every trace +of the day's smut. He peered sharply at Toppy, and at the sight of the +young man's good-natured face he smiled warmly through the suds. + +"Come in, come in. Shut the door," he cried, plunging back into the hot +water. "I tak' it that you're my new helper? Well--" he wiped the suds +from his eyes and looked Toppy over--"though it's plain ye never did a +day's blacksmithing in your life, I bid ye welcome, nevertheless. Ye +look like an educated man. Well, 'twill be a pleasure and an honour for +me to teach ye something more important than all ye've learned +before--and that is, how to work. + +"I see ye cam' withoot baggage of any kind. Go ye now across to the +store before it closes and draw yerself two blankets for yer bunk. By +the time you're back I'll have our supper started and then we'll proceed +to get acqua'nted." + +"Tell me!" exploded Toppy, who could hold in no longer. "What kind of a +man or beast is this Reivers? Why, I just saw him deliberately break a +man's leg out there in the yard! What kind of a place is this, anyhow--a +penal colony?" + +Campbell turned away and picked up a towel before replying. + +"Reivers is a great man who worships after strange gods," he said +solemnly. "But you'll have plenty of time to learn about that later. Go +ye over to the store now without further waiting. Ye'll find them closed +if ye dally longer; and then ye'll have a cold night, for there's no +blankets here for your bunk. Hustle, lad; we'll talk about things after +supper." + +Toppy obeyed cheerfully. It was growing dark now, and as he stepped out +of the shop he saw the squaw lighting the lamps in the building across +the street. Toppy crossed over and found the door open. Inside there was +a small hallway with two doors, one labelled "Store," the other +"Office." Toppy was about to enter the store, when he heard Miss +Pearson's voice in the office, and her first words, which came plainly +through the partition, made him pause. + +"Mr. Reivers," she was saying in tones that she struggled to make firm, +"you know that if I had known you were running this camp I would never +have come here. You deceived me. You signed the name of Simmons to your +letter. You knew that if you had signed your own name I would not be +here. You tricked me. + +"And you promised solemnly last Summer when I told you I never could +care for you that you would never trouble me again. How could you do +this? You've got the reputation among men of never breaking your word. +Why couldn't you--why couldn't you keep your word with me--a woman?" + +Toppy, playing the role of eavesdropper for the first time, scarcely +breathed as he caught the full import of these words. Then Reivers began +to speak, his deep voice rich with earnestness and feeling. + +"I will--I am keeping my word to you, Helen," he said. "I said I would +not trouble you again; and I will not. It's true that I did not let you +know that I was running this camp; and I did it because I wanted you to +have this job, and I knew you wouldn't come if you knew I was here. You +wouldn't let me give you, or even loan you, the three hundred dollars +necessary for your father's operation. + +"I know you, Helen, and I know that you haven't had a happy day since +you were told that your father would be a well man after an operation +and you couldn't find the money to pay for it. I knew you were going to +work in hopes of earning it. I had this place to fill in the office +here; I was authorised to pay as high as seventy-five dollars for a good +bookkeeper. Naturally I thought of you. + +"I knew there was no other place where you could earn seventy-five +dollars a month, and save it. I knew you wouldn't come if I wrote you +over my own name. So I signed Simmons' name, and you came. I said I +would not trouble you any more, and I keep my word. The situation is +this: you will be in charge of this office--if you stay; I am in charge +of the camp. You will have little or nothing to do with me; I will +manage so that you will need to see me only when absolutely necessary. +Your living-rooms are in the rear of the office. I live in the stockade. +Tilly, the squaw, will cook and wash for you, and do the hard work in +the store. In four months you will have the three hundred dollars that +you want for your father. + +"I had much rather you would accept it from me as a loan on a simple +business basis; but as you won't, this is the next best thing. And you +mustn't feel that you are accepting any favour from me. On the contrary, +you will, if you stay, be solving a big problem for me. I simply can not +handle accounts. A strange bookkeeper could rob me and the company +blind, and I'd never know it. I know you won't do that; and I know that +you're efficient. + +"That's the situation. I am keeping my word; I will not trouble you. If +you decide to accept, go in and take off your hat and coat and tell +Tilly to prepare supper for you. She will obey your orders blindly; I +have told her to. If you decide that you don't want to stay, say the +word and I will have one of the work-teams hooked up and you can go back +to Rail Head to-night. + +"But whichever you do, Helen, please remember that I have not broken--and +never will break--my promise to you." + +Before Reivers had begun to speak Toppy had hated the man as a +contemptible sneak guilty of lying to get the girl at his mercy. The end +of the Manager's speech left him bewildered. One couldn't help wanting +to believe every word that Reivers said, there were so much manliness +and sincerity in his tone. On the other hand, Toppy had seen his face +when he was handling the unfortunate Rosky, and the unashamed brute that +had showed itself then did not fit with this remarkable speech. Then +Toppy heard Reivers coming toward the door. + +"I will leave you; you can make up your mind alone," he said. "I've got +to attend to one of the men who has been hurt. If you decide to go back +to Rail Head, tell Tilly, and she'll hunt me up and I'll send a team +over right away." + +He stepped briskly out in the hallway and saw Toppy standing with his +hand on the door of the store. + +"Oh, hello, there!" he called out cheerily. "Campbell tell you to draw +your blankets? That's the first step in the process of becoming a--guest +at Hell Camp. Get a pair of XX; they're the warmest." + +He passed swiftly out of the building. + +"I say, Treplin," he called back from a distance, "did you ever set a +broken leg?" + +"Never," said Toppy. + +"I'll give you 'Davis on Fractures' to read up on," said Reivers with a +laugh. "I think I'll appoint you M.D. to this camp. 'Doctor Treplin.' +How would that be?" + +His careless laughter came floating back as he made his way swiftly to +the stockade. + +For a moment Toppy stood irresolute. Then he did something that required +more courage from him than anything he had done before in his life. He +stepped boldly across the hallway and entered the office, closing the +door behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--"NICE BOY!" + + +"Miss Pearson!" Toppy spoke as he crossed the threshold; then he stopped +short. + +The girl was sitting in a big chair before a desk in the farther corner +of the room. She was dressed just as she had been on the drive; she had +not removed cap, coat or gloves since arriving. Her hands lay palms up +in her lap, her square little shoulders sagged, and her face was pale +and troubled. A tiny crease of worry had come between her wonderful blue +eyes, and her gaze wandered uncertainly, as if seeking help in the face +of a problem that had proved too hard for her to handle alone. At the +sight of Toppy, instead of giving way to a look of relief, her troubled +expression deepened. She started. She seemed even to shrink from him. +The words froze in Toppy's mouth and he stood stock-still. + +"Don't!" he groaned boyishly. "Please don't look at me like that, Miss +Pearson! I--I'm not that sort. I want to help you--if you need it. I heard +what Reivers just said. I----What do you take me for, anyhow? A mucker who +would force himself upon a lady?" + +The anguish in his tone and in his honest, good-natured countenance was +too real to be mistaken. He had cried out from the depths of a clean +heart which had been stirred strangely, and the woman in the girl +responded with quick sympathy. She looked at him with a look that would +have aroused the latent manhood in a cad--which Toppy was not--and Toppy, +in his eagerness, found that he could look back. + +"Why did you come out here?" she asked plaintively. "Why did you decide +to follow me, after you had heard that I was coming here? I know you did +that; you hadn't intended coming here until you heard. What made you do +it?" + +"Because you came here," said Toppy honestly. + +"But why--why----" + +Toppy had regained control of himself. + +"Why do you think I did it, Miss Pearson?" he asked quietly. + +"I--I don't want to think--what I think," she stammered. + +"And that is that I'm a cad, the sort of a mucker who forces his +attentions upon women who are alone." + +"Well--" she looked up with a challenge in her eyes--"you had been +drinking, hadn't you? Could you blame me if I did?" + +"Not a bit," said Toppy. "I'm the one whose to blame. I'm the goat. I +don't suppose I had a right to butt in. Of course I didn't. I'm a big +fool; always have been. I--I just couldn't stand for seeing you start out +for this Hell Camp alone; that's all. It's no reason, I know, but--there +you are. I'd heard something of the place in the morning and I had a +notion it was a pretty tough place. You--you didn't look as if you were +used to anything of the sort----Well," he wound up desperately, "it didn't +look right, your going off alone among all these roughnecks; and--and +that's why I butted in." + +She made no reply, and Toppy continued: + +"I didn't have any right to do it, I know. I deserve to be suspected----" + +"No!" she laughed. "Please, Mr. Treplin! That was horrid of me." + +"Why was it?" he demanded abruptly. "Especially after you knew--after +this morning. But--here's the situation: I thought you might need a +side-kicker to see you through, and I appointed myself to the job. You +won't believe that, I suppose, but that's because you don't know how +foolish I can be." + +He stopped clumsily, abashed by the wondering scrutiny to which she was +subjecting him. She arose slowly from the chair and came toward him. + +"I believe you, Mr. Treplin," she said. "I believe you're a decent sort +of boy. I want to thank you; but why--why should you think this +necessary?" + +She looked at him, smiling a little, and Toppy, wincing from her "boy," +grew flustered. + +"Well, you're not sorry I came?" he stammered. + +For reply she shook her head. Toppy took a long breath. + +"Thanks!" he said with such genuine relief that she was forced to smile. + +"But I'm a perfect stranger to you," she said uncertainly. "I can't +understand why you should feel prompted to sacrifice yourself so to help +me." + +"Sacrifice!" cried Toppy. "Why, I'm the one----" He stopped. He didn't +know just what he had intended to say. Something that he had no business +saying, probably. "Anybody would have done it--anybody who wasn't a +mucker, I mean. You can't have any use for me, of course, knowing what +kind of a dub I've been, but if you'll just look on me as somebody you +can trust and fall back on in case of need, and who'll do anything you +want or need, I--I'll be more than paid." + +"I do trust you, Mr. Treplin," she said, and held out her hand. "But--do +I look as if I needed a chaperon?" + +Toppy trembled at the firm grip of the small, gloved fingers. + +"I told you I'd heard what Reivers said," he said hastily. "I didn't +mean to; I was just coming in to get some blankets. I don't suppose +you're going to stay here now, are you?" + +She began to draw off her gloves. + +"Yes," she said quietly. "Mr. Reivers is a gentleman and can be depended +upon to keep his word." + +Toppy winced once more. She had called him a "decent boy"; she spoke of +Reivers as a "gentleman." + +"But--good gracious, Miss Pearson! Three hundred dollars----if that's +all----" + +He stopped, for her little jaw had set with something like a click. + +"Are you going to spoil things by offering to lend me that much money?" +she asked. "Didn't you hear that Mr. Reivers had offered to do it? And +Mr. Reivers isn't a complete stranger to me--as you are." + +She placed her gloves in a pocket and proceeded to unbutton her +mackinaw. + +"I don't think you could mean anything wrong by it," she continued. "But +please don't mention it again. You don't wish to humiliate me, do you?" + +"Miss Pearson!" stammered Toppy, miserable. + +"Don't, please don't," she said. "It's all right." Her natural high +spirits were returning. "Everything's all right. Mr. Reivers never +breaks his word, and he's promised--you heard him, you say? And you've +promised to be my--what did you call it?--'side-kicker,' so everything's +fine. Except--" a look of disgust passed over her eyes--"your drinking. +Oh," she cried as she saw the shame flare into Toppy's face, "I didn't +mean to hurt you--but how can nice boys like you throw themselves away?" + +Nice boy! Toppy looked at his toes for a long time. So that was what she +thought of him! Nice boy! + +"Do you know much about Reivers?" he asked at last, as if he had +forgotten her words. "Or don't you want to tell me about him?" He had +sensed that he was infinitely Reivers' inferior in her estimation, and +it hurt. + +"Certainly I do," she said. "Mr. Reivers was a foreman for the company +that my father was estimator for. When father was hurt last Summer Mr. +Reivers came to see him on company business. It's father's spine; he +couldn't move; Reivers had to come to him. He saw me, and two hours +after our meeting he--he asked me to marry him. He asked me again a week +later, and once after that. Then I told him that I never could care for +him and he went away and promised he'd never trouble me again. You heard +our conversation. I hadn't seen or heard of him since, until he walked +into this room. That's all I know about him, except that people say he +never breaks his word." + +Toppy winced as he caught the note of confidence in her voice and +thought of the sudden deadly treachery of Reivers in dealing with Rosky. +The girl with a lithe movement threw off her mackinaw. + +"By Jove!" Toppy exploded in boyish admiration. "You're the bravest +little soul I ever saw in my life! Going against a game like this, just +to help your father!" + +"Well, why shouldn't I?" she asked. "I'm the only one father has got. +We're all alone, father and I; and father is too proud to take help from +any one else; and--and," she concluded firmly, "so am I. As for being +brave--have you anything against Mr. Reivers personally?" + +Thoroughly routed, Toppy turned to the door. "Good night, Miss Pearson," +he said politely. + +"Good night, Mr. Treplin. And thank you for--going out of your way." But +had she seen the flash in Toppy's eye and the set of his jaw she might +not have laughed so merrily as he flung out of the room. + +In the store on the other side of the hallway Toppy was surprised to +find Tilly, the squaw, waiting patiently behind a low counter on which +lay a pair of blankets bearing a tag "XX." As he entered, the woman +pushed the blankets toward him and pointed to a card lying on the +counter. + +"Put um name here," she said, indicating a dotted line on the card and +offering Toppy a pencil tied on a string. + +Toppy saw that the card was a receipt for the blankets. As he signed, he +looked closely at the squaw. He was surprised to see that she was a +young woman, and that her features and expression distinguished her from +the other squaws he had seen by the intelligence they indicated. Tilly +was no mere clod in a red skin. Somewhere back of her inscrutable Indian +eyes was a keen, strong mind. + +"How did you know what I wanted?" Toppy asked as he packed the blankets +under his arm. + +The squaw made no sign that she had heard. Picking up the card, she +looked carefully at his signature and turned to hang the card on a hook. + +"So you were listening when Reivers was talking to me, were you?" said +Toppy. "Did you listen after he went out?" + +"Mebbe," grunted Tilly. "Mebbe so; mebbe no." And with this she turned +and waddled back into the living-quarters in the rear of the store. + +Toppy looked after her dumbfounded. + +"Huh!" he said to himself. "I'll bet two to one that Reivers knows all +about what we said before morning. I suppose that will mean something +doing pretty quick. Well, the quicker the better." + + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE SNOW-BURNER'S CREED + + +When Toppy returned to the room in the rear of the blacksmith-shop he +found Campbell waiting impatiently. + +"Eh, lad, but you're the slow one!" greeted the gruff old Scot as Toppy +entered. "You're set a record in this camp; no man yet has been able to +consume so much time getting a pair of blankets from the wannigan. Dump +'em in yon bunk in the corner and set the table. I'll have supper in a +wink and a half." + +Toppy obediently tossed his blankets into the bunk indicated and turned +to help to the best of his ability. The place now was lighted generously +by two large reflector-lamps hung on the walls, and Toppy had his first +good view of the room that was to be his home. + +He was surprised at its neatness and comfort. It was a large room, +though a little low under the roof, as rooms have a habit of being in +the North. In the farthest corner were two bunks, the sleeping-quarters. +Across the room from this, a corner was filled with well filled +bookshelves, a table with a reading-lamp, and two easy chairs, giving +the air of a tiny library. In the corner farthest from this was the +cook-stove, and in the fourth corner stood an oilcloth-covered table +with a shelf filled with dishes hung above it. Though the rough edges of +hewn logs shown here and there through the plaster of the walls, the +room was as spick and span as if under the charge of a finicky +housewife. Old Campbell himself, bending over the cook stove, was as +astonishing in his own way as the room. He had removed all trace of the +day's smithing and fairly shone with cleanliness. His snow-white hair +was carefully combed back from his wide forehead, his bushy +chin-whiskers likewise showed signs of water and comb, and he was garbed +from throat to ankles in a white cook's apron. He was cheerfully humming +a dirge-like tune, and so occupied was he with his cookery that he +scarcely so much as glanced at Toppy. + +"Now then, lad; are you ready?" he asked presently. + +"All ready, I guess," said Toppy, giving a final look at the table. + +"You've forgot the bread," said Campbell, also looking. "You'll find it +in yon tin box on the shelf. Lively, now." And before Toppy had dished +out a loaf from the bread-box the old man had a huge platter of steak +and twin bowls of potatoes and turnips steaming on the table. + +"We will now say grace," said Campbell, seating himself after removing +the big apron, and Toppy sat silent and amazed as the old man bowed his +head and in his deep voice solemnly uttered thanks for the meal before +him. + +"Now then," he said briskly, raising his head and reaching for a fork as +he ended, "fall to." + +The meal was eaten without any more conversation than was necessary. +When it was over, the blacksmith pushed his chair leisurely back from +the table and looked across at Toppy with a quizzical smile. + +"Well, lad," he rumbled, "what would ye say was the next thing to be +done by oursel's?" + +"Wash the dishes," said Toppy promptly, taking his cue from the +conspicuous cleanliness of the room. + +"Aye," said Campbell, nodding. "And as I cook the meal----" + +"I'm elected dish-washer," laughed Toppy, springing up and taking a +large dish-pan from the wall. He had often done his share of +kitchen-work on hunting-trips, and soon he had the few dishes washed and +dried and back on the shelf again. Campbell watched critically. + +"Well enough," he said with an approving jerk of his head when the task +was completed. "Your conscience should be easier now, lad; you've done +something to pay for the meal you've eaten, which I'll warrant is +something you've not often done." + +"No," laughed Toppy, "it just happens that I haven't had to." + +"'Haven't had to!'" snorted Campbell in disgust. "Is that all the +justification you have? Where's your pride? Are you a helpless infant +that you're not ashamed to let other people stuff food into your mouth +without doing anything for it? I suppose you've got money. And where +came your money from? Your father? Your mother? No matter. Whoever it +came from, they're the people who've been feeding you, but by the great +smoked herring! If you stay wi' David Campbell you'll have a change, +lad. Aye, you'll learn what it is to earn your bread in the sweat of +your brow. And you'll bless the day you come here--no matter what the +reason that made you come, and which I do not want to hear." + +Toppy bowed courteously. + +"I've got no come-back to that line of conversation, Mr. Campbell," he +said good-naturedly. "Whenever anybody accuses me of being a bum with +money I throw up my hands and plead guilty; you can't get an argument +out of me with a corkscrew." + +Old Campbell's grim face cracked in a genial smile as he rose and led +the way to the corner containing the bookshelves. + +"We will now step into the library," he chuckled. "Sit ye down." + +He pushed one of the easy chairs toward Toppy, and from a cupboard under +the reading-table drew a bottle of Scotch whisky of a celebrated brand. +Toppy's whole being suddenly cried out for a drink as his eyes fell on +the familiar four stars. + +"Say when, lad," said Campbell, pouring into a generous glass. "Well?" +He looked at Toppy in surprise as the glass filled up. Something had +smitten Toppy like a blow between the eyes----"How can nice boys like you +throw themselves away?" And the pity of the girl as she had said it was +large before him. + +"Thanks," said Toppy, seating himself, "but I'm on the wagon." + +The old smith looked up at him shrewdly from the corners of his eyes. + +"Oh, aye!" he grunted. "I see. Well, by the puffs under your eyes ye +have overdone it; and for fleeing the temptations of the world I know of +no better place ye could go to than this. For it's certain neither +temptations nor luxuries will be found in Hell Camp while the +Snow-Burner's boss." + +"Now you interest me," said Toppy grimly. "The Snow-Burner--Hell-Camp +Reivers--Mr. Reivers--the boss. What kind of a human being is he, if he is +human?" + +Campbell carefully mixed his whisky with hot water. + +"You saw him manhandle Rosky?" he asked, seating himself opposite Toppy. + +"Yes; but it wasn't manhandling; it was brute-handling, beast-handling." + +"Aye," said the Scot, sipping his drink. "So think I, too. But do you +know what Reivers calls it? An enlightened man showing a human clod the +error of his ways. Oh, aye; the Indians were smart when they named him +the Snow-Burner. He does things that aren't natural." + +"But who is he, or what is he? He's an educated man, obviously--'way +above what a logging-boss ought to be. What do you know about him?" + +"Little enough," was the reply. "Four year ago I were smithing in Elk +Lake Camp over east of here, when Reivers came walking into camp. That +was the first any white men had seen of him around these woods, though +afterward we learned he'd lived long enough with the Indians to earn the +name of the Snow-Burner. + +"It were January, and two feet of snow on the level, and fifty below. +Reivers came walking into camp, and the nearest human habitation were +forty mile away. 'Red Pat' Haney were foreman--a man-killer with the +devil's own temper; and him Reivers deeliberately set himself to arouse. +A week after his coming, this same Reivers had every man in camp looking +up to him, except Red Pat. + +"And Reivers drove Pat half mad with that contemptuous smile of his, and +Pat pulled a gun; and Reivers says, 'That's what I was waiting for,' and +broke Pat's bones with his bare hands and laid him up. Then, says he, +'This camp is going on just the same as if nothing had happened, and I'm +going to be boss.' That was all there was to it; he's been a boss ever +since." + +"And you don't know where he came from? Or anything else about him?" + +"Oh, he's from England--an Oxford man, for that matter," said Campbell. +"He admitted that much once when we were argufying. He'll be here soon; +he comes to quarrel with me every evening." + +"Why does an Oxford man want to be 'way out here bossing a +logging-camp?" grumbled Toppy. + +Campbell nodded. + +"Aye, I asked that of him once," he said. "'Though it's none of your +business,' says he, 'I'll tell you. I got tired of living where people +snivel about laws concerning right and wrong,' says he, 'instead of +acknowledging that there is only one law ruling life--that the strong can +master the weak.' That is Mr. Reivers' religion. He was only worshipping +his strange gods when he broke Rosky's leg, for he considers Rosky a +weaker man than himself, and therefore 'tis his duty to break him to his +own will." + +"A fine religion!" snapped Toppy. "And how about his dealings with you?" + +The Scot smiled grimly. + +"I'm the best smith he ever had," he replied, "and I've warned him that +I'd consider it a duty under my religion to shoot him through the head +did he ever attempt to force his creed upon me." He paused and held up a +finger. "Hist, lad. That's him coming noo. He's come for his regular +evening's mouthfu' of conversation." + +Toppy found himself sitting up and gripping the arms of his chair as +Reivers came swinging in. He eagerly searched the foreman's countenance +for a sign to indicate whether Tilly, the squaw, had communicated the +conversation she had heard between Toppy and Miss Pearson, but if she +had there was nothing to indicate it in Reivers' expression or manner. +His self-mastery awoke a sullen rage in Toppy. He felt himself to be a +boy beside Reivers. + +"Good evening, gentlemen," greeted Reivers lightly, pulling a chair up +to the reading-table. "It is a pleasure to find intelligent society +after having spent the last hour handling the broken leg of a miserable +brute on two legs. Bah! The whisky, Scotty, please. I wonder what +miracles of misbreeding have been necessary to turn out alleged human +beings with bodies so hideous compared to what the human body should be. +Treplin, if you or I stripped beside those Hunkies the only thing we'd +have in common would be the number of our legs and arms." + +He drew toward him a tumbler which Campbell had pushed over beside the +bottle and, filling the glass three-quarters full, began to drink slowly +at the powerful Scotch whisky as another man might sip at beer or light +wine. Old Campbell rocked slowly to and fro in his chair. + +"'He that taketh up the sword shall perish by the sword,'" he quoted +solemnly. "No man is a god to set himself up, lord over the souls and +bodies of his fellows. They will put out your light for you one of these +days, Mr. Reivers. Have care and treat them a little more like men." + +Reivers smiled a quick smile that showed a mouthful of teeth as clean +and white as a hound's. + +"Let's have your opinion on the subject, Treplin," he said. "New +opinions are always interesting, and Scotty repeats the same thing over +and over again. What do you think of it? Do you think I can maintain my +rule over those hundred and fifty clods out there in the stockade as I +am ruling them, through the law of strength over weakness? Do you think +one superior mind can dominate a hundred and fifty inferior organisms? +Or do you think, with Scotty here, that the dregs can drag me down?" + +Toppy shook his head. He was in no mood to debate abstract problems with +Reivers. + +"Count me out until I'm a little acquainted with the situation," he +said. "I'm a stranger in a strange land. I've just dropped in--from +almost another world you might say." + +In a vain attempt to escape taking sides in what was evidently an old +argument he hurriedly rattled off the story of his coming to Rail Head +and thence to Hell Camp, omitting to mention, however, that it was Miss +Pearson who was responsible for the latter part of his journey. Reivers +smote his huge fist upon the table as Toppy finished. + +"That's the kind of a man for me!" he laughed. "Got tired of living the +life of his class, and just stepped out of it. No explanations; no +acknowledgement of obligations to anybody. Master of his own soul. To ---- +with the niceties of civilisation! Treplin, you're a man after my own +scheme of life; I did the same thing once--only I was sober. + +"But let's get back to our subject. Here's the situation: This camp is +on a natural town-site. There's water-power, ore and timber. To use the +water-power we must build a dam; to use the timber we must get it to the +saws. That takes labour, lots of it--muscle-and-bone labour. Labour is +scarce up here. It is too far from the pigsties of towns. Men would +come, work a few days, and go away. The purpose of the place would be +defeated--unless the men are kept here at work. + +"That's what I do. I keep them here. To do it I keep them locked up at +night like the cattle they are. By day I have them guarded by armed +man-killers--every one of my guards is a fugitive from man's silly laws, +principally from the one which says, 'Thou shalt not kill.' + +"But my best guard is Fear--by which I rule alike my guards and the poor +brutes who are necessary to my purpose. There you are: a hundred and +fifty of them, fearing and hating me, and I'm making them do as I +please. No foolishness about laws, about order, about right or wrong. +Just a hundred and fifty half-beasts and myself out here in the woods. +As a man with a trained mind, do you think I can keep it up? Or do you +think there is mental energy enough in that mess of human protoplasm to +muster up nerve enough to put out my light, as Scotty puts it? It's a +problem that furnishes interesting mental gymnastics." + +He propounded the problem with absolutely no trace of personal interest. +To judge by his manner, the matter of his life or death meant nothing to +him. It was merely an interesting question on which to expend the energy +fulminating in his mind. In his light-blue eyes there seemed to gleam +the same impersonal brutality which had shown out when he so casually +crippled Rosky. + +"Oh, it's an impossible proposition, Reivers!" exploded Toppy, with the +picture of the writhing Slav in his mind's eye. "You've got to consider +right and wrong when dealing with human beings. It isn't natural; Nature +won't stand it." + +"Ah!" Reivers' eyes lighted up with intellectual delight. "That's an +idea! Scotty, you hear? You've been talking about my perishing by the +sword, but you haven't given any reason why. Treplin does. He says +Nature will revolt, because my system is unnatural." He threw back his +head and laughed coldly. "Rot, Treplin--silly, effeminate, bookish rot!" +he roared. "Nature has respect only for the strong. It creates the +weaker species merely to give the stronger food to remain strong on." + +Old Scotty had been rocking furiously. Now he stopped suddenly and broke +out into a furious Biblical denunciation of Reivers' system. When he +stopped for breath after his first outbreak, Reivers with a few words +and a cold smile egged him on. Toppy gladly kept his mouth shut. After +an hour he yawned and arose from his chair. + +"If you'll excuse me, I'll turn in," he said. "I'm too sleepy to listen +or talk." + +Without looking at him Reivers drew a book from his pocket and tossed it +toward him. + +"'Davis on Fractures'," he grunted. "Cram up on it to-morrow. There will +be need of your help before long. Go on, Scotty; you were saying that a +just retribution was Nature's law. Go on." + +And Toppy rolled into his bunk, to lie wide awake, listening to the +argument, marvelling at the character of Reivers, and pondering over the +strange situation he had fallen into. He scarcely thought of what Harvey +Duncombe and the bunch would be thinking about his disappearance. His +thoughts were mainly occupied with wondering why, of all the women he +had seen, a slender little girl with golden hair should suddenly mean so +much to him. Nothing of the sort ever had happened to him before. It was +rather annoying. Could she ever have a good opinion of him? + +Probably not. And even if she could, what about Reivers? Toppy was +firmly convinced that the speech which Reivers had made to Miss Pearson +was a false one. Reivers might have a great reputation for always +keeping his word, but Toppy, after what he had seen and heard, would no +more trust to his morals than those of a hungry bear. If Tilly, the +squaw, told Reivers what she had heard, what then? Well, in that case +they would soon know whether Reivers meant to keep his promise not to +bother Miss Pearson with his attentions. Toppy set his jaw grimly at the +thought of what might happen then. The mere thought of Reivers seemed to +make his fists clench hard. + +He lay awake for a long time with Reivers' voice, coldly bantering +Campbell, constantly in his ears. When Reivers finally went away he fell +asleep. Before his closed eyes was the picture of the girl as, in the +morning, she had kicked up the snow and looked up at him with her eyes +deliciously puckered from the sun; and in his memory was the stinging +recollection that she had called him a "nice boy." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--TOPPY WORKS + + +At daylight next morning began Toppy's initiation as a blacksmith's +helper. For the next four days he literally earned his bread in the +sweat of his brow, as Campbell had warned him he would. The dour old +Scot took it as his religious duty to give his helper a severe +introduction to the world of manual labour, and circumstances aided him +in his aim. + +Two dozen huge wooden sleighs had come from the "wood-butcher"--the camp +carpenter-shop--to be fitted with cross-rods, brace-irons and runners. +Out in the woods the ice-roads, carefully sprinkled each night, were +alternately freezing and thawing, gradually approaching the solid +condition which would mean a sudden call for sleighs to haul the logs, +which lay mountain-high at the rollways, down to the river. One cold +night and day now, and the call would come, and David Campbell was not +the man to be found wanting--even if handicapped by a helper with hands +as soft as a woman's. + +Toppy had no knowledge or skill in the trade, but he had strength and +quickness, and the thoughts of Reivers' masterfulness, and the "nice +boy" in the mouth of the girl, spurred him to the limit. The heavy +sledgework fell to his lot as a matter of course. A twenty-pound sledge +was a plaything in Toppy's hand--for the first fifteen minutes. + +After that the hammer seemed to increase progressively in weight, until +at the end of the first day's work Toppy would gladly have credited the +statement that it weighed a ton. Likewise the heavy runner-irons, which +he lifted with ease on the anvil in the morning, seemed to grow heavier +as the day grew older. Had Toppy been in the splendid condition that had +helped him to win his place on the All-American eleven four years +before, he might have gone through the cruel period of breaking-in +without faltering. But four years of reckless living had taken their +toll. The same magnificent frame and muscles were there; the great heart +and grit and sand likewise. But there was something else there, too; the +softening, weakening traces of decomposed alcohol in organs and tissues, +and under the strain of the terrific pace which old Campbell set for +Toppy, abused organs, fibres and nerves began to creak and groan, and +finally called out, "Halt!" + +It was only Toppy's grit--the "great heart" that had made him a +champion--and the desire to prove his strength before Reivers that kept +him at work after the first day. His body had quit cold. He had never +before undergone such expenditure of muscular energy, not even in the +fiercest game of his career. That was play; this was torture. On the +second morning his body shrank involuntarily from the spectacle of the +torturing sledge, anvil and irons, but pride and grit drove him on with +set jaw and hard eyes. Quit? Well, hardly. Reivers walked around the +camp and smiled as he saw Toppy sweating, and Toppy swore and went on. + +On the third day old Campbell looked at him with curiosity. + +"Well, lad, have ye had enough?" he asked, smiling pityingly. "Ye can +get a job helping the cookee if you find man's work too hard for ye." + +Toppy, between clenched teeth, swore savagely. He was so tired that he +was sick. The toxins of fatigue, aided and abetted by the effects of +hard living, had poisoned him until his feet and brain felt as heavy as +lead. It hurt him to move and it hurt him to think. He was groggy, all +but knocked out; but something within him held him doggedly at the tasks +which were surely mastering him. + +That night he dragged himself to bed without waiting for supper. In the +morning Campbell was amazed to see him tottering toward his accustomed +place in the shop; for old Campbell had set a pace that had racked his +own iron, work-tried body, and he had allowed Toppy two days in which to +cry enough. + +"Hold up a little, lad," he grumbled. "We're away ahead of our job. +There's no need laying yourself up. Take you a rest." + +"You go to ----!" exploded the overwrought Toppy. "Take a rest yourself if +you need one; I don't." + +He was working on his nerve now, flogging his weary arms and body to do +his bidding against their painful protests; and he worked like a madman, +fearing that if he came to a halt the run-down machinery would refuse to +start afresh. + +It was near evening when a teamster drove up with a broken sleigh from +which Campbell and the man strove in vain to tear the twisted runner. +Reivers from the steps of the store looked on, sneering. Toppy, his lips +drawn back with pain and weariness, laughed shrilly at the efforts of +the pair. + +"Yank it off!" he cried contemptuously. "Yank it off--like this." + +He drove a pry-iron under the runner and heaved. It refused to budge. +Toppy gathered himself under the pry and jerked with every ounce of +energy in him. The runner did not move. His left ankle felt curiously +weak under the awful strain. Across the way he heard Reivers laugh +shortly. Furiously Toppy jerked again; the runner flew into the air. +Toppy felt the weak ankle sag under him in unaccountable fashion, and he +fell heavily on his side and lay still. + +"Sprained his ankle," grunted the teamster, as they bore him to his +bunk. "I knew something had to give. No man ever was made to stand up +under that lift." + +"But I yanked it off!" groaned Toppy, half wild with pain. "I didn't +quit--I yanked the darn thing off!" + +"Aye," said old Campbell, "you yanked it off, lad. Lay still now till we +have off your shoe." + +"And holy smoke!" said the teamster. "What a yank! Hey! Whoap! Holy, +red-roaring--he's gone and fainted!" + +This latter statement was not precisely true. Toppy had not fainted; he +had suddenly succumbed to the demands of complete exhaustion. The +overdriven, tired-out organs, wrenched and abused tissues, and +fatigue-deadened nerves suddenly had cried, "Stop!" in a fashion that +not all of Toppy's will-power could deny. One instant he lay flat on his +back on the blankets of his bunk, wide awake, with Campbell tugging at +the laces of his shoes; the next--a mighty sigh of peace heaved his big +chest. Toppy had fallen asleep. + +It was not a natural sleep, nor a peaceful one. The racked muscles +refused to be still; the raw nerve-centres refused to soothe themselves +in the peace of complete senselessness. His whole body twitched. Toppy +tossed and groaned. He awoke some time in the night with his stomach +crying for food. + +"Drink um," said a voice somewhere, and a sturdy arm went under his head +and a bowl containing something savoury and hot was held against his +lips. + +"Hello, Tilly," chuckled Toppy deliriously. It was quite in keeping with +things that Tilly, the squaw, should be holding his head and feeding him +in the middle of the night. He drank with the avidity of a man parched +and starving, and the hot broth pleasantly soothed him as it ran down +his throat. + +"More!" he said, and Tilly gave him more. + +"Good fellow, Tilly," he murmured. "Good medicine. Who told you?" + +"Snow-Burner," grunted Tilly, laying his head on the pillow. "He send +me. Sleep um now." + +"Sure," sighed Toppy, and promptly fell back into his moaning, feverish +slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER IX--A FRESH START + + +When he awoke again to clear consciousness, it was morning. The sun +which came in through the east window shone in his eyes and lighted up +the room. Toppy lay still. He was quite content to lie so. An +inexplicable feeling of peace and comfort ruled in every inch of his +being. The bored, heavy feeling with which for a long time past he had +been in the custom of facing a new day was absolutely gone. His tongue +was cool; there was none of the old heavy blood-pressure in his head; +his nerves were absolutely quiet. Something had happened to him. Toppy +was quite conscious of the change, though he was too comfortable to do +more than accept his peaceful condition as a fact. + +"Ho, hum! I feel like a new man," he murmured drowsily. "I wonder--ow!" + +He had stretched himself leisurely and thus became conscious that his +left ankle was bandaged and sore. His cry brought old Campbell into the +room--Campbell solemnly arrayed in a long-tailed suit of black, white +collar, black tie, spick and span, with beard and hair carefully washed +and combed. + +"Hello!" gasped Toppy sleepily. "Where you going--funeral?" + +"'Tis the Sabbath," said Campbell reverently, as he came to the side of +the bunk. "And how do ye feel the day, lad?" + +"Fine!" said Toppy. "Considering that I had my ankle sprained last +evening." + +The Scot eyed him closely. + +"So 'twas last evening ye broke your ankle, was it?" he asked cannily. + +"Why, sure," said Toppy. "Yesterday was Saturday, wasn't it? We were +cleaning up the week's work. Why, what are you looking at me like that +for?" + +"Aye," said Campbell, his Sunday solemnity forbidding the smile that +strove to break through. "Yesterday was Saturday, but 'twas not the +Saturday you sprained your leg. A week ago Saturday that was, lad, and +ye've lain here in a fever, out of your head, ever since. Do you mind +naught of the whole week?" + +Toppy looked up at Campbell in silence for a long time. + +"Scotty, if you have to play jokes----" + +"Jokes!" spluttered Campbell, aghast. "Losh, mon! Didna I tell ye 'twas +the Sabbath? No, 'tis no joke, I assure you. You did more than sprain +your ankle when ye tripped that Saturday. You collapsed completely. Lad, +you were in poor condition when you came to camp, and had I known it I +would not have broken you in so hard. But you're a good man, lad; the +best man I ever saw, if you keep in condition. And do you really feel +good again?" + +"Why, I feel like a new man," said Toppy. "I feel as if I'd had a course +of baths at Hot Springs." + +Campbell nodded. + +"The Snow-Burner said ye would. It's Tilly he's had doctoring ye. She's +been feeding you some Indian concoction and keeping ye heated till your +blankets were wet through. Oh, you've had scandalous good care, lad; +Reivers to set your ankle, Tilly to doctor ye Indian-wise, and Miss +Pearson and Reivers to drop in together now and anon to see how ye were +standing the gaff. No wonder ye came through all right!" + +The room seemed suddenly to grow dark for Toppy. Reivers again--Reivers +dropping in to look at him as he lay there helpless on his back. Reivers +in the position of the master again; and the girl with him! Toppy +impatiently threw off his covering. + +"Gimme my clothes, Scotty," he demanded, swinging himself to the edge of +the bunk. "I'm tired of lying here on my back." + +Campbell silently handed over his clothing. Toppy was weak, but he +succeeded in dressing himself and in tottering over to a chair. + +"So Miss Pearson came over here, did she?" he asked thoughtfully. "And +with Reivers?" + +"Aye," said Scotty drily. "With Reivers. He has a way with the women, +the Snow-Burner has." + +Toppy debated a moment; then he broke out and told Campbell all about +how Reivers had deceived Miss Pearson into coming to Hell Camp. The old +man listened with tightly pursed lips. As Toppy concluded he shook his +head sorrowfully. + +"Poor lass, she's got a hard path before her then," he said. "If, as you +say, she does not wish to care for Reivers." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Well," said Campbell slowly, "ye'll be understanding by this time that +the Snow-Burner is no ordinar' man?" + +"He's a fiend--a savage with an Oxford education!" exploded Toppy. + +"He is--the Snow-Burner," said Campbell with finality. "You know what he +is toward men. Toward women--he's worse!" + +"Good Heavens!" + +"Not that he is a woman-chaser. No; 'tis not his way. But--yon man has +the strongest will in him I've ever seen in mortal man, and 'tis the +will women bow to." He pulled his whiskers nervously and looked away. +"I've known him four year now, and no woman in that time that he has set +his will upon but in the end has--has followed him like a slave." + +Toppy's fists clenched, and he joyed to find that in spite of his +illness his muscles went hard. + +"Ye've seen Tilly," continued Scotty with averted eyes. "Ye'll not be so +blind that ye've not observed that she's no ordinar' squaw. Well, three +years ago Tilly was teacher in the Chippewa Indian School--thin and +straight--a Carlisle graduate and all. She met Reivers, and shunned +him--at first. Reivers did not chase her. 'Tis not his way. But he bent +his will upon her, and the poor girl left her life behind her and +followed him, and kept following him, until ye see her as she is now. +She would cut your throat or nurse ye as she did, no matter which, did +he but command her. And she's not been the only one, either. + +"Nor have the rest of them been red." + +"The swine!" muttered Toppy. + +"More wolf than swine, lad. Perhaps more tiger than wolf. I don't think +Reivers intends to break his word to yon lass. But I suspect that he +won't have to. No; as it looks now, he won't. Given the opportunity to +put his will upon her and she'll change her mind--like the others." + +"He's a beast, that's what he is!" said Toppy angrily. "And any woman +who would fall for him would get no more than she deserves, even if +she's treated like Tilly. Why, anybody can see that the man's instincts +are all wrong. Right in an animal perhaps, but wrong in a human being. +The right kind of women would shun him like poison." + +"I dunno," said Campbell, rubbing his chin. "Yon lass over in the office +is as sweet and womanly a little lass as I've seen sin' I was a lad. And +yet--look ye but out of the window, lad!" + +Toppy looked out of the window in the direction in which Campbell +pointed. The window commanded a view of the gate to the stockade. +Reivers was standing idly before the gate. Miss Pearson was coming +toward him. As she approached he carelessly turned his head and looked +her over from head to foot. From where he sat Toppy could see her smile. +Then Reivers calmly turned his back upon her, and the smile on the +girl's face died out. She stood irresolute for a moment, then turned and +went slowly back toward the office, glancing occasionally over her +shoulder toward the gate. Reivers did not look, but when she was out of +sight he began to walk slowly toward the blacksmith-shop. + +"Bah!" Toppy turned his eyes from the window in mingled anger and +disgust. He sat for a moment with a multitude of emotions working at his +heart. Then he laughed bitterly. + +"Well, well, well!" he mocked. "You'd expect that from a squaw, but not +from a white woman." + +"Mr. Reivers is a remarkable man," said Campbell, shaking his head. + +"Sure," said Toppy, "and it's a mistake to look for a remarkable woman +up here in the woods." + +"I dunno." The smith looked a little hurt. "I dunno about that, lad. Yon +lass seems remarkably sweet and ladylike to me." + +"Sure," sneered Toppy, pointing his thumb toward the gate. "That looked +like it, didn't it?" + +"As for that, you've heard what I've told you about the Snow-Burner and +women," said Campbell sorrowfully. "He has a masterful way with them." + +"A fine thing to be masterful over a little blonde fool like that!" + +Campbell scowled. + +"Even though you have no respect for the lass," he said curtly, "I see +no reason why you should put it in words." + +"Why not? Why shouldn't I, or any one else, put it in words after that?" +Toppy fairly shouted the words. "She's made the thing public herself. +She came creeping up to him right out where anybody who was looking +could see her, and there won't be a man in camp to-morrow but'll have +heard that she's fallen for Reivers. Apparently she doesn't care; so why +should I, or you, or anybody else? Reivers has got a masterful way with +women! Ha, ha! Let it go at that. It's none of my business, that's a +cinch." + +"No," agreed Campbell; "not if you talk that way, it's none of your +business; that's sure." + +Toppy could have struck him for the emphatic manner in which he uttered +the words. But Toppy was beginning to learn to control himself and he +merely gritted his teeth. The sudden stab which he had felt in his heart +at the sight of the girl and Reivers had passed. In one flash there had +been overthrown the fine structure which he had built about her in his +thoughts. He had placed her high above himself. For some unknown reason +he had looked up to her from the first moment he had seen her. He had +not considered himself worthy of her good opinion. And here she was +flaunting her subservience to Reivers--to a cold, sneering brute--before +the eyes of the whole camp! + +The rage and pain at the sight of the pair had come and gone, and that +was all over. And now Toppy to his surprise found that it didn't make +much difference. The girl, and what she was, what she thought of him, or +of Reivers, no longer were of prime importance to him. He didn't care +enough about that now to give her room in his thoughts. + +Reivers was what mattered now--Reivers, with his air of contemptuous +dominance; Reivers, who had looked on and laughed when Toppy was tugging +at the runner of the broken sleigh. That laugh seemed to ring in Toppy's +ears. It challenged him even as it contemned him. It said, "I am your +master; doubt it if you dare"; even as Reivers' cold smile had said the +same to Rosky and the huddled bunch of Slavs. + +The girl--that was past. But Reivers had roused something deeper, +something older, something fiercer than the feelings which had begun to +stir in Toppy at the sight of the girl. Man--raw, big-thewed, world-old +and always new man--had challenged unto man. And man had answered. The +petty considerations of life were stripped away. Only one thing was of +importance. The world to Toppy Treplin had become merely a place for +Reivers, the Snow-Burner, and himself to settle the question which had +cried for settlement since the moment when they first looked into each +other's eyes: Which was the better man? + +Toppy smiled as he stretched himself and noted the new life that seemed +to have come into his body. He knew what it meant. That strenuous siege +of work and a week of fevered sweating had driven the alcohol out of his +system. He was making a fresh start. A few weeks at the anvil now, and +he would be in better shape than at any time since leaving school. He +set his jaw squarely and heaved his big arms high above his head. + +"Well, Treplin," came an unmistakable voice from the doorway, "you're +looking strenuous for a man just off the sickbed." + + + + +CHAPTER X--THE DUEL BEGINS + + +"I'm feeling pretty good, thank you, Reivers," said Toppy quietly, +though the voice of the man had thrilled him with the challenge in it. +He turned his head slowly and looked up from his chair at Reivers with +an expression of great serenity. The Big Game had begun between them, +and Toppy was an expert at keeping his play hidden. + +"Much obliged for strapping up my ankle, Reivers," he said. "Silly +thing, to sprain an ankle; but thanks to your expert bandaging it'll be +ready to walk on soon." + +"It wasn't a bad sprain," said Reivers, moving up and standing in front +of him. That was Reivers all through. Toppy was sitting; Reivers was +standing, looking down on him, his favourite pose. The black anger +boiled in Toppy's heart, but by his expression one could read only that +he was a grateful young man. + +"No, it wasn't a bad sprain," continued Reivers, his upper lip lifting +in its customary smile of scorn, "but--a man who attempts such heavy +lifts must have no weak spot in him." + +Toppy twisted himself into a more comfortable position in his chair and +smiled. + +"'Attempts' is hardly the right word there, Reivers. Pardon me for +differing with you," he laughed. "You may remember that the attempt was +a success." + +A glint of amusement in Reivers' cold eyes showed that he appreciated +that something more weighty than a mere question of words lay beneath +that apparently casual remark. For an instant his eyes narrowed, as if +trying to see beyond Toppy's smile and read what lay behind, but Toppy's +good poker-face now stood him in good stead, and he looked blandly back +at Reivers' peering eyes and continued to smile. Reivers laughed. + +"Quite right, Treplin; obliged to you for correcting me," he said. "A +chap gets rusty out here, where none of the laws of speech are observed. +I'll depend upon you to bring me back to form again--later on. Is your +ankle really feeling strong?" + +For answer Toppy rose and stood on it. + +"Well, well!" laughed Reivers. "Then Miss Pearson's sympathy was all +wasted. What's the matter, Treplin? Aren't you glad to hear that +charming young lady is enough interested in you to hunt me up and ask me +to step in and see how you are this morning?" + +"Not particularly," replied Toppy, although he was forced to admit to +himself a glow at this explanation of the girl's conversation with +Reivers. + +"What are you interested in?" said Reivers suddenly. + +Toppy looked up at him shrewdly. + +"I tell you what I'd like to do, Reivers; I'd like to learn the +logging-business--learn how to run a camp like this--run it efficiently, I +mean." + +"Worthy ambition," came the instant reply, "and you've come to the right +school. How fortunate for you that you fell into this camp! You might +have got into one where the boss had foolish ideas. You might even have +fallen in with a humanitarian. Then you'd never have learned how to make +men do things for you, and consequently you'd never have learned to run +a camp efficiently. + +"Thank your lucky stars, Treplin, that you fell in with me. I'll rid you +of the silly little ideas about right and wrong that books and false +living have instilled in your head. I believe you've got a good +head--almost as good as mine. If, for instance, you were in a situation +where it was your life or the other fellow's, you'd survive. That's the +proof of a good head. Want to learn the logging-business, do you? Good! +Is your ankle strong enough for you to get around on?" + +Toppy took an ax-handle from the corner and, using it as a cane, hobbled +around the room. + +"Yes, it will stand up all right," he said. "What's the idea?" + +"Come with me," laughed Reivers, swinging toward the door. "We're just +in time for lesson number one on how to run a camp efficiently." + + + + +CHAPTER XI--"HELL-CAMP" COURT + + +As Reivers led the way out of the shop Toppy saw that Miss Pearson was +standing in the door of the office across the way. He saw also that she +was looking at him. He did not respond to her look nor volunteer a +greeting, but deliberately looked away from her as he kept pace with +Reivers, who was setting the way toward the gate of the stockade. + +It was a morning such as the one when, back in Rail Head, the girl had +kicked up the snow and said to him, "Isn't it glorious?" But since then +Toppy felt bitterly that he had grown so much older, so disillusioned, +that never again would he be guilty of the tender feelings that the girl +had evoked that morning. The sun was bright, the crisp air invigorating, +and the blood bounded gloriously through his young body. But Toppy did +not wax enthusiastic. + +He was grimly glad of the mighty stream of life that he felt surging +within him; he would have use for all the might later on. But no more. +The world was a harder, a less pretty place than he, in his +inexperience, had fancied it before coming to Hell Camp. + +"What's this lesson?" he asked gruffly of Reivers. "What are you going +to show me?" + +"A little secret in the art of keeping brute-men satisfied with the +place in life which a superior mind has allotted to them," replied +Reivers. "What is the first need of the brute? Food, of course. And the +second is--fight. Give the lower orders of mankind, which is the kind to +use in running a camp efficiently, plenty of food and fight, and the +problem of restlessness is solved. + +"That's history, Treplin, as you know. If these foolish, timid +capitalists and leaders of men who are searching their petty souls for a +remedy to combat the ravages of the modern disease called Socialism only +would read history intelligently, they would find the remedy made to +order. Fight! War! Give the lower brutes war; let 'em get out and +slaughter one another, and they'd soon forget their pitiful, clumsy +attempts to think for themselves. Give them guns with a little sharp +steel on the end of the barrel, turn them loose on each other--any excuse +would do--and they'd soon be so busy driving said steel into one +another's thick bodies that the leaders could slip the yoke back on +their necks and get 'em under hand again, where they belong. + +"And they'd be happier, too, because a man-brute has got to have so much +fighting, or what he calls his brain begins to trouble him; and then he +imagines he has a soul and is otherwise unhappy. If there is fighting, +or the certain prospect of fighting, there's no alleged thinking. +There's the solution of all difficulties with the lower orders. Of +course you've noticed how perfectly contented and happy the men in this +camp are?" he laughed, turning suddenly on Toppy. + +"Yes," said Toppy. "Especially Rosky and his bunch." + +The Snow-Burner smiled appreciatively. + +"Rosky, poor clod, hadn't had any fighting. I'd overlooked him. Had I +known that thoughts had begun to trouble his poor, half-ox brain, I'd +have given him some fighting, and he'd have been as content for the next +few weeks as a man who--who's just been through delirium tremens. + +"He had no object in life, you see. If he'd had a good enemy to hate and +fight, he wouldn't have been troubled by thoughts, and consequently he +wouldn't now be lying in his bunk with his leg in splints. + +"There is the system in a nutshell--give a man an enemy to hate and wish +to destroy, and he won't be any trouble to you during working-hours or +after. That's what I do--pick out the ones who might get restless and set +them to hating each other. And now," he concluded, as they reached the +gate and passed through, "you'll have a chance to see how it works out." + +The big gate, opened for them by two armed guards, swung shut behind +them, and Toppy once more looked around the enclosure in which he had +had his first glimpse of the Snow-Burner's system of handling the men +under him. The place this morning, however, presented a different, a +more impressive scene. It was all but filled with a mass of rough-clad, +rough-moving, rough-talking male humanity. + +Perhaps a hundred and fifty men were waiting in the enclosure. For the +greater part they were of the dark, thick and heavily clumsy type that +Toppy had learned to include under the general title of Bohunk; but here +and there over the dark, ox-like faces rose the fair head of a tall man +of some Northern breed. Slavs comprised the bulk of the gathering; the +Scandinavians, Irish, Americans--the "white men," as they called +themselves--were conspicuous only by contrast and by the manner in which +they isolated themselves from the Slavs. + +And between the two breeds there was not much room for choice. For while +the faces of the Slavs were heavy with brute stupidity and malignity, +those of the North-bred men reeked with fierceness, cruelty and crime. +The Slavs were at Hell Camp because they were tricked into coming and +forced to remain under shotgun rule; the others were there mostly +because sheriffs found it unsafe and unprofitable to seek any man whom +the Snow-Burner had in his camp. They were "hiding out." Criminals, the +majority of them, they preyed on the stupid Slavs as a matter of course; +and this situation Reivers had utilised, as he put it, "to keep his men +content." + +Though there was a gulf of difference between the extreme types of the +crowd, Toppy soon realised that just now their expressions were +strangely alike. They were all impatient and excited. The excitement +seemed to run in waves; one man moved and others moved with him. One +threw up his head and others did likewise. Their faces were expectant +and cruel. It was like the milling of excited cattle, only worse. + +"Come along, Treplin," said Reivers, and led the way toward the centre +of the enclosure. The noises of the crowd, the talking, the short +laughter, the shuffling, ceased instantly at his appearance. The crowd +parted before him as before some natural force that brushed all men +aside. It opened up even to the centre of the yard, and then Toppy saw +whither Reivers was leading. + +On the bare ground was roped off a square which Toppy, with practised +eye, saw was the regulation twenty-four-foot prize-fight ring. Rough, +unbarked tamarack poles formed the corner-posts of the ring, and the +ropes were heavy wire logging-cable. A yard from one side of the ring +stood a table with a chair upon it. Reivers, with a careless, "Take a +seat on the table and keep your eyes open," stepped easily upon the +table, seated himself in the chair and looked amused as the men +instinctively turned their faces up toward him. + +"Well, men," he said in a voice which reached like cold steel into the +far corners of the enclosure, "court is open. The first case is Jan +Torta and his brother Mikel against Bill Sheedy, whom they accuse of +stealing ninety-eight dollars from them while they slept." + +As he spoke the names two young Slavs, clumsy but strongly built, their +heavy faces for once alight with hate and desire for revenge, pushed +close to one side of the ring, while on the other side a huge red-haired +Celt, bloated and evil of face, stepped free of the crowd. + +"Bill stole the money, all right," continued Reivers, without looking at +any of them. "He had the chance, and being a sneak thief by nature he +took it. That's all right. The Torta boys had the money; now Bill's got +it. The question is: Is Bill man enough to keep it? That's what we're +going to settle now. He's got to show that he's a better man than the +two fellows he took the money from. If he isn't, he's got to give up the +money, or the two can have him to do what they want to with him. All +right, boys; get 'em started there." + +At his brisk order four men whom Toppy had seen around camp as guards +stepped forward, two to Sheedy, two to the Torta brothers, and proceeded +first to search them for weapons, next to strip them to the waist. +Sheedy hung back. + +"Not two av um tuh wanst, Mr. Reivers?" he asked humbly. "One after deh +udder it oughta be; two tuh wanst, that ain't no way." + +"And why not, Bill?" asked Reivers gently. "You took it from both of +them, didn't you? Then keep it against both of 'em, Bill. Throw 'em in +there, boys!" + +Toppy looked around at the rows of eager faces that were pressing toward +the ringside. Prize-fights he had witnessed by the score. He had even +participated in one or two for a lark, and the brute lust that springs +into the eyes of spectators was no stranger to him. But never had he +seen anything like this. There was none of the restraint imposed upon +the human countenance by civilisation in the fierce faces that gathered +about this ring. + +Out of the dull eyes the primitive killing-animal showed unrestrained, +unashamed. No dilettante interest in strength or skill here; merely the +bare bloodthirsty desire to see a fellow-animal fight and bleed. Up +above, the sky was clean and blue; the rough log walls shut out the rest +of the world; the breathing of a mob of excited men was the only sound +upon the quiet Sunday air. It was the old arena again; the merciless, +gore-hungry crowd; the maddened gladiators; and upon the chair on the +table, Reivers, lord of it all, the king-man, to whom it was all but an +idle moment's play. + +Reivers, above it all, untouched by it all, and yet directing and +swaying it all as his will listed. Laws, rules, teachings, creeds--all +were discarded. Primitive force had for the nonce been given back its +rule. And over it, and controlling it, as well as each of the maddened +eight-score men around the ring--Reivers. + +And so thoroughly did Reivers dominate the whole affair that Toppy, +sitting carelessly on the edge of the table, was conscious of it, and +knew that he, too, felt instinctively inclined to do as the men did--to +look to Reivers for a sign before daring to speak or make a move. The +Snow-Burner was in the saddle. It wasn't natural, but every phase of the +situation emanated from his master-man's will. It was even his wish that +Toppy should sit thus at his feet and look on, and his wish was +gratified. + +But it was well that the visor of Toppy's cap hid his eyes, else Reivers +might have wondered at the look that flashed up at him from them. + +"Throw 'em in!" snapped Reivers, and the handlers thrust the three +combatants, stripped to the waists but wearing calked lumberjack shoes, +through the ropes. + +A cry went up to the sky from a hundred and fifty throats around the +ringside--a cry that had close kinship with the joyous, merciless +"Au-rr-ruh" of a wolf about to make its kill. Then an instant's silence +as the rudely handled fighters came to their feet and faced for action. +Then another hideous yelp rent the still air; the fighters had come +together! + +"Queer ring-costumes, eh, Treplin?" came Reivers' voice mockingly. "Our +own rules; the feet as well as the hands. Lord, what oxen!" + +The two Slavs had sprung upon their despoiler like two maddened cattle. +Sheedy, rushing to meet them, head down, swung right and left overhand; +and with a mighty smacking of hard fist on naked flesh, one Torta rolled +on the ground while his brother stopped in his tracks, his arms pressed +to his middle. The crowd bellowed. + +"Yes, I knew Sheedy had been a pug," said Reivers judicially. + +Sheedy deliberately took aim and swung for the jaw of the man who had +not gone down. The Slav instinctively ducked his head, and the blow, +slashing along his jawbone, tore loose his ear. Half stunned, he dropped +to his knees, and Sheedy stepped back to poise for a killing kick. But +now the man who had been knocked down first was on his feet, and with +the scream of a wounded animal he hurled himself through the air and +went down, his arms close-locked around Sheedy's right leg. Sheedy +staggered. The ring became a little hell of distorted human speech. +Sheedy bellowed horrible curses as he beat to a pulp the face that +sought to bury itself in his thigh; his assailant screeched in Slavish +terror; and the bull-like roar of his brother, rising to his feet with +cleared senses and springing into the battle, intermingled with both. +Sheedy's red face went pale. + +Around the ringside the faces of the Slavs shone with relief. The fight +was going their way; they roared encouragement and glee in their own +guttural tongue. The others--Irish, Americans, Scandinavians--rooting for +Sheedy only because he was of their breed, were silent. + +"Hang tough, Bill," said one man quietly; and then in a second the +slightly superior brains in Sheedy's head had turned the battle. Like a +flash he dropped flat on his back as his fresh assailant reached out to +grip him. The furious Slav followed him helplessly in the fall; and a +single gruff, appreciative shout came from the few "white men." + +For they had seen, even as the Slav stumbled, Bill Sheedy's left leg +shoot up like a catapult, burying the calked shoe to the ankle in the +man's soft middle and flinging him to one side, a shuddering, senseless +wreck. The man with his arms around Sheedy's leg looked up and saw. He +was alone now, alone against the big man who had knocked him down with +such ease. Toppy saw the man's mouth open and his face go yellow. + +"Na, na, na!" he cried piteously, as Sheedy's blows again rained upon +him. "I give up, give up, give up!" + +He tried to bury his face in Bill's thigh; and Bill, mad with success, +strove to pound him loose. + +"Kill him, Bill!" said one of the Irishmen quietly. "You got him now; +kill him." + +"Stop." Reivers did not raise his voice. He seemed scarcely interested. +Yet the roars around the ring died down. Sheedy stopped a blow half +delivered and dropped his arms. The Slav released his clawlike hold and +ran, sobbing, toward his prostrate brother. + +"All right, Bill; you keep the money--for all them," said Reivers. "Clear +out the ring, boys, and get that other pair in there." + +The guards, springing into the ring as if under a lash, picked up the +senseless man and thrust him like a sack of grain through the ropes and +on to the ground at the feet of a group of his countrymen. Toppy saw +these pick the man up and bear him away. The man's head hung down limply +and dragged on the ground, and a thin stream of blood ran steadily out +of one side of his mouth. His brother followed, loudly calling him by +name. + +"Very efficacious, that left leg of Bill's; eh, Treplin?" said Reivers +lightly. "Bill was the superior creature there. He had the wit and will +to survive in a crisis; therefore he is entitled to the rewards of the +superior over the inferior, which in this case means the ninety-eight +dollars which the Torta boys once had. That's justice--natural justice +for you, Treplin; and all the fumbling efforts of the lawmakers who've +tried through the ages to reduce life to a pen-and-paper basis haven't +been able to change the old rule one bit. + +"I'll admit that courts and all the fakery that goes with them have +reduced the thing to a battle of brains, but after all it's the same old +battle; the stronger win and hold. And," he concluded, waving his hand +at the crowd, "you'll admit that Bill, and those Torta boys wouldn't be +at their best in a contest of intelligence." + +Toppy refused Reivers the pleasure of seeing how the brutality of the +affair disgusted him. + +"Why don't you follow the thing out to its logical conclusion?" he said +carelessly. "The thing isn't settled as long as the Torta boys can +possibly make reprisals. To be a consistent savage you'd have to let 'em +go to it until one had killed the other. But even you don't dare to do +that, do you, Reivers?" + +Reivers laughed, but the look that he bent on Toppy's bland face +indicated that he was a trifle puzzled. + +"Then you wouldn't be running the camp efficiently, Treplin," he said. +"It wouldn't make any difference if they were all Tortas; but Bill's a +valuable man. He furnishes some one a bellyful of hating and fighting +every week. No; I wouldn't have Bill killed for less than two hundred +dollars. He's one of my best antidotes for the disease of discontent." + +The guards now had pulled two other men up to the ropes and were +searching and stripping them. Toppy stared at the disparity in the sizes +of the men as the clothes were pulled off them. One stood up strong and +straight, the muscles bulging big beneath his dark skin, his neck short +and heavy, his head cropped and round. He wore a small, upturned +moustache and carried himself with a certain handy air that indicated +his close acquaintance with ring-events. The other man was short and +dark, obviously an Italian; the skin of his body was a sickly white, his +face olive green. He stood crouched, and beneath his ragged beard two +teeth gleamed, like the fangs of a snarling dog. + +"Antonio, the Knife-Expert, and Mahmout, the Strangling Bulgarian," +announced Reivers laughingly. "Tony tried to stick Mahmout because of a +little lady back in Rail Head, and made such a poor job of it that +Mahmout has offered to meet him in the ring; Tony with his knife, +Mahmout with his wrestling-tricks. Start 'em off." + +The Bulgarian was under the ropes and upright in the ring before the +Italian had started. He was in his stocking-feet, and despite the +clumsiness of his build he moved with a quickness and ease that told of +the fine co-ordination of the effective athlete. When the Italian +entered the ring he held his right hand behind his back, and in the hand +gleamed the six-inch blade of a wicked-looking stiletto. + +A shiver ran along Toppy's spine, but he continued to play the game. + +"Evidently Mahmout isn't a valuable man; you don't care what happens to +him," he said. + +"Not particularly," replied Reivers seriously. "He's a good man on the +rollways--nothing extra. Still, I hardly believe Tony can kill him--not +this time, at least." + +The faces around the ring grew fiercer now. Growled curses and +exclamations came through clenched teeth. Here was the spectacle that +the brute-spirit hungered for--the bare, living flesh battling for life +against the merciless, gleaming steel. + +The big Bulgarian moved neatly forward, bent over at the waist, his +strong arms extended, hands open before him in the practised wrestler's +guard and attack. His feet did not leave the ground as he sidled +forward, and his eyes never moved from the Italian's right arm. The +latter, snarling and panting, retreated slightly, then began to circle +carefully, his small eyes searching for the opening through which he +could leap in and drive home his steel. + +The Bulgarian turned with him, his guard always before him, as a bull +turns its head to face the circling wolf. Without a sound the knife-man +suddenly stopped and lunged a sweeping slash at the menacing hands. +Mahmout, grasping for a hold on hand or wrist, caught the tip of the +blade in his palm, and a slow bellow of rage shook him as he saw the +blood flow. But he did not lower his guard nor take his eyes from his +opponent. + +The Italian retreated and circled again. A horrible sneer distorted his +face, and the knife flashed in the sunlight as he slashed it to and fro +before the other's hands. The crowd growled its appreciation. Three +times Antonio leaped forward, slashed, and leaped back again; and each +time the blood flowed from Mahmout's slashed fingers. But the wrestler's +guard never lowered nor did he falter in his set plan of battle. He was +working to get his man into a corner. + +The Italian soon saw this and, leaping nimbly sidewise, lunged for +Mahmout's ribs. The right arm of the Bulgarian dropped in time to save +his life, but the knife, deflected from its fatal aim, ripped through +the top muscles of his back for six inches. The mob roared at the fresh +blood, but Mahmout was working silently. In his spring the Italian had +only leaped toward another corner of the ring. + +Mahmout leaped suddenly toward him. Antonio, stabbing swiftly at the +hands reached out for him, jumped back. A cry from a countryman in the +crowd warned him. Swiftly he glanced over his shoulder, saw that he was +cornered, and with a low, sweeping swing of the arm he threw the knife +low at Mahmout's abdomen. + +The blade glinted as it flashed through the air; it thudded as it struck +home; but the death-cry which the mob yelped out died short. With the +expert's quickness Mahmout had flung his huge forearms before the +speeding blade. Now he held his left arm up. The stiletto, quivering +from the impact, had pierced it through. + +With a fierce roar Mahmout plucked out the knife, hurled it from the +ring and dived forward. The Italian fought like a fury, feet, teeth and +fingernails making equal play. He sank his teeth in the injured left +arm. Mahmout groped with his one sound hand and methodically clamped a +hold on an ankle. He made sure that the hold was a firm one; then he +wrenched suddenly--once. The Italian screamed and stiffened straight up +under the appalling pain. Then he fell flat to the ground, and Toppy saw +that his right foot was twisted squarely around and that the leg lay +limp on the ground like a twisted rag. + +"Stop," said Reivers, and Mahmout stepped back. "Take Tony's knife away +from him, boys. Mahmout wins--for the time being." + +"Inconsistent again," muttered Toppy. "Your scheme is all fallacies, +Reivers. You give Tony a knife with which he may kill Mahmout at one +stroke, but you don't let Mahmout finish him when he's got him down. Why +don't you carry your system to its logical conclusion?" + +"Why don't I?" chuckled Reivers, stepping down from the table. "Why, +simply because Signor Antonio is the camp cook, and cooks are too scarce +to be destroyed unnecessarily. Now come along, Treplin. Court's +adjourned; a light docket to-day. I've been thinking of your wanting to +learn how to run a logging-camp. I'm going to give you a change of jobs. +You'll be no good in the blacksmith-shop till your ankle's normal again. +Come along; I'll show you what I've picked out for you." + +He turned away from the ring as from a finished episode in the day's +work. That was over. Whether Torta or Antonio lived or died, were whole +or crippled for the rest of their lives, had no room in his thoughts. He +strode toward the gate as if the yard were empty, and the crowd opened a +way far before him. Outside the gate he led the way around the stockade +toward where the river roared and tumbled through the chutes of Cameron +Dam. + +A cliff-like ledge, perhaps thirty feet in height, situated close to one +end of the dam, was Reivers' objective, and he led Toppy around to the +side facing the river. Here the dirt had been scraped away on the face +of the ledge, and a great cave torn in the exposed rock. The hole was +probably fifty feet wide, and ran from twelve to fifteen feet under the +brow of the ledge. Toppy was surprised to see no timbers upholding the +rocky roof, which seemed at any moment likely to drop great masses of +jagged stone into the opening beneath. + +"My little rock-pile," explained Reivers lightly. "When my brutes aren't +good I put 'em to work here. The rock goes into the dam out there. Just +at present Rosky's band of would-be malcontents are the ones who are +suffering for daring to be dissatisfied with the--ah--simplicity, let us +say, of Hell Camp." + +He laughed mirthlessly. + +"I'm going to put you in charge of this quarry, Treplin. You're to see +that they get one hundred wheelbarrows of rock out of here per hour. +You'll be here at daylight to-morrow." + +Toppy nodded quietly. + +"What's the punishment here?" he asked, puzzled. "It looks like nothing +more than hard work to me." + +Reivers smiled the same smile that he had smiled upon Rosky. + +"Look at the roof of that pit, Treplin," he said. "You've noticed that +it isn't timbered up. Occasionally a stone drops down. Sometimes several +stones. But one hundred barrows an hour have to come out of there just +the same. And those rocks up there, you'll notice, are beautifully sharp +and heavy." + +Toppy felt Reivers' eyes upon him, watching to see what effect this +explanation would have, and consequently he no more betrayed his +feelings than he had at the brutal scenes of the "court." + +"I see," he said casually. "I suppose this is why you made me read up on +fractures?" + +"Partly," said Reivers. He looked up at the jagged rocks in the roof of +the pit and grinned. "And sometimes an accident here calls for a job for +a pick and shovel. But I'm just, Treplin; only the malcontents are put +to work in here." + +"That is, those who have dared to declare themselves something besides +your helpless slaves." + +"Or dared to think of declaring themselves thus," agreed Reivers +promptly. + +"I see." Toppy was looking blandly at the roof, but his mind was working +busily. + +"Just why do you give me charge of this hole, Reivers--if you don't mind +my asking? Isn't it rather an unusual honour for a green hand to be put +over a crew like this?" + +"Unusual! Oh, how beastly banal of you, Treplin!" laughed Reivers +carelessly. "Surely you didn't expect me to do the usual thing, did you? +You say you want to learn how to handle a camp like this. You're an +interesting sort of creature, and I'd like to see you work out in the +game of handling men, so I give you this chance. Oh, I'll do great +things for you, Treplin, before I'm done with you! You can imagine all +that I've got in store for you." + +The smile vanished and he turned away. He was through with this +incident, too. Without another word or look at Toppy he went back to the +stockade, his mind already busy with some other project. Toppy stood +looking after him until Reivers' broad back disappeared around the +corner of the stockade. + +"No, you clever devil!" he muttered. "I can't imagine. But whatever it +is, I promise I'll hand it back to you with a little interest, or +furnish a job for a pick and shovel." + +He walked slowly back to the blacksmith-shop. He was glad to be left +alone. Though he had permitted no sign of it to escape him, Toppy had +been enraged and sickened at what he had seen in the stockade. He +admitted to himself that it was not the fact that men had been disabled +and crippled, nor the brutal rules that had governed, nor that men had +been exposed to death at the hands of others before his eyes, that had +stirred him so. It was--Reivers. Reivers sitting up there on the table +playing with men's bodies and lives as with so many cards--Reivers, the +dominant, lord over his fellows. + +The veins swelled in Toppy's big neck as he thought of Reivers, and his +hitherto good-natured face took on a scowl that might have become some +ancestral man-captain in the days of mace and mail, but which never +before had found room on Toppy's countenance--not even when the opposing +half-backs were guilty of slugging. But he was playing another game now, +an older one, a fiercer one, and one which called to him as nothing had +called before. It was the man-game now; and out there in the old, stern +forest, spurred by the challenge of the man who was his natural enemy, +the primitive fighting-man in Toppy shook off the restraint with which +breeding, education and living had cumbered him, and stood out in a +fashion that would have shocked Toppy's friends back East. + +Near the shop he met Miss Pearson. By her manner he saw that she had +been waiting for him, but Toppy merely raised his cap and made to pass +on. + +"Mr. Treplin!" There was astonishment at his rudeness in her +exclamation. + +"Well?" said Toppy. + +"Your ankle?" + +"Oh, yes. Pardon me for not expressing my thanks before. It's almost +well--thanks to you and Mr. Reivers." + +She made a slight shrinking movement and stood looking at him for a +moment. She opened her lips, but no words came. + +"Old Scotty told me about your kindness in coming to see me, you and Mr. +Reivers together," said Toppy. "It was a relief to learn that your +confidence in Reivers was justified." + +She looked up quickly, straight into his eyes. A troubled look swept +over her face. Then with a toss of the head she turned and crossed the +road, and Toppy swung on his way to the room in the rear of the shop and +closed the door behind him with a vicious slam. + + + + +CHAPTER XII--TOPPY'S FIRST MOVE + + +Next morning, in the cold stillness which precedes the coming of +daylight in the North, Toppy stood leaning on his axe-handle cane and +watched his crew of a dozen men file out of the stockade gate and turn +toward the stone-quarry. They walked with the driven air of prisoners +going to punishment. In the darkness their squat, shapeless figures were +scarcely human. Their heads hung, their steps were listless, as if they +had just completed a hard day's work instead of having arisen from a +hearty breakfast. + +The complete lack of spirit evinced by the men irritated Toppy. Was +Reivers right after all? Were they nothing but clods, undeserving of +fair and intelligent treatment? + +"Hey! Wake up there! You look like a bunch of corpses. Show some life!" +cried Toppy, in whom the bitter morning air was sending the red blood +tingling. + +The men did not raise their heads. They quickened their stumbling steps +a little, as a heavy horse shambles forward a little under the whip. One +or two looked back, beyond where Toppy was walking at the side of the +line. Treplin with curiosity followed their glances. A grim-lipped +shotgun guard with a hideous hawk nose had emerged from the darkness, +and with his short-barrelled weapon in the crook of his arm was +following the line at a distance of fifty or sixty feet. Toppy halted +abruptly. So did the guard. + +"What's the idea?" demanded Toppy. "Reivers send you?" + +"Yes," said the guard gruffly. + +"Does it take two of us to make this gang work?" Toppy was irritated. +Reivers, he knew, would have handled the gang alone. + +"The boss sent me," said the guard, with a finality that indicated that +for him that ended the discussion. + +The daylight now came wanly up the gap made in the forest by the +brawling river, and the men stood irresolute before the quarry and +peered up anxiously at the roof of the pit. + +"Grab your tools," said Toppy. "Get in there and get to it." + +The men, some of them taking picks and crowbars, some wheelbarrows, were +soon ready to begin the day's work. But there was a hitch somewhere. +They stood at the entrance to the pit and did not go in. They looked up +at the threatening roof; then they looked anxiously, pleadingly, at +Toppy. But Toppy was thinking savagely of how Reivers would have handled +the gang alone and he paid no attention. + +"Get in there!" he roared. "Come on; get to work!" + +Accustomed to being driven, they responded at once to his command. +Between two fears, fear of the dropping rocks and fear of the man over +them, they entered the quarry and began the day's work. The guard took +up a position on a slight eminence, where he was always in plain sight +of the men, whether in the cave or wheeling the rock out to the dam. He +held his gun constantly in the hollow of his arm, like a hunter. + +Ten minutes after the first crowbar had clanged against rock in the +quarry there was a rumbling sound, a crash, a scream; and the men came +scrambling out in terror. Their rush stopped abruptly just outside the +cave. Toppy was standing directly before them; the man with the gun had +noisily cocked his weapon and brought the black barrel to bear on the +heads of the men. Half of them slunk at once back into the cave. One of +the others held up a bleeding hand to Toppy. + +"Ah, pleess, bahss, pleess," he pleaded. "Rock kill us next time. +Pleess, bahss!" + +There was a moment of silence while Toppy looked at the men's +terror-stricken faces. The shotgun guard rattled the slide on his gun. +The men began to retreat into the cave, their helplessness and +hopelessness writ large upon their flat faces. + +"Hold on there!" said Toppy suddenly. After all, a fellow couldn't do +things like that--drive helpless cattle like these to certain injury, +even possible death. "I'll take a look in there." + +He hobbled and shouldered his way through the men and entered the pit. A +few rocks had dropped from the roof, luckily falling in a far corner +beyond where the men were working. But Toppy saw at once how serious +this petty accident was; for the whole roof of the cave now was +loosened, and as sure as the men pounded and pried at the rocks beneath +they would bring a shower of stone down upon their heads. + +"Like rats in a trap," he thought. "Hi!" he called. "Get out of here. +Get out!" + +Down near the dam he had noticed a huge pile of old timbers which +probably had been used for piling while the dam was being put in. +Thither he now led his men, and shouldering the largest piece himself he +hobbled back to the cave followed by the gang, each bearing a timber. A +sudden change had come over the men as he indicated what he was going to +do. They moved more rapidly. Their terror was gone. Some of them smiled, +and some talked excitedly. Under Toppy's direction they went to work +with a vim shoring up the loosened roof of the cave. It was only a +half-hour's work to place the props so that the men working beneath were +free of any serious danger from above. Toppy could sense the change of +feeling toward him that had come over the men as they saw the timbers go +into place, and he was forced to admit that it warmed him comfortably. +They sprang eagerly to obey his slightest behest, and the gratitude in +their faces was pitiful to behold. + +"Now jump!" said Toppy when the roof was safely propped. "Hustle and +make up the time we've lost." + +As he came out of the cave the place fairly rang with noise as the men +furiously tore loose the rock and dumped it in the barrows. Toppy took a +long breath and wiped his brow. The hawk-nosed guard spat in disgust. + +"Will you do me a favour?" said Toppy, suddenly swinging toward him. + +"What is it?" asked the man. + +"Take a message to Mr. Reivers from me. Tell him your services are no +longer required at this spot. Tell him I said you looked like a fool, +standing up there with your bum gun. Tell him--" Toppy, despite his sore +ankle, had swung up the rise and was beside the guard before the latter +thought of making a move--"that I said I'd throw you and your gun in the +river if you didn't duck. And for your own information--" Toppy was +towering over the man--"I'll do it right now, unless you get out of +here--quick!" + +The guard's shifty eyes tried to meet Toppy's and failed. Against the +Slavs he would have dared to use his gun; they were his inferiors. +Against Toppy he did not dare even so much as to think of the weapon, +and without it he was only a jail-rat, afraid of men who looked him in +the eyes. + +"The boss sent me here," he said sullenly. + +Toppy leaned forward until his face was close to the guard's. The man +shrank. + +"Duck!" said Toppy. That was all. The guard moved away with an alacrity +that showed how uncomfortable the spot had become to him. + +"You'll hear about this!" he whined from a distance. + +And Toppy laughed, laughed carelessly and loudly, rampant with the +sensation of power. The men, scurrying past with barrows of rock, noted +the retreat of the guard and smiled. They looked up at Toppy with +slavish admiration, as lesser men look up to the champion who has +triumphed before their eyes. One or two of the older men raised their +hats as they passed him, their Old-World serf-like way of showing how +they felt toward him. + +"Jump!" ordered Toppy gruffly. "Get a move on there; make up that lost +time." + +Reivers had said that a hundred barrows an hour must be dumped into the +dam. With a half hour lost in shoring up the roof, there were fifty +loads to be caught up during the day if the average was to be +maintained. Carefully timing each load and keeping tally for half an +hour, Toppy saw that a hundred loads per hour was the limit of his gang +working at a normal pace. To get out the hundred loads they must keep +steadily at work, with no time lost because of the falling rocks from +above. + +He began to see the method of Reivers' apparent madness in placing him +in charge of the gang. With the gang working in the dead, terrorised +fashion that had characterised their movements before the timbers were +in place, Toppy knew that he would have failed; he could not have got +out the hundred loads per hour. Reivers would have proved him to be his +inferior; for Reivers, with his inhumanity, would have driven the gang +as if no lives nor limbs hung on the tissue. + +Toppy smiled grimly as he looked at his watch and marked new figures on +the tally sheet. The men, pitifully grateful for the protecting timbers, +had taken hold of their work with such new life that the rock was going +into the dam at the rate of one hundred and twenty loads an hour. + +"Move number one!" muttered Toppy, snapping shut his watch. "I wonder +what the Snow-Burner's come-back will be when he knows. Hey, you +roughnecks! Keep moving, there; keep moving!" + +The men responded cheerfully to his every command. They could gladly +obey his will; they were safe under him; he had taken care of them, the +helpless ones. That evening, when they filed back into the stockade +under Toppy's watchful eye, one of the older men, a swarthy old fellow +with large brass rings in his ears, sank his hat low as he passed in. + +"Buna nopte, Domnule," he said humbly. + +"What did he say?" demanded Toppy of one of the young men who knew a +little English. + +"Plees, bahss; old man, he Magyar," was the reply. "He say, 'Good night, +master.'" + +Toppy stood dumfounded while the line passed through the gate. + +"Well," he said with a grin, "what do you know about that?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII--REIVERS REPLIES + + +Reivers did not come to the shop that night for his evening diversion, +nor did Toppy see him at all during the next day. But in the morning +following he saw that Reivers had taken cognizance in his own peculiar +way of Toppy's action in driving the shotgun guard away from the quarry. +As the line of rock men filed out of the stockade in the chill half +light Toppy saw that the best worker of his gang, a cheerful, stocky man +called Mikal, was missing. In his place, walking with the successful +plug-ugly's insolent swagger, was none other than Bill Sheedy, the +appointed trouble-maker of Hell Camp; and Toppy knew that Reivers had +made another move in his tantalising game. + +He went hot despite the raw chilliness at the thought of it. Reivers was +playing with him, too, playing even as he had played with Rosky! And +Toppy knew that, like Rosky, the Snow-Burner had selected him, too, to +be crushed--to be marked as an inferior, to be made to acknowledge +Reivers as his master. + +Reivers had read the challenge which was in Toppy's eyes and had, with +his cold smile of complete confidence and contempt, taken up the gauge. +The substitution of Bill Sheedy, Reivers' pet troublemaker, for an +effective workman was a definite move toward Toppy's humiliation. + +There was nothing in Toppy's manner, however, to indicate his feelings +as he followed the line to the quarry. Toppy allowed Sheedy's swagger, +by which he plainly indicated that he was hunting for trouble, to go as +if unobserved. Sheedy, being extremely simple of mind, leaped instantly +to the conclusion that Toppy was afraid of him and swaggered more +insolently than ever. He was in an irritable mood this morning, was Bill +Sheedy; and as soon as the gang was out of sight of the stockade--and, +thought Toppy bitterly, therefore out of possible sight of Reivers--he +began to vent his irritation upon his fellow-workmen. + +He shouldered them out of his way, swore at them, threatened them with +his fists, kicked them carelessly. There was no finesse in Bill's +method; he was mad and showed it. When the daylight came up the river +sufficiently strong to begin the day's work, Bill had worked himself up +to a proper frame of mind for his purpose. He stood still while the +other men willingly seized their tools and barrows and tramped into the +quarry. + +Toppy apparently did not notice. So far as he indicated by his manner he +was quite oblivious of Sheedy's existence. Bill stood looking at Toppy +with a scowl on his unpretty face, awaiting the order to go in with the +other men. The order did not come. Toppy was busy directing the men +where to begin their work. He did not so much as look at Bill. Bill +finally was forced to call attention to himself. + +"----!" he growled, spitting generously. "Yah ain't goin' tuh git me tuh +wurruk in no hole like that." + +"All right, Bill," said Toppy instantly. "All right." + +Bill was staggered. His simple mind failed utterly to comprehend that +there might lie something behind Toppy's apparently humble manner. Bill +could see only one thing--the straw-boss was afraid of him. + +"Yah ---- know it, it's all right!" he spluttered. "If it ain't I'd ---- +soon make it all right." + +"Sure," said Toppy, and without looking toward Bill he hurried into the +quarry to see how the timbers were standing the strain. Bill stood +puzzled. He had bluffed the straw-boss, sure enough; but still the thing +wasn't entirely satisfactory. The boss didn't seem to care whether he +worked or whether he loafed. Bill refused to be treated with such little +consideration. He was of more importance than that. + +"Hey, you!" he called as Toppy emerged from the pit. "I'm going to wheel +rock down to the dam, that's what I'm going tuh do. Going to wheel it; +but yuh ain't goin' tuh make me go in there and dig it. See? I'm going +to wheel rock." + +Now for the first time Toppy seemed to consider Bill. + +"What makes you think you are?" he said quietly. He was looking at his +watch, but Bill noticed that in spite of his sore ankle and cane the +boss had managed to move near to him in uncannily swift fashion. + +"You know you can't work here now," Toppy continued before Bill's thick +wits had framed an answer. "You won't go into the quarry, so I can't use +you." + +Bill stared as if bereft of all of his faculties. The boss had slipped +his watch back into his pocket. He had turned away. + +"Can't use me--can't----Say! Who says I can't work here?" roared Bill, +shaking his fists. He was standing on the plank on which the +wheelbarrows were rolled out of the cave, blocking the way of the men +with the first loads of the day. + +"Look out, Bill!" said Toppy softly, turning around. Instinctively Bill +threw up his guard--threw it up to guard his jaw. Toppy's left drove into +his solar plexus so hard that Bill seemed to be moulded on to the fist, +hung there until he dropped and rolled backward on the ground. + +"Get along there!" commanded Toppy to the wheel-barrowmen. "The way's +clear. Jump!" + +Grinning and snatching glances of ridicule at the prostrate Sheedy, they +hurried past. They dumped their loads in the dam and came back with +empty barrows, and still Sheedy lay there, like a dumped grain-sack, to +one side of their path. The flat faces of the men cracked with grins as +they looked worshipfully at Toppy. + +"Jump!" said he. "Get a move on, you roughnecks" + +And they grinned more widely in sheer delight at his rough ordering. + +Bill Sheedy lay for a long time as he had fallen. The blow he had +stopped would have done for a pugilist in good condition, and Sheedy's +midriff was soft and fat. Finally he raised his head and looked around. +Such surprise and wobegoneness showed in his expression that the +grinning Slavs laughed outright at him. Bill slowly came to a sitting +posture and drew a hand across his puzzled brow while he looked dully at +the laughing men and at Toppy. Then he remembered and he dropped his +eyes. + +"Get on your way, Bill," said Toppy casually. "If you're not able to +walk, I'll have half a dozen of the men help you. You're through here." + +Bill lurched unsteadily to his feet and staggered away a few steps. That +terrific punch and the iron-calm manner of the man who had dealt it had +scared him. His first thought was to get out of reach; his second, one +of anger at the Bohunks who dared to laugh at him, Bill Sheedy, the +fighting man! + +But the fashion in which the men laughed took the nerve out of Bill. +They were laughing contemptuously at him; they looked down upon him; +they were no longer afraid. And there were a dozen of them, and they +laughed together; and Bill Sheedy knew that his days as camp bully were +over. The straw-boss was looking at him coldly, and Bill moved farther +away. Fifteen minutes later the straw-boss, who had apparently been +oblivious of his presence, swung around and said abruptly: + +"What's the matter, Bill? Why don't you go back to Reivers?" + +Bill's growled reply contained several indistinct but definitely profane +characterisations of Reivers. + +"I can't go back to him," Sheedy said sullenly. + +"Why not?" laughed Treplin. "He's your friend, isn't he? He let you keep +the money you'd stolen, and all that." + +"Keep----!" growled Sheedy. "He's got that himself. Made me make him a +present of it, or--or he'd turn me over for a little trouble I had down +in Duluth." + +Toppy stiffened and looked at him carefully. + +"Telling the truth, Bill?" + +"Ask him," replied Sheedy. "He don't make no bones about it; he gets +something on you and then he grafts on you till you're dry." + +Toppy stood silent while he assimulated this information. His scrutiny +of Sheedy told him that the man was telling the truth. He felt grateful +to Sheedy; through him he had got a new light on Reivers' character, +light which he knew he could use later on. + +"Through making an ass of yourself here, Bill?" he asked briskly. Bill's +answer was to hang his head in a way that showed how thoroughly all the +fight was taken out of him. + +"All right, then; grab a wheelbarrow and get into the pit. Keep your end +up with the other men and there'll be no hard feelings. Try to play any +of your tricks, and it's good night for you. Now get to it, or get out." + +Sheedy's rush for a wheelbarrow showed how relieved he was. He had been +standing between the devil and the deep sea--between Reivers with his +awful displeasure and Toppy with his awful punch; and he was eager to +find a haven. + +"I ain't trying any tricks," he muttered as he made for the quarry. "The +Snow-Burner--he's the one. He copped me dough and sent me down here and +told me to work off my mad on you." + +"Well, you've worked it off now, I guess," said Toppy curtly. "Dig in, +now; you're half a dozen loads behind." + +Sheedy did not fill the place of the man he had supplanted, for in his +mixed-ale condition he was unable to work a full day at a strong man's +pace. However, he did so well that when Toppy checked up in the evening +he found that his tally again was well over the stipulated average of a +hundred loads of rock per hour. + +"Move two," he thought. "I wonder what comes next?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV--"JOKER AND DEUCES WILD" + + +When Toppy went back to the shop that evening he found old Campbell +cooking the evening meal with only his right hand in use, the left being +wrapped in a neat bandage. + +"That's what comes of leaving me without a helper," grumbled the Scot as +Toppy looked enquiringly at the injured hand. "I maun have ye back, lad; +I will not be knocking my hands to pieces doing two men's work to please +any man. And yet--" he cocked his head on one side and looked fondly at +the bandage--"I dunno but what 'twas worth it. I'm an auld man, and it's +long sin' I had a pretty lass make fuss over me." + +"What?" snapped Toppy. + +"Oh, go on with ye, lad," teased Scotty, holding the bandage up for his +admiration. "Can not you see that I'm by nature a fav'rite with the +ladies? Yon lass in the office sewed this bandage on my old meat hook. + +"'Does it hurt, Mr. Campbell?' says she. 'Not as much as something +that's heavy on my mind, lass,' says I. 'What's that?' she says. 'Mr. +Reivers and you, lass,' says I; and I told her as well as an old man can +tell a lass who's little more than a child just what the Snow-Burner is. +'I can't believe it,' says she. 'He's a gentleman.' 'More's the pity,' I +says. 'That's what makes him dangerous.' 'Were you not afraid of him at +first?' says I. 'Yes,' she says. 'Tell me honest, as you would your own +father,' says I, 'are you not afraid of him now?' + +"With that she gave me a look like a little fawn that has smelled the +wolf circling 'round it, but she will not answer. 'He can't be what you +say he is,' she says, trembling. 'Lass,' says I, 'a week ago you would +never have believed it possible that you'd ever wish aught to do with +him. Now you walk with him and talk with him, and smile when he does.' +And I told her of Tilly. + +"'It's not so,' says she. 'It can't be so. Mr. Reivers is a gentleman, +not a brute. He's too strong and fine,' says she, 'for such conduct.' +And the bandage being done, I was dismissed with a toss of the head. +Aye, aye, lad; but 'twas fine to have her little fingers sewing away +around my old hand. Yon's a fine, sweet lass; but I fear me Reivers has +set his will to win her." + +Toppy made no reply. Campbell's words aroused only one emotion in him--a +fresh flare of anger against Reivers. For it was Reivers, and his +strength and dominance, that was responsible. Toppy already was sorry +for the swift judgment that he had passed on the girl on Sunday, and for +the rudeness which, in his anger, he had displayed toward her. He knew +now the power that lay in Reivers' will, the calm, compelling fire that +lurked in his eyes. + +Men quailed before those eyes and did their bidding. And a girl, a +little girl who must naturally feel grateful toward him for her +position, could hardly be expected to resist the Snow-Burner's +undeniable fascinations. Why should she? Reivers was everything that +women were drawn to in men--kinglike in his power of mind and body, +striking in appearance, successful in whatever he sought to do. + +It was inevitable that the girl should fall under his spell, but the +thought of it sent a chill up Toppy's spine as from the thought of +something monstrous. He raged inwardly as he remembered how clearly the +girl had let him see his own insignificance in her estimation compared +with Reivers. She had refused to believe Campbell; Toppy knew that she +would refuse to listen to him if he tried to warn her against Reivers. + +The fashion in which he slammed the supper-dishes on the table brought a +protest from Scotty. + +"Dinna be so strong with the dishes, lad; they're not iron," said he. + +"You 'tend to your cooking," growled Toppy. "I'll set this table." + +Campbell paused with a spoon in midair and gaped at him in astonishment. +He opened his mouth to speak, but the black scowl on Toppy's brow +checked his tongue. Silently he turned to his cooking. He had seen that +he was no longer boss in the room behind the shop. + +After supper Campbell brought forth a deck of cards and began to play +solitaire. Toppy threw himself upon his bunk and lay in the darkness +with his troublesome thoughts. An unmistakable step outside the door +brought him to his feet, for he had an instinctive dislike to meeting +Reivers save face to face and standing up. Reivers came in without +speaking and shut the door behind him. He stood with his hand on the +knob and looked over at Toppy and shook his head. + +"Treplin, how could you disappoint me so?" he asked mockingly. "After I +had reposed such confidence in you, too! I'm sorely disappointed in you. +I never looked for you to be a victim of the teachings of weak men and I +find--ye gods! I find that you're a humanitarian!" + +By this and this only did Reivers indicate that he had knowledge of how +Toppy had protected his men. + +Toppy looked steadily across the room at him, a grim smile on his lips. + +"Did Bill Sheedy call me that?" he asked drily. "Shame on him if he did; +I didn't make him slip me the Torta boys' money as a present." + +Reivers' laugh rang instantly through the room. + +"So you've won Bill's confidences already, have you?" he said without +the slightest trace of shame or discomfiture. "Dear old Bill! He +actually seemed to be under the impression that he had a title to that +money--until I suggested otherwise. I ask you, Treplin, as a man with a +trained if not an efficient mind, is Bill Sheedy a proper man to possess +the title to ninety-eight dollars?" + +He swung across the room, laughing heartily, and reached into the +cupboard for Scotty's whiskey. As he did so his eyes fell upon the cards +which Scotty was placing upon the table, and for the first time Toppy +saw in his eyes the gleam of a human weakness. Reivers stood, paused, +for an instant, his eyes feasting upon the cards. It was only an +instant, but it was enough to whisper to Toppy the secret of the +Snow-Burner's passion for play. And Toppy exulted at this chance +discovery of the vulnerable joint in Reivers' armour; for Toppy--alas for +his misspent youth!--was a master-warrior when a deck of cards was the +field of battle. + +"It's none of my funeral, Reivers," he said carelessly, strolling over +to the table where Campbell went on playing, apparently oblivious to the +conversation. "I don't know anything about Sheedy. Of course, if you're +serious, the Torta boys are the only ones in camp who've got any right +to the money." + +Reivers stopped short in the act of pouring himself a drink. Campbell, +with his back toward Reivers, paused with a card in his hand. Toppy +yawned and dropped into a chair from which he could watch Campbell's +game. + +"But that's none of my business," he said as if dropping the subject. +"There's a chance for your black queen, Scotty." + +Reivers poured himself his tumbler full of Scotch whiskey, drew up a +third chair to the table and sat down across from Toppy. The latter +apparently was absorbed in watching Campbell's solitaire. Reivers took a +long, contented sip of his fiery tipple and smiled pleasantly. + +"You turned loose an idea there, Treplin," he said. "But can you make +your premise stand argument? Are you sure that the Torta boys are the +ones who have a right to that ninety-eight dollars? On what grounds do +you give them the exclusive title to the money?" + +"It's theirs. Bill stole it from them. You said he did. That's all I +know about it," said Toppy, scarcely raising his eyes from the cards. + +"Why do you say it was theirs, Treplin?" persisted Reivers smilingly. +"Merely because they had it in their possession! Isn't that so? You +don't know how they came by it, but because they had it in their +possession you speak of it as theirs. Very well. Bill Sheedy took it +away from them. It was in his possession, so, following your line of +logic, it was his--for a short while. + +"I took it from Bill. It's in my possession now. Therefore, if your +premise is sound, the money is mine. Why, Treplin, I'm really obliged to +you for furnishing me such a clear title to my loot. It was--ah--beginning +to trouble my conscience." He laughed suddenly, punctuating his laughter +with a blow of his fist on the table. + +"All rot, Treplin; all silly sophistry which weak men have built up to +protect themselves from the strong! The infernal lie that because a man +is in possession of a certain thing it is his to the exclusion of the +rest of the world! Property-rights! I'll tell you the truth--why this +money is mine, why I'm the one who has the real title to it. I was able +to take it, and I am able to keep it. There's the natural law of +property-rights, Treplin. What do you say to that?" + +"Fine!" laughed Toppy, throwing up his hands in surrender. "You bowl me +over, Reivers. The money is yours; and--" he glanced at the cards "--and +if you and I should play a little game of poker, joker and deuces wild, +and I should take it away from you, it would be mine; and there you +are." + +The words had slipped out of him, apparently without any aim; but Toppy +saw by the sudden glance which Reivers dropped to the cards that the +gambling-hunger in the Snow-Burner had been awakened. + +"Joker and deuces wild," he repeated as if fascinated. "Yes, that ought +to help make a two-handed game fast." + +The whole manner of the man seemed for the moment changed. For the first +time since Toppy had met him he seemed to be seriously interested. +Previously, when he played with the lives and bodies of men or devilled +their minds with his wiles, his interest had never been deeper than that +of a man who plays to keep himself from being bored. He was the master +in all such affairs; they could furnish him at their best but an idle +sort of interest. But not even the Snow-Burner was master of the +inscrutable laws of Chance. Nor was he master of himself when cards were +flipping before his eyes. Toppy had guessed right; Reivers had a +weakness, and it was to be "card-crazy." + +"Get over there on that other table with your solitaire, Campbell!" he +ordered. He reached into Campbell's liquor-cabinet and drew out a fresh +pack of cards, which he tossed to Toppy. "You started something, Mr. +Humanitarian," he continued, clearing the table. "Open the deck and cut +for deal. Then show me what you've got to stack up against this +ninety-eight dollars." And he slapped a wad of crumpled bills on the +table. + +Toppy nonchalantly reached into his pockets. Then he grinned. The two +twenty-dollar bills which he had paid the agent back in Rail Head for +the privilege of hiring out to Hell Camp were all the money he had with +him. He was broke. He debated with himself a moment, then unhooked his +costly watch from the chain and pushed it across to Reivers. + +"You can sell that for five hundred--if you win it," he said. "I'll play +it even against your ninety-eight bucks. Give me forty-nine to start +with. If you win them give me forty-nine more, and the watch is yours. +Right?" + +"Right," said Reivers, keeping the watch and dividing his roll with +Toppy. "Dollar jack-pots, table-stakes. Deal 'em up." + +Toppy lost ten dollars on the first hand almost before he realised that +the game had begun. He called Reivers' bet and had three fours and +nothing else in his hand. Reivers had two of the wild deuces and a king. +Toppy shook his head, like a pugilist clearing his wits after a +knockdown. Why had he called? He knew his three fours weren't good. His +card-sense had told him so. He had called against his judgment. Why? + +Suddenly, like something tangible pressing against his brain, he felt +Reivers' will thrusting itself against his. Then he knew. That was why +he had called. Reivers had willed that he do so, and, catching him off +his guard, had had his way. + +"Good work!" said Toppy, passing the cards. He was himself again; his +wits had cleared. He allowed Reivers to take the next three pots in +succession without a bet. Reivers looked at him puzzled. The fourth pot +Toppy opened for five dollars and Reivers promptly raised him ten. After +the draw Toppy bet a dollar, and Reivers again raised it to ten more. +Toppy called. Reivers, caught bluffing without a single pair, stared as +Toppy laid down his hand and revealed nothing but his original openers, +a pair of aces. A frown passed over Reivers' face. He peered sharply at +Toppy from beneath his overhanging brows, but Toppy was raking in the +pot as casually as if such play with a pair of aces was part of his +system. + +"Good work!" said Reivers, and gathered the cards to him with a jerk. + +Half a dozen hands later, on Reivers' deal, Toppy picked up his hand and +saw four kings. + +"I'll pass," said he. + +"I open for five," said Reivers. + +"Take the money," laughed Toppy carelessly throwing his hand into the +discard. For an instant Reivers' eyes searched him with a look of +surprise. The glance was sufficient to tell Toppy that what he had +suspected was true. + +"So he's dealing 'em as he wants 'em!" thought Toppy. "All right. He's +brought it on himself." + +An hour later Reivers arose from the table with a smile. The money had +changed hands. Toppy was snapping his watch back on its chain, and +stuffing the bills into his pocket. + +"Your money now, Treplin," laughed Reivers. "Until somebody takes it +away from you." + +But there was a new note in his laughter. He had been beaten, and his +irritation showed in his laughter and in the manner in which, after he +had taken another big drink of whiskey, he paused in the doorway as he +made to leave. + +"Great luck, Treplin; great luck with cards you have!" he said +laughingly. "Too bad your luck ends there, isn't it? What's that +paraphrase of the old saw? 'Lucky with cards, unlucky with women.' Good +night, Treplin." + +He went out, laughing as a man laughs when he has a joke on the other +fellow. + +"What did he mean by that?" asked Campbell, puzzled. + +"I don't know," said Toppy. But he knew now that Tilly had told Reivers +of his talk with Miss Pearson the first evening in camp, and that +Reivers had saved it up against him. + + + + +CHAPTER XV--THE WAY OF THE SNOW-BURNER + + +In the morning, before the time for beginning the day's work, Toppy went +to the stockade; and with one of his English-speaking Slavs acting an +interpreter hunted up the Torta brothers and returned to them the stolen +money which he had won from Reivers. He did not consider it necessary to +go into the full details of how the money came to be in his possession, +or attempt to explain the prejudice of his kind against keeping stolen +goods. + +"Just tell them that Sheedy gave up the money, and that it's theirs +again; and they'd better hide it in their shoes so they won't lose it," +he directed the interpreter. + +Whereat the latter, a garrulous young man who had been telling the camp +all about the wonderful new "bahss" in the quarry--a "bahss" who saved +men's lives--whenever he could get any one to listen, broke forth into a +wonderful tale of how the money came to be returned, and of the +wonderful "bahss" that stood before them, whom they should all take off +their caps to and worship. + +For this was no ordinary man, this "bahss." No, he was far above all +other men. It was an honour to work under him. For instance, as to this +money: the "bahss" had heard how the red-haired one--Sheedy--had stolen, +how he oppressed many poor men and broke the noses of those who dared to +stand up against him. + +The "bahss" had the interests of poor men at heart. What had he done? He +had struck the red-haired one such a mighty blow in the stomach that the +red-haired one had flown high in the air, and alighting on the ground +had been moved by the fear of death and disgorged the stolen money that +his conscience might be easy. + +The story of how Toppy had propped up the roof of the stone quarry, and +saved the limbs and possibly lives of his workmen; how he had driven the +shotgun guard away, and how he had smitten Sheedy and laid him low +before all men, had circulated through the camp by this time. Everybody +knew that the new straw-boss, though fully as big and strong as the +Snow-Burner himself, was a man who considered the men under him as +something more than cattle and treated them accordingly. True, he drove +men hard; but they went willingly for him, whereas under the Snow-Burner +they hurried merely because of the chill fear that his eyes drove into +their hearts. In short, Toppy was just such a boss as all men wished to +work under--strong but just, firm but not inhuman. + +Even Sheedy was loyal to him. + +"He laid me out, all right," he grumbled to a group of "white men," +"but, give him credit for it, he give me a chanct to get up me guard. +There won't be any breaking yer bones when yuh ain't lookin' from him. +And he wouldn't graft on yuh, either. He's right. That other ----, he--he +ain't human." + +The fact that he had been humane enough, and daring enough, to prop up +the roof of the quarry had no effect on the "white men" toward +developing a respect for Toppy. They despised the Slavs too thoroughly +to be conscious of any brotherhood with them. But that he could put Bill +Sheedy away with a single punch, that he could warn Bill to put up his +guard and then knock him out with one blow, that was something to wring +respect even from that hard-bitten crew. + +The Snow-Burner never had done anything like that. He had laid low the +biggest men in camp, but it was usually with a kick or with a blow that +was entirely unexpected. The Snow-Burner never warned any body. He +smiled, threw them off their guard, then smote like a flash of +lightning. He had whipped half a dozen men at once in a stand-up fight, +but they had been poor Bohunks, fools who couldn't fight unless they had +knives in their hands. But to tell a seasoned bruiser like Bill, the +best man with his fists in camp, to put up his hands and then beat him +to the knockout punch--that was something that not even the Snow-Burner +had attempted to do. + +That was taking a chance, that was; and the Snow-Burner never took +chances. That was why these cruel-fierce "white men," though they +admired and applauded him for his dominance and his ruthlessness toward +the Slavs, hated Reivers with a hatred that sprang from the Northern +man's instinctive liking for fair play in a fight. They began naturally +to compare him with Toppy, who had played fair and yet won. And, +naturally, because such were the standards they lived and died by, they +began to predict that some day the Snow-Burner and Toppy must fight, and +they hoped that they might be there to see the battle. + +So Toppy, this morning, as he came to the stockade, was in the position +of something of a hero to most of the rough men who slouched past him in +the gloom to their day's work. He had felt it before, this hero-worship, +and he recognised it again. Though the surroundings were vastly +different and the men about him of a strange breeding, the sense of it +was much the same as that he had known at school when, a sweater thrown +across his huge shoulders, he had ploughed his way through the groups of +worshipping undergrads on to the gridiron. It was much the same here. +Men looked up to him. They nudged one another as they passed, lowered +their voices when he was near, studied him appraisingly. Toppy had felt +it before, too often to be mistaken; and the youth in his veins +responded warmly. The respect of these men was a harder thing to win +than the other. He thought of how he had arrived in camp, shaky from +Harvey Duncombe's champagne, with no purpose in life, no standing among +men who were doing men's work. Grimly also he thought of how Miss +Pearson, that first evening, had called him a "nice boy." Would she call +him that now, he wondered, if she could see how these rough, tired men +looked up to him? Would Reivers treat him as a thing to experiment with +after this? + +Thus it was a considerably elated Toppy, though not a big-headed one, +who led his men out of the stockade, to the quarry--to the blow that +Reivers had waiting for him there. His first hint that something was +wrong was when the foremost men, whistling and tool-laden, made for the +pit in the first grey light of day and paused with exclamations and +curses at its very mouth. Others crowded around them. They looked +within. Then, with fallen jaws, they turned and looked to the "bahss" +for an explanation, for help. + +Toppy shouldered his way through the press and stepped inside. Then he +saw what had halted his men and made their faces turn white. To the last +stick the shoring-timbers had been removed from the pit, and the roof, +threatening and sharp-edged, hung ready to drop on the workmen below, as +it had before Toppy had wrought a change. + +The daylight came creeping up the river and a wind began to blow. So +still was it there before the pit-mouth that Toppy was conscious of +these things as he stepped outside. The men were standing about with +their wheelbarrows and tools in their hands. They looked to him. His was +the mind and will to determine what they should do. They depended upon +him; they trusted him; they would obey his word confidently. + +Toppy felt a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. He wanted to take +off his cap, to bare his head to the chill morning wind, to draw his +hand across his eyes, to do something to ease himself and gather his +wits. He did none of these things. The instinct of leadership arose +strong within him. He could not show these men who looked up to him as +their unquestioned leader that he had been dealt a blow that had taken +the mastery from him. + +For Toppy, in that agonised second when he glanced up at the unsupported +roof and knew what those loose rocks meant to any men working beneath, +realised that he could not drive his men in there to certain injury for +many, possibly death for some. It wasn't in him. He wasn't bred that +way. The unfeeling brute had been removed from his big body and spirit +by generations of men and women who had played fair with inferiors, and +by a lifetime of training and education. + +He understood plainly the significance of the thing. Reivers had done +it; no one else would have dared. He had lifted Toppy up to a tiny +elevation above the other men in camp; now he was knocking him down. It +was another way for Reivers to show his mastery. The men who had begun +to look up to Toppy would now see how easily the Snow-Burner could show +himself his superior. Miss Pearson would hear of it. He would appear in +the light of a "nice boy" whom the Snow-Burner had played with. + +These thoughts ran through Toppy's mind as he stood outside the pit, +with his white-faced men looking up to him, and groped for a way out of +his dilemma. Within he was sickened with the sense of a catastrophe; +outside he remained calm and confident to the eye. He stepped farther +out, to where he could see the end of the dam where he had secured the +props for the roof. It was as he had expected; the big pile of timbers +that had lain there was gone to the last stick. He turned slowly back, +and then in the grey light of coming day he looked into the playfully +smiling face of Reivers, who had emerged, it seemed, from nowhere. + +"Looking for your humanitarian props, Treplin?" laughed the Snow-Burner. +"Oh, they're gone; they're valuable; they served a purpose which nothing +else would fill--quite so conveniently. I used them for a corduroy road +in the swamp. Between men and timbers, Treplin, always save your +timbers." His manner changed like a flash to one hurried and +business-like. "What're you waiting for?" he snarled. "Why don't you get +'em in there? Mean to say you're wasting company money because one of +these cattle might get a broken back?" + +They looked each other full in the eyes, but Toppy knew that for the +time being Reivers had the whiphand. + +"I mean to say just that," he said evenly. "I'm not sending any men in +there until I get that roof propped up again." + +"Bah!" Reivers' disgust was genuine. "I thought you were a man; I find +you're a suit of clothes full of emotions, like all the rest!" + +He seemed to drive away his anger by sheer will-force and bring the +cold, sneering smile back to his lips. + +"So we're up against a situation that's too strong for us, are we, Mr. +Humanitarian?" he laughed. "In spite of our developed intelligence, we +lay down cold in the face of a little proposition like this! Good-bye to +our dreams of learning how to handle men! It isn't in us to do it; we're +a weak sister." + +His bantering mood fled with the swiftness of all his changes. Toppy and +his aspirations as a leader--that was another incident of the day's work +that was over and done with. + +"Go back to the shop, to Scotty, Treplin," he said quietly. "You're not +responsible for your limitations. Scotty says you make a pretty fair +helper. Be consoled. He's waiting for you." + +He turned instantly toward the men. Toppy, with the hot blood rushing in +his throat, but helpless as he was, swung away from the pit without a +word. As he did so he saw that the hawk-faced shotgun guard had appeared +and taken his position on the little rise where his gun bore slantwise +on the huddled men before the pit, and he hurried to get out of sight of +the scene. His tongue was dry and his temples throbbing with rage, but +the cool section of his mind urged him away from the pit in silence. + +Between clenched teeth he cursed his injured ankle. It was the ankle +that made him accept without return the shame which Reivers had put upon +him. The canny sense within him continued to whisper that until the +ankle was sound he must bide his time. Reivers and he were too nearly a +pair to give him the slightest chance for success if he essayed defiance +at even the slightest disadvantage. + +Choking back as well as he could the anger that welled up within him, he +made his way swiftly to the blacksmith-shop. Campbell, bending over the +anvil, greeted Toppy cheerily as he heard the heavy tread behind him. + +"The Snow-Burner promised he'd send you here, and----Losh, mon!" he gasped +as he turned around and saw Toppy's face. "What's come o'er ye? You look +like you're ripe for murder." + +"There'll probably be murder done in this camp before the day's over, +but I won't do it," replied Toppy. + +As he threw off his mackinaw preparatory to starting work he snapped out +the story of the situation at the quarry. Campbell, leaning on his +hammer, grew grim of lips and eyes as he listened. + +"Aye; I thought at the time it were better for you had ye lost at poker +last night," he said slowly. "He's taking revenge. But they will put out +his light for him. Human flesh and blood won't stand it. The Snow-Burner +goes too far. He'll----Hark! Good Heavens! Hear that!" + +For a moment they stood near the open doorway of the shop staring at one +another in horrified, mute questioning. The crisp stillness of the +morning rang and echoed with the sharp roar of a shotgun. The sound came +from the direction of the quarry. Across the street they heard the door +of the office-building open sharply. The girl, without hat or coat, her +light hair flying about her head, came running like a deer to the door +of the shop. + +"Mr. Campbell, Mr. Campbell!" she called tremblingly, peering inside. +Then she saw Toppy. + +"Oh!" she gasped. She started back a little. There were surprise and +relief in her exclamation, in her eyes, in her movement. + +"I was afraid--I thought maybe----" She drew away from the door in +confusion. "I only wanted to know--to know--what that noise was." + +But Toppy had stepped outside the shop and followed closely after her. + +"What did you think it was, Miss Pearson?" he asked. "What were you +afraid of when you heard that shot? That something had happened between +Reivers and myself?" + +"I--I meant to warn you," she said, greatly flustered. "Tilly told me all +about--a lot of things last night. She told me that she had told Reivers +all she heard you say to me that first night here, and that he--Mr. +Reivers, she said, was your enemy, and that he would--would surely hurt +you." + +"Yes?" + +"I didn't want to see you get hurt, because I felt it was because of me +that you came here. I--I don't want any one hurt because of me." + +"That's all?" he asked. + +She looked surprised. + +"Why, yes." + +Toppy nodded curtly. + +"Then Tilly told you that Mr. Reivers had a habit of hurting people?" + +At this the red in her cheeks rose to a flush. Her blue eyes looked at +him waveringly, then dropped to the ground. + +"It isn't true! It can't be true!" she stammered. + +"Did Tilly tell you--about herself?" he persisted mercilessly. + +The next instant he wished the words unsaid, for she shrank as if he had +struck her. She looked very small just then. Her proud, self-reliant +bearing was gone. She was very much all alone. + +"Yes." The word was scarcely more than a whisper and she did not look +up. "But it--it can not be so; I know it can not." + +Toppy was no student of feminine psychology, but he saw plainly that +just then she was a woman who did not wish to believe, therefore would +not believe, anything ill of the man who had fascinated her. He saw that +Reivers had fascinated her; that in spite of herself she was drawn +toward him, dominated by him. Her mind told her that what she had heard +of the man was true, but her heart refused to let her believe. Toppy saw +that she was very unhappy and troubled, and unselfishly he forgot +himself and his enmity toward Reivers in a desire to help her. + +"Miss Pearson!--Miss Pearson!" he cried eagerly. "Is there anything I can +do for you--anything in the world?" + +"Yes," she said slowly. "Tell me that it isn't so--what Mr. Campbell and +Tilly have said about Mr. Reivers." + +"I----" He was about to say that he could do nothing of the sort, but +something made him halt. "Has Reivers broken his word to you--about +leaving you alone?" + +"No, no! He's--he's left me alone. He's scarcely spoken to me half a +dozen times." + +Toppy looked down at her for several seconds. + +"But you've begun to care for Reivers, haven't you?" he said. + +The girl looked up at him uncertainly. + +"I don't know. Oh, I don't know! I don't seem to have any will of my own +toward him. I seem to see him as a different man. I know I shouldn't; +but I can't help it, I can help it! He--he looks at me, and I feel as +if--as if--" her voice died down to a horrified whisper--"I were nothing, +and his wishes were the only things in the world." + +Toppy bowed his head. + +"Then I guess there's nothing for me to say." + +"Don't!" she cried, stretching out her hand to restrain him as he turned +away. "Don't leave me--like that. You're so rude to me lately. I feel so +terribly alone when you--aren't nice to me." + +"What difference can I make?" he said bitterly. "I'm not Reivers." + +She looked up at him again. + +"Oh!" she cried suddenly. "Won't you help me, Mr. Treplin? Can't you +help me?" + +"Help you?" gasped Toppy. "May I? Can I? What can I do?" + +He leaned toward her eagerly. + +"What can I do" he repeated. + +"Oh, I don't know!" she murmured in anguish. "But if you--if you leave +me--Oh! What was that?" + +From the direction of the quarry had come a great scream of terror, as +if many men suddenly had cried out in fear of their lives. Then, almost +ere the echoes had died away, came another sound, of more sinister +significance to Toppy. There was a sudden low rumble; the earth under +their feet trembled; then the noise of a crash and a thud. Then it was +still again. + +A chill seemed to pass over the entire camp. Men began running toward +the quarry with swift steps, their faces showing that they dreaded what +they expected to see. Toppy and Campbell looked silently at one another. + +"Go into the office," he said quietly to the girl. "Come on, Scotty; +that roof's caved in." And without another word they ran swiftly toward +the quarry. As they reached the river-bank they heard Reivers' voice +quietly issuing orders. + +"You guards pick those two fellows up and carry them to their bunks. You +scum that's left, pick up your tools and dig into that fallen rock. +Hustle now! Get right back to work!" + +The first thing that Toppy saw as he turned the shoulder of the ledge +was that two of the older Slavs were lying groaning on the ground to one +side of where the pit mouth had been. Then he saw what was left of the +pit. The entire side of the ledge had caved down, and where the pit had +been was only a jumbled pile of jagged rock. Reivers stood in his old +position before the pile. The hawk-nosed shotgun guard stood up on the +little rise, his weapon ready. The remaining workmen were huddled +together before the pile of fallen stone. The terror in their faces was +unspeakable. They were like lost, driven cattle facing the butcher's +hammer. + +"Grab those tools there! Get at it! The rock's right in front of you +now! Get busy!" + +Reivers' voice in no way admitted that anything startling had occurred. +He glared at the cowering men, and in terror they began hastily to +resume their interrupted work, filling their wheelbarrows from the pile +of stone before them. Reivers turned toward Toppy who had bent over the +injured men. "Hello, Dr. Treplin," he laughed lightly. "A couple of jobs +there for you to experiment on. Get 'em out of here--to their bunks; +they're in the way. Patch 'em up if you can. If you can't they're not +much loss, anyhow. They're rather older than I like 'em." + +The last words came carelessly over his shoulder as he turned back +toward the men who were toiling at the rock. A string of curses rolled +coldly from his lips. They leaped to obey him. He smiled contemptuously. + +Toppy was relieved to see that the two men on the ground were apparently +not fatally hurt. With the aid of Campbell and two guards who had run up +he hurried to have the men placed in their bunks in the stockade. One of +the guards produced a surgeon's kit. Toppy rolled up his sleeves. It +wasn't as bad as he had feared it would be, apparently; only two +injured, where he had looked for some surely to be killed. One of the +men was growing faint from loss of blood from a wound in his right leg. +Toppy, turning his attention to him first, swiftly slit open the +trousers-leg and bared the injured limb. + +"What--what the devil?" he cried aghast. The calf of the man's leg was +half torn away, and from knee to ankle the flesh was sprinkled with +buckshot-holes. + +"They shot you?" he asked as he fashioned a tourniquet. + +"Yes, bahass. Snow-Burner say, 'Get t' 'ell in there.' Rocks fall; we no +go in. Snow-Burner hold up hand. Man with gun shoot. I fall. Other men +go in. Pretty soon rocks fall. Other men come out. He shoot me. I no do +anything; he shoot me." + +Toppy choked back the curse that rose to his lips, dressed the man's +wound to the best of his slight ability, and turned to the other, who +had been caught in the cave-in of the quarry-roof. His right leg and arm +were broken, and the side was crushed in a way that suggested broken +ribs. Toppy filled a hypodermic syringe and went to work to make the two +as comfortable as he knew how. That was all he could pretend to do. Yet +when he left the stockade it was with a feeling of relief that he looked +back over the morning. The worst had happened; the danger to the men was +over; and, so far as Toppy knew, the consequences were represented in +the two men whom he had treated and who, so far as he could see, were +sure to live. It hadn't turned out as badly as he was afraid it would. + +As he passed the carpenter-shop he saw the "wood-butcher" sawing two +boards to make a cover for a long, narrow box. Toppy looked at him idly, +trying to think of what such a box could be used for around the camp. It +was too narrow for its length to be of ordinary use as a box. + +"What are you making there?" asked Toppy carelessly. + +The "wood-butcher" looked up from his sawing. + +"Didn't you ever see a logging-camp coffin?" he asked. "We always keep a +few ready. This one is for that Bohunk that's down there under the +rocks." + +"Under the rocks!" cried Toppy. "You don't mean to say there was anybody +under that cave-in!" + +"Is yet," was the laconic reply. "One of 'em was caught 'way inside. +Whole roof on top of him. Won't find him till the pit's emptied." + +Toppy struggled a moment to speak quietly. + +"Which one was it, do you know?" he asked. + +"Oh, it was that old brown-complected fellow," said the carpenter. "That +old Bohunk guy with the big rings in his ears." + +Reivers came to the shop at his customary time in the evening, nothing +in his manner containing a hint that anything unusual had happened +during the day. He found a solemn and silent pair, for Campbell had +sought relief from the day's tragedy in his customary manner and sat in +the light of the student-lamp steadily reading his Bible, while Toppy, +in a dark corner, sat with his great shoulders hunched forward, his +folded hands before him, and stared at the floor. Reivers paused in the +doorway, his cold smile broadening as he surveyed the pair. + +"Poker to-night--doctor?" he said softly, and the slur in his tones was +like blasphemy toward all that men hold sacred. + +"No, by ----, no!" growled Toppy. + +Laughing lightly, Reivers closed the door and came across the room. + +"What? Aren't you going to give me my revenge--doctor?" The manner in +which he accented "doctor" was worse than an open insult. + +Old Campbell peered over his thick glasses. + +"The sword of judgment is sharpening for you, Mr. Reivers," he said +solemnly. "You ha' this day sealed your own doom. A life for a life; and +you have taken a life to-day unnecessarily. It is the holy law; you will +pay. It is so written." + +"Yes, yes, yes!" laughed Reivers in great amusement. "But you've said +that so many times before in just that same way, Scotty. Can't you +evolve a new idea? Or at least sing it in a different key?" + +The old Scot looked at him without wavering or changing his expression. + +"You are the smartest man I have ever known, Mr. Reivers, and the +domdest fool," he said in the same tone. "Do you fancy yourself more +than mortal? Losh, man! A knife in the bowels, or a bullet or ax in the +head will as readily make you a bit of poor clay as you've this day made +yon poor old Bohunk." + +Reivers listened courteously to the end, waiting even a moment to be +sure that Campbell had had his say. + +"And you--doctor?" he said turning to Toppy. "What melancholy thoughts +have you to utter?" + +Toppy said nothing. + +"Oh, come, Treplin!" said Reivers lightly. "Surely you're not letting a +little thing like that quarry-incident give you a bad evening? Where's +your philosophy, man? Consider the thing intelligently instead of +sentimentally. There was so much rock to go into that dam in a day--and +incidentally to-day finished the job. That was a useful, necessary work. + +"For that old man to continue in this life was not useful or necessary. +He was far down in the order of human development; centuries below you +and me. Do you think it made the slightest difference whether he +returned to the old cosmic mud whence he came, and from which he had not +come far, in to-day's little cave-in, or in a dirty bed, say ten years +from now? + +"He accomplished a tiny speck of useful work, through my direction. He +has gone, as the wood will soon be gone that is heating that stove. +There was no spirit there; only a body that has ceased to stand upright. +And you grow moody over it! Well, well! I'm more and more disappointed +in you--doctor." + +Toppy said nothing. He was biding his time. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI--THE SCREWS TIGHTEN + + +That night came the heavy snow for which the loggers had been waiting, +and a rush of activity followed in Hell Camp. The logs which had lain in +the woods for want of sleighing now were accessible. Following the snow +came hard, freezing nights, and the main ice-roads which Reivers had +driven into the timber for miles became solid beds of ice over which a +team could haul log loads to the extent of a carload weight. It was +ideal logging-weather, and the big camp began to hum. + +The mastery of Reivers once more showed itself in the way in which he +drove his great crew at top speed and beyond. The feeling against him on +the part of the men had risen to silent, tight-lipped heat as the news +went around of how the old Magyar with the ear-rings had met his death. +Each man in camp knew that he might have been in the old man's shoes; +each knew that Reivers' anger might fall on him next. In the total of a +hundred and fifty men in camp there was probably not one who did not +curse Reivers and rage against his rule, and there were few who, if the +opportunity had offered, would not cheerfully have taken his life. + +The feeling against him had unified itself. Before, the men had been +split into various groups on the subject of the boss. They remained +divided now, but on one thing they were unanimous: the Snow-Burner had +gone too far to bear. Men sat on the bunk-edges in the stockade and +cursed as they thought of the boss and the shotgun guards that rendered +them helpless. Reivers permitted no firearms of any kind in camp save +those that were carried by his gunmen. + +The gunmen when not on guard kept to their quarters, in the building +just outside of the stockade gate, where Reivers also lived. When armed, +they were ordered to permit no man to approach nearer than ten feet to +them--this to prevent a possible rushing and wresting the weapons from +their hands. So long as the guards were there in possession of their +shotguns the men knew that they were helpless. Driven to desperation +now, they prayed for the chance to get those guns into their own hands. +After that they promised themselves that the score of brutality would be +made even. + +Then came the time for rush work, and under the lash of Reivers' will +the outraged men, carried off their feet, were driven with a ferocity +that told how completely Reivers ignored the spirit of revolt which he +knew was fomenting against him. He quit playing with them, as he +expressed it; he began to drive. + +Long before daylight began to grey the sky above the eastern timber-line +the men were out at their posts, waiting for sufficient light to begin +the day's work. Once the work began it went ahead with a fury that +seemed to carry all men with it. Reivers was everywhere that a man dared +to pause for a moment to shirk his job. He used his hands now, for a +broken leg or rib laid a man up, and he had use for the present for +every man he could muster. He scarcely looked at the men he hit, +breaking their faces with a sudden, treacherous blow, cursing them +coldly until, despite their injuries, they leaped at their work, then +whirling away to fall upon some other luckless one elsewhere. + +He was a fury, a merciless elemental force, with no consideration for +the strength and endurance of men; sparing no one any more than he +spared himself, and rushing his whole force along at top speed by sheer +power of the spirit of leadership that possessed him. Men ceased for the +time being to growl and pray that the Snow-Burner would get his just +due. They had no thought nor energies for anything but keeping pace in +the whirlwind rush of work through which the Snow-Burner drove them. + +In the blacksmith-shop the same condition prevailed as elsewhere in the +camp. The extra hurry of the work in the timber meant extra accidents, +which meant breakages. There were chain-links to be forged and fitted to +broken chains; sharp two-inch calks to be driven into the horses' shoes, +peaveys and cant-hooks to be repaired. Besides the regular +blacksmith-work of the camp, which was quite sufficient to keep Campbell +and one helper comfortably employed, there was now added each day a bulk +of extra work due to the strain under which men, horses and tools were +working. + +Old Campbell, grimly resolute that Reivers should have no excuse to fall +foul of him, drove himself and his helper at a speed second only to that +with which he had so roughly greeted Toppy to the rough world of bodily +labour. But the Toppy who now hammered and toiled at Campbell's side was +a different man from the champagne-softened youth who had come into camp +a little while before. The puffiness was gone from under his eyes, the +looseness from his lips and the fat from around the middle. Through his +veins the blood now surged with no taint of cumbering poison; his +tissues tingled with life and healthiness. + +Day by day he did his share and more in the shop-work, and instead of +the old feeling of fatigue, which before had followed any prolonged +exertion, felt his muscles spring with hardness and new life at each +demand made upon them. The old joy of a strong man in his strength came +back in him. Stripped to the waist he stretched himself and filled his +great lungs with deep drafts, his arms like beams stretched out and +above his head. Under the clean skin, rosy and moist from exertion, the +muscles bunched and relaxed, tautened instantly to iron hardness or +rippled softly as they were called upon, in the perfect co-ordination +which results in great athletes. Old Campbell, similarly stripped, +stared at the marvel of a giant's perfect torso, beside which his own +work-wrought body was ugly in its unequal development. + +"Losh, man! But you're full grown!" he growled in admiration. "I've seen +but one man who could strip anywhere near to you." + +"Who was he?" asked Toppy. + +"The Snow-Burner." + +Day by day Toppy hammered and laboured at Campbell's side, holding his +end up against the grim old smith, and day by day he felt his muscles +growing toward that iron condition in which there is no tiring. +Presently, to Scotty's vexation, he was doing more than his share, +ending the day with a laugh and waking up in the morning as fresh as if +he had not taxed his energies the day before. + +At first he continued to favour his injured ankle, lest a sudden strain +delay its recovery. Each night he massaged and bandaged it +scientifically. Later on, when he felt that it was stronger, he began to +exercise it, slowly raising and lowering himself on the balls of his +feet. In a couple of weeks the old spring and strength had largely come +back, and Campbell snorted in disgust at the antics indulged in by his +helper when the day's work was done. + +"Skipping a rope one, twa hundred times! What brand o' silliness do ye +call that?" he grumbled. "Ha' ye nothing useful to do wi' them long legs +of yourn, that you have to make a jumping-jack out o' yourself?" + +At which Toppy smiled grimly and continued his training. + +The rush of work had its compensations. Reivers, driving his force like +mad, had no time to waste either in bantering Toppy and Campbell in the +evening or in paying attention to Miss Pearson. All the power that was +in the Snow-Burner was concentrated upon the problem of getting out +every stick of timber possible while the favourable weather continued. +He spent most of his time in the timber up-river where the heaviest +logging was going on. + +By day he raged in the thick of the men with only one thought or aim--to +get out the logs as fast as human and horse-power could do it. At night +the road-crews, repairing with pick and shovel and sprinkling-tanks the +wear and tear of the day's hauling, worked under Reivers' compelling +eyes. All night long the sprinkling-tanks went up and down the +ice-coated roads, and the drivers, freezing on the seats, were afraid to +stop or nod, not knowing when the Snow-Burner might step out from the +shadows and catch them in the act. + +The number of accidents, always too plentiful in logging-camps, +multiplied, but Reivers permitted nothing short of broken bones to send +a man to his bunk. Toppy, besides his work in the shop, cared as best he +could for the disabled. Reivers had no time to waste that way now. The +two men hurt at the quarry were recovering rapidly. One day a tall, lean +"white man," a Yankee top-loader, came hobbling out of the woods with +his foot dangling at the ankle, and mumbling curses through a smashed +jaw. + +"How did you get this?" asked Toppy, as he dressed the cruelly crushed +foot. + +"Pinched between two logs," mumbled the man. "They let one come down the +skids when I wasn't lookin'. No fault of mine; I didn't have time to +jump. And then, when I'm standin' there leanin' against a tree, that +devil Reivers comes up and hands me this." He pointed to his cracked +jaw. "He'll teach me to get myself hurt, he says. ----! That ain't no man; +he's a devil! By ----! I know what I'd ruther have than the wages comin' +to me, and that's a rifle with one good cattridge in it and that ---- +standin' afore me." + +Yet that evening, when Reivers came to the top-loader's bunk and +demanded how long he expected to lie there eating his head off, the man +cringed and whimpered that he would be back on the job as soon as his +foot was fit to stand on. In Reivers' presence the men were afraid to +call their thoughts their own, but behind his back the mumblings and +grumblings of hatred were growing to a volume which inevitably soon must +break out in the hell-yelp of a mob ripe for murder. + +Reivers knew it better than any man in camp. To indicate how it affected +him he turned the screws on tighter than ever. Once, at least, "they had +him dead," as they admitted, when he stood ankle-deep in the river with +the saw-logs thundering over the rollways to the brink of the bluff +above his head. One cunning twist of a peavey would have sent a dozen +logs tumbling over the brink on his head. Reivers sensed his danger and +looked up. He smiled. Then he turned and deliberately stood with his +back to the men. And no man dared to give his peavey that one cunning +twist. + +During these strenuous days Toppy tried in vain to muster up sufficient +courage to reopen the conversation with Miss Pearson which had been so +suddenly interrupted by the cave-in at the quarry. He saw her every day. +She had changed greatly from the high-spirited, self-reliant girl who +had stood on the steps of the hotel back at Rail Head and told the whole +world by her manner that she was accustomed and able to take care of +herself. A stronger will than hers had entered her scheme of life. + +Although she knew now that Reivers had tricked her into coming to Hell +Camp because he was confident of winning her, the knowledge made no +difference. The will of the man dominated and fascinated her. She feared +him, yet she was drawn toward him despite her struggles. She fought hard +against the inclination to yield to the stronger will, to let her +feelings make her his willing slave, as she knew he wished. The pain of +the struggle shone in her eyes. Her cheeks lost their bloom; there were +lines about the little mouth. + +Toppy saw it, but an unwonted shyness had come upon him. He could no +longer speak to her with the frank friendliness of their previous +conversations. Something which he could not place had, he felt, set them +apart. + +Perhaps it was the fact that he saw the fascinations which Reivers had +for her. Reivers was his enemy. They had been enemies from the moment +when they first had measured each other eye to eye. He felt that he had +one aim in life now, and one only; that was to prove to himself and to +Reivers that Reivers was not his master. + +Beyond that he had no plans. He knew that this meant a grapple which +must end with one of them broken and helpless. The unfortunate one might +be himself. In that case there would be no need to think of the future, +and it would be just as well not to have spoken any more with the girl. + +It might be Reivers. Then he would be guilty in her eyes of having +injured the man for whom the girl now obviously had feelings which Toppy +could construe in but one way. She cared for Reivers, in spite of +herself; and she would not be inclined to friendliness toward the man +who had conquered him, if conquered he should be. + +The more Toppy thought it over the less enviable, to his notion, became +his standing with the girl. He ended by resolutely determining to put +her out of his thoughts. After all, he was no girl's man. He had no +business trying to be. For the present he saw one task laid out before +him as inevitable as a revealed fate--to prove himself with Reivers, to +get to grips with the cold-blooded master-man who had made him feel, +with every man in camp, that the place veritably was a Hell Camp. + +Reivers' brutal dominance lay like a tangible weight upon Toppy's +spirit. He longed for only one thing--for the opportunity to stand up eye +to eye with him and learn who was the better man. Beyond that he did not +see, nor care. He had given up any thought that the girl might ever care +for him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII--TILLY'S WARNING + + +November passed, and the first half of December. The shortest days of +the year were approaching, and still the cold, crisp weather, ideal for +logging, continued without a break. Hell Camp continued to hum with its +abnormal activity. A thaw which would spoil the sleighing and ice-roads +for the time being was long over-due. With the coming of the thaw would +come a temporary lull in the work of the camp. + +The men prayed for the thaw; Reivers asked that the cold weather +continue. It had continued now longer than he had expected or hoped, and +the output of the camp already was double that of what would have been +successful logging at that season. But Reivers was not satisfied. The +record that he was setting served only to spur his ambition to +desperation. + +The longer the cold spell hung on the harder he drove. Each day, as he +looked at the low, grey sky and saw that there were no signs of a +break-up, he turned to and set the pace a little faster than the day +before. The madness of achievement, the passion to use his powers to +accomplish the impossible, the characteristics which had won him the +name of Snow-Burner, were in possession. He was doing the impossible; he +was accomplishing what no other man could do, what all men said was +impossible; and the feat only created a hunger to do more. + +The men were past grumbling now, too tired of body and too crushed of +mind to give expression to their feelings. So long as the rush of work +continued they were as harmless as harnessed and driven cattle, +incapable of anything more than keeping step in the mad march that the +Snow-Burner was leading. But all men knew that with the coming of a thaw +and the cessation of work would come an explosion of the murderous +hatred which Reivers' tactics had driven into the hearts of the men. Now +and then a man, driven to a state of desperation which excluded the +possibility of fear, stopped and rebelled. One day a young swamper, a +gangling lad of twenty, raging and weeping, threw himself upon Reivers +like a cat upon a bear. Reivers, with a laugh, thrust him off and kicked +him out of the way. Another time a huge Slav sprang at him with his +razor-edged ax up-raised, and, quailing before Reivers' calm look, +hurled the ax away with a scream and ran blindly away into the trackless +woods. Three days later, starving and with frozen hands and feet, he +came stumbling up to the stockade and fell in a lump. + +"Feed him up," ordered Reivers, smiling. "I've got a little use for him +when he's fixed up so he can feel. You see, Treplin," he continued to +Toppy, who had been called to bring the man back to life, "I'm not all +cruelty. When I want to save a man to amuse myself with I'm almost as +much of a humanitarian as you are." + +He hurried on his way, but before he was out of hearing he flung back---- + +"You remember how carefully I had Tilly nurse you, don't you--doctor?" + +It was only the guards that Reivers did not make enemies of. He knew +that he had need of their loyalty. At night the "white men" sat on the +edges of their bunks and tried to concoct feasible schemes for securing +possession of the shotguns of the guards. + +On the morning of the shortest day of the year Toppy heard a scratching +sound at the window near his bunk and sprang up. It was still pitch +dark, long before any one should be stirring around camp save the cook +and cookees. + +"Who's there?" demanded Toppy. + +"Me. Want talk um with you," came the low response from without. "You no +come out. No make noise. Hear through window. You can hear um when I +talk huh?" + +"Tilly!" gasped Toppy. "What's up?" + +"You hear um what I talk?" asked the squaw again. + +"Yes, yes; I can hear you. What is it?" + +"You like um li'l Miss Pearson, huh?" said Tilly bluntly. + +"What?" Toppy's heart was pounding with sudden excitement. "What--what's +up, Tilly? There hasn't anything happened to Miss Pearson, has there?" + +"Uh! You like um Miss Pearson? Tell um Tilly straight or Tilly go 'way +and no talk um more with you. You like her? Huh?" + +"Yes," said Toppy breathlessly, after a long pause. "Yes, I like her. +What is it?" + +"You no like see um Miss Pearson get hurt?" + +"No, no; of course not. Who's going to hurt her?" + +"Snow-Burner," said Tilly. "Tilly tell you this before she go 'way. +Tilly going 'way now. Tilly going 'way far off to father's tepee. +Snow-Burner tell um me go. Snow-Burner tell um me go last night. +Snow-Burner say he no want Tilly stay in camp longer. Tilly know why +Snow-Burner no want her stay in camp. Snow-Burner through with Tilly. +Snow-Burner now want um Miss Pearson. So." + +"Tilly! Hold on!" She had already turned away, but she halted at his +voice and came close to the window. "What is this? Are you going away at +once--because the Snow-Burner says so?" + +The squaw nodded, stoically submissive. + +"Snow-Burner say 'go'; Tilly go," she said. "Snow-Burner say go before +any one see um me this morning. I go now. Must go; Snow-Burner say so." + +"And Miss Pearson?" whispered Toppy frantically. "Did he say anything +about her?" + +Tilly nodded heavily. + +"Tell um me long 'go. Tell um me before Miss Pearson come. Tell um me he +going marry Miss Pearson for um Christmas present. Christmas Day come +soon now. Snow-Burner no want Tilly here then. Send Tilly 'way." + +The breath seemed to leave Toppy's body for an instant. He swayed and +caught at the window-frame. + +"Marry her--Christmas Day?" he whispered, horrified. + +"Yes. He no tell um Miss Pearson yet. He tell me no tell um her, no tell +um anybody. I tell you. Now go." + +Before Toppy had sufficiently recovered his wits to speak again he heard +the crunch of her moccasins on the snow dying away in the darkness as +the cast-off squaw stolidly started on her journey into the woods. + +"Tilly!" called Toppy desperately, but there was no answer. + +"What's matter?" murmured Campbell, disturbed in his deep slumber, and +falling to sleep again before he received a reply. + +Toppy stood for a long time with his face held close to the window +through which he had heard Tilly's startling news. The shock had numbed +him. Although he had been prepared to expect anything of Reivers, he now +realised that this was something more than he had thought possible even +from him. The Snow-Burner--marry Miss Pearson--for a Christmas +present--Christmas Day! He seemed to hear Tilly repeating the words over +and over again. And Reivers had not even so much as told Miss Pearson of +what he intended to do. He had not even told her that he intended to +marry her. So Tilly said, and Tilly knew. What did Reivers intend to do +then? How did he know he was going to marry her? How did he know she +would have him? + +Toppy shivered a little as his wits began to work more clearly, and the +full significance of the situation began to grow clear to him. He +understood now. Reivers had good reason for making his plans so +confidently. He had studied the girl until he had seen that his will had +dominated hers; that though she might not love him, might even fear him, +she had not the will-power against him to say nay to his wishes. + +He knew that she was helplessly fascinated, that she was his for the +taking. He had been too busy to take her until now; the serious duties +of his position had allowed no time for dalliance. So the girl had been +safe and unmolested--until now! And now Reivers was secretly preparing to +make her his own! + +A sudden thought struck Toppy, and he tiptoed to the door and looked +out. Instead of the crisp coldness of recent mornings there was a warm +mugginess in the air; and Toppy, bending down, placed his hand on the +snow and felt that it had begun to soften. The thaw had come. + +"I thought so," he said to himself. "The work will break up now, and +he's going to amuse himself. Well, he made a mistake when he told Tilly. +She's been civilised just enough to make her capable of jealousy." + +He went back to his bunk and dressed. + +"What are you stirring around so early for?" grumbled Campbell. "Dinna +ye get work enough during the day, to be getting up in the dark?" + +"The thaw's come," said Toppy, throwing on his cap. "There'll be +something doing besides work now." + +He went out into the dark morning, crossed the road and softly tried the +door to the office. He felt much better when he had assured himself that +the door was securely locked on the inside. Then he returned to the shop +and waited for the daylight to appear. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--"CANNY BY NATURE" + + +Old Campbell arose at his usual time, surprised and pleased to find that +Toppy had breakfast already cooked and on the table. Being a canny Scot, +he did not express his surprise or pleasure, but proceeded to look about +for signs to indicate the reason of Toppy's unwonted conduct. All that +he could make out was that Toppy's eyes were bright with some sort of +excitement, and that the grim set of his mouth had given way to an +expression of relief. So the Scot sat down to eat, shaking his grey head +in puzzled fashion. + +"I dinna see that this thaw should be any reason for your parading +around before the night's done," he grumbled. "Were you so tired of a +little useful work that ye maun greet a let-down with such early +rising?" + +Toppy sat down and proceeded to breakfast without venturing a reply. +When they had finished the meal he pushed back his chair and looked +across at Campbell. Huge and careless, he sprawled in his chair, the +tension and uncertainty gone now that he had made his resolution; and +Campbell, studying his face, sensed that something was up and leaned +forward eagerly. + +"I want to lay off to-day, Scotty," said Toppy deliberately. "I've got a +little business that I want to settle with Reivers." + +Old Campbell did not start nor in any way indicate surprise. + +"Aye!" he said quietly after a pause. "I ha' seen from the first it +would have to be that in the end. Ye maun settle which is best man. But +why to-day?" + +"Because now that the thaw has spoiled the sleighing Reivers will have +time for deviltry." And Toppy went on and told all that he had heard +from Tilly's lips that morning. Campbell shook his head angrily as he +heard. + +"Many things has the Snow-Burner done ill," he said, "and his sins +against men and women cry for punishment; but that--to yon little +lass--gi'n he did that, that would be worst of all. What are your plans, +lad?" + +"Nothing," said Toppy. "I will go and find him, and we'll have it out." + +"Not so," said Campbell swiftly. "Gi'n you did that 'twould cost you +your life did you chance to win o'er him. Do you think those devils with +the guns would not murder to win favour of the Snow-Burner, him holding +the lives and liberty of all of them in his hands as he does? Nay, lad! +Fight ye must; you're both too big and spirited to meet without coming +to grips; but you have aye the need of an old head on your side if +you're to stand up with Reivers on even terms. + +"What think you he would fancy, did you go to him with a confident bold +challenge as you suggest? That you had a trick up your sleeve, with the +men in on it, perhaps; and he'd have the guards there with their guns to +see he won as sure as we're sitting here talking. No; I ha' seen for +weeks 'twas coming on, and I ha' been using this auld head o' mine. I +may even say I ha' been doing more than thinking; I ha' been talking. I +have told Reivers that you were becoming unbearable in this shop, and +that I could not stand you much longer as my helper." + +Toppy looked across the table, amazed and pained. + +"Why--what's wrong, Scotty?" he stammered. + +"Tush, lad!" snapped the old man. "Dinna think I meant it. I only told +Reivers so for the effect." + +Toppy was bewildered. + +"I don't see what you're driving at, Scotty." + +"Listen, then; I ha' told Reivers that you were getting the swell head +so bad there was no working you. I ha' told him you were at heart +nothing but a fresh young whiffet who needed taming, and gi'n he made me +keep you here I mysel' would do the taming with an ax-handle. Do you +begin to get my drift now, lad?" + +"I confess I don't," admitted Toppy. + +"Well, then--Reivers said: 'That's how I sized him up, too. But don't you +do the taming, Campbell,' says he. 'I am saving him for mysel',' he +says. 'But I will not put up with his lip longer,' said I. 'Man, +Reivers,' I says, 'he thinks he's a fighter, and the other day I slammed +him on his back mysel'; and gi'n I had my old wind,' I says, 'I would +have whipped him then and there.' + +"Oh, carried on strong, losing my temper and all. 'Five year ago I would +ha' broken his back, the big young fool!' I says. 'An' he swaggers +around me and thinks he's a boss man because he licked that bloat +Sheedy. Ah!' I says. 'I'll stand it till he gives me lip again; then +I'll lay him out with whatever I have in my hands,' says I. + +"'Don't do it,' says Reivers, smiling to see me so worked up, and +surmising, as I intended he should, that I was angry only because I'd +discovered that you were a better man than mysel'. 'Save him for me,' +says he. 'As soon as I have more time I will 'tend to him. In the +meantime,' he says, 'let him go on thinking he is a good man.' + +"Lad, he swallowed it all, for it's four years since he knew me first, +and that was the first lie I'd told him at all. 'I'll take him under my +eye soon as I have more time,' says he. 'He'll not swagger after I've +tamed him a little.'" + +"But I don't just see----" + +"Dolt! Dinna you see that noo he considers you as an overconfident young +fool whom he's going to take the conceit out of? Dinna ye see that noo +you're in the same category as the other men he's broken down? He'll not +think it worth while to have his shotgun men handy noo when he starts in +to do his breaking. He'll start it, ye understand; not you. 'Twill be +proper so. I will go this morning and tell him that the end has come; +that I can not stand you longer around me. He'll give you something to +do--under him. Under him, do you see? Then you must e'en watch your +chance, and--and happen I'll manage to be around in case the guards +should show up." + +"Better keep out of it altogether," said Toppy. "They won't use their +guns in an even fight, and you couldn't do anything with your bare hands +if they did." + +"With my bare hands, no," said Campbell, going to his bunk. "But I am +not so bare-handed as you think, lad." He dug under the blankets and +held up a huge black revolver. "Canny by nature!" he said; thrusting the +grim weapon under his trousers-band. "I made no idle threat when I told +Reivers I would shoot his head off did he ever try to make a broken man +out of me. I have had this utensil handy ever since." + +"Scotty," cried Toppy, deeply moved at the old man's staunch friendship, +"when did you begin to plan this scheme?" + +Campbell looked squarely into his eyes. + +"The same day that I talked with yon lassie and learned how Reivers had +fascinated her." + +"Why?" + +"Dinna ye know nothing about women, lad?" + +"I----What do you mean?" + +"Do you fancy Reivers could carry his will so strong with folks gi'n ye +happen to make a beaten man out of him? And do you not think yon lass +would come back to her right mind gi'n the Snow-Burner loses his power +o'er her? You're no' so blind as not to see she's no liking for him, but +the de'il has in a way mesmerised her." + +"Then you mean----" + +"That when you and the Snow-Burner put up your mitts ye'll be fighting +for more than just to see who's best man. Now think that over, lad, +while I go and complain to Reivers that I can not stand you an hour +longer, and arrange for him to give you your taming." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX--THE FIGHT + + +It was past sunrise now; the mugginess in the air had fled before the +unclouded sun, and the day was pleasantly bright and warm. The sunlight +coming in through the eastern window flooded the room. Outside could be +heard the steady drip-drip from the melting icicles, and the chirp of +the chickadees industriously seeking a breakfast around the door made +the morning cheery. + +Toppy sat heaved forward in his chair after Campbell had gone on his +errand, and looked out of the open door, and waited. From where he sat +he could see the office across the way. Presently he saw Miss Pearson +come out, stand for a moment in the doorway peering around in puzzled +fashion, and go in again. + +Toppy did not move. He knew what that signified--that the girl was +puzzled and perhaps frightened over the absence of the squaw, Tilly; but +he had no impulse to cross the street and break the news to her. The +girl, Tilly's absence, such things were to him only incidentals now. He +saw the girl as if far away, as if she were something that did not +greatly concern him. + +Through his mind there ran recollections of other moments like +this--moments of waiting in the training-quarters back at school for the +word of the coach to trot out on the field. The same ease of spirit +after the tension of weeks of hard training; the same sinking of all +worry and nervousness in the knowledge that now that the test was on he +would do the best that was in him, and that beyond this there was +nothing for a man to think or worry about. + +Back there at school there had also been that sense of dissociation from +all things not involved in the contest before him. The roaring stands, +the pretty girls waving the bright-hued banners, the sound of his name +shouted far down the field--he had heard them, but they had not affected +him. For the time being, then as now, he had become a wonderful human +machine, completely concentrated, as machines must be, upon the +accomplishment of one task. Then it had been to play a game; now it was +to fight. But it was much the same, after all; it was all in the +man-game. + +A feeling of content was the only emotion that Toppy was conscious of in +the long minutes during which he waited for Campbell to return. The +drip-drip from the eaves and the chirp of the chickadees came as music +to his ears. The Snow-Burner and he were going to fight; in that +knowledge there was relief after the weeks of tension. + +Heavy, crunching steps sounded on the snow outside, and Campbell's broad +shoulders filled the doorway. Toppy bent over and carefully tightened a +shoe-lace. + +"It's all set," said Campbell rapidly. "He says send you to him at once. +You're in luck. He's in the stockade. Get you up and go to him. There is +only one guard at the gate. I'll follow and be handy in case he should +interfere." + +That was all. Toppy rose up and strode out without a word. He made his +way to the stockade gate with a carelessness of manner that belied his +purpose. He noted that the guard stood on the outside of the gate and +that the snow already was squashy underfoot. The gate opened and +admitted him and closed behind him. Then he was walking across the yard +toward Reivers, who stood waiting before the camp kitchen at the far end +of the yard. + +Here and there Toppy saw men in the bunkhouses, perhaps fifty in all, +and realised that the sudden thaw had at once enforced a period of +idleness for some of the men. He nodded lightly in response to the +greeting from one of the men whom he had doctored; then he was standing +before Reivers, and Reivers was looking at him as he had looked at Rosky +the day when he broke the Bohunk's leg. Toppy looked back, unmoved. For +a moment the two stood silent, eye measuring eye. Then Reivers spoke +savagely, enraged at finding a will that braved his own. + +"What kind of a game are you trying to play, Treplin?" + +"Game?" repeated Toppy innocently. + +"Come, come!" Reivers' brows were drawing down over his eyes, and again +Toppy for some reason was reminded of a bear. "You don't suppose I'm as +innocent as Campbell, do you? You've been raising ---- in the shop, I +hear. You're doing that with an object. You're trying some game. I don't +care what it is; it doesn't go. There doesn't anybody try any games in +this place except myself." + +"How about poker-games?" suggested Toppy quietly. + +A man hidden in the darkness of the bunkhouse behind Reivers snickered +audibly; for Campbell had told the story of how Toppy had bested the +boss at poker and the man understood Toppy's thrust. Reivers' eyes +flashed and his jaw shot out, but in an instant he had his anger under +control again. He smiled. + +"Well, well; so we're playing the wit, are we--doctor?" he sneered +softly. "We're trying to drive that trained mind of ours to be +brilliant, are we? Well, I wouldn't, Treplin; the strain on inferior +machinery may be fatal." Suddenly his whole face seemed to change, +convulsed in a spasm of brute threatening. "Get over there in that +corner and dig a slop-sink; you hear me?" Reivers' voice was a snarl as +he pointed to the corner near the kitchen, where a pick and shovel lay +waiting. "That's what you're going to do, my fine buck, with your nerve +to dare to come into my camp and think you're my equal. Dig slop-holes +for my Dago cook; that's what you're going to do! + +"Do you hear? You're going to be the lowest scavenger in this gang of +scum. I'm going to break you. I'm going to keep you here until I'm +through with you. I'm going to send you out of here so low down that a +saloon scrub-out would kick you on general principles. That's what's +going to happen to you! I'm going to play with you. I'm going to show +you how well it pays to think of yourself as my equal in my own camp. +Get over there now--right over there where the whole camp can see you, +and dig a hole for the Dago to throw his slops!" + +Few men could have faced the sight of the Snow-Burner's face as the +words shot from his iron-like lips without retreating, but Toppy stood +still. He began to smile. + +"Pardon, Reivers," he said softly, "I never thought of myself as your +equal." + +"Don't whine now; it's too late! Go----" + +"Because I know I'm a better man than you ever could be." + +It grew very still with great suddenness there in the corner of the big +yard. The men within hearing held their breaths. The drip-drip from the +eaves sounded loud in the silence. And now Toppy saw the wolf-craft +creeping to its own far back in Reivers' eyes, and without moving he +stood tensed for sudden, flash-like action. + +"So that's it?" said Reivers, smiling; and then he struck with +serpent-tongue swiftness. And with that blow Toppy knew how desperate +would be the battle; for, skilled boxer and on the alert as he was, he +had time only to snap his jaw to one side far enough to save himself +from certain knockout, while the iron-like fist tore the skin off his +cheek as it shot past. + +Reivers had not thrown his body behind the blow. He stood upright and +ready. He was a little surprised that his man did not go down. Toppy, +recovering like a flash, likewise was prepared. A tiny instant they +faced each other. Then with simultaneous growls they hurled themselves +breast to breast and the fight was on. + +Toppy had yielded to the impulse to answer in kind the challenge that +had flared in Reivers' eyes. It wasn't science; it wasn't sense. It was +the blind, primitive impulse to come into shock with a foe, to stop him, +to force him back, to make him break ground. Breast upon breast Reivers +and Toppy came together and stopped short, two bodies of equal force +suddenly meeting. + +Neither gave ground; neither made a pretense at guarding. Toe to toe +they stood, head to head, and drove their fists against one another's +iron-strong bodies with a rapidity and a force that only giants like +themselves could have withstood for a moment. It was madness, it was +murder, and the group of men who were watching held their breaths and +waited for one or the other to wilt and go down, the life knocked out of +him by those pile-driver blows. + +Then, as suddenly as they had come together, the pair leaped apart, +rushed together again, gripped into a clinch, struggled in Titan fashion +with futile heaving and tripping, flew apart once more, then volleyed +each other with vicious punches--a kaleidoscope of springing legs, +rushing bodies, and stiffly driven arms. + +It was a battle that drove the fear of Reivers from the heart of the men +who witnessed and dragged them forth to form a ring around the two +fighters. It was a battle to make men roar with frenzy; but not a sound +came from the ring that expanded and closed as the battle raged here and +there. The men were at first too shocked to cry out at the sight of any +one daring to give the Snow-Burner fight; and after the shock had worn +away they were too wary to give a sign that might bring the guards. +Silently and tight-lipped the ring formed; and each pair of eyes that +watched shot nothing but hatred for Reivers. + +Toppy was the first to recover from the initial frensied impulse to +strive to annihilate in one rush his hated enemy. He shook his head as +he was wont to do after a hard scrimmage on the gridiron, and his +fighting-wits were clear again. So far he knew he had held his own, but +only held it. Perhaps he out-bulked Reivers slightly in body and was a +trifle quicker on his feet, but Reivers' blows were enough heavier than +his to even up this advantage. + +He had driven his fist flush home on his foreman's neck under the ear, +and the neck had not yielded any more than a column of wood. He had felt +Reivers' fist drive home full on his cheekbone and it seemed that he had +been struck by a handful of iron. When they had strained breast against +breast in the first clash the fact that they were of equal strength had +been apparent to both. Equally matched, and both equally determined to +win, Toppy knew that the fight would be long; and he began to circle +scientifically, striking and guarding with all his cunning, saving +himself while he watched for a slip or an opening that might offer an +advantage. + +Suddenly the opening came, as Reivers for a second paused, deceived by +Toppy's tactics. Like a bullet to the mark Toppy's right shot home on +the exposed chin; but Reivers, felled to his knees as if shot, was up +like a flash, staggering Toppy with a left on the mouth and rushing him +around and around in fury at the knockdown. An added grimness to Toppy's +expression told how he appreciated the significance of this incident. He +had put all his force, from toes to knuckles, into that blow; and +Reivers had merely been staggered. Again Toppy began circling, +deliberately saving himself for a drawn-out battle which now to him +seemed uphill. + +The ring of watchers around the pair grew more close, more eager. All of +the men present in the bunkhouses had rushed out to see the fight. As +Toppy circled he saw in the foremost ranks the Torta boys and most of +the gang that had worked under him in the quarry; and by the looks in +their eyes he knew that he was fighting in the presence of friends. In +the next second their looks had turned to dismay as Reivers, swiftly +feinting with his left, drove home the right against Toppy's jaw and +knocked him to his haunches. But Toppy, rising slowly, caught Reivers as +he closed in to follow up his advantage and with a heavy swing to the +eye stopped him in his tracks. A low cry escaped the tight lips around +the ring. The blood was spurting from a clean cut in Reivers' brow and a +few men called-- + +"First blood!" + +Then Toppy spat out the blood he had held in after Reivers' blow. The +feel of the blood running down his face turned Reivers to a fury. He +rushed with an impetuosity which nothing could withstand, his fists +playing a tattoo on Toppy's head and body. Like a tiger Toppy fought +back; but Reivers' rage for the moment had given him added strength. He +fought as a man who intends to end a fight in a hurry; he rushed and +struck with power to annihilate with one blow, and rushed and struck +again. + +Toppy was pressed back. A groan came from the crowd as they saw him +stagger from a blow on the jaw and saw Reivers set himself for one last +desperate effort. Reivers rushed, his face the face of a demon, his left +ripping up for the body, his right looping overhand in a killing swing +at the head; and then the crowd gasped, for Toppy, with his superior +quickness of foot, side-stepped and as Reivers plunged past dealt him a +left in the mouth that flung him half around and sent him staggering +against the outheld hands of the crowd. + +When Reivers turned around now he was bleeding from the mouth also, and +in his eyes was a look of caution that Toppy had never seen there +before. + +The fight now became as dogged as it was furious. Each man had tried to +end it with a single and, failing, knew that he must wear his opponent +down. Neither had been seriously damaged by the blows struck and neither +was in the least tired. The thud of blow followed blow. Back and forth +the pair shuffled, first one driving the other with volleys of punches, +then his antagonist suddenly turning the tables. + +Toppy, feeling that he was fighting an uphill fight, saved himself more +than Reivers. The latter, who felt himself the master, became more and +more enraged as Toppy continued to stand up before him and give him back +as good as he gave. Each time that Toppy reached face or body with a +solid blow the savage fury flared in Reivers' eyes, and he lunged +forward like a maddened bull. Always, however, he recovered himself and +resumed the fight with brains as well as brawn. + +Toppy never lost his head after the first wild spasm. He realised that +they were so evenly matched that the loser would lose by a slip of the +mind by letting some weak spot in his character master him; and he held +himself in with an iron will. Reivers' blows goaded and tempted him to +rush in madly, but he held back. The men about the ring thought he was +losing, and their voices rose in growled encouragement. + +Toppy was not losing. As he saw Reivers become more and more furious his +hopes began to rise. At each opportunity he reached Reivers' face, +cutting open his other eye, bringing the blood from his nose, stinging +him into added furies. Toppy was knocked down several times in the +rushes that invariably followed such blows, but each time he recovered +himself before Reivers could rush upon him. Suddenly his +fighting-instinct telegraphed him that Reivers was about to try +something new. He drew back a little, Reivers following closely. +Suddenly it came. Without warning Reivers kicked. The blow took Toppy in +the groin and he stumbled backward from its force. A cry of rage went up +from the watching men. But Toppy sprung erect in an instant. + +"All right!" he called. "It didn't hurt me. Shut up, you fools." + +Thanks to his training, his hard muscles had turned the kick and saved +him from being disabled. + +"What's the matter, Reivers?" he taunted as he circled carefully. +"Losing confidence in your fists? Got to use your feet, eh? Lost your +kick, too, haven't you? Well, well! Then you certainly are in for a fine +trimming!" + +Again Reivers kicked, this time aiming low at the shin-bone; but Toppy +avoided it easily and danced back with a laugh. + +"Can't even land it any more!" Treplin chuckled. "Show us some more +tricks, Reivers!" + +Reivers had thrown off all restraint now. He fought with lowered head, +and Toppy once more, as he saw the eyes watching him through the thick +brows, thought of a bear. The savagery at the root of Reivers' character +was coming to the top. It was mastering, choking down his intelligence. +He struck and kicked and gnashed his teeth; and curses rolled in a +steady stream from his lips. One kick landed on Toppy's thigh with a +thud. + +"Here, bahass!" screamed a voice to Toppy, and from somewhere in the +crowd an ax was pitched at his feet. + +Laughingly Toppy kicked the weapon to one side, and, though in deep pain +from the last kick, continued fighting as if nothing had happened. + +The savage now dominating Reivers had seen and been caught by the sight +of the flashing steel. A gleam of animal cunning showed in the depths of +his ferocious eyes. To cripple, to kill, to destroy with one terrible +stroke--that was his single passion. The axe opened the way. + +Craftily he began rushing systematically. Little by little he drove +Toppy back. Closer and closer he came to the spot where the axe lay on +the ground. Once more Toppy's instinct warned him that Reivers was after +a terrible coup, and once more his whole mind and body responded with +extra vigilance. + +As he circled, presently he felt the axe under his feet and understood. +He saw that Reivers was systematically working toward the weapon, though +apparently unconscious of its existence. + +It was in Toppy's mind to dance away, to call out to the men to remove +the axe; but before he could do so something had whispered to him to +hold his tongue. He continued to retreat slowly, fighting back at every +inch. + +Now he had stepped beyond the axe. + +Now it lay between him and Reivers. + +Now it lay beneath Reivers' feet, and now, as Reivers stooped to pick it +up, Toppy, like a tiger, flung himself forward. It was what he had +foreseen, what had made him hold his tongue. + +The savage in Reivers had made him reach for the weapon; the calmly +reasoning brain in Toppy's head had foreseen that in that lay his +advantage. It was for only an instant, a few eye-winks, that Reivers +paused and bent over for the axe; but as Toppy had flung himself forward +at the psychological moment it was enough. Reivers was bent over with +his hand on the axe, and for a flash he had left the spot behind his +left ear exposed. + +Toppy's fist, swung from far behind him, struck the spot with the sound +of a pistol crack. Reivers, stooped as he was, rolled over and over and +lay still. Toppy first picked up the axe and threw it far out of reach. +Then he turned to Reivers, who was rising slowly, a string of foul +curses on his lips. + +Toppy set himself as the Snow-Burner came forward. His left lifted +Reivers from his feet. Even while he was in the air, Toppy's right +followed on the jaw. The Snow-Burner wavered. Then Toppy, drawing a long +breath, called into play all the strength he had been saving. He struck +and struck again so rapidly that the eye could not follow, and each blow +found its mark; and each was of deadly power. + +He drove Reivers backward. He drove him as he willed. He beat him till +he saw Reivers' eyes grow glassy. Then he stepped back. The almost +superhuman strength of Reivers had kept him on his feet until now in +spite of the pitiless storm of blows. Now he swayed back and forth once. +His breath came in gasps. His arms fell inert, his eyes closed slowly; +and as a great tree falls--slowly at first, then with a sudden crash--the +Snow-Burner toppled and fell face downward on the ground. + + + + +CHAPTER XX--TOPPY'S WAY + + +Toppy stood and looked down at his vanquished foe. The convulsive rise +and fall of his breast as he panted for breath told how desperately and +savagely he had fought. Now as he stood victorious and looked down upon +the man he had conquered, the chivalry innate in him began to stir with +respect and even pity for the man whom he had beaten. He looked at +Reivers' bloody face as, the head turned on one side, it lay nuzzled +helplessly against the soft ground. A wave of revulsion, the aftermath +of his fury, passed over him, and he drew his hand slowly across his +eyes as if to shut out the sight of the havoc that his fists had +wrought. + +And now happened the inevitable. Toppy had not foreseen it, never had +dreamed it possible. But now the men who had watched cried aloud their +hatred of the big man who lay before them. The king-man, their master, +was down! Upright, they would have quailed before his mere look. But now +he was down! The man who had mastered them, broken them, tortured them, +lay helpless there before them. The courage and hate of slaves suddenly +in power over their master flamed through them. This was their chance; +they had him now. + +"We got him! Kill him! Come on! Finish him!" they roared, and threw +themselves like a pack of wolves upon the prostrate man. Even as they +rushed Reivers raised his head in returning consciousness; then he went +down under a shower of heavily booted feet. + +With a bellow of command Toppy flung himself forward. He knew quite well +that this was what Reivers deserved; he had even at times hoped that the +men some time would have the opportunity for such revenge. But now he +discovered that he couldn't stand by and see it done. It wasn't in him. +Reivers was down, fairly beaten in a hard fight. He was helpless. +Toppy's rage suddenly swerved from Reivers to the men who were trying to +kick the life out of him. + +"Back! Get back there, I say!" he ordered. + +He reached in and threw men right and left. He knocked others down. One +he picked up and used as a battering-ram, and so he fought his way in +and cleared the rabble away from Reivers. Reivers with more than human +tenaciousness had retained a glimmer of consciousness. He saw Toppy +standing astride of him fighting for his life. And in that beaten, +desperate moment Reivers laughed once more. + +"You're a ---- fool, Treplin," said he. "You'd better let them finish the +job." + +Toppy dragged him to his feet. A gleam of mastery flashed over the +Snow-Burner as he felt himself standing upright. He swung to face the +men. + +"Out of the way there, you scum!" he ordered, in his old manner. The men +laughed in reply. The spell had been broken. The men had seen the +Snow-Burner knocked down and beaten. They had seen that Toppy was his +master. They had kicked him; they had had him under them. No longer did +he stand apart and above them. They cursed him and swarmed in, striking, +kicking, hauling, and dragged him to the ground. + +"Give him to us, bahss!" they cried. "Let us kill him, bahss!" + +Some of them hung back. They did not wish to run contrary to the wishes +of Toppy, their "bahss" and champion. Toppy once more got Reivers on his +feet and dragged him toward the gate. A knife or two gleamed in the +crowd. + +"Run for the gate!" cried Toppy. Reivers tottered a few steps and fell. +Over him Toppy stormed, fought, commanded, but the mob pressed +constantly closer. Then, suddenly, they stopped striking. They began to +break. Toppy, looking around for the reason, saw Campbell and a guard +running toward them--Campbell with his big revolver, the guard with his +gun at a ready. With a last tremendous effort he picked Reivers up in +his arms and ran to meet them. He heard the guard fire once, heard +Campbell ordering the men to stand back; then he staggered out of the +stockade and dropped his heavy burden on the ground. Behind him Campbell +and the guard slammed shut the gate, and within the cries and curses of +the men rose in one awful wail, the cry of a blood-mob cheated of its +prey. + +Reivers rose slowly, first to his hands and knees, then to his feet. He +looked at Toppy, and the only expression upon his face was a sneer. + +"You ---- fool!" he laughed. "You poor weak sister! You'll be sorry before +morning that you didn't let the men finish that job!" + +He turned, and without another word went staggering away to the building +where he and the guards lived. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI--THE END OF THE BOSS + + +Back in the shop Campbell went to work with a will to doctor up Toppy's +battered face. + +"I dunno, lad, I dunno," he muttered as he patched up the ragged cuts. +"It was the poetry of justice that the men should have had him, but I +dunno that I could ha' left him lie there myself." + +"Of course you couldn't," said Toppy. "A man can't do that sort of +thing. But, say, Campbell, what do you suppose he meant about being +sorry before morning because I saved him?" + +Although he had won in the contest which he had so longed for, although +he had proved and knew that he was a better man than Reivers, Toppy for +some reason experienced none of the elation which he had expected. The +thing wasn't settled. Reivers was still fighting. He was still boss of +Hell Camp. He was fighting with craft now. What had that final threat +meant? + +"It has to do with the lass; I'll wager on that," said Campbell. "He +will aye be taking his revenge on her. I know the man; he has that way." + +"The dog!" + +"Aye.--Hold still wi' that ear now.--Aye; it's the way of the man, as I +know him. But I'm thinking some one else will play dog, too. Watchdog, I +mean. And I'm thinking the same will be mysel'." + +"You don't think he'll try----" + +"The Snow-Burner will try anything if his mind's set. Even force.--Hold +still wi' your chin.--You licked him fair, lad. 'Twas a great fight. +You're best man. But I'm glad I have my shooting-utensil handy, for if +I'm any judge Hell Camp will aye deserve its name to-night." + +"What do you think will happen?" + +"'Tis hard to say. But 'tis sure Reivers means to do something +desperate, and as I know the man 'tis something that concerns the lass. +Then there are the men. They have tasted blood. They have seen the +Snow-Burner beaten. His grip has been torn off them. They're no longer +afraid. When the working gangs come in this noon and hear the story +there'll be nothing can hold them from doing what they please. You know +what that will be. They're wild to break loose. Gi'n they lay hands on +Reivers they'll tear him and the camp to pieces. Aye, there'll be things +stirring here before evening, or I'm a dolt." + +True to Campbell's prediction, the stockade shook with cheers, roars and +curses that noon when the working men came in and heard the tale of the +Snow-Burner's downfall. The discipline of the camp vanished with those +shouts. The men were no longer cowed. They were free and unafraid. After +they had eaten, the straw-bosses and guards prepared to lead them back +to their work. + +The men laughed. The bosses joined them. The guards threatened. The men +jeered. Reivers, the only force that had kept them cowed, was lying +beaten and helpless in his bunk, and not even the shotguns of the guards +could cow the fierce spirit that had broken loose in the men when they +heard this news. + +"Shoot, ---- you, shoot!" they jeered at the guards. + +The guards faltered. The whole camp was in revolt and they knew that as +sure as one shot was fired the men would rush at no matter how great the +cost to themselves. There were a hundred and fifty maddened, desperate +men in the camp now, instead of a hundred and fifty cattle; and the +guards, minus Reivers' leadership, retreated to their quarters and +locked the door. + +The men did not go back to work. Not an axe, peavey or cant-hook was +touched; not a team was hitched up. The men swaggered and shouted for +Reivers to come out and boss them. They begged him to come out. They +wanted to talk with him. They had a lot to tell him. They wouldn't hurt +him--no, they would only give him a little of his own medicine! + +However, they gave the guards' house a wide berth, on account of the +deadly shotguns. The short afternoon passed quickly and the darkness +came on. + +Toppy and Campbell were sitting down to supper when they noticed that it +was unusually light in the direction of the stockade. Presently there +was a roaring crackling; then a chorus of cries, demonlike in their +ferocity. Toppy sprang to the window and staggered back at the sight +that met his eyes. + +"Great Scot, Campbell! Look, look!" he cried. "They've fired the camp!" + +Together they rushed to the door. From the farther end of the stockade a +billow of red, pitchy flame was sweeping up into the night, and the roar +and crackle of the dried pine logs burning was drowned in the cries of +the men as they cheered the results of their handiwork. + +Toppy and Campbell ran toward the stockade gate. The gate had been +chopped to pieces, but the guards, from the shelter of their building, +were shooting at the opening and preventing the men from rushing out. +The flames at the far end of the stockade rose higher and fiercer as +they began to get their hold on the pitchy wood. The smoke, billowing +low, came driving back into the faces of Campbell and Toppy. + +"They've done it up brown now!" swore Campbell. "The wind's this way. +The whole camp will go unless yon fire's checked." + +Over the front of the stockade something flew through the darkness, its +parabola marked by a string of sparks that spluttered behind it. It fell +near one side of the guards' quarters. A second later it exploded with a +noise and shock that shook the whole camp. + +"Dynamite," said Scotty. "The men have been stealing it and saving it +for this occasion. Gi'n one of those sticks lands on that building +there'll be dead men inside." + +But the men inside evidently had no mind to wait for such a catastrophe. +They came rushing out in the darkness, slipping quickly out of sight, +yet firing at the gate as they went. One of them rushed past Toppy in +the direction of the office. Toppy scarcely noticed him. On second +thought something about the man's great size, his broad shoulders, the +hang of his arms, attracted him. He turned to look; the man had vanished +in the dark. A vague uneasiness took possession of Toppy. For a moment +he stood puzzled. + +"My ----!" he cried suddenly. "That was Reivers, and he was going to her!" + +He started in pursuit. Reivers was pounding on the door of the office +when Toppy reached him. The door was locked. + +"Open up; open up at once!" he ordered. Beyond the door Toppy heard the +voice of the girl. + +"Oh, please, please, Mr. Reivers! I'm afraid!" + +Reivers' tone changed. + +"Nothing to be afraid of, Miss Pearson," he said blandly. "There's a +fire in camp. I want to get in to save the books and papers." + +"Is that why you sent Tilly away this morning?" said Toppy quietly, +coming up behind him. + +Reivers turned with a start. + +"Hello, Treplin!" he said, recovering himself instantly. "No hard +feelings, I hope." His manner was so at ease that Toppy was thrown off +his guard. + +"I won't make the mistake of fighting with you any more, Treplin," +continued Reivers. "Look at the way you've spoiled my nose. You ought to +fix that up for me. Look at it." + +He came closer and pointed with two fingers to his broken nose. Toppy, +unsuspecting, leaned forward. Before he could move head or arms Reivers' +two hands had shot out and fastened like two iron claws upon his +unprotected throat. + +"Now, ---- you!" hissed Reivers. "Tear me loose or kiss your life +good-by." + +And Toppy tried to tear him loose--tried with a desperation born of the +sudden knowledge that his life depended upon it; and failed. The +Snow-Burner had got his death-hold. His arms were like bars of steel; +his fingers yielded no more to Toppy's tugging than claws of moulded +iron. "Struggle, ---- you! Fight, ---- you!" hissed Reivers. "That's right; +die hard; for, by ----, you're done now!" + +The eyes seemed starting from Toppy's head. His brains seemed to be +bursting. He felt a strange emptiness in his chest. Things went red, +then they began to go black. He made one final futile attempt. He felt +his legs sinking, felt his whole body sagging, felt that the end had +come; then heard as if far away the office-door fly open, heard the girl +crying---- + +"Stop, Mr. Reivers, or I'll shoot!" + +Then the roar of a shot. He felt the hands loosen on his throat, swayed +and fell sidewise as the whole world turned black. + +He opened his eyes soon and saw by the light of the rising flames that +Campbell was running toward him. In the doorway of the office stood the +girl, her left hand over her eyes, Campbell's big black revolver in her +right. Down the road, with strange, drunken steps, Reivers was running +toward the river. Behind him ran half a dozen men armed with axes +screaming his name in rage, but Reivers, despite his queer gait, was +distancing his pursuers. It was some time before Toppy grasped the +significance of these sights. Then he remembered. + +"You--you saved me," he said clumsily, rising to his feet. The girl +dropped the revolver and burst into a fit of sobbing. + +"'Twas aye handy I thought of giving her the gun and telling her to keep +the door locked," said Campbell. "Do you go in, lassie. All's well. Go +in." + +"Eh? What's this?" he cried, for in spite of her sobbing she drew +sharply away from his sheltering arm as he tried to usher her indoors. + +The smoke from the fire swept down into their faces in a choking cloud. +Toppy looked toward the stockade. By this time the whole end of the +great building was in flames. The men in pursuit of Reivers were howling +as they gained on their quarry, and Toppy lurched after them. + +"Bob! Mr. Treplin!" + +Toppy stopped. + +"I mean--Mr. Treplin--you--don't go down there--you're hurt--please!" + +Toppy moved toward her. Was it true? Was it really there the note in her +voice that he yearned to hear? + +"What did you say--please?" he stammered. + +And now it was her turn to be confused. The sobs came back to her. Toppy +took a long breath and nerved himself to desperation. + +"Helen!" he said hoarsely. + +"Bob! Oh, Bob!" she whispered. "Don't leave me--don't leave me alone." + +Once more Toppy filled his lungs with air and ground his teeth in +desperate resolution. He tried to speak, but only a gurgling sound came +from his throat; so he held out his big arms in mute appeal, and +suddenly he found himself whispering incoherently at a little blonde +head which lay snuggled in great content against his bosom. + +A maddened yell came from the men who were after Reivers. But Toppy and +the girl might have been a thousand miles away for all the attention +they paid. One end of the stockade fell in with a great roar and a +shower of flame and sparks; but the twain did not hear. + +"Aye, aye!" Old Campbell moved swiftly away. "He's a grown man now, and +so he's a right to have his woman.--Aye. A real man he had to be to take +her away from the Snow-Burner." + +Down by the river the pursuing men gave tongue to a cry with the note of +the wolf in it. + +Campbell turned from the young couple and stared with gleaming eyes in +the direction whence came the cry. + +"Ah, Reivers!" he murmured. "Ye great man gone wrong! How goes it with +ye now, Reivers? Can ye win through? Can ye? I wonder--I wonder!" + +And as Toppy and Helen, holding closely to one another, entered the +office building, the old man hastened to join the throng by the river +where the fate of the Snow-Burner was being spun. + + + + +PART TWO: THE SUPERMAN + + + + +CHAPTER XXII--THE CHEATING OF THE RIVER + + +"It's got him! The river's got him. He's drowned! 'Hell-Camp' +Reivers--he's gone. He's done for. The 'Snow-Burner' is dead, dead dead!" + +Like wolves in revolt the men of "Hell Camp" lined the bank of the +rushing, ice-choked river and cursed and roared into the blackness of +the night. Behind them the buildings of the camp, scene of the +Snow-Burner's inhuman brutality and dominance over the lives of men, +were going up in seas of flame which they had started. + +Before them the tumultuous river, the waters battling the ice which +strove to cover it, tossed black and white under the red glow of +tumbling fire. And somewhere out in the murderous current, whirled and +sucked down by the rushing water, buffeted and crushed by the grinding +ice, a bullet-hole through his shoulder, was all that was left of the +man whose life they had cried for. + +The river had cheated them. Like panting wolves, their hands +outstretched claw-like to clutch and kill, they had pursued him closely +to the river's edge. A cry of rage, short, sharp, unreasoning, had +leaped from their throats as Reivers, staggering from his wound, had +leaped unhesitatingly out on to the heaving cakes of ice. + +Spellbound, open-mouthed and silent, they had stood and watched as their +erstwhile oppressor ran zigzagging, leaping from cake to cake, out +toward the black slip of open water which ran silently, swiftly in the +river's middle. And then they had cried out again. + +For the open water had caught him. Straight into it, without pausing or +swerving, Reivers had run on. And the black water had taken him home. +Like a stone dropped into its midst, it had taken him plump--a flirt of +spray, a gurgle. Then the waters rushed on as before, silent, deadly, +unconcerned. + +And so the men of Hell Camp, drunk with the spirit and success of their +revolt, cried out in triumph. Their cry rose over the roar of flame. It +rang above the rumble of crunching ice. It reached, paean-like, up +through the star-filled northern night--a cry of victory, of +gratification, the old, terrible cry of the kill. + +For the Snow-Burner was gone. Wolf-like he had harried them and +wolf-like he had died. No man, not even Hell-Camp Reivers, they knew, +could live a minute in that black water. They had seen the waters close +above him; a floe of ice swept serenely over the spot where he had gone +down. He was gone. The world was rid of him. + +And so the men of Cameron-Dam Camp, while their cry still echoed in the +timber, turned to carry the news of the Snow-Burner's end back to the +men who were milling about the burning camp. The Snow-Burner was dead! + +Out in the deadly river, Hell-Camp Reivers stayed under water until he +knew that the men on the bank counted him drowned. He had sought the +open water deliberately, his giant lungs filling themselves with air as +he plunged down to the superhuman test which was to spell life or death +for him. + +He realised that if he were to live he must appear to perish in the +river, before the eyes of the men who pursued him. To have won through +the open water, and over the ice beyond, and in their sight have reached +the farther shore would have sealed his doom as surely as to have +returned to the bank where stood the men. + +The camp had revolted. Two hundred men had said that he must die; and +had he been seen to cross the river and enter the timber beyond, half of +the two hundred, properly armed, would have crossed the stringers of the +dam, not to pause or rest until they had hunted him down. He was without +weapons of any kind save his bare fists. He was bleeding heavily from +the bullet-hole in his right shoulder. He would have died like a wounded +wolf run to earth had he been seen to cross the river safely. His only +chance for life was to appear to die in the river. + +He made no fight as he went down. The swift waters sucked him under like +a straw. They rolled him over the rocky bottom, whirled him around and +around sunken piles of ice. Into the sluice-like current of the stream's +middle they spewed him, and the current caught him and shot him into the +darkness below the glare of the burning camp. + +He lay inert in the water's grasp, recking not how the sharp ice gashed +and tore face and hands, how the rocks crushed and bruised his body. A +sweeping ice-floe caught him and held him down. Like some great +river-beast he lay supine beneath it, conserving every atom of his +giant's strength for the test that was to win him life. + +Then, with the blood roaring in his temples, and his bursting lungs +warning him that the next second must yield him air or death, he threw +his body upward against the ice, felt it slip to one side, thrust his +upturned face out of the water, caught a finger-hold on another floe +that strove to thrust him down, gasped, clawed and--laughed. + +He was a dead man, and he lived. Men had driven him into the jaws of +death, and death had engulfed and apparently swallowed him. Men counted +him now as one who had gone hence. Far and wide the word would be flung +in a hurry: the Snow-Burner was no more; Hell-Camp Reivers had passed +away. + +The face of the Snow-Burner as it rode barely above the icy, lapping +waters, bore but one single expression, a sardonic appreciation of the +joke he had played upon men and Death. The loss of Cameron Camp, of his +position, of all that he called his own did not trouble him. + +As the current swept him down there, he was a beaten man, stripped of +all the things that men struggle for to have and to hold, and with but a +slippery finger-hold on life itself. Yet he was victorious, triumphant. + +He had placed himself within the clammy fingers of the River Death. The +fingers had closed upon him, and he had torn them apart, had thrust +death away, had clutched life as it fleeted from him and had drawn it +back to hold for the time being. And Reivers laughed contemptuously, +tauntingly, at the sucking waters cheated of their prey. + +"Not yet, Nick, old boy," he muttered. "It doesn't please me to boss +your stokers just yet." + +The current tore the ice from his precarious grip and he was forced to +swim for it. In the darkness he struck the grinding icefield on the far +side of the open water, and like the claws of a bear his stiffening +fingers sought for and found a crevice to afford a secure hold. + +A pull, a heave and a wriggle, and he lay face-down on the jagged +ice--heart, lungs and brain crying for the cold air which he sucked in +avidly. The ice-cakes parted beneath his weight. Once more he fought +through the water to a resting place on the ice; once more the +treacherous ice parted and dropped him into the water. + +Swimming, crawling, wriggling his way, he fought on. At last an +outstretched hand groped to a hold on a snow-covered root on the far +bank of the river. + +"About time," he said and, slowly drawing himself up onto the bank, he +rolled over in the snow and lay with his face turned back toward Cameron +Camp. + +The fire which the men had started in the long bunk-house when they had +revolted against the inhumanity of Reivers now had gained full headway. +In pitchy, red billows of flame the dried log walls were roaring upward +into the night. Like the yipping of maddened demons, the bellowing +shouts of the men came back to him as they danced and leaped around the +fire in celebration of the passing of Reivers and of the camp for which +his treatment of men had justly earned the title of Hell-Camp. + +But louder and more poignant even than the roar of flame and the shouts +of jubilant men, there came to Reivers' ears a sound which prompted him +to drag himself to an elbow to listen. Somewhere out in the timber near +the camp a man was crying for mercy. A rifle cracked; the pleading +stopped. Reivers smiled contemptuously. + +"One of the guards; they got him," he mused. "The fool! That's what he +gets for being silly enough to be faithful to me." + +But the fate of the guard, one of the "shot-gun artists" who had served +him faithfully and brutally in the task of keeping the men of the camp +helpless under his heel, roused Reivers to the need of quick action. If +the guards had escaped into the woods and were being hunted down by the +maddened crew, the hunt might easily lead across the dam and up the bank +to where he lay. Once let it be known that he had not perished in the +river, and the whole camp would come swarming across the dam, each man's +hand against him, resolved to take his trail and hunt him down, no +matter where the trail might lead or how long the hunt might take. + +The fight through the river ice was but the preliminary to his flight +for safety. Many miles of cold trail between him and the burning camp +were his most urgent present needs, and with a curse he staggered to his +feet and stood for a moment lowering back across the water to the scene +of his overthrow. + +To a lesser man--or a better man--there would have been deep humiliation +in the situation. Reivers's mind flashed back over the incidents of the +last few hours. Over there, across the river, he had been beaten for the +first time in his life in a fair, stand-up fist fight. He had +underestimated young Treplin, and Treplin had beaten him. + +Following his defeat had come the revolt of the men. Following that had +come flight. The power and leadership of the camp had been wrested from +his hands by a better man; he himself had been driven out, helpless, +beaten, yet Reivers only laughed as he stood now and looked back across +the river. For in the river the Snow-Burner had died. + +The past was dead. A new life was beginning for him. It had to be so, +for if word went back that the Snow-Burner was still alive the men of +Cameron-Dam Camp would come clamouring to the hunt. To die, and yet to +live; to slough one life, as an old coat, and to take up another, not +having the slightest notion of what it might hold--that was the great +adventure, that was something so interesting that the humiliation of +defeat never so much as reached beneath Reivers' skin. + +He stood for a moment, looking back at the camp, and he smiled. He waved +his left hand in a polished gesture of contemptuous farewell. + +"Good-by, Mr. Hell-Camp Reivers," he growled. "Hello, Mr. New Man, +whoever you are. Let's go and lay up till the puncture in your hide +heals. Then we'll go out and see what you can do to this silly old +world." + +With his fingers clutching the hole in his shoulder, he turned and +lurched drunkenly away into the blackness of the thick timber. + +The icy waters of the river had been kind to him in more ways than one. +They had congealed the warm blood-spurts from his wound into a solid red +clot, and his thick woolen shirt and mackinaw were frozen stiff and +tight against the clot. + +He held to his staggering run for an hour, seeking bare spots in the +timber, travelling on top of windfalls when he found them, hiding his +trail in uncanny fashion, before his body grew warm enough to thaw the +icy bandages. Then he halted and, by the light of the cold moon, bared +his shoulder and took stock. It was a bad, ragged wound. He moved the +shoulder and smiled sardonically as he noted that no bone was touched. + +From the butt of a shattered windfall he tore a flat sliver of clean +pine. With his teeth he worried it down to a proper size, and with +handkerchief and belt he bound it over the wound so tightly that it sunk +deep into the muscles of the shoulder. It chafed and cut the skin and +started the blood in half a dozen places, but he pulled the belt up +another hole despite the inclination to grimace from pain. + +"Suffer, Body," he muttered, "suffer all you please. You've nothing to +say about this. Your job for the present is merely to serve life by +keeping it going. Later on you may grow whole again. I shall need you." + +He buttoned his mackinaw with difficulty and, finding an open space, +turned and took his bearings. Far behind him a dull red glow on the sky +marked the location of Cameron-Dam Camp. From this he turned, carefully +scanning the heavens, until above the top of the timber he caught the +weird glint of the northern lights. That way lay his course. + +The white man's country stopped with the timber in which he stood. +Beyond was Indian country, the bleak, barren Dead Lands, a wilderness +too bare of timber to tempt the logger, a land of ridge upon ridge of +ragged rock, unexplored by white man, save for a rare mining prospector, +and uninhabited save for the half-starved camp of the people of Tillie, +the Chippewa, Reivers' slave, by the power of the love she bore him. + +White men shunned the white wastes of the Dead Lands as, in warmer +climes, they shun the unwatered sands of the desert. That was why +Reivers sought it. Out there in the camp of Tillie's people he could lie +safe, well fed, well nursed, until his wound healed and the strength of +his body came back to him. And then.... + +"Cheer up, Body!" he chuckled as he started northward. "We'll make the +world pay bitterly for all of this when we're in shape again. For the +present we're going north, going north, going north. You can't stop, +Body; you can't lay down. Groan all you want to. You're going to be +dragged just as far to-night as if you weren't shot up at all." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--THE GIRL WHO WAS NOT AFRAID + + +Break of day in Winter time comes to the Dead Lands slowly and without +enthusiasm, as if the rosy morning sun wearied at the hopeless landscape +which its rays must illumine. Aimless rock formation was a drug on the +creation's market the day that the Bad Lands were made. Gigantic +boulders, box-like bluffs, ragged rock-spires, cliffs and plateaus of +bare rock were in oversupply. + +Nature, so a glimpse of the place suggests, had resolved to get rid of a +vast surplus of ugly, useless stone, and with one cast of its hands +flung them solidly down and made the Dead Lands. There they lie, +hog-back, ridge, gully and ravine, hopelessly and aimlessly jumbled and +tumbled, a scene of desolate greyness by Summer; by Winter the raw, +bleak ridges and spires, thrusting themselves through the covering of +snow like unto the bones of a half concealed skeleton. + +Daylight crept wearily over the timber belt and spread itself slowly +over the barrenness, and struck the highest rise of ground, running +crosswise through the barrens, which men called "Hog-Back Ridge." Little +by little it lighted up the bleak peaks and tops of ridge and +rock-spire. + +A wind came with it, a bleak, morning Winter wind which whined as it +whipped the dry snow from high places and sent it flying across coulee +and valley in the grey light of dawn. Nothing stirred with the coming of +daylight. No nocturnal animal, warned of the day's coming, slunk away to +its cave; no beast or bird of daylight greeted the morning with movement +or song. The grey half-light revealed no living thing of life upon the +exposed hump of the ridge. + +The sun came, a ball of dull red, rising over the timber line. It +touched the topmost spires of rock, sought to gild them rosily, gave up +as their sullen sides refused to take the colour, and turned its rays +along the eastern slope. Then something moved. A single speck of life +stirred in the vast scene of desolation. + +On the bare ground in the lea of a boulder a man sat with his back to +the stone and slept. His face was hollow and lined. The corners of his +mouth were drawn down as if a weight were hung on each of them, and the +thin cheeks, hugging the bones so tightly that the teeth showed through, +told that the man had driven himself too far on an empty stomach. Yet, +even in sleep, there was a hint of a sardonic smile on the misshapen +lips, a smile that condemned and made naught the pain and cruelty of his +fate. + +The sun crept down the slope of Hog-Back Ridge and found him. It reached +his eyes. Its rays had no more warmth than the rays of the cold Winter +moon, but its light pierced through the tightly drawn lids. They +twitched and finally parted. Reivers awoke without yawning or moving and +looked around. + +It was the second morning after his flight from Cameron-Dam Camp, and he +had yet to reach the Winter camp of the people of Tillie the squaw. +Somewhere to the west it lay. He would reach it and reach it in good +time, he swore; but he had not had a bite of food in his mouth for two +days, and the fever of his wound had sapped heavily his strength. + +"Be still, Body," he growled, as with the return of consciousness his +belly cried out for food. "You will be fed before life goes out of you." + +He rose slowly and stiffly to his knees and looked down the ridge to +where the rays of the sun now were illumining the snow-covered bottom of +the valley below. The valley ran eastward for a mile or two, and at +first glance it was empty and dead, save for the flurries of wind-swept +snow, dropping down from the heights above. But Reivers, as he rose to +his feet, swept the valley with a second glance, and suddenly he dropped +and crouched down close to the ground. + +Far down at the lower end of the valley a black speck showed on the +frozen snow, and the speck was moving. + +Reivers lay on the bare patch of ground, as silent and immovable as the +rock above him. The speck was too large to be a single animal and too +small to be a pack of travelling caribou. + +For several minutes he lay, scarcely breathing, his eyes straining to +bring the speck into comprehensible shape. His breath began to come +rapidly. Presently he swore. The speck had become two specks now, a long +narrow speck and a tiny one which moved beside it, and they were coming +steadily up the valley toward where he lay. + +"One man and a dog-team," mused Reivers. "He won't be travelling here +without grub. Body, wake up! You are crying for food. Yonder it comes. +Get ready to take it." + +Slowly, with long pauses between each movement, and taking care not to +place his dark body against the white snow, Reivers dragged himself +around to a hiding-place behind the boulder against which he had slept. +The sun had risen higher now. Its rays were lighting the valley, and as +he peered avidly around one side of the stone, Reivers could make out +some detail of the two specks that moved so steadily toward him. + +It was a four-dog team, travelling rapidly, and the man, on snow-shoes, +travelled beside his team and plied his whip as he strode. Reivers' +brows drew down in puzzled fashion. The sledge which whirled behind the +running dogs seemed flat and unloaded; the dogs ran in a fashion that +told they were strong and fresh. Why didn't the man ride? + +Reivers drew back to take stock of the situation. The man might be a +stranger, travelling hurriedly through the Dead Lands, or he might be +one of the men from Cameron-Dam Camp. If the former, food might be had +for a mere hail and the asking; if the latter--Reivers's nostrils widened +and he smiled. + +Yet a third possibility existed. The man was travelling in strange +fashion, running beside an apparently empty sled, and whipping his dogs +along. So did men travel when they were fleeing from various reasons, +and men fleeing thus do not go unarmed nor take kindly to having the +trail of their flight witnessed by casual though starving strangers. +Thus there was one chance that a hail and plea for food would be met +with a friendly response; two chances that they would be met with lead +or steel. + +Reivers, not being a careless man, looked about for ways and means to +place the odds in his favour. A hundred yards to the north of him the +valley narrowed into a mere slit between two straight walls of rock. +Through this gap the traveller must pass. + +When Reivers had crawled to a position on the rock directly above the +narrow opening, he lay flat down and grinned in peace. He was securely +hidden, and the dog-driver would pass unsuspectingly, unready, thirty +feet beneath where he lay. Things were looking well. + +The driver and team came on at a steady pace. Even at a great distance, +his stride betrayed his race and Reivers muttered, "White man," and +pushed to the edge of the bluff a huge, jagged piece of rock. The man +might not listen to reason, and Reivers was taking no chances of +allowing an opportunity to feed to slip by. + +The sleigh still puzzled him. As it came nearer and nearer he saw that +it was not empty. Something long and flat lay upon it. Reivers ceased to +watch the driver and turned his scrutiny entirely to the bundle upon the +sleigh. Minute after minute he watched the sleigh to the exclusion of +everything else. + +He made out eventually that the bundle was the size and form of a human +body. Soon he saw that it moved now and then, as if struggling to rise. + +The sleigh came nearer, came into a space where the sunlight, streaming +through a gap in the ridge, lighted it up brightly, and Reivers' whole +body suddenly stiffened upon the ground and his teeth snapped shut +barely in time to cut short an ejaculation of surprise. + +The bundle on the sleigh was a woman--a white woman! And she was bound +around from ankle to forehead with thongs passed under the sleigh. + +"Food--and a woman--a white woman," he mused. "The new life becomes +interesting. Body, get ready." + +He held the rock balanced on the edge of the cliff, ready to hurl it +down with one supreme effort of his waning strength. Hugging the cliff +he lay, his head barely raised sufficiently to watch his approaching +quarry. He could make out the face of the man by this time, a square +face, mostly covered with hair, with the square-cut hair of the head +hanging down below the ears. Two fang-like teeth glistened in the +sunlight when the man opened his mouth to curse at the dogs, and he +turned at times to leer back at the helpless burden on the sleigh. + +As he approached the narrow defile, where the rock walls hid a man and +what he might do from the eyes of all but the sky above, the man turned +to look more frequently, more leeringly at his victim. Reivers saw that +the woman was gagged as well as bound. + +The driver shouted a command at his dogs, and their lope became a walk, +and even as Reivers, up on the cliff, arched his back to hurl his stone, +the outfit came to a halt directly beneath where he lay. Reivers waited. +He had no compunction about disabling or killing the man below; a crying +belly knows no conscience. But he would wait and see what was to +develop. + +The man swiftly jerked his team back in the traces and turned toward his +victim. Reivers, turning his eyes from the man to the woman, received a +shock which caused him to hug closer to the cliff. The woman lay +helpless on the sleigh, face up. A cloth gag covered her face up to the +nose, and a cap, drawn down over the forehead, left only the eyes and +nose visible. And the eyes were wide open--very wide open--and they were +looking quite calmly and unafraid up at Reivers. + +The driver came back and tore the gag from the woman's lips. + +"I'll give you a chance," he exploded, and Reivers, up on the cliff, +caught the passion-choked note in voice and again held the stone ready. +"I'm stealing you for the chief--for Shanty Moir, the man who's got your +father's mine, and who's determined to put shame on you, Red MacGregor's +daughter. I'm taking you there to him--in his camp. You know what that +means. + +"Well, I've changed my mind. I--I'll give you a chance. I'll save you. +Come with me. I won't take you up there. We'll go out of the country. +You know what it'd mean to go up there. Well,--I'll marry you." + +Many things happened in the next few seconds. The man threw himself like +a wild beast beside the sledge, caught the woman's face in his hands and +kissed her bestially upon the helpless lips. + +The girl did not struggle or cry out. Only her wide eyes looked up to +the top of the cliff, looked questioningly, speculatively, calmly. He of +the hairy face caught the direction of her look and sprang up and +whirled around, the glove flying from his right hand, and a six-shooter +leaping into it apparently from nowhere. + +His face was upturned, and he fired even as the big rock smote him on +the forehead and crushed him shapelessly into the snow. Reivers dragged +forward another stone and waited, but the man was too obviously dead to +render caution necessary. + +"He was experienced and quick," said Reivers to the woman, "but I was +too hungry to miss him. Did you think I did it to save you? Oh, no! Just +a minute, till I get down; you'll know me better." + +He staggered and fell as he rose to pick his way down, for the cast with +the heavy stone had tapped the last reservoirs of his depleted strength, +had wrenched open the wounded shoulder and started the blood. Painfully +he dragged himself on hands and knees to a snow-covered slope, and +slipping and sliding made his way to the valley-bottom and came +staggering up to the sledge. The woman to him for the time being did not +exist. + +"Steady, Body," he muttered, as he tore open the grub-bag on the sleigh. +"Here's food." + +His fingers fell first on a huge chunk of cooked venison, and he looked +no farther. Down in the snow at the side of the helpless woman he +squatted and proceeded to eat. Only when the pang in his stomach had +been appeased did he look at the woman. Then, for a time, he forgot +about eating. + +It was not a woman but a girl. Her face was fair and her hair golden +red. Her big eyes were looking at him appraisingly. There was no fear in +them, no apprehension. She noted the hollowness of his cheeks, the fever +in his eyes. Reivers almost dropped his meat in amazement. The girl +actually was pitying him! + +He stood up, thrust the meat back into the grub-bag and stood swaying +and towering over her. The girl's eyes looked back unwaveringly. + +"---- you!" growled Reivers as he bent down and loosed the thongs. "What +do you mean? Why aren't you afraid?" + +"MacGregor Roy was my father," she said quietly. "I am not afraid." She +sat up as the bonds fell from her and looked at the still figure in the +snow. "He is dead, I suppose?" + +"As dead as he tried to make me," sneered Reivers. + +A look of annoyance crossed her face. + +"Then you have spoiled it all," she broke out, leaping from the sledge. +"Spoiled the fine chance I had to find the cave of Shanty Moir, murderer +of my father." + +Reivers' jaw dropped in amazement, and hot anger surged to his tongue. +Many women of many kinds he had looked in the eyes and this was the +first one-- + +"Spoiled it, you red-haired trull! What do you mean? Didn't I save you +from our bearded friend yonder. Or--" his thin lips curled into their old +contemptuous smile--"or perhaps--perhaps you are one of those to whom such +attentions are not distasteful." + +The sudden flare and flash of her anger breaking, like lightning out of +a Winter's sky, checked his words. The contempt of his smile gave place +to a grin of admiration. Tottering and wavering on his feet, he did not +stir or raise his arms, though the thin-bladed knife which seemed to +spring into her hands as claws protrude from a maddened cat's paws, +slipped through his mackinaw and pricked the skin above his heart, +before her hand stopped. + +"'Trull' am I? The daughter of MacGregor Roy is a helpless squaw who +takes kindly to such words from any man on the trail? Blood o' my +father! Pray, you cowardly skulker! Pray!" + +His grin grew broader. + +"Pretty, very pretty!" he drawled. "But you can't make it good, can you? +You thought you could. Your little flare of temper made you feel big. +You were sure you were going to stick me. But you couldn't do it. You're +a woman. See; your flash of bigness is dying out. You're growing tame. +That's one of my specialties--taming spitfires like you. Oh, you needn't +draw back. Have no fear. I never did have any taste for red hair." + +A painter would have raved about the daughter of MacGregor Roy as she +now stood back, facing her tormentor. The fair skin of her face was +flushed red, the thin sharp lines of mouth and nostril were tremulous +with rage, and her wide, grey eyes burned. Her head was thrown back in +scorn, her cap was off; the glorious red-golden hair of her head seemed +alive with fury. With one foot advanced, the knife held behind her, her +breath coming in angry gasps, she stood, a figure passionately, terribly +alive in the dead waste of the snows. + +"Oh, what a coward you are!" she panted. "You knew I couldn't avenge +myself on a sick man. You coward!" + +Reivers laughed drunkenly. The fever was blurring his sight, dulling his +brain and filling him with an irresistible desire to lie down. + +"Yes, I knew it," he mumbled. "I saw it in your eye. You couldn't do +it--because I didn't want you to. I want you--I want you to fix me up--hole +in the shoulder--fever--understand?" + +"I understand that when Duncan Roy, my father's brother, catches up with +us he will save me the trouble by putting a hole through your head." + +"Plenty of time for that later on." Reivers fought off the stupor and +held his senses clear for a moment. "Have you got my whisky?" + +"And what if I have?" + +"Answer me!" he said icily. "Have you?" + +"Duncan Roy has whisky," she replied reluctantly. "He will be on our +trail now." + +"How long--how long before he'll get here?" + +"Yon beast--" she nodded her head toward the still figure in the +snow--"raided our camp, struck me down and stole me away with my team two +hours before sundown, yestere'en. Duncan Roy was out meat-hunting, and +would be back by dark. He'll be two hours behind us, and his dogs travel +even with these." + +"Two hours? Too long," groaned Reivers and pitched headlong into the +snow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--THE WOMAN'S WAY + + +When he came to, it was from the bite and sting of the terrible white +whisky of the North, being poured down his throat by a rude, generous +hand. + +"Aye; he's no' dead," rumbled a voice like unto a bear's growl. "He +lappit the liquor though his eye's closed. Hoot, man! Ye take it in like +mother's milk." + +"Have done, Uncle Duncan," warned another voice--the bold, free voice of +the girl, Reivers in his semi-consciousness made out. "'Tis a sick man. +Don't give him the whole bottle." + +"Let be, let be," grumbled the big voice, but nevertheless Reivers felt +the bottle withdrawn from his lips. "'Tis no tender child that a good +drink of liquor would hurt that we have here. Do you not note that mouth +and jaw? I'm little more pleased with the look of him than with yon +thing in the snow." + +"'Tis a sick, helpless being," said the girl. + +The big voice rumbled forth an oath. + +"And what have we--you and I--to do with sick, helpless beings? Are we not +on the trail to find Shanty Moir, who is working your father's mine, +wherever it is, and there take vengeance on said Shanty for your +father's murder, as well as recover your own property? Is this a trail +on which 'tis fit and well we halted to nurse and care for sick, +helpless beings? Blood of the de'il! An unlucky mess! What business has +man to be sick and ailing on the Winter trail here in the North? 'Tis +the law of Nature that such die!" + +"And do you think that law will be followed here?" demanded the girl. + +"Were I alone, it would," retorted the man. "Our task is to find the +place of Shanty Moir and do him justice." + +"And the hospitality of the MacGregors? Is it like Duncan Roy to see +beast or man needing or wanting help without stretching his hand to help +it?" + +The man was silent. + +"Do you think any good could come to you or me if we turned our hearts +to stones and let a sick man perish after he had fallen helpless on our +hands?" + +"I tell you what I think, Hattie MacGregor," broke out the big voice. "I +think there is trouble travelling as trail-fellow with this man. I see +trouble in the cut of his jaw and the lines of his mouth. There is a +fate written there; he's a fated man and no else, and nothing would +please me better than to have him a thousand days mushing away from me +and never to see him again. Trouble and trouble! It's written on him +plain. + +"Who is he? Whence came he? Why is he alone, dogless, foodless, +weaponless, here in these Dead Lands! 'Tis uncanny. Blood o' the de'il! +He might be dropped down from somewhere, or more like shot up from +somewhere--from the black pit, for instance. It's no' proper for mere +human being to be found in his condition out this far on the barrens, +with no sign of how he came or why?" + +"Have no fear, Uncle Duncan," laughed the girl. "He's only a common +man." + +Reivers opened his eyes, chuckling feverishly. + +"You'll pay for that 'common,' you spitfire, when I've tamed you," he +mumbled. + +"Only a common man, Uncle Duncan," repeated the girl steadfastly, "and +I've a bone to pick with him when he's on his feet, no longer helpless +and pitiable as he is now." + +Again Reivers laughed through the haze of fever. He did not have the +strength to hold his eyes open, but his mind worked on. + +"Helpless! Did you notice the incident of the rock?" he babbled. "Bare, +primitive, two-handed man against a man with a gun. Who won?" + +"Aye," said the man seriously, "we owe you thanks for that. For a +helpless man, you deal stout knocks." + +"And speak big words," snapped the girl. "Now, around with the teams, +Uncle Duncan, and back to camp. There's been talk enough. We must take +him in and shelter and care for him, since he has fallen helpless and +pitiable on our hands. We owe him no thanks. Can you not lay his head +easier--the boasting fool! There; that's better. Now, all that the dogs +can stand, Uncle, for I misdoubt we'll be hard-pressed to keep the life +in him till we get him back to camp." + +Reivers heard and strove to reply. But the paralysis of fever and +weakness was upon him, and all that came from his lips was an incoherent +babbling. In the last vapoury stages of consciousness he realised that +he was being placed more comfortably upon the sledge, that his head was +being lifted and that blankets were being strapped about him. + +He felt the sledge being turned, heard the runners grate on the snow; +then ensued an easy, sliding movement through space, as the rested dogs +started their lope back through the valley. The movement soothed him. It +lulled him to a sensation of safety and comfort. + +The phantasmagoria of fever pounded at his brain, his eyes and ears, but +the steady, swishing rush of the sleigh drove them away. He slept, and +awoke when a halt was called and more whisky forced down his throat. +Then he slept again. + +There were several halts. Once he realised that he was being fed thin +soup, made from cooked venison and snow-water. That was the last +impression made on remaining consciousness. After that the thread +snapped. + +The sledges went on. They left the valley. Through the jumbled ridges of +the Dead Lands they hurried. They reached a stretch of stunted fir, and +still they continued to go. At length they pulled up before a solid +little cabin built in a cleft of rocks. + +The Snow Burner was carried in and put to bed. After a rest Duncan Roy +and the fresher of the dogteams took the trail again. They came, back +after a day and a night, bringing with them a certain Pere Batiste, +skilled in treating fevers and wounds of the body as well as of the +soul. The good cure gasped at the torso which revealed itself to his +gaze as he stripped off the clothes to work at the wound. + +"If le bon Dieu made him as well inside as outside, this is a very good +man," he said simply; and Duncan MacGregor smiled grimly. + +"God--or the de'il--made him to deal stout knocks, that's sure," he +grunted. "'Tis a rare animal we have stripped before us." + +"A rare human being--a soul," reproved Father Batiste. "And it is le bon +Dieu who makes us all." + +"But the de'il gets hold of some very young," insisted the Scotchman. + +Father Batiste stayed in the cabin for two days. + +"He was not meant to die this time," he said later. "It will be +long--weeks perhaps--before he will be strong enough to take the trail. He +will need care, such care as only a woman can give him. If he does not +have this care he will die. If he does have it he will live. Adieu, my +children; you have a sacred, human life in your hands." + +And he got the care that only a woman could give him. For the next two +weeks Duncan MacGregor watched his niece's devoted nursing and gnawed +his red beard gloomily. + +"Trouble--trouble--trouble!" he muttered over and over to himself. "It +rides around the man's head like a storm-cap. Hattie MacGregor, take +care. Yon man will be a different creature to handle when he has the +strength back in his body." + +At the end of a week Reivers awoke as a man wakes after a long, +fever-breaking slumber, weak and wasted, yet with a grateful sense of +comfort and well-being. Before he opened his eyes he sensed by the +warmth and odours of the air that he was in a small, tight room, and in +a haze he fancied that he had fallen in the tepee of Tillie, the squaw. +Then he remembered. He opened his eyes. + +He was lying in a bunk, raised high from the floor, and above the foot +of the bed was a small window, shaded by a frilled white curtain. +Reivers lay long and looked at the curtain before his eyes moved to +further explore the room. For once, long, long ago, he had belonged in a +world where white frilled curtains and frills of other kinds were not an +exception. + +In his physically washed-out condition his memory reached back and +pictured that world with uncanny clearness, and he turned from the +curtain with a frown of annoyance to look straight into the eyes of +Duncan Roy, who sat by the fireplace across the room and studied him +from beneath shaggy red brows. + +Reivers looked the man over idly at first, then with a considerable +interest and appreciation. Sitting crouched over on a low stone bench, +with the light of the fire and of the sun upon him, MacGregor resembled +nothing so much as an old red-haired bear. He was short of leg and +bow-legged, but his torso and head were enormous. His arms, folded +across the knees, were bear-like in length and size, and his hair and +beard flamed golden red. + +There was no friendliness in the small, grey eyes which regarded Reivers +so steadily. Duncan MacGregor was no man to hide his true feelings. +Reivers looked enquiringly around. + +"She's stepped outside to feed the dogs," said MacGregor, interpreting +the look. "You'll have to put up with my poor company for the time +being." + +"I accept your apology," said Reivers and turned comfortably toward the +wall. + +A deep, chesty chuckle came from the fireside. + +"Man, whoever are you or whatever are you, to take it that Duncan +MacGregor feels any need to apologise to you?" + +The words were further balm to Reivers's new-found feeling of comfort +and content. + +"Say that again, please," he requested drowsily. + +Laughingly the giant by the fire repeated his query. + +"Good!" murmured Reivers. "I just wanted to be sure that you didn't know +who I am--or, rather, who I was?" + +"Blood o' the de'il!" laughed the Scotchman. "So it's that, is it? Tell +me, how much reward is there offered for you, dead or alive? I'm a +thrifty man, lad, and you hardly look like a man who'd have a small +price on his head." + +"Wrong, quite wrong, my suspicious friend," said Reivers. "I see you've +the simple mind of the man who's spent much time in lone places. You +jump at the natural conclusion. When you know me better you'll know that +that won't apply to me." + +"Well," drawled the Scotchman good-naturedly, "I do not say that it +looks suspicious to be found a two-days' march out in the Dead Lands, +without food, dog, or weapons, with an empty belly and a hole through +the shoulder, but there are people who might draw the conclusion that a +man so fixed was travelling because some place behind him was mighty bad +for his health. But I have no doubt you have an explanation? No doubt +'tis quite the way you prefer to travel?" + +"Under certain circumstances, it is," said Reivers. + +"Aye; under certain circumstances. Such as an affair with a 'Redcoat,' +for instance." + +"Wrong again, my simple-minded friend. You're quite welcome to bring the +whole Mounted Police here to look me over. I'm not on their lists, or +the lists of any authority in the world, as 'wanted.'" + +"For that insult--that I'm of the kind that bears tales to the +police--I'll have an accounting with you later on," said MacGregor +sharply. "For the rest--you'll admit that you're under some small +obligation to us--will you be kind enough to explain what lay behind you +that you should be out on the barrens in your condition? I'll have you +know that I am no man to ask pay for succouring the sick or wounded. +Neither am I the man to let any well man be near-speaking with my ward +and niece, Hattie MacGregor, without I know what's the straight of him." + +Reivers turned luxuriously in his bunk and regarded his inquisitor with +a smile. + +"Poor, dainty, helpless, little lady!" he mocked. "So weak and frail +that she needs a protector. Never carries anything more than an +eight-inch knife up her sleeve. You do right, MacGregor; your niece +certainly needs looking after. She certainly doesn't know how to take +care of herself. + +"But about obligations, I don't quite agree with you. Didn't you owe me +a little something for that turn with the bearded fellow? Not that I did +it to save the girl," he continued loudly, as he heard the door open +behind him and knew that Hattie MacGregor had entered. "What was she to +me? Nothing! But I was hungry. I needed food. But for that our +black-bearded friend might now have been wandering care-free over the +snows, a red-haired woman still strapped to his sledge, his taste +seeming to run to that colour, which mine does not." + +Hattie MacGregor stilled her uncle's retort with a shake of her +golden-red head, crossed to the fireplace and took up a bowl that was +simmering there, and approached the bed. Reivers looked at her closely, +striving to catch her eye, but she seated herself beside him without +apparently paying the slightest attention. She spoke no word, made no +sign to welcome him back from his unconsciousness, but merely held a +spoonful of the steaming broth up to his lips. + +There was a certain dexterity in her movements which told that she had +performed this action many, many times before, and there was nothing in +her manner to indicate her sensibility of the change in his condition. +Reivers opened his mouth to laugh, and the girl dexterously tilted the +contents of the spoon down his throat. + +"You fool!" he sputtered, half strangling. + +He strove to rise, but her round, warm arm held him down. Over by the +fireplace Duncan MacGregor slapped his thigh and chuckled deep down in +his hairy throat, but on the face of his niece there was only the +determined patience of the nurse dealing with a patient not yet entirely +responsible for his behaviour. + +She was not surprised at his outbreak, Reivers saw. Apparently she had +fed him many times just so--he utterly helpless and childish, she capable +and calm. Apparently she was determined to sit there, firm and patient, +until he was ready to take his broth quietly and without fuss. + +Indignantly he raised his hands to take the bowl from her; then he +opened his eyes wide in surprise. He was so weak that he could barely +lift his arms, and when she offered him a second spoonful he swallowed +it without further demur. + +"Ah, well, we'll soon be able to take the trail again," drawled +MacGregor mockingly. "We're getting strong now; soon we'll be able to +eat with our own hands." + +"Hold tongue, Uncle," snapped the girl, and continued to feed her +patient. + +"I suppose I must thank you?" taunted Reivers, when the bowl was empty. + +Hattie MacGregor made no sign to indicate that she had heard. She put +the bowl away, felt Reivers' pulse, laid her hand upon his +forehead--never looking at him the while--arranged the pillows under his +head, tucked him in and without speaking went out. Reivers' eyes +followed her till the door closed behind her. + +"The little spitfire!" he growled in grudging admiration; and Duncan +MacGregor, by the fire, laughed till the room echoed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV--GOLD! + + +Next morning when she came to feed him Reivers angrily reached for the +bowl. He was stronger than the day before, and he held his hands forth +without trembling. + +"There's no need of your feeding me by hand any longer," said he. "I +assure you I'll enjoy my food much better alone than I do with you +feeding me." + +The girl seated herself at the bunk-side, holding the bowl out of his +reach, and looked him quietly in the eyes. It was the first time she had +appeared to notice his return to consciousness, and Reivers smiled +quizzically at her scrutiny. She did not smile in return, merely studied +him as if he were an interesting subject. + +In the grey light of morning Reivers for the first time saw her with +eyes cleared of the fever blur. His smile vanished, for he saw that this +woman, to him, was different from any woman he ever had known before. +And he had known many. + +In her wide grey eyes there rode a sorrow that reached out and held the +observer, despite her evident efforts to keep it hidden. But the mouth +belied the eyes. It was set with an expression of determination, almost +superhuman, almost savage. It was as if this girl, just rounding her +twenties, had turned herself into a force for the accomplishment of an +object. The mouth was harsh, almost lipless, in its set. Yet, beneath +all this, the woman in Hattie MacGregor was obvious, soft, yearning. + +Many women had had a part in Reivers' life--far too many. None of them +had held his interests longer than for a few months; none of them had he +failed to tame and break. And none of them had reached below the hard +husk of him and touched the better man as Hattie MacGregor did at this +moment. His past experiences, his past attitude toward women, his past +manner of life, flashed through his mind, each picture bringing with it +a stab of remorse. + +Remorse! The Snow Burner remorseful! He laughed his old laugh of +contempt and defiance of all the world, but, though he refused to +acknowledge it to himself, the old, invincible, self-assured ring was +not in it. This girl was not to him what other women had been, and he +saw that he could not tame her as he had tamed them. + +Strange thoughts rose in his mind. He wished that the past had been +different. He actually felt unworthy. Well, the past was past. It had +died with him in the river. He was beginning a new life, a new name, a +new man. Why couldn't he? He drove the weak thoughts away. What +nonsense! He--Hell-Camp Reivers--getting soft over a woman? Pooh! + +"I said I could feed myself," he snarled. "Give me that bowl. I don't +want you around." + +For reply she dipped the spoon into the food and held it ready. + +"Lie down quietly, please," she said coldly. "This is no time for +keeping up your play of being a big man." + +"Give me that bowl," he commanded. + +"Uncle," she called quietly. + +Her big kinsman came lurching in from the other room of the cabin. + +"Aye, lass?" said he. + +"It looks as if we would have to obey Father Batiste's directions and +feed him by force," said the girl quietly. "He has come out of the +fever, but he hasn't got his senses back. He thinks of feeding himself. +Do you get the straps, Uncle. You recollect Father Batiste's orders." + +Duncan MacGregor scratched his hairy head in puzzled fashion. + +"How now, stranger?" he growled. "Can you no take your food in peace?" + +"I can take it without anybody's help," insisted Reivers. He knew that +the situation was ridiculous, but he saw no way of getting the +whip-hand. + +"It was the word of the good Father, without whom you would now be +resting out in the snow with a cairn of rock over you, that you should +be fed so much and so little for some days after your senses come back," +said MacGregor slowly. "I do not ken the right of it quite, but the lass +does. The lass--she'll have her way, I suspect. I can do naught but obey +her orders." + +"Get the straps," commanded the girl curtly. + +Reivers glared at her, but she looked back without the least losing her +self-possession or determination. + +"You'll pay for this!" he snorted. + +"Will you take your food without the straps?" said she. + +For a minute their eyes met in conflict. + +"Oh, don't be ridiculous," snapped Reivers. "Have your silly way." + +"Good. That's a good boy," she said softly; and Duncan Roy ran from the +room choking. + +"You see," she continued, as he swallowed the first spoonful, "it isn't +always possible to have your own way, is it? I am doing this only for +your own good." + +"Hold your tongue," he growled. "I've got to eat this food, but I don't +have to listen to your talk." + +"Quite right," she agreed, and the meal was finished in silence. + +At noon she fed him again, without speaking a word. Apparently she had +given her uncle orders likewise to refrain from talking to Reivers, for +not a word did he speak during the day. + +In the evening the same silent feeding took place. After she and her +uncle had supped, they drew up to the fireplace, where, in silence, +Duncan repaired a dog-harness while the girl sewed busily at a fur coat. +At short intervals the uncle cast a look toward Reivers' bunk, then +choked a chuckle in his beard, each chuckle bringing a glance of reproof +from his niece. + +"No, Hattie," MacGregor broke out finally, "I cannot hold tongue any +longer. Company is no' so plentiful in the North that we can sit by and +have no speech. Do you keep still if you wish--I must talk. Stranger, are +you going to tell me about yoursel', as I asked you yestereve?" + +"Does her Royal Highness, the Red-Headed Chieftainess, permit me to +speak?" queried Reivers sarcastically. + +"'Twas your own sel' told me to hold tongue," said the girl evenly, +without looking up. "I am glad to see you are reasonable enough to give +in." + +"Let be, Hattie," grumbled the old man. "He's our guest, and we in his +debt. Stranger, who are you?" + +"Nobody," said Reivers. + +"Ah!" cried the girl. "Now he's come to his senses, sure enough." + +"Hattie!" said the old man ominously. "I beg pardon for her uncivility, +stranger." + +"Never mind," said Reivers lightly. "Apparently she doesn't know any +better. Speaking to you, sir, I am nobody. I'm as much nobody as a child +born yesterday. My life--as far as you're concerned--began up there on the +rocks in the Dead Lands. + +"I died just a few days before that--died as effectively as if a dozen +preachers had read the service over me. You don't understand that. +You've got a simple mind. But I tell you I'm beginning a new life as +completely as if there was no life behind me, and as you know all that's +happened in this new life, you see there's nothing for me to tell you +about myself." + +"You died," repeated the old man slowly. "I'll warrant you had a good +reason." + +"A fair one. I wanted to live. I died to save my life." + +"Speak plain!" growled MacGregor. "You were not fleeing from the law?" + +"No--as I told you yesterday. The only law I was fleeing from was the +good old one that cheap men make when they become a mob." + +"I tak' it they had a fair reason for becoming a mob?" + +"The best in the world," agreed Reivers. "They wanted to kill me. Now, +why they wanted to do that is something that belongs to my other +life--with the other man--has nothing at all to do with this man--with +me--and therefore I am not going to tell you anything about it, except +this: I didn't come away with anything that belonged to them, except +possibly my life." + +MacGregor nodded sagely as Reivers ended. + +"And his own bare life a man has a right to get away with if he can, +even though it's property forfeited to others," he said. "I suppose you +have, or had, a name?" + +"I did. I haven't now; I haven't thought of one that would please me." + +"How would the 'Woman Tamer' suit you?" asked the girl, without pausing +in her sewing. "You remember you told me one of your specialties was +taming spitfires like me?" + +Reivers smiled. + +"I am glad to see that you've become sufficiently interested in me, Miss +MacGregor, to select me a name." + +"Interested!" she flared; then subsided and bent over her sewing. "I +will speak no more, Uncle," she said meekly. + +"Good!" sneered Reivers. "Your manners are improving. And now, Mr. +MacGregor, what about yourselves, and your brother, and a mine, and a +man named Moir that I've heard you speak of?" + +Duncan MacGregor tossed a fresh birch chunk into the fire and carefully +poked the coals around it. Outside, the dogs, burrowing in the snow, +sent up to the sky their weird night-cry, a cry of prayer and protest, +protest against the darkness and mystery of night, prayer for the return +of the light of day. A wind sprang up and whipped dry snow against the +cabin window, and to the sound of its swishing wail Duncan MacGregor +began to speak. + +"Little as you've seen fit to tell about yourself, stranger," he said, +"'tis plain from your behaviour out on the rocks that you're no man of +that foul Welsh cutthroat and thief, Shanty Moir. For the manner in +which you dealt with yon man, we owe you a debt." + +"We owe him nothing," interrupted the niece. "Had he not interfered, I +would have found the way to Shanty Moir." + +"But as how?" + +"What matter as how? What matter what happens to me if I could find what +has become of my father and bring justice to the head of Shanty Moir?" + +MacGregor shook his head. + +"We owe you a debt," he continued, speaking to Reivers, "and can not +refuse to tell you how it is with us. It is no pleasant situation we are +in, as you may have judged. My brother, father of Hattie, is--or was, we +do not know which--James MacGregor, 'Red' MacGregor so-called in this +land, therefore MacGregor Roy, as is all our breed. You would have heard +of him did you belong in this country. + +"Ten year ago we built this cabin, he and I, and settled down to trap +the country, for the fur here is good. Five year ago a Cree half-breed +gave James a sliver of rock to weight a net with, and the rock, curse it +forever, was over half gold. The breed could not recall where the rock +had come from, save that he had chucked it into his canoe some place up +north. + +"James MacGregor stopped trapping then. He began to look for the spot +where the gilty rock came from. Three years he looked and did not find +it. Two years ago Shanty Moir came down the river and bided here, and +Moir was a prospector among other things. Together they found it, after +nearly two years looking together; for James took this Moir into +partnership, and that was the unlucky day of his life." + +MacGregor kicked savagely at the fire and sat silent for several +minutes. + +"Six months gone they found it," he continued dully, "in the Summer +time. They came in for provisions--for provisions for all Winter. A +deposit for two men to work, they said. My brother would not even tell +me where they found it. The gold had got into his brain. It was his +life's blood to him. We only knew that it was somewhere up yonder." + +He embraced the whole North with a despairing sweep of his long arms and +continued: + +"Then they went back, five months, two weeks gone, to dig out the gold, +the two of them, my brother, James, and the foul Welsh thief, Shanty +Moir. For foul he has proven. In three months my brother had promised he +would be back to say all was well with him. We have had no word, no word +in these many months. + +"But Shanty Moir we have heard of. Aye, we have heard of him. At Fifty +Mile, and at Dumont's Camp he had been, throwing dust and nuggets across +the bars and to the painted women, boasting he is king of the richest +deposit in the North, and offering to kill any man who offers to follow +his trail to his holdings. Aye, that we have heard. And that must mean +only one thing--the cut-throat Moir has done my brother to death and is +flourishing on the gold that drew James MacGregor to his doom. + +"Well," he went on harshly, "what men have found others can find. We +have sent word broadcast that we will find Shanty Moir and his holdings, +and that I will have an accounting with him, aye, an accounting that +will leave but one of us above ground, if it takes me the rest of my +life." + +"And mine," interjected the girl hotly. "Shanty Moir is mine, and I take +toll for my father's life. It's no matter what comes to me, if I can +bring justice to Shanty Moir for what he has done to my father. My +hand--my own hand will take toll when we run the dog to earth." + +In his bunk Reivers laughed scornfully. + +"I've a good notion to go hunting this Moir and bring him to you just to +see if you could make those words good," said he. "With your own hand, +eh? You'd fail, of course, at the last moment, being a woman, but it +would almost be worth while getting this Moir for you to see what you'd +do. Yes, it would be an interesting experiment." + +It was the girl's turn to laugh now, her laughter mocking his. + +"'Twould be interesting to see what you would do did you stand face to +face with Shanty Moir," she sneered. "Yes, 'twould be an interesting +experiment--to see how you'd crawl. For this can be said of the villain, +Shanty Moir, that he does not run from men to get help from women. You +bring Shanty Moir in! How would you do it--with your mouth?" + +"On second thought it would be cruel and unusual punishment to make any +man listen to your tongue," concluded Reivers solemnly. + +MacGregor growled and shook his head. + +"There's no doubt that Shanty Moir of the black heart is a hard-grown, +experienced man," said he. "Henchmen of his--three of them, Welshmen +all--came through here while James and he were hunting the mine, and he +treated them like dogs and they him like a chieftain. 'Twas one of them +you slew with the rock out yon, and the matter is very plain: Shanty +Moir has got word to them and they have come to the mine and overpowered +my brother James. You may judge of the strong hand he holds over his men +when a single one of them dares to raid my camp in my absence and steal +the daughter of James MacGregor for his chieftain--a strong, big man. +'Twill make it all the sweeter when we get him. He will die hard." + +"Also--being of a thrifty breed--you won't feel sorry at getting hold of +whatever gold he's taken out," suggested Reivers. + +"That's understood," said MacGregor, and put a fresh chunk on the fire +for the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--THE LOOK IN A WOMAN'S EYES + + +Next morning Hattie MacGregor, after she had fed him his morning's meal, +said casually to Reivers: + +"You have about six days more to pump my uncle and get all he knows +about my father's mine. In six days you should be strong enough to +travel, and so long and no longer do I keep you." + +"Six days?" repeated Reivers. "I may take it into my head to start +before." + +"And that's all the good that would do you," she replied promptly. "You +don't go from here until you are firm on your feet, and that will be six +days, about." + +"Your interest flatters me," he mocked. + +"Interest!" Her laugh was bitter. "No stray, wounded cur even goes from +this camp till he's fit to rustle a living on the trail. I could do no +less even for you." + +"And if I should make up my mind and go?" + +"I would shoot you if necessary to keep you here till my duty by you is +done!" + +"You spitfire!" laughed Reivers, hiding the admiration that leaped into +his eyes. "And what makes you think I'm going hunting for this alleged +mine when I depart from your too warm hospitality?" + +"Pooh! 'Tis easy enough to see that you're that kind--you with your long, +hungry nose! I was watching you when my uncle babbled away last night. +You've naught a thing in the world but the clothes you stand in. What +would you do but go snooping around when you hear of gold? I see it in +your mean eyes. Well, seek all you please. You're welcome. You'll not +interfere with our quest. In the first place, you have not the heart to +stay on the trail long enough to succeed; in the second, you'd +back-track quick enough did you once come face to face with Shanty +Moir." + +"And you--I suppose this bad man, Shanty Moir, will quail when he sees +your red hair? Or perhaps you expect to charm him as you charmed the +gentleman who had you tied on the sledge?" + +"I do not know that," she said without irritation. "But I do know that +my uncle and I will run Shanty Moir to earth, and that he will pay in +full for the wrong he has done." + +"You silly, childish fool!" he broke out. "Haven't you brains enough to +realise what an impossible wild-goose chase you're on? Since it took +your father five years to find the mine, you ought to realise that it's +pretty hard to locate. Since he didn't find it until this Moir, a +prospector, came to help him, you ought to understand that it takes a +miner to find it. + +"You're no miner. Your uncle is no miner. You've neither of you had the +slightest experience in this sort of thing. You wouldn't know the signs +if you saw them. You'll go wandering aimlessly around, maybe walking +over Shanty Moir's head; because, since nobody has stumbled across his +camp, it must be so well hidden that it can't be seen unless you know +right where to look. Find it! You're a couple of children!" + +"Mayhap. But we are not so aimless as you may think. We go to Fifty Mile +and to Dumont's Camp and stay. Sooner or later Shanty Moir will come +there, to throw my father's gold over the bars and to worse. It may be a +month, a year--it doesn't make any difference. But I suppose a great man +like you has a quicker and surer way of doing it?" + +"I have," said Reivers. + +"No doubt. I could see your eyes grow greedy when you heard my uncle +tell of gold." + +"Oh, no; not especially," taunted Reivers. "The gold is an incident. +Shanty Moir is what interests me. He seems to be a gentleman of parts. +I'm going to get him. I'm going to bring you face to face with him. I +want to see if you could make good the strong talk you've been dealing +out as to what you would do. You interest me that way, Miss MacGregor, +and that way only. It will be an interesting experiment to get you +Shanty Moir." + +"Thank Heaven!" she said grimly. "We'll soon be rid of you and your big +talk. Then I can forget that any man gave me the name you gave me and +lived to brag about it afterward." + +He laughed, as one laughs at a petulant child. + +"You will never forget me," he said. "You know that you will not forget +me, if you live a thousand years." + +"I have forgotten better men than you," she said and went out, slamming +the door. + +That evening Reivers sat up by the fire and further plied old MacGregor +with questions concerning the mine. + +"You say that your brother claimed the mine lay to the north," he said. +"I suppose you have searched the north first of all?" + +"For a month I have done nothing else," was the reply. "I have not gone +far enough north. My brother James said it lay north from here; and +'twas north he and Shanty Moir went when they started on their last trip +together, from which my brother did not return or send word." + +"Dumont's Camp and Fifty Mile, where Moir's been on sprees; lay to the +west." + +"Northwest, aye. Four days' hard mushing to Fifty Mile. Dumont's +hell-hole's a day beyond." + +"And you think the mine lies to the north of that?" + +"Aye. More like in a direct line north of here, for 'twas so they went +when they left here." + +Reivers hid the smile of triumph that struggled on his lips. The Dead +Lands were strange country to him, but in the land north of Fifty Mile +he was at home. In his wanderings he had spent months in that country in +company with many other deluded men who thought to dig gold out of the +bare, frozen tundra. He had found no gold there, and neither had any one +else. There was no gold up there, could be none there, and, what was +more important to him just now, there was no rock formation, nothing but +muskeg and tundra. The mine could not be up north. + +It must, however, be within easy mushing distance of Fifty Mile and +Dumont's Camp, say two or three days, else Shanty Moir would not have +hied himself to these settlements when the need for riot and wassail +overcame him. + +"You know the ground between here and Fifty Mile, I suppose?" he said +suddenly. + +"'Tis my trapping-ground," replied MacGregor. + +So the mine couldn't be east of the settlements. It was to the west or +the south. + +"Your brother was particularly careful to keep the location of his find +secret even from you?" + +"Aye," said MacGregor sorrowfully. "It had gone to his head, he had +searched so long, and the find was so big. He took no chances that I +might know it, or his daughter Hattie; only the thief, Shanty Moir." + +And he said that the mine lay to the north. That might mean that it lay +to the south--west or south of the settlements, there his search would +lie. It was new country to him, and, as MacGregor well knew before he +gave him his confidence, a man not knowing the land might wander +aimlessly for years without covering those vast, broken reaches. But +MacGregor did not know of the Chippewa squaw, Tillie, and her people. + +"And now I suppose you will be able to find it soon," snapped Hattie +MacGregor, "now that you have pumped my uncle dry?" + +"I will," said Reivers. "I'll be there waiting for you when you come +along." And Duncan MacGregor chuckled deeply. + +For the remainder of his stay at the cabin, Reivers maintained a sullen +silence toward the girl. Had she been different, had she affected him +differently, he would have cursed her for daring to disturb him even to +this slight extent. But he knew that if she had been different she would +not have disturbed him at all. Well, he would soon be away, and then he +would forget her. + +He had an object again. His nature was such that he craved power and +dominance over men, as another man craves food. He would not live at all +unless he had power. He had used this power too ruthlessly at +Cameron-Dam Camp, and it had been wrested from him. For the time being +he was down among the herd. But not for long. + +Shanty Moir had a mine some place south or west of the settlements, and +the mine yielded gold nuggets and gold dust for Shanty Moir to fling +across the bars. Gold spells power. Given gold, Reivers would have back +his old-time power over men, aye, and over women. Not merely a power up +there in the frozen North, but in the world to which he had long ago +belonged: the world of men in dress clothes, of lights and soft rugs, or +women, soft-speaking women, shimmery gowns and white shoulders, their +eyes and apparel a constant invitation to the great adventure of love. + +After all, that was the world that he belonged in. And gold would give +him power there, and in that whirl he would forget this red-haired, +semi-savage who looked him in the eye as no other woman ever had dared. +His fists clenched as his thoughts lighted up the future. The +Snow-Burner had died, but he would live again, and he would forget, +absolutely and completely, Hattie MacGregor. + +On the morning of the sixth day Duncan MacGregor gravely placed before +him outside the cabin door a pair of light snowshoes and a grub-bag +filled with food for four days. Reivers strapped on the snowshoes and +ran his arms through the bagstraps without a word. + +"Stranger," said MacGregor, holding out his hand, "I did not like you +when first I saw you. I do not say I like you now. But--shake hands." + +Reivers hurriedly shook hands and tore himself away. He had resolved to +go without seeing Hattie, and he was inwardly raging at himself because +he found this resolution hard to keep. He laid his course for the +nearest rise of land, half a mile away. Once over the rise the cabin +would be shut out of sight, and even though he should weaken and look +back there would be no danger of letting her see. + +Bent far over, head down, lunging along with the cunning strides of the +trained snowshoer, he topped the rise and dropped down on the farther +side. There he paused to rest himself and draw breath, and as he stood +there Hattie MacGregor and her dog-team swept at right angles across his +trail. + +She was riding boy-fashion, half sitting, half lying, on the empty +sledge, driving the dogs furiously for their daily exercise. She did not +speak. She merely looked up at him as she went past. Then she was gone +in a flurry of snow, and Reivers went forth on his quest of power with a +curse on his lips and in his heart the determination that no weakening +memories of a girl's wistful eyes should interfere with his aim. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--ON THE TRAIL OF FORTUNE + + +Reivers travelled steadily for an hour at the best pace that was in him. +It was not a good pace, for he was far from being in his old physical +condition, and the lift and swing of a snowshoe will cramp the calves +and ankle-tendons of a man grown soft from long bed-lying, no matter how +cunning may be his stride. + +He swore a little at first over his slow progress. He was like a wolf, +suddenly released from a trap, who desires to travel far, swiftly and +instantly, and who finds that the trap has made him lame. + +Reivers wanted to put the MacGregor cabin, and the scenes about it, +which might remind him of Hattie, behind him with a rush. But the rush, +he soon found, threatened to cripple him, so he must perforce give it +up. The trail that he had set out to make was not one that any man, +least of all one recently convalescent, could hope to cover in a single +burst of speed. + +He was going to the Winter camp of the people of Tillie, the squaw. The +camp lay somewhere in the northwest. How far away he did not know; and +it was no part of his plans to arrive at the camp of the Chippewas +depleted in energy and resource. The role he had set out to play now +called for the character of the Snow-Burner at his best--dominant, +unconquerable. Therefore, when he found that his first efforts at speed +threatened to cripple him with the treacherous snow-shoe cramp, he +resigned himself to a pace which would have shamed him had he been in +good condition. It was poor snow-shoeing, but at the end of an hour he +had placed between himself and all possible sight of Hattie MacGregor +the first ragged rock-ramparts of the Dead Lands, and he was content. + +On the western slope of a low ridge he unstrapped his snow-shoes and sat +down on a bare boulder for a rest. His heart throbbed nervously from his +exertion and his lungs gasped weakly. But with each breath of the crisp +air his strength was coming back to him, and in his head the brains of +the Snow-Burner worked as of old. He smiled with great +self-satisfaction. He was not considering his condition, was not +counting the difficulties that lay in his path. He was merely picturing, +with lightning-like play of that powerful mental machinery of his, the +desperate nature of the adventure toward which he was travelling. + +It was desperate enough even to thrill Hell-Camp Reivers. For probably +never did born adventurer set forth of his own free will on a more +deadly, more hopeless-looking trail. As he sat on the rock there in the +Dead Lands, Reivers was in better condition than on his flight from +Cameron-Dam Camp to this extent: the bullet-hole in his shoulder was +healed, and, he had recuperated from the fever brought on by exposure +and exhaustion. That was all. He was still the bare man with empty +hands. He possessed nothing in the world but the clothes he stood in, +the food on his back and the gift snow-shoes on his feet. + +He had not even a knife that might be called a weapon, for the +case-knife that old MacGregor had given him upon parting could scarcely +be reckoned such. In this condition he was setting forth--first, to find +a cunningly hidden mine; second, to take it and keep it for his own from +one Shanty Moir, who treated his henchmen like dogs and was looked up to +as a chieftain. + +The Snow-Burner lived again as he contemplated the possibilities of a +clash with Moir. If what the MacGregors had said was true, Shanty Moir +was a boss man himself. And as instinctively and eagerly as one +ten-pronged buck tears straight through timber, swamp and water to +battle with another buck whose deep-voiced challenge proclaims him +similarly a giant, so Reivers was going toward Shanty Moir. + +He leaped to his feet, with flashing eyes, at the thought of what was +coming. Then he remembered his weakened condition and sat down again. +For the immediate present, until his full strength returned, he must +make craft take the place of strength. + +When he was ready to start again, Reivers took his bearings from the +sun, it being a clear day, and laid his trail as straight toward the +northwest as the formation of the Dead Lands would allow. He slept that +night by a hot spring. A tiny rivulet ran unfrozen from the spring +southward down into the maze of barren stone, a thread of dark, steaming +water, wandering through the white, frozen snow. + +Had he been a little less tired with the day's march Reivers might have +paid more attention to this phenomenon that evening. In the morning he +awoke with such eagerness to be on toward his adventure that he marched +off without bestowing on the stream more than a casual glance. And later +he came to curse his carelessness. + +Bearing steadily toward the northwest, his course lay in the Dead Lands +for the greater part of the day. Shortly before sundown he saw with +relief that ahead the rocks and ridges gave way to the flat tundra, with +small clumps of stunted willows dotting the flatness, like tiny islands +in a sea of snow. + +Reivers quickened his pace. Out on the tundra he hurried straight to the +nearest bunch of willows. Even at a distance of several rods the chewed +white branches of the willows told him their story, and he gave vent to +a shout of relief. The caribou had been feeding there. The Chippewas +lived on the caribou in Winter. He had only to follow the trail of the +animals and he would soon run across the moccasin tracks of his friends, +the Indians. + +Luck favoured him more than he hoped for. At his shout there was a crash +in a clump of willows a hundred yards ahead and a bull caribou lumbered +clumsily into the open. At the sight of him the beast snorted loudly and +turned and ran. From right and left came other crashes, and in the +gathering dusk the herd which had been stripping the willows fled in the +wake of the sentinel bull, their ungainly gait whipping them out of +sight and hearing in uncanny fashion. + +Reivers smiled. The camp of Tillie's people would not be far from the +feeding ground of the caribou. He ate his cold supper, crawled into the +shelter of the willows and went to sleep. + +Dry, drifting snow half hid the tracks of the caribou during the night, +and in the morning he was forced to wait for the late-coming daylight +before picking up the trail. The herd had gone straight westward, and +Reivers followed the signs, his eyes constantly scanning the snow for +moccasin tracks or other evidence of human beings. + +In the middle of the forenoon, in a birch and willow swamp, he jumped +the animals again. They caught his scent at a mile's distance, and +Reivers crouched down and watched avidly as they streaked from the swamp +to security. + +To the north of the swamp lay the open, snow-covered tundra, where even +the knife-like fore-hoof of the caribou would have hard time to dig out +a living in the dead of Winter. To the south lay clumps of brush and +stunted trees, ideal shelter and feed. + +The animals went north. Reivers nodded in great satisfaction. There were +wolves or Indians to the south, probably the latter. Accordingly he +turned southward. Toward noon he found his first moccasin track, +evidently the trail of a single hunter who had come northward, but not +quite far enough, on a hunt for caribou. + +The track looped back southward and Reivers trailed it. Soon a set of +snow-shoe tracks joined the moccasins, and Reivers, after a close +scrutiny had revealed the Chippewa pattern in the snow, knew that he was +on the right track. The tracks dropped down on to the bed of a solidly +frozen river and continued on to the south. + +Other tracks became visible. When they gathered together and made a +hard-packed trail down the middle of the river, Reivers knew that a camp +was not far away, and grew cautious. + +He found the camp as the swift Winter darkness came on, a group of half +a dozen tepees set snugly in a bend of the river, one large tepee in the +middle easily recognisable as that of Tillie, the squaw, chief of the +band. + +Reivers sat down to wait. Presently he heard the camp-dogs growling and +fighting over their evening meal and knew that they would be too +occupied to notice and announce the approach of a stranger. Also, at +this time the people of the camp would be in their tepees, supping +heavily if the hunter's god had been favourably inclined, and gnawing +the cold bones of yesterday if that irrational deity had been unkind. + +By the whining note in the growls of the dogs, Reivers judged that the +latter was the case this evening; and when he moved forward and stood +listening outside the flap of the big tepee he knew that it was so. +Within, an old squaw's treble rose faintly in a whining chant, of which +Reivers caught the despairing motif: + + Black is the face of the sun, Ah wo! + The time has come for the old to die. Ah wo, ah wo! + There is meat only to keep alive the young. Ah wo! + We who are old must die. Ah wo! Ah wo! Ah wo! + +Any other white man but Reivers would have shuddered at the terrible, +primitive story which the wail told. Reivers smiled. His old luck was +with him. The camp was short of meat and the hunters had given up hopes +of making a kill. + +With deft, experienced fingers he unloosed the flap of the tepee. There +was no noise. Suddenly the old squaw's wail ceased; those in the tepee +looked up from their scanty supper. The Snow-Burner was standing inside +the tepee, the flap closed behind him. + +There were six people in the tepee, the old squaw, an old man, two young +hunters, a young girl, and Tillie. They were gathered around the +fire-stone in the centre, making a scant meal of frozen fish. Tillie, by +virtue of her position, had the warmest place and the most fish. + +No one spoke a word as they became aware of his presence. Only on +Tillie's face there came a look in which the traces of hunger vanished. +Reivers stood looking down at the group for a moment in silence. Then he +strode forward, thrust Tillie to one side and sat down in her place. For +Reivers knew Indians. + +"Feed me," he commanded, tossing his grub-bag to her. + +He did not look at her as she placed before him the entire contents of +the bag. Having served him she retired and sat down behind him, awaiting +his pleasure. Reivers ate leisurely of the bountiful supply of cold meat +that remained of his supply. When he had his fill he tossed small +portions to the old squaw, the old man and the young girl. + +"Hunters are mighty," he mocked in the Chippewa tongue, as the young men +avidly eyed the meat. "They kill what they eat. The meat they do not +kill would stick in their mighty throats." + +Last of all he beckoned Tillie to come to his side and eat what +remained. + +"Men eat meat," he continued, looking over the heads of the two hunters. +"Old people and children are content with frozen fish. When I was here +before there were men in this camp. There was meat in the tepees. The +dogs had meat. Now I see the men are all gone." + +One of the hunters raised his arms above his head, a gesture indicating +strength, and let them fall resignedly to his side, a sign of despair. + +"The caribou are gone, Snow-Burner," he said dully. "That is why there +is no meat. All gone. The god of good kills has turned his face from us. +Little Bear--" to the old man--"how long have our people hunted the +caribou here?" + +Little Bear lifted his head, his wizened, smoked face more a black, +carved mask than a human countenance. + +"Big Bear, my father, was an old man when I was born," he said slowly. +"When he was a boy so small that he slept with the women, our people +came here for the Winter hunt." + +"Oh, Little Bear," chanted the hunter, "great was your father, the +hunter; great were you as a hunter in your young days. Was there ever a +Winter before when the caribou were not found here in plenty?" + +The old man shook his head. + +"Oh, Snow-Burner," said the hunter, "these are the words of Little Bear, +whose age no one knows. Always the caribou have been plenty here along +this river in the Winter. Longer than any old man's tales reach back +have they fed upon the willows. They are not here this Winter. The gods +are angry with us. We hunt. We hunt till we lie flat on the snow. We +find no signs. There are men still here, Snow-Burner, but the caribou +have gone." + +"Have gone, have gone, have gone. Ah wo!" chanted the old squaw. + +"Where do you hunt?" asked Reivers tersely. + +"Where we have always hunted; where our fathers hunted before us," was +the reply. "Along the river in the muskeg and bush to the south we hunt. +The caribou are not there. They are nowhere. The gods have taken them +away. We must die and go where they are." + +"We must go," wailed the old squaw. "The gods refuse us meat. We must +go." + +Her chant of despair was heard beyond the tepee. In the smaller tents +other voices took up the wail. The women were singing the death song, +their primitive protest and acquiescence to what they considered the +irrevocable pleasure of their dark gods. + +Reivers waited until the last squaw had whined herself into silence. +Even then he did not speak at once. He knew that these simple people, +who for his deeds had given him the expressive name of Snow-Burner, were +waiting for him to speak, and he knew the value of silence upon their +primitive souls. He sat with folded arms, looking above the heads of the +two hunters. + +"You have done well," he said, nodding impressively, but not looking at +the two young men. "You have hunted as men who have the true hunter's +heart. But what can man do when the gods are against him? The gods are +against you. They are not against me. To-morrow I slay you your fill of +caribou." + +"Snow-Burner," whispered one of the hunters in the awe-stricken silence +that followed this announcement, "there are no caribou here. Are you +greater than the gods?" + +Reivers looked at him, and at the light in his eyes the young man drew +back in fright. + +"To-morrow I give you your fill of meat," he said slowly. "Not only +enough for one day, but enough for all Winter. Each tepee shall be piled +high with meat. Even the dogs shall eat till they want no more. I have +promised. I alone. Do you--" he pointed at the hunters--"bring me to-night +the two best rifles in the camp. If they do not shoot true to-morrow, do +not let me find you here when I return from the hunt. And now the rest +of you--all of you--go from here. Go, I will be alone." + +They rose and went out obediently, except Tillie who watched Reivers's +face with avid eyes as the young girl left the tepee. Then she crawled +forward and touched her forehead to his hand, for Reivers had not +bestowed upon the girl a glance. + +Presently the hunters came back and placed their Winchesters at his +feet. He examined each weapon carefully, found them in perfect order and +fully loaded, and dismissed the men with a wave of his arm. Tillie sat +with bowed head, humbly waiting his pleasure, but Reivers rolled himself +in his blanket and lay down alone by the fire. + +"I wish to sleep warm," he said. "See that the fire does not go out till +the night is half gone. Be ready to go with me in the hour before +daylight. Have the swiftest and strongest team of dogs and the largest +sledge hitched and waiting to bear us to the hunt. Go! Now I sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--THE SNOW-BURNER HUNTS + + +The snarling of dogs being put into harness awoke him in the morning, +but he lay pretending to sleep until Tillie, having overseen the +hitching-up, came in, prepared food over the fire, which had not gone +out all night, and came timidly and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +It was pitch dark when they went from the tepee. The dogs whined at the +prospect of a dark trail, and the hunter who held them plied his whip +savagely. With the rifles carefully stowed in their buckskin cases on +the sledge, and a big camp-axe, as their whole burden, Reivers +immediately took command of the dogs and headed down the river. + +"Oh, Snow-Burner!" chattered the frozen hunter in disappointment. "There +are no caribou to the south. It is a waste of strength to hunt there." + +"There are no caribou anywhere for you," retorted Reivers. "For me it +does not make any difference where I hunt; the spirits are with me. Stay +close to the tepees to-day. If any one follows my trail the spirits will +refuse their help. Hi-yah! Mush!" + +Under the sting of his skilfully wielded whip the big team whirled down +the river, Reivers riding in front, Tillie behind. But they did not go +south for long. A few miles below the camp Reivers abruptly swung the +dogs off the river-bed and bore westward. + +Half a mile of this and he shifted and changed his course to right +angles, straight toward the north. + +"And now, mush! ---- you! Mush for all that's in you!" he cried, plying +the whip. "You've got many miles to cover before daylight. Mush, mush!" + +He held straight northward until he left the bush and reached the open +tundra at the spot where the caribou the day before had swung away +farther north. He knew that the herd, being in a country undisturbed by +man, would not travel far from the willows where he had jumped them the +day before, and he held cautiously on their trail until the first grey +of daylight showed a rise in the land ahead. Here he halted the dogs and +crept forward on foot. + +It was as he expected. The caribou had halted on the other side of the +height of land, feeling secure in that region where no man ever came. +Below him he could see them moving, and he realised that he must act at +once, before they began their travels of the day. + +"Tillie," he whispered, coming back to the sledge, "as soon as you can +see the snow on the knoll ahead do you drive the dogs around there, to +the right, and swing to the left along the other side of the knoll. +Drive fast and shout loud. Shout as if the wolves had you. There are +caribou over the knoll. When the dogs see them let them go straight for +the herd. But wait till the snow shows white in the daylight." + +Snatching both rifles from their covers, he ran around the left shoulder +of the knoll and ambushed in a trifling hollow. He waited patiently, one +rifle cocked and in his hand, the other lying ready at his side. The +light grew broader; the herd, just out of safe rifle shot, began milling +restlessly. + +Suddenly, from around the right of the knoll, came the sharp yelp of a +dog as Tillie's leader, rounding the ridge, caught scent and sight of +living meat ahead. The caribou stopped dead. Then bedlam broke loose as +the dogs saw what was before them. And the caribou, trembling at the +wolf-yells of the dogs, broke into their swift, lumbering run and came +streaking straight past Reivers at fifty yards' distance. + +Reivers waited until the maddened beasts were running four deep before +him. Then the slaughter began. No need to watch the sights here. The +crash of shot upon shot followed as quickly as he could pump the lever. +There were ten shots in each rifle, and he fired them all before the +herd was out of range. Then only the hideous yelps of the maddened dogs +tore the morning quiet. A dozen caribou, some dead, some kicking, some +trying to crawl away, were scattered over the snow, and Reivers nodded +and knew that his hold on Tillie's people was complete. + +The dogs were on the first caribou now, snarling, yelping, fighting, +eating, for the time being as wild and savage as any of their wolf +forebears. Tillie, spilled from the sledge in the first mad rush of the +team, came waddling up to Reivers and bowed down before him humbly. + +"Snow-Burner, I know you are only a man, because I alone of my people +have seen you among other white men," she said. "Yet you are more than +other men. Snow-Burner, I have lived among white people and know that +the talk of spirits is only for children. But how knew you that the +caribou were here?" + +"The meat is there," said Reivers, pointing at his kill. "Your work is +to take care of it. The axe is on the sledge. Cut off as many saddles +and hind-quarters as the dogs can drag back to camp. The rest we will +cache here. To your work. Do not ask questions." + +He reloaded and put the wounded animals out of their misery, each with a +shot through the head, and sat down and watched her as she slaved at her +butcher's task. Tillie had lived among white people, had been to the +white man's school even, but Reivers knew he would slacken his hold on +her if he demeaned himself by assisting her in her toil. + +When the dogs had stayed their hunger he leaped into their midst with +clubbed rifle and knocked them yelping away from their prey. When they +turned and attacked him he coolly struck and kicked till they had +enough. Then with the driving whip he beat them till they lay flat in +the snow and whined for mercy. + +By the time Tillie had the sledge loaded and the rest of the kill cached +under a huge heap of snow, it was noon, and the dogs started back with +their heavy load, open-mouthed and panting, their excitement divided +between fear of the man who had mastered them and the odour of fresh +blood that reeked in their avid nostrils. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX--THE WHITE MAN'S WILL + + +That night in the camp at the river bend the Indians feasted ravenously, +and Reivers, sitting in Tillie's place as new-made chief, looked on +without smiling. + +"Oh, Snow-Burner!" said the oldest man at last. "What is it you want +with us? Our furs? Speak. We obey your will." + +"Furs are good," replied Reivers, "when a man has nothing else, but gold +is better, and the gold that another man has is best of all." + +The old man cackled respectfully. + +"Oh, Snow-Burner! Do you come to us for gold? Do you think we would sit +here without meat if we had gold? No, Snow-Burner. What we have you can +have. Your will with the tribe from the oldest to the youngest is our +law. We owe you our lives. The strength of our young men is yours; the +wisdom of our old heads is yours. But gold we have not. Do not turn your +frown upon us, Snow-Burner; you must know it is the truth." + +"Since when," said Reivers sternly, "has my friend, old Little Bear, +dared say that the Snow-Burner has the foolishness of a woman in his +head? Do you think I come seeking gold from you? No. It is the strength +of your young men and the wisdom of your old heads that I want. I seek +gold. You shall help me find it." + +Little Bear raised his arms and let them fall in the eloquent Indian +gesture of helplessness. + +"White men have been here often to seek for gold. The great Snow-Burner +once was one of them. They have digged holes in the ground. They have +taken the sand from creek bottoms. Did the Snow-Burner, who finds +caribou where there are none, find any gold here? No. It is an old +story. There is no gold here." + +Reivers leaned forward and spoke harshly. + +"Listen, Little Bear; listen all you people. There is gold within three +days' march from here. Much gold. Another man digs it. You will find it +for me. I have spoken." + +Silence fell on the tepee. The Indians looked at one another. Little +Bear finally spoke with bowed head. + +"We do the Snow-Burner's will." + +Nawa, the youngest and strongest of the hunters, turned to Reivers +respectfully. + +"Oh, Snow-Burner, Nawa serves you with the strength of his leg and the +keenness of his eyes. Nawa knows that the Snow-Burner sees things that +are hidden to us. Our oldest men say there is no gold here. Other white +men say there is no gold here. The Snow-Burner says there is gold near +here. + +"The Snow-Burner sees what is hidden to others. Nawa does not doubt. +Nawa waits only the Snow-Burner's commands. But Nawa has been to the +settlements at Fifty Mile and Dumont's Camp. He has heard the white men +talk. They talk there of a man who carries gold like gunpowder and gold +like bullets, instead of the white man's money. + +"Nawa has talked with Indians who have seen this man. They call him +'Iron Hair,' because his hair is black and stiff like the quills of a +porcupine. Oh, Snow-Burner, Nawa knows nothing. He merely tells what he +has heard. Is this the man the Snow-Burner, too, has heard of!" + +Reivers looked around the circle of smoke-blackened faces about the +fire. No expression betrayed what was going on behind those wood-like +masks, but Reivers knew Indians and sensed that they were all waiting +excitedly for his answer. + +"That is the man," he said, and by the complete silence that followed he +knew that his reply had caused a sensation that would have made white +men swear. "What know you of Iron Hair, Nawa?" + +"Oh, Snow-Burner," said Nawa dolefully, "our tribe knows of Iron Hair to +its sorrow. Two moons ago the big man with the hair like a porcupine was +at Fifty Mile for whisky and food. He hired Small Eyes and Broken Wing +of our tribe to haul the food to his camp, a day's travelling each way, +so he said. The pay was to be big. Small Eyes and Broken Wing went. So +much people know. Nothing more. The sledges did not come back. Small +Eyes and Broken Wing did not come back. So much do we know of Iron Hair. +Nawa has spoken." + +"Once there were men in these tepees," said Reivers, looking high above +Nawa's head. "Once there were men who would have gone from their tepees +to follow to the end the trail of their brothers who go and do not come +back. Now there are no men. They sit in the tepees with the women and +keep warm. Perhaps Small Eyes and Broken Wing were men and did not care +to come back to people who sit by their fires and do not seek to find +their brothers who disappear." + +"We have sought, oh, Snow-Burner," said Nawa hopelessly. "Do not think +we have only sat by our fires. We sought to follow the trail of Iron +Hair out of Fifty Mile----" + +"How ran the trail?" interrupted Reivers. + +"Between the north and the west. We went to hunt our brothers. But a +storm had blotted out the trail. Iron Hair had gone out in the storm. +Who can follow when there is no trail to see?" + +"Once," resumed Reivers in the tone of contempt, "there were strong +dog-drivers and sharp eyes here. They would have found the camp of Iron +Hair in those days." + +"Our dogs still are strong, our young men drive well, our eyes are sharp +even now, Snow-Burner," came Nawa's weary reply. "We searched. Even as +we searched for the caribou we searched for the camp of Iron Hair. We +found no camp. There is no white man's camp in this country. There is no +camp at all. We searched till nothing the size of a man's cap could be +hidden. The white men from Dumont's Camp and Fifty Mile have searched +for the gold which white men are mad for. They found nothing. At the +settlements the white men say, 'This man must be the devil himself and +go to hell for his gold, because his camp certainly is not in this world +where men can see it with their eyes.'" + +"And the caribou were not in this world, either?" mocked Reivers. + +Nawa shook his head. + +"White men, too, have looked for the camp of Iron Hair." + +"Many white men," supplemented old Little Bear. "White men always look +when they hear of gold. They find gold if it is to be found. The earth +gives up its secrets to them. Snow-Burner, they could not find the place +where Iron Hair digs his gold." + +"Nawa and his hunters could not find the caribou," said Reivers. + +There was no reply. He had driven his will home. + +"Oh, Snow-Burner," said Nawa, at last, "as Little Bear has said, we do +your will." + +"Good;" Reivers rose and towered over them. "My will at present is that +you go to your tepees. Sleep soundly. I have work for you in the +morning." + +He stood and watched while they filed, stooped over, through the low +opening in the tepee wall. They went without question, without will of +their own. A stronger will than theirs had caught them and held them. +From hence on they were wholly subservient to the superior mentality +which was to direct their actions. Reivers smiled. Old MacGregor had +felt safe in telling about the mine; a strange man had no chance to find +it. But MacGregor did not know of Tillie's people. + +Reivers suddenly turned toward the fire. Tillie was standing there, +arrayed in buckskin so white that she must have kept it protected from +the tepee smoke in hope of his coming. At the sight of her there came +before Reivers' eyes the picture of Hattie MacGregor's face as she had +looked up at him when he was leaving the MacGregor cabin. The look that +came over his face then was new even to Tillie. + +"You, too, get out!" he roared, and Tillie fled from the tepee in +terror. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX--ANY MEANS TO AN END + + +In the big tepee Reivers rolled on his blankets and cursed himself for +his weakness. What had happened to him? Was he getting to be like other +men, that he would let the memory of an impudent, red-haired girl +interfere with his plans or pleasures? Had he not sworn to forget? And +yet here came the memory of her--the wide grey eyes, the suffering mouth, +the purity of the look of her--rising before his eyes like a vision to +shame him. + +To shame him! To shame the Snow-Burner! He understood the significance +of the look she had given him, and which had stood between him and +Tillie. Womanhood, pure, noble womanhood, was appealing to his better +self. + +His better self! Reivers laughed a laugh so ghastly that it might have +come from a bare skull. His better self! If a man believed in things +like that he had to believe in the human race--had to believe in goodness +and badness, virtue and sin, right and wrong, and all that silly, +effeminate rot. Reivers didn't believe in that stuff. He knew only one +life-law, that of strength over weakness, and that was the law he would +live and die with, and Miss Hattie MacGregor could not interfere. + +With his terrible will-power he erased the memory of her from his mind. +He did not erase the resentment at his own weakness. On the contrary, +the resentment grew. He would revenge himself for that moment of +weakness. + +There were two ways of finding Moir and the mysterious mine. One--the way +he had first planned to follow--was to scatter his Indians, and as many +others as he could bribe with caribou meat, over the country lying to +the south of Fifty Mile, where he knew the mine must be. Moir, or his +men, must show themselves sooner or later. In time the Indians would +find Moir's camp. + +But there was also a shorter and surer way--a shameful way. Moir, by the +talk he had heard of him, came to Fifty Mile and Dumont's Camp for such +whisky and feminine company as might be found. He had even sent one of +his henchmen to steal Hattie MacGregor. Such a move proved that Moir was +desperate, and by this time, by the non-appearance of the +would-be-kidnapper, the chief would know that his man was either killed +or captured, and that no hope for a woman lay in that quarter. Moir's +next move would be to come to Fifty Mile and Dumont's, or to send a man +there, to procure the means of salving his disappointment. And Reivers +had two attractive women at his disposal, Tillie, and the young girl who +was nearly beautiful. Thus did Reivers overcome his momentary weakness. +The black shamefulness of his scheme he laughed at. Then he went to +sleep. + +He gave his orders to Tillie early next morning. + +"Have this tepee and another one loaded on one sledge," he directed. +"Have a second sledge loaded with caribou meat. Do you and the young +girl prepare to come with me. We are going on a long journey. You will +both take your brightest clothes." + +He waited with set jaws while his orders were obeyed. No weakness any +more. There was only one law, the strong over the weak, and he was the +strong one. + +A call from Tillie apprised him that all was ready, and he strode forth +to find Nawa, the young hunter, waiting with the two women ready for the +trail. + +"How so?" he demanded. "Did I say aught about Nawa?" + +"Oh, Snow-Burner," whispered Tillie, "Neopa is to be Nawa's squaw with +the coming of Spring. They wish to go together." + +"And I do not wish them to go together," said Reivers harshly. "Give me +that rifle." He took the weapon from Nawa's hands. "Do you stay here and +eat caribou meat and grow fat against the coming of Spring, Nawa." + +"Snow-Burner," said Nawa, a flash of will lighting his eyes for the +moment, "does Neopa come back to me?" + +"Perhaps," said Reivers, cocking the rifle. "But if you try to follow +you will never come back. Is it understood?" + +Nawa bowed his head and turned away. Neopa made as if to run to him, but +Reivers caught her brutally and threw her upon the lead sledge. He had +resolved to travel the way of shame, no matter what the cost to others. + +"Mush! Get on!" he roared at the dogs, and with the rifle ready and with +a backward glance at Nawa, he drove away for Fifty Mile and Dumont's +Camp. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI--THE SQUAW-MAN + + +A day after Reivers drove out of the Indian camp, Dumont's Camp had +something to talk about. A half-witted, crippled-up squaw-man went +through with a couple of squaws, and the youngest of the squaws was a +beaut'! The old bum hadn't stopped long, just long enough to trade a +chunk of caribou meat for a bottle of hooch, but long enough, +nevertheless, to let the gang get a peek at the squaws. + +Dumont's Camp opined that it was a good thing for the old cripple that +he hadn't stayed longer, else he might have found himself minus his +squaws, especially the young one. But Dumont's Camp would have been +mightily puzzled had it seen how the limp and stoop went out of the +squaw-man's body the moment he had left their camp behind, how the +foolish leer and stuttering speech disappeared from his mouth, and how, +straight-backed and stern-visaged, he threw the bottle of hooch away in +contempt and hurried on toward Fifty Mile. + +Reivers had played many strange parts in his tumultuous life, and his +squaw-man was a masterpiece. Fifty Mile had its sensation early next +morning. The half-witted, crippled-up squaw-man with the two extremely +desirable squaws came through, stopped for another bottle of hooch, and +drove on and made camp just outside the settlement. + +"He certainly was one soft-headed old bum," said Jack Raftery, leaning +on the packing-case that served as bar in his logcabin saloon. "Yes, +men, he certainly is bumped in the bean and locoed in his arms. Gimme +that chunk o' meat there for a bottle o' hooch. 'Bout fifty pounds, +it'll weigh. I'd give 'im a gallon, but he grins foolish and says: +'Bottle. One bottle.' 'Drag your meat in,' says I. Well, gents, will you +b'lieve he couldn't make it. No, sir; paralysed in the arms or +something. + +"That young squaw o' his did the toting. A beaut'? Gents, there never +was anything put up in a brown hide to touch it. An' that locoed ol' bum +running 'round loose with it. Tempting providence, that's what he is, +when he comes parading 'round real men-folks with skirts like them. +Shouldn't wonder if something'd happen to him one o' these cold days. +Looks like he might 'a' been an awful good man in his day, too. Well +built. Reckon he's been used mighty rough to be locoed and crippled up +the way he is." + +"I reck-ong," drawled Black Pete, who ran the games at Raftery's when +there was any money in sight. "I reck-ong too mebbe he get handle more +rough some tam ef he's hang 'round long wid dem two squaw. Tha' small +squaw's too chic, she, to b'long to ol' bum lak heem." + +The assembled gents laughed. Had they seen the "ol' bum" at that moment +their laughter would have been cut short. Reivers, in a gully out of +sight of the settlement, had thrown away his hooch, pitched camp, +tethered the dogs and made all secure with a swiftness and efficiency +that belied the characterisation Black Pete had applied to him. He had +the two tepees set up far apart, the dogs tied between them, and Tillie +and Neopa had one tepee, and Reivers the other, alone. + +Having made camp, Reivers knew what the boys would expect of him in his +character of sodden squaw-man. Having resolved to use the most shameful +means in the world to achieve his end, he played his base part to +perfection. + +"Do you take this chunk of meat," he directed Tillie, "and go down to +the saloon and get another bottle of hooch. Yes, yes; I know I have +destroyed one bottle. You are not to ask questions but to obey my +commands. Go down and trade the meat for hooch. Do not stop to speak to +the white men. Come, back at once. Go!" + +But down in Raftery's the assemblage had no hint of these swift changes, +and they laughed merrily at Black Pete's remarks. + +"What d'you reckon his lay is, Jack?" asked one. + +"Booze," replied Raftery instantly. "Nothing else. When you see a man +who's sure been as good a man in his day as this relic, trailing 'round +with squaw folks, you can jest nacherlly whittle a little marker for him +and paint on it, ''Nother white man as the hooch hez got.' Sabbe? I +trace him out as some prospector who's got crippled up and been laying +out 'mongst the Indians with a good supply of the ol' frost-bite cure +'longside of 'im. Nothin' to do but tuh hit the jug offen enough to keep +from gettin' sober and remembering what he used to was. Sabbe? Been +layin' out sucking the neck of a jug till his ol' thinker's got twisted. + +"I've seen dozens of 'em. You can't fool me when I see one, and I saw +him when he was comin' through the door. Ran out o' hooch and was afraid +he'd get sober, so he comes down here to get soaked up some more. Brings +his load o' meat 'long to trade in, an' these two brown dolls to make +sure in case the caribou have been down this way, which they ain't. Bet +the drinks against two bits that he'll be chasin' one o' the squaws down +here for another bottle before an hour's gone. They all do. I've seen +his kind before." + +Black Pete took the bet. + +"Because I'm onlucky, moi, lately, an' I want to lose this bet," he +explained. + +Raftery laughed homerically. + +"What's on you' chest, Jack?" demanded one of his friends. + +"I was just thinking," gurgled the saloonist, "what 'ud happen in case +this stiff gent, Iron Hair, was to run in 'bout this time." + +"By Gar!" laughed Pete. "An' Iron Hair, he's just 'bout due." + +At that moment Tillie came waddling in, laid down her bundle of meat +before Raftery and said-- + +"One bottle." + +"What'd I tell you?" chuckled Raftery, handing over the liquor. "Boss +him get laid out, eh?" he said to Tillie. + +But Tillie did not pause for conversation. She whipped the bottle under +her blanket and waddled out without a word. + +"Well, I'm a son-of-a-gun!" proclaimed Raftery. "That ol' bum has got +'em well trained, anyhow." + +Black Pete pulled his beard reflectively. + +"Come to theenk," he mused aloud, "dere was wan rifle on those sledge. I +theenk mebbe I no go viseet thees ol' bum, he's camp, teel she's leetle +better acquaint' weeth moi." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII--THE SCORN OF A PURE WOMAN + + +And Fifty Mile talked. It talked to all who came in from the white +wastes of the country around. It talked in its tents. It talked while +trifling with Black Pete's games of no-chance. It talked around +Raftery's bar. It talked so loudly that men heard it up at Dumont's +Camp. + +From Fifty Mile and Dumont's the talk spread up and down the trails, and +even out to solitary cabins and dugouts where there were no trails. +Wherever men were to be found in that desolate region the talk of Fifty +Mile soon made its way. And the talk was mainly of the young squaw, of +the old crippled-up squaw-man, and that she was of a beauty to set men's +heads a-whirling and make them murder each other for her possession. + +Men meeting each other on the trails asked three questions in order: + +"Where you traveling? How's your tobacco? Heard about the beaut' of a +little squaw down to Fifty Mile?" + +Men travelling in the direction of the settlements bent their steps +toward Fifty Mile, even though it lay far out of their course. Men +travelling in the opposite direction passed the news to all whom they +bespoke. Of those who came to the settlement, many strolled casually up +the gully where the squaw-man had his camp. And all of them strolled +down again with nothing to brag about but a drink of hooch and a +mouthful of talk with the squaw-man. + +"I don't quite follow that gent's curves," summed up Jack Raftery, +speaking for the gang. "He gets enough hooch here to keep any human gent +laid out twenty-six hours out of the twenty-four, but somehow whenever +you come moseying up to his camp he's on his pins, ready to give you a +drink and a lot of locoed talk. Yessir, he sure is locoed until he needs +a guardian, but for one I don't go to do no rushing of his lady-folks, +not while he's able to stand on his pins and keep his eyes moving. +Gents, there's been one awful stiff man in his day, and his condition +goes to show what booze'll do to the best of 'em, and ought to be a +warning to us all. Line up, men; 'bout third drink time for me." + +"There is sometheeng about heem," agreed Black Pete, "I don't know what +'tees, but there is sometheeng that whispairs to me, 'Look out!'" + +While Fifty Mile thus debated his character, Reivers lay in his tepee, +carefully playing the shameful part he had assumed. He knew that by now +the news of his arrival, or rather the arrival of Neopa and Tillie, had +been bruited far and wide around the settlements. Soon the news must +come to the ears of the man for whose benefit the scheme had been +arranged. + +Shanty Moir, being what he was, would become interested when he heard +the descriptions of Neopa, and, also because he was what he was, he +would waste no time, falter at no risks, stop at nothing when his +interest had been aroused. Reivers had only to wait. Moir would come. +The only danger was that Hattie and her uncle might come before him. + +On the third day after the squaw-man's arrival, Fifty Mile had a second +sensation. That morning, as Reivers, staggering artistically, came out +of Raftery's house of poison, he all but stumbled over a sledge before +the door. With his assumed grin of idiocy growing wider, he examined the +sledge carefully, next the team which was hitched to it, then lifted his +eyes to the man and woman that stood beside the outfit. At the first +glance he had recognised the sledge, and he needed the time thus gained +to recover from the shock. + +"Hello, Mac, ol' timer!" he bellowed drunkenly at Duncan MacGregor. +"Come have a drink with me." + +MacGregor looked at him dourly, disgust and anger on his big red face. +Hattie, at his side, looked away, her lips pressed tightly together to +control the anger rising within her. She had gone deadly pale at the +first sight of Reivers; now the red of shame was burning in her cheeks. + +"I shook hands with you, stranger, when you left our roof," said +MacGregor gruffly. "I do not do so now. I thought you were a man." + +"I never did!" snapped Hattie, still looking away. "I knew it was not a +man." Something like a sob seemed to wrench itself from her chest in +spite of her firm lips. "I knew it was--just what it is." + +Suddenly she flared around on Reivers, her face wan with mingled pain, +shame and anger. + +"Now you are doing just what you are fit for. I've heard. Living on your +squaws! And you dared to talk big to me--to a decent woman. Blood of my +father! You dared to talk to me at all! Drive on, Uncle. We'll go on to +Dumont's. We'll get away from this thing; it pollutes the air. Hi-yah, +Bones! Mush, mush, mush!" + +Reivers leered and grinned foolishly--for the benefit of the onlookers--as +the sledge went on out of sight. + +"See?" he said boastfully. "I used to know white folks once. Yes sir; +used to know lot of 'em. Don't now. Only know Indians. S'long, boys; got +to go home." + +All that day he sat alone in his tepee. Tillie came to him at noon with +food and he cursed her and drove her away. In the evening she came to +him again, and again Reivers ordered her not to lift the flap on his +tepee. + +Tillie by this time was fully convinced that the Snow-Burner had gone +mad. Else why had he repulsed all her advances? Why had he refused to +look at the young and attractive Neopa? And now he even spurned food. +Yes, the Snow-Burner had gone mad, as white men sometimes go mad in the +North; but she was still his slave. That was her fate. + +Reivers sat alone in his tepee, once more fighting to put away the face +of Hattie MacGregor as it rode before his eyes, a burning, searing +memory. He was not faltering. The shame for him, because he was a white +man, because she had once had him under her roof, that Hattie MacGregor +had suffered as she saw him now, did not swerve him in the least from +the way he was going. + +He had decided to do it this way. That was settled. The shame and +degradation of his assumed position he had reckoned and counted as +naught in the game he was playing. Any means to an end. These same men +who were despising him for a sodden squaw-man would bow their heads to +him when the game was won. And he would win it, the memory of the face +of Hattie MacGregor would not halt him in the least. Rather it would +spur him on. For when the game was won, he would laugh at her--and +forget. + +For the present it was a little hard to forget. That was why he sat +alone in the tepee and swore at Tillie when she timidly offered to bring +him food. + +So the red-headed girl thought that of him, did she--that he was living +on his squaws? Well, let her think it. What difference did it make? She +thought he was that base, did she? All right. She would pay for it all +when the time came. + +Reivers roused himself and strode outdoors. His thoughts persisted in +including Hattie MacGregor in their ramblings as he sat in the tepee, +and he felt oppressed. What he needed was to mingle with other men. He'd +forget, then. He condemned the company that was to be found at +Raftery's, but his need for distraction drove him and, assuming the +stoop, limp and leer of the sodden squaw-man, he slumped off down the +gully to the settlement. + +It was a clear, starlit night, and as he slumped along he mused on what +a fine night it would be for picking out a trail by the stars. As he +approached Raftery's he saw and heard evidences of unusual activity in +the bar. A team of eight dogs, hitched to an empty sledge, was tied +before the door. Within there was sound of riot and wassail. Over the +sound of laughter and shuffling feet rose a voice which drowned the +other noises as the roar of a lion drowns the chirping of birds, a voice +that rattled the windows in a terrifying rendition of "Jack Hall." + + Oh, I killed a man 'tis said, so 'tis said; + I killed a man 'tis said, so 'tis said. + I kicked 'is bloody head, an' I left 'im lyin' dead; + Yes, I left 'im lyin' dead ---- 'is eyes! + +Reivers opened the door and strode in silently and unobserved. He made a +base, contemptible figure as, stooped and shuffling, a foolish leer on +his face, he stood listening apologetically to the song. The broad back +of the singer was turned toward him. As the song ended Raftery's roaming +eye caught sight of Reivers. + +"Ah, there he is; here he is, Iron Hair. There's the man with the squaws +I was telling you about." + +The man swung around, and Reivers was face to face with the man he +sought, Shanty Moir. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII--SHANTY MOIR + + +Reivers' tumultuous scheme of life often had led him into situations +where his life had hung on his ability to play artistically the part he +had assumed. But never had his self-control been put to such a test as +now, when he faced Shanty Moir. + +Had he not prepared himself for a shock, his surprise must surely have +betrayed him, for even the Snow-Burner could not look upon Shanty Moir +without amazement. To Reivers, the first impression that came was that +he was looking at something as raw and primitive as the sources of life +itself. + +Shanty Moir had little or nothing in common with the other men in the +room. He was even shaped differently. He belonged, so it seemed to +Reivers, to the age of the saber-tooth tiger, the long-haired mammoth, +and a diet of roots and raw flesh. + +There was about him the suggestion of man just risen to the dignity of +an upright position. His body was enormous--longer, wider, denser than a +man's body should be; the legs beneath it short and bowed. There was no +neck that could be seen. His arms seemed to begin close up to the ears, +and ran downward in curves, like giant calipers, the hands even with the +knees. + +The head fitted the body, squat and enormous, the forehead running +abruptly back from the brows, and the face so flat and bony that the +features seemed merely to dent it. The brow-bones came down and half hid +the small eyes; the nose was small, but a pair of great nostrils ran +back in the skull; the mouth was huge, yet it seemed small, and there +was more of the head below it than above. + +Iron Hair was well nicknamed. His hair was probably three inches long, +and it stood out straight from his head--black, wiry, menacing. Reivers, +with his foolish grin growing larger on his face, appraised Moir with +considerable admiration. Here was the real thing, the pure, +unadulterated man-animal, unweakened, untouched by effeminising +civilisation. This man knew no more law or conscience than the ancient +cave-tiger, whose only dictates sprang from appetite. + +Reivers had rejected morals because it pleased him to run contrary to +all the rest of the world; this man never knew that right or wrong +existed. What his appetites told him to take he took as a matter of +course. And it was written in his face that his appetites were as +abnormally powerful as was he. + +Reivers had been a leader of men because his mind was stronger than the +minds of the men with whom he had dealt. This man was a leader because +of the blind, unintelligent force that was in him. And inwardly the +fighting man in Reivers glowed at the prospects of the Titanic clash +that would come between them. + +Shanty Moir as he looked from under his bony brows saw exactly what +Reivers wished him to see: a drunken broken squaw-man, so weak that he +could not possibly be the slightest source of trouble. Being primitive +of mind he listed Reivers at once as helpless. Having done this, nothing +could alter his opinion; and Reivers had gained the vantage that he +sought. + +Moir threw back his head and laughed, softly and behind set teeth, when +his quick inspection of Reivers was ended. + +"So that's tuh waster who's got tuh squaws 'at hass tuh camp upset," he +said languidly. "Eh, sonnies! Art no men among ye that ye have not gone +woman-stealing by this? Tuh waster does not look hard to take a young +woman from." + +Reivers broke into an apologetic snigger. + +"Don't you try to steal my two kids, mister," he whined. "You'd be +mighty sorry for your bargain if you did." + +"How so, old son?" demanded Moir with a tolerant laugh. + +"Them kids--if you was to steal them without my permission--one or both of +'em--they'd make you wish you'd never seen 'em--'less I was along," +chuckled Reivers. + +"Speak it up, old son," said Moir sharply. "What's behind thy fool's +words?" + +"Them kids--they'd die if they was took away from me," replied Reivers +seriously. "And they'd take the man who stole 'em to the happy hunting +ground along with 'em." He winked prodigiously. "Lots of funny things in +this ol' world, mister. You wouldn't think to look at me that those two +kids wouldn't want to live if I wasn't with 'em, but that's the fact. I +wasn't always what I'm now, mister. Once--well, I was different once--and +them kids will just nacherlly manage to poison the first man who touches +'em--unless I give the word." + +The men of Fifty Mile looked at one another, and Black Pete shuddered. + +"The ol' moocher sure has got 'em trained, Iron Hair," said Raftery. +"He's locoed, but those squaws look up to him like a little tin god, and +that's no lie." + +"Poison?" repeated Moir doubtingly. "Art a medicine man, old son?" + +Reivers shook his head loosely. + +"Not me, mister, not me," he chuckled. "It's something Indian that I +don't sabbe. But there's a couple graves 'way up where we came from, and +they hold what's left of a couple of bad men who raided my camp and +stole my kids. I don't know how it happened, mister. The kids come back +to me the same night, and the two bad men were stiff and black--as black +as your hair, mister, after the first kiss." + +"The kiss of Death," chimed in Black Pete, crossing himself. "I have +heard of eet. Sacre! I am the lucky dog, moi." + +Shanty Moir nodded. He, too, had heard of the method by which Indian +women of the North on rare occasions revenge themselves upon the brutal +white men who steal them from their people. Having often indulged in +that thrilling sport himself, Moir was well versed in the obstacles and +dangers to be met in its pursuit. Being crafty, with the craft of the +lynx that eschews the poisoned deer carcass, he had thus far managed to +select his victims from the breed of squaws that do not seriously object +to playing a Sabine part; and he had no intention of decreasing his +caution now, although what men had spoken of Neopa had fired his blood. + +"Ho, ho! I see how 'tis, old son," he said with a grin of appreciation. +"Dost manage well for a waster." + +He suddenly drew his hand from his mackinaw pocket and held it out, +opened, toward Reivers. Two jagged nuggets of dull gold the size of big +buckshot jiggled on his palm, and Moir laughed uproariously as Reivers, +at the sight of them, bent forward, rubbing his hands together, +apparently frantic with avarice. + +"Eh--hey!" drawled Moir, closing his fist as Reivers' fingers reached for +the gold. "I thought so. 'Tis tub gold thy wants, eh, old sonny? Well, +do thee bring me tuh cattle to look at and we'll try to bargain." + +"Come up to my camp," chattered Reivers, eying the fist that contained +the nuggets. He was anxious to get out of the bar. He had no fear that +the primitive Moir would be able to see any flaw in his acting, but +Black Pete and Jack Raftery were less primitive, and he knew that they +had not quite accepted him for the weakling that he pretended to be. +"Come and visit me. Buy a bottle of hooch and we go up to my camp." + +Moir tossed one of the nuggets across the bar to Raftery. + +"Is't good for a round, lad?" he laughed. + +Raftery cunningly hefted the nugget and set out the bottles. + +"Good for two," he replied. + +Moir tossed over the second nugget. + +"Then that's good for four," said he. "Do ye boys drink it up while I'm +away to tuh camp of old sonny here. A bottle, Raftery. Now, sonny, do +thee lead on, and if I'm not satisfied I'll wring thy neck to let thee +know my displeasure." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV--THE BARGAIN + + +Reivers led the way to his tepee and bade Moir wait a moment by the +fire, while he spoke to Tillie. "Dress yourself and Neopa in your +newest," he commanded. "Then do you both come in to me, bringing food +for two men." + +"What's wrong, sonny?" laughed Moir, seeing Reivers come under the door +flap alone. "Hast lost the whip over thy cattle?" + +"They're getting some grub ready," replied Reivers fawningly. "They'll +be here in a minute. Let's have a drink out of that bottle, mister. +That's the stuff." + +He tipped the bottle to his lips and lowered the burning liquor in a +fashion that made even Moir open his eyes in admiration. + +"Takest a man-sized nip for a broken waster, sonny," he chuckled, and +measuring with his fingers on the bottle a drink larger than Reivers' he +tossed it gurgling down his hairy throat. Reivers took the bottle from +his hand. + +"I always take an eye-opener before my real drink," said Reivers, and, +measuring off twice the amount that Moir had taken, he drank it off like +so much water. + +The fiercest liquor made was to Reivers only a mild stimulant. On his +abnormal organisation it merely had the effect of intensifying his +characteristics. When he wished to drink whisky he drank--out of +full-sized water tumblers. When he did not wish to drink he put liquor +from him with contempt. Now he handed the bottle back to Moir. The +latter looked at him and at the bottle, a trifle puzzled but not +dismayed. Reivers had apparently unconsciously passed the challenge to +him, and it was not in his nature to play second to any man in a +drinking bout. + +"Shouldst have taken all thee wanted that time, sonny," said Moir, and +finished the bottle. + +"No more?" muttered Reivers vacantly. + +"Gallons!" replied Moir. "Whisky enough to drown you dead--if your women +satisfy." + +"Look at them," said Reivers as the door-flap was flung back. "Here they +are." + +Tillie came in first. She was dressed in white buckskin, her hair +hanging in two thick braids down her shoulders. Neopa followed, and the +wistfulness that had come into her face from thinking of Nawa made her +the more interesting in Shanty Moir's eyes. + +A glance from Neopa's fawn-like eyes at the big man whom Reivers had +brought home with him, and then her eyes sought the ground and she +trembled. Tillie looked at Moir with interest. Save for the Snow-Burner, +she had never seen so masterful a man. She looked at Reivers and saw +that he was not watching her. So she smiled upon Moir slyly. She was the +Snow-Burner's slave; his will was her law. But since he refused to +notice her smiles it would do no harm to smile upon a man like this Iron +Hair--just a little, when the Snow-Burner was not looking. + +Moir read the smile wrong and spoke sharply to Reivers. + +"Take the young one outside for two minutes. I've a word to say to this +one." + +To his surprise Reivers rose without demur, thrust Neopa out before him, +and dropped the flap. + +"Listen," whispered Moir swiftly in her own tongue to Tillie, "we will +put his man out of the way. It is easily done. Then you will go with me, +you and the young one, and you will be first in my tepee and the young +one your slave. Speak quickly. We will be on the trail in an hour." + +Still smiling invitingly, Tillie shook her head. + +"The Snow-Burner is the master," she said seriously. "I will slay the +man who does him harm. I can not do what he does not wish. I can not go +away from him." + +"But when he is dead, fool, he can have no wish." + +The smile went from Tillie's full lips and she took a step toward the +opening. + +"Stop," laughed Moir softly. "I merely wished to know if you are a true +woman. All right, old sonny!" he called. "Come on in." + +"I takest off cap to you, lad," he continued as Reivers and Neopa +re-entered. "Hast got thy squaws fair buffaloed." His eyes ran over the +shrinking Neopa in cruel appraisal. "Now, old sonny, out with it. What's +thy idea of tuh bargain?" + +Reivers looked longingly toward the empty whisky bottle. + +"Said enough," laughed Moir. "Shall have all tuh hooch thy guts can +hold." + +Reivers shook his head, a sly grin appearing on his lips. + +"Hooch is good," said he, "but gold is better." + +"Go on," said Moir sullenly. + +"You've got gold," continued Reivers. "I saw it. You've got lots of +gold; I've heard them talk about you down at Raftery's. You want us to +go with you when you go back to your camp, don't you?" + +Moir nodded angrily. + +"I want the women," he said brutally. "I might be able to use you, too." + +Reivers cackled and rubbed his hands. + +"You've got to use me if you're going to have the women," he chuckled. +"You know that by this time, don't you, mister?" + +Again Moir's black head nodded in grudging assent. + +"What then?" he demanded. + +"I'm a handy man around a camp, mister," whined Reivers. "You got to +take me along if you take the women, but I can be a help----" + +"Canst cook?" snapped Moir suddenly. + +"Heh, heh! Can I cook?" Reivers rubbed his hands. "I'm an old--I used to +be an old sour-dough, mister. Did you ever see one of the old-timers who +couldn't cook?" + +"Might use thee then," said Moir. "My fool of a cook has gone. Sent him +after a woman for me, and he hasn't come back. Happen he got himself +killed, tuh fool. Wilt kill him myself if he ever shows up without tuh +woman. Well, then, if that's settled--what's tuh bargain?" + +Reivers appeared to struggle with indecision. In reality the situation +was very clear to him. Moir had listed him as a weakling; therefore he +had no fear of taking him to the mine. Once there, Moir would be +confident of winning the loyalty of the two women from their apparently +helpless master. And as it was apparent that the man whom Reivers had +slain with a rock had been Moir's cook, it was probable that he was +sincere in his offer to use Reivers in that capacity. + +"In the Spring," said Reivers in reply to Moir's question, "me and my +two kids go north again, back among their own people." + +"In the Spring," growled Moir, "canst go to ---- for all of me. I'll be +travelling then myself. Speak out, sonny. How much?" + +"Plenty of hooch for me all Winter," Reivers leered with drunken +cunning. + +"I said plenty," retorted Moir. "What else?" + +"Gold," said Reivers, rubbing his hands. "Gold enough to buy me hooch +for all next Summer." + +Moir smiled at the miserable request of the man he was dealing with. His +eyes ran over the plump Tillie, over Neopa, the supple child-woman. + +"Done," he laughed. "And now, old son, break up thy camp while I load my +sledge with hooch. Be ready to travel when I come back. I'll bring +plenty of liquor, but none to be drinked till we're on the trail. Wilt +travel fast and far to-night, I warn thee. But willst have a snug berth +in my camp when we get there. Yes," he laughed as he hurried out, "wilt +not be able to tear thyself away." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV--THE TEST OF THE BOTTLE + + +Under Reivers' sharp orders--given in a way that would have startled Moir +had he heard--Tillie and Neopa hurriedly packed the dog-sledges with +their belongings, harnessed the dogs and hooked them to the traces. + +"Oh, Snow-Burner," said Neopa timidly, "do we go back to Nawa?" + +"In good time," said Reivers. "For the present, you have only to obey my +wishes. Get on the first sledge." + +With bowed head the girl took the place directed, and Reivers turned to +find Tillie smiling craftily at his elbow. + +"Snow-Burner," she said softly, "this is the man, Iron Hair, who digs +the gold which you want. We go to rob him. I understand. You play at +drinking to fool Iron Hair. It is well. Tillie will help the +Snow-Burner. We will kill Iron Hair and take his gold. Then the +Snow-Burner will come with Tillie to her tepee?" + +Reivers looked at her, and for the first time he felt a revulsion +against the base part he was playing. Would he return with Tillie to her +tepee when this affair was over? Would he go on with his old way of +living, the base part of him triumphant over the better self? The +strange questions rapped like trip-hammers on Reivers' conscience. + +"Get on the sledge!" he growled, choked with anger. + +She did not stir. He struck her cruelly. Tillie smiled. That was like +the Snow-Burner of old; and she waddled to her appointed place without +further question. + +Up the gulch from Raftery's came Moir quietly leading his dogs, the +sledge well loaded with cases of liquor. + +"Wilt have a kiss first of all," he laughed excitedly, and catching +Neopa in his arms tossed her in the air, kissed her loudly on her +averted cheeks and set her back on the sledge. "Now, old son, follow and +follow quietly. When Iron Hair travels he wants no Fifty Mile gang on +his trail. Say nothing, but keep me in sight. Heyah, mush, mush!" + +Out of the gully he led the way swiftly and silently to the open country +beyond the settlement. There he circled in a confusing way, bearing +northward. After an hour he began circling again, doubling on his trail +to make it hard for any one to follow, but finally Reivers knew by the +stars that the course lay to the south. Another series of false twists +in the trail, then Moir struck out in determined fashion on a straight +course, east and a trifle south from Fifty Mile. + +Reivers, silently guiding his dogs in the tracks made by Moir, breathed +hard as he read the stars. By the pace that Moir was setting it seemed +certain that he now was making for his camp in a direct line. But if so, +if this trail were held, it would take them back toward the Dead Lands, +straight into the country that was Duncan MacGregor's trapping-ground. +Could the mine be in that region. If so, how could it have escaped the +notice of the old trapper? + +It was well past midnight when Reivers saw the team ahead disappear in a +depression in the ground and heard Moir's voice loudly calling a halt. +By the time Reivers came up with his two sledges Moir had unhitched his +dogs on the flat of a frozen river-bed and was hurriedly dragging a +bottle from one of the cases on his sledge. + +"Hell's fire, old son; unhook and camp. The liquor's dying in me, and I +had just begun to feel good." + +"I was wondering," gasped Reivers in assumed exhaustion. "I was +wondering how much farther you were going before you opened a bottle." + +"Have your squaws get out tuh grub," ordered Moir, jamming down the +cork. "And now you 'n' me, wilt see who drinks t'other off his feet." + +For reply Reivers promptly gulped down a drink that would have strangled +most men. + +"Good enough," admitted Moir. "Here's better, though." And he instantly +improved on Reivers' record. + +The first bottle was soon emptied--a quart of raw, fiery hooch--and a +second instantly broached. + +The food was forgotten by Moir; the women were forgotten. His primitive +mind was obsessed with the idea of pouring more burning poison down his +throat than this broken-down waster who dared to drink up to him. Bolt +upright he sat, laughing and singing, never taking his eyes off Reivers, +while drink after drink disappeared down their throats. + +No movement of Reivers escaped Moir's vigilant watch for signs of +weakness. As Reivers gave no apparent sign of toppling over he grew +enraged. + +"Hell's fire! Wilt sit here till daylight if thou wilt," he roared. +"Drink on there! 'Tis thy turn." + +Tillie and Neopa got food ready from the grub-bag and sat waiting +patiently; the dogs ceased moving, bedded down in the snow and went to +sleep; and still the contest went on. + +Finally Reivers discerned the slight thickening of speech and the glassy +stare in his opponent's eyes that he had been waiting for. Then, and not +until then, did he begin to betray apparent signs of failing. + +"Sh-sh-shtrong liquor, m-m-mishter," he stuttered. "Awful sh-sh-shtrong +liquor." + +Moir cackled in drunken triumph. + +"'Tish bear's milk, old shon. 'Tish made for men. Drink, ---- ye, drink +again!" + +Reivers drank, drank longer and heavier than he had yet done. + +"There; take the mate of that, mister, and you'll know you been +drinking," he stammered. + +Moir's throat by this time had been burned too raw to taste, and his +sight was too dulled to measure quantities. He tipped the bottle up and +drained it. The dose would have killed a normal man. To Shanty Moir it +brought only an inclination to slumber. His head fell forward on his +breast. + +With a thick-tongued snarl he sat up straight and looked at Reivers. +Reivers hiccoughed, swayed in his seat, and collapsed with a drunken +clatter. + +Moir smiled. He winked in unobserved triumph. Then the superhuman +strength with which he had fought off the effects of the liquor snapped +like a broken wire, and he pitched forward on his face into the snow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI--THE SNOW-BURNER BEGINS TO WEAKEN + + +Reivers stood up, looked down at his fallen rival and yawned. + +"Body," he mused, "but for a hard head, there lies you." + +He bent cautiously over Moir. The Welshman lay with his face half buried +in the crusted snow, his lungs pumping like huge bellows, and the snow +flying in gusts from around his nostrils at every expulsion of breath. +Reivers laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. There was no movement. + +"Hey, mister," he called. + +The undisturbed breathing showed that the words had not penetrated to +the clouded consciousness. Deliberately Reivers turned the big man over +on his back. Moir lay as stiff and dead as a log. With swift, deft hands +Reivers searched him to the skin, looking for a trail-map, a mark or a +sign of any kind that might indicate the location of Moir's mine. He was +not greatly disappointed when he failed to find anything of the sort; he +had hardly expected that an experienced pirate like Shanty Moir would +travel with his secrets on his person. + +Next he considered the dogs. It was barely possible that the dogs knew +the way to the mine. If they had travelled the way before, they would +know when they were on the home-trail, and if so they would travel +thither if given their heads, even though their master lay helplessly +bound on the sledge. Then at the mine, a sudden surprise, and probably a +second of sharp work with the rifle on Moir's henchmen. + +Reivers stepped eagerly over to where Moir's team lay sleeping. He swore +softly when he saw them. Moir had traded his tired team for a fresh +outfit at Fifty Mile, and the new dogs were as strange to this trail as +Reivers himself. + +His triumph over Moir in the drinking bout had been in vain. There was +no march to be stolen, even with Moir lying helpless on the snow. He +would have to go through with it as he had planned. Tillie and Neopa +must be the means by which he would obtain his ends. + +He suddenly looked over to the sledge where the two women were patiently +waiting with the food they had prepared. Tillie, squat and stolid, was +sitting as impassive and content as a bronze figure at the door of the +shelter tepee which she had erected, but Neopa sat bowed over on the end +of the sledge, her head on her folded arms, her slim figure shaking with +silent sobs. + +"Put back the food and go to your blankets," he commanded harshly. "Stop +that whining, girl, or you will have something to whine for." + +He waited until his orders had been obeyed and the women were in the +tepee. Then he unrolled his blanket and lay down on the snow. + +He did not sleep. He knew that he would not. For all through the day, +during his dealing with Moir, on the night trail under the clean stars, +his mind had been fighting to shut out a picture that persisted in +running before his eyes. Now, alone in the star-lit night, with nothing +to occupy him, the picture rushed into being, vivid and living. He could +not shut it out. He could not escape it. It was the picture of Hattie +MacGregor as he had seen her that morning with the pain and scorn upon +her young, fine face. Her voice rang in his ears, the burning words as +clear as if she stood by his side: + +"I knew it was not a man. Living on your squaws! And you dared to talk +to me--a decent woman!" + +Reivers cursed and lay looking straight up at the white stars. From the +tepee there came a sound that brought him up sitting. He listened, +amazed and puzzled. It was Neopa sobbing because she had been torn from +her young lover, Nawa, and in the plaint of her pain-racked tones there +was something which recalled with accursed clearness the rich voice of +Hattie MacGregor. + +It was probably an hour after he had lain down that Reivers rose up and +quietly hooked his strongest dogs to a sledge. + +"Tillie! Neopa! Come out!" he whispered, throwing open the flap of the +little tepee. + +Neopa came, wet-faced and haggard, her wide-open eyes showing plainly +that there had been no sleep for her that night. Tillie was rubbing her +eyes sleepily, protesting against being wakened from comfortable +slumber. + +Reivers pointed northward up the river bed. + +"Up there, on this river, one day's march away, is the camp of your +people, which we came from," he whispered. "Do you both take this team +and drive rapidly thither. Hold to the river-bed and keep away from the +black spots where the water shows through the snow. Do not stop to rest +or feed. You should reach your people in the middle of the afternoon. +Then do you give Nawa this rifle. Tell him to shoot any white man who +comes after you. Now go swiftly." + +Neopa looked at him with her fawn-like eyes large with incredibility and +hope. + +"Snow-Burner! Do you let me go back to Nawa?" she whispered. + +"Get on the sledge," he commanded. "Do as I've told you, or you'll hear +from me." + +As emotion had all but paralysed the young girl he forced her to a seat +on the sledge and thrust the whip into her hand, then turned to Tillie. +Tillie was making no move to approach the sledge. + +"Did you hear what I said?" he demanded. + +Tillie smiled strangely. + +"Has the Snow-Burner become afraid of Iron Hair?" she asked. + +"So little afraid that I no longer need you to help me in this matter," +retorted Reivers. + +The shrewd squaw shook her head. + +"How will the Snow-Burner find Iron Hair's gold how? Iron Hair will not +take the Snow-Burner to his camp alone. It is not the Snow-Burner that +Iron Hair wants. It is a woman. Has the Snow-Burner given up the fight +to get the gold which he wants so much? He knows he can not reach Iron +Hair's camp--alone." + +"Then I will not reach it at all. Get on the sledge." + +Tillie smiled but did not move. + +"The Snow-Burner at last has become like other white men. He wishes to +do what is right." She pointed at the snoring Moir. "He would not be so +weak." + +While Reivers looked at her in amazement the squaw stepped forward, +straightened out the dogs, kicked them viciously and sent the sledge, +bearing Neopa alone, flying up the river-bed. + +"To send Neopa back to Nawa is well and good," she said, returning to +Reivers. "She would weep for Nawa all day and night, and would grow sick +and die on our hands. But there is no Nawa waiting for Tillie. Tillie is +tired of her tepee with no man in it. Iron Hair has smiled upon me, +Snow-Burner. I will smile upon him. His smile will answer mine as the +dry pine lights up when the match is touched to it. I have looked in his +eyes and know. He will forget Neopa. Tillie will help the Snow-Burner +rob Iron Hair. Is it well?" + +"Get back to your blankets," commanded Reivers. "If you wish it, we will +let it be so. Sleep long. Do not stir until you hear that Iron Hair has +awakened." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII--INTO THE JAWS OF THE BEAR + + +Shanty Moir stirred when the first rays of the morning sun, glancing off +the snow, struck his eyes. He rose like a musk-ox lifting itself from +its snow wallow, with mighty heaves and grunts, and looked around. + +He was blear-eyed and puffed of face, his throat was raw and burning +from the unbelievable amount of hooch he had swallowed in the night, but +his abnormal organisation had thrown off the effects of the alcohol and +he was cold sober. His first move was to cool his throat with handfuls +of snow, his second to step over and regard the apparently paralysed +Reivers with a look of mingled triumph and contempt. + +"Eh, old sonny! Would a drinked with Shanty Moir, wouldst 'ee?" he +chuckled. "Happen thee got thy old soak's skin filled to overflow that +time. Get up, you waster!" he commanded, stirring the prostrate form +with a heavy foot "Up with you!" + +Reivers did not stir, but he put that touch of the foot down as +something extra that Moir would have to pay for. He was apparently lying +steeped in the depths of drunken slumber, and he wished to drive the +impression firmly into Shanty Moir's mind that he had been dead to the +world all night. Hence he did not interrupt his snoring as Moir's foot +touched him. + +"Laid out stiff!" laughed Moir. + +He reached down, lifted Reivers' head from the snow and let it fall +heavily. Still Reivers made no sign of awakening. Moir looked at him for +a moment, then slily tiptoed toward the shelter tepee and threw up the +flap. The next instant a bellow of rage shattered the morning quiet. +Like a maddened bear Moir was back at Reivers, cuffing, kicking, +cursing, commanding that he wake up. + +Reivers awoke only in degree. Not until Moir had opened a new bottle of +hooch and poured a drink down his throat did he essay to sit up and open +his eyes. + +"Wha' smatter? Can't a man shleep?" he protested. "Wha' smatter with +you?" + +"Matter!" bellowed Moir. "Plenty of matter, you old waster. Where's the +young lass, eh? Where's the girl gone? Look in the tepee and see what's +the matter. You told me you had the trulls buffaloed. What's become of +the young girl?" + +It was some time before Reivers appeared to understand. Finally he +stumbled to his feet and started toward the tent, met Tillie as she +stepped out rubbing her eyes, and recoiled drunkenly. + +"Neopa? Where is she?" muttered Tillie. "She slept near the door. Now +she is gone." + +She had let her shiny black hair fall loosely over her shoulders and now +she threw it back, looked straight at Moir and smiled. + +"Neopa gone?" demanded Reivers thickly. "She can't be; she wouldn't +dare." + +"Dare, you fool? Look there." Moir pointed to the hollows where the +missing dog team had lain and to the tracks that ran straight and true +up the river bed. "She's run away. Been gone half a night. Well, what +have you got to say?" + +Reivers turned with a scowl on Tillie, but Tillie was comfortably +plaiting her thick hair. + +"Neopa has run away--back to our people," she said with a smile, as she +turned back into the tepee. "Tillie does not run away," she added as she +disappeared. + +Moir sat down on a sledge and cursed Reivers steadily for five minutes, +but at every few words his eyes would stray back to the tepee which hid +Tillie. + +"We'll go after her," said Reivers. "We'll bring her back." + +"Go after her!" snorted Moir. "She has half a night's start on us. +She'll reach her people before we could get her. Do you think I want +half the country following my trail." + +"I'll go after her alone then," insisted Reivers. + +"Will you?" Moir's eyes narrowed to slits. "I think not. Let me tell +thee something, old son: he who goes this far on the home trail with +Shanty Moir goes all the way. Understand? You'll come with me or you'll +be wolf-meat out here on the snow. No; there'll be no following of that +kid. She's gone. The other one's here. There is no telling what tale the +kid will spin when she meets people, or who will be down here looking +for our trail. Therefore we are going to travel and travel quick. Have +the squaw get food in a hurry. Get your dogs together. We'll be on the +trail in half an hour." + +Moir was masterful and dominant now. It was evident that he was more +worried over the possibility of some one hearing of his whereabouts +through Neopa than he was over the girl's escape. He gave Reivers a +second drink of liquor, since he seemed to need it to fully awaken him, +and set about making ready for the trail. + +"Eat plenty," he commanded, when Tilly served the cold meat and tea. +"The next meal you have will be about sundown." + +He tore down the tepee, packed the sledges and had the outfit ready for +the start in an amazingly short while. + +"Now, old son," he said quietly, pointing to the rifle that lay +uncovered on top of his sledge, "do 'ee take good look at her. She's a +good old Betsy and I've knocked o'er smaller men than you at the half +mile. Do you keep well up with me on the trail I'll be making this day +and there'll be no trouble. Try any tricks and the wolves will have +whiskey-soaked meat to feed on. There's no turning back now. He who +comes this far with Shanty Moir goes all the way." + +"You can't lose me, mister," stammered Reivers. "I want that money for +hooch for next Summer like you promised." + +"Wilt get more than you bargained for, old son," laughed Moir. "Yes, +more than you ever dreamed of. Hi-yah! Buck! Bugle! Mush; mush up!" + +Moir made no pretence at hiding his trail when he started this time. +Apparently he reasoned that the damage was done. If any one wished to +trail him after hearing Neopa's story they would have no trouble in +finding his tracks, despite any subterfuge he might attempt. He went +straight forward, as a man who has nothing to fear if he can but reach +his fastness, and Reivers' wonderment grew as the trail held straight +toward the rising sun. + +The course was parallel to the one he had taken westward from +MacGregor's cabin to Tillie's encampment. If it held on as it was going +it would lead straight into the heart of the Dead Lands, and within half +a day's travel of the MacGregor home. Was it possible that the mine lay +in the Dead Lands? Duncan MacGregor made this territory his +trapping-ground. How could his brother's find have escaped his trained +outdoor eyes? + +The next instant Reivers was cursing himself for a blind fool. There was +no trapping in the Dead Lands. There was no feed there. Except for a +stray wolf-cave, fur-bearing beasts would shun those barren rocks as a +desert, and Duncan MacGregor, being a knowing trapper, might trap around +it twenty years without venturing through after a first fruitless search +for signs. + +The mine was in the Dead Lands, of course. It was as safely hidden there +as if within the bowels of the earth. And he, Reivers, had probably been +within shooting distance of it during his two days' wandering in that +district. The man whom he had killed with the rock had undoubtedly been +hurrying with Hattie MacGregor straight to his chief's fastness. + +It was noon when the ragged ground on the horizonhead told Reivers that +his surmises were correct and that they were hurrying straight for the +Dead Lands. An hour of travel and the jagged formation of the rock +country was plainly distinguishable a little over a mile ahead. Then +Moir for the first time that day called a halt. When Reivers caught up +with him he saw that Moir held in each hand a small pouch-like +contrivance of buckskin, pierced near the middle with tiny holes and +equipped with draw-strings at the bottom. + +"Come here, lass," he beckoned to Tillie. "Must hide that smiling mouth +of thine for the present." + +With a laugh he threw the pouch over the squaw's head, pulled the bottom +tightly around her neck, and tied the strings securely. + +"The same with thee, old son," he said, and treated Reivers in the same +summary manner. "You see, I do not wish to have to put you away," he +explained genially, "and that I would do if by chance thy eyes should +see the way to Shanty Moir's mine. One or two men have been unlucky +enough to see it. They will never be able to tell the tale." He +skilfully searched the pair for hidden weapons, but Reivers had expected +this and carried not so much as a knife. "All right. Keep in my steps, +old son. Presently thou'll get wet. Do not fear. Wilt not let 'ee come +to harm. Neither thee nor tuh squaw. I have use for you both. Come now; +I'll go slow." + +The buckskin pouch pierced only by the tiny air-holes, masked Reivers' +eyes in a fashion that precluded any possible chance of sight. He knew +instinctively that Moir was turning. First the turn was to the left. +Then back to the right. Then in a circle, and after that straight ahead. + +Presently the feel of a sharp rock underfoot told him that they had +entered the Dead Lands. He stumbled purposely to one side of the trail +and bumped squarely against a solid wall of stone. Next he tried it on +the opposite side with the same result. Moir was leading the way through +a narrow defile in the rocks. + +Suddenly there came to Reivers' ears the sound of running water, the +lazy murmur of a small brook. Almost at the same instant came the splash +of Moir and his dogs going into the stream and Moir's laughing: + +"Wilt get a little wet here, old son. But follow on." + +Fumbling with his feet Reivers found the stream and stepped in. To his +surprise the water was warm. Warm water? Where had he seen warm water +recently in this country? His thoughts leaped back with a snap. There +was only one open stream to be found thereabouts, and that was the brook +that came from the warm springs by which he had camped on his way to +Tillie's. + +"Warm water!" laughed Moir. "Wilt find all snug in my camp. Aye, as snug +as in a well-kept jail." + +The stream was knee-deep, and by the pressure of the water against the +back of his legs Reivers knew that they were going down-stream. +Presently Moir spoke again. + +"Now, if you value the tops of your heads, do you duck as low as you +can. Duck now, quick; and do you keep that position till I tell you to +straighten up." + +Reivers and Tillie ducked obediently. Suddenly the tiny light that had +come through the air-holes of their masks was shut out. The darkness was +complete. Reivers thrust his hand above his bowed head and came in +contact with cold, clammy rock. No wonder it had taken MacGregor and +Moir two years to find the mine, since the way to it lay by a +subterranean river! + +The light reappeared, but it was not the sunny light that had come +through the air-holes before they had entered the river tunnel. It was +grey and dead, as the light in a room where the sunshine does not enter. + +"Now you can lift your heads," laughed Moir. "Come to the right. Up the +bank. Here we are." + +He jerked Reivers out of the water roughly, and roughly pulled the sack +from his head. Reivers blinked as the light struck his eyes. Moir +treated him to a generous kick. + +"Welcome," he hissed menacingly. "Welcome to the camp of Shanty Moir." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII--MACGREGOR ROY + + +Reivers' first impression was that he was standing in a gigantic +stockade. The second that he was on the floor of a great quarry-pit. +Then, when the situation grew clear to him, he stood dumfounded. + +The camp of Shanty Moir lay in what would have been a solid rock cave +but for the lack of a roof. It was an irregular hollow in the strange +formation of the Dead Lands, perhaps fifty yards long and thirty yards +wide at its greatest breadth. The hollow was surrounded completely by +ragged stone walls about fifty feet in height. These walls slanted +inward to a startling degree. Thus while the floor of the strange spot +was thirty yards wide, the opening above, through which showed the +far-away sky, could scarcely have been more than half that width. The +brook ran through the middle of the chasm, entering the upper end by a +tunnel five feet in height and disappearing in the solid wall of rock at +the lower end by a similar opening. + +On each side of the narrow stream, and running back to the rock walls, +was a floor of smooth river-sand. Beneath an overhanging ledge on the +side where Reivers stood were the rude skin fronts of two dugouts. A tin +smoke-stack protruded from the larger of the two habitations; the other, +which was high enough only to admit a man stooping far over, was merely +a flap of hide hanging down from the rock. + +On the beach at the other side of the creek a fire burned beneath a +great iron pan, the wood smoke filling the chasm with its pungent odour. +Behind the fire a series of tunnels ran down in the sand under the +cliffs. From the tunnel immediately behind the fire came a thin spiral +of sluggish smoke, and Reivers knew that this tunnel was being worked +and that the fire was being used to thaw the frozen earth. + +A man who resembled Moir on a small scale was at work at the +thawing-pan, breaking the hard earth with his fingers and tossing it +into a washing-pan at his side. He stood now with a chunk of frozen sand +in his hand, and at sight of Reivers and Tillie he tossed the sand +recklessly into the air and whooped. + +"Ha! Hast done well this time, Shanty," he cried in an accent similar to +theirs. "Hast made tuh life endurable. A new horse for me and a woman +for 'ee. 'Tis high time. Since Blacky went off and did not come back, +and tuh two Indians tried to flee, we've had but one horse to do with. +Now wilt have two. Wilt clean up in a hurry now, and live in tuh +meanwhile." + +Shanty Moir laughed harshly. + +"How works tuh old Scot jackass to-day?" he called. + +The man across the creek shook his head. + +"He's never tuh horse he was when we first put him in harness," he +chuckled. "Fell twice in his tracks to-day, he did, and lay there till +Joey gave him an inch of tuh prod. Has been a good beastie, the Scot +has, Shanty, but 'tis in my mind tuh climate does not 'gree with him. +Scarce able to pull his load. In tuh mines at home we knocked such worn +beasties in the head and sent them up o' tuh pit." + +Moir laughed again. + +"Hast a quaint way o' putting things, Tammy," he said. "But I mind when +ponies were scarce we used them till they crawled their knees raw. 'Tis +plenty o' time to knock old horse-flesh in tuh head when tuh job's +done." + +They laughed together. Evidently this was a well-liked camp joke. + +"'Tis a well-coupled animal 'ee have there, Shanty," said the humourist +across the water, with a jerk of the head at Reivers. "Big in tuh bone +and solid around tuh withers. Yon squaw is a solid piece, too. Happen +they're broke to pull double?" + +"Unbroke stock, Tammy," drawled Moir leisurely. "Gentleman, squaw-man, +waster. But breaking stock's our specialty, eh, Tammy?" + +A muffled shout floated up from the mouth of the smoking pit before +Tammy could reply. Instantly there followed a dull moan of pain: Moir +and Tommy laughed knowingly. + +"Here comes sample of our work," said Tammy, nodding toward the tunnel. +"Poor Joey! Has to use tuh prod to start him with each load now." + +A grating, shuffling sound now came from the mouth of the tunnel. +Following it appeared the head of a man. And Reivers needed only one +glance at the emaciated countenance to know that he was looking upon the +father of Hattie MacGregor. + +"Giddap, Scotch jackass!" roared Moir in great good humour. "Pull it out +o' there. That's tuh horse. Pull!" + +The man came painfully, an inch at a time, out of the pit, and looked +across the creek at Shanty Moir. Behind him there dragged a rough wooden +sledge loaded with lumps of earth. The man was hitched to this load by a +harness of straps that held his arms helpless against his sides. No +strait-jacket ever held its victim more utterly helpless than the +contrivance which now held James MacGregor in toils as a beast of +burden. A contrivance of straps about the ankles held his legs close +together. + +So short were the traces by which the sledge was drawn that MacGregor +could not have stood upright without having lifted the heavy load a foot +or more from the ground. He made no attempt to stand so, but hung +half-bowed against the harness, his eyes gleaming through the matted red +hair over his brows straight at Shanty Moir. + +It was the eyes that drew and held Reivers' attention to the face, +rather than to the man's terrible situation. James MacGregor, helpless +beast of burden to his tormentors that he was, was not beaten. The same +clean-cut nose, mouth and chin that Reivers remembered so well in the +daughter were apparent in the father's pain-marked face. The eyes +gleamed defiance. And they were wide and grey, Reivers saw, the same as +the eyes that haunted him in memory's pictures of the girl who had not +feared his glance. + +"Shanty Moir," spoke MacGregor in a voice weak but firm, "when the devil +made you he cursed his own work. He cursed you as a misbegotten thing +not fit for hell. The gut-eating wolverine is a brave beast compared to +you. Skunks would run from your company. You think you have done big +work. You fool! You cannot rob me of what belongs to me and mine; you +cannot kill me. As sure as there is a God in Heaven, He will let me or +mine kill you with bare hands." + +Moir and his man laughed in weary fashion, as if this speech were old to +them, and Reivers was amazed at an impulse within him to throw himself +at Shanty Moir's throat. He joined foolishly in the laughter to hide his +confusion. What had he to do with such impulses? What business had he +having any feeling for the poor enslaved man before him? He had come to +Moir's camp for one purpose: to get the gold mined there, to get a new +start in life. Was it possible that he was growing weak enough to +experience the feeling of pity, the impulse to help the helpless? +Nonsense! He laughed loudly. His plan was one in which silly impulses of +this nature had no part, and he would go through with it to the end. + +"Well brayed, Scots jackass," said the man at the thawing-pan casually. +"Now pull tuh load over here. Giddap-pull!" + +MacGregor leaned weakly against the harness, but the sledge had lodged +and his depleted strength was insufficient to budge it. + +"Oh ho! Getting lazy, eh?" came from the tunnel, and a thin-faced man +came out, a short stick with a sharp brad in his hands. "Want help, eh? +Well, here 'tis," he chuckled, and drove the brad into MacGregor's leg. + +Again the strange impulse to leap to the tortured man's rescue, to kill +his tormentor without reckoning the price or what might come after, +stirred itself in Reivers' breast, and again he joined in the laughter +to pass it off. + +MacGregor started as the iron entered his flesh and the movement +loosened the sledge. With weak, faltering steps he drew the load +alongside the fire, where Tammy proceeded to transfer the frozen chunks +of earth to the thawing-pan. + +"Eh, hah! New cattle?" said the man with the prod when he espied Reivers +and Tillie. "Cow and bull." + +"Cow--and an old ox, Joey," laughed Moir. "Has even burnt his horns off +with hooch, and wilt go well in the harness when he's broke." + +"'Tis time," said Joey. "Tuh Scots jackass'll soon drop in his tracks." + +"Not until I've paid you out in full, you devils," said MacGregor +quietly. "I'll give you an hour of living hell for every prod you've +given me, you poor cur." + +Joey approached him and unhooked the traces from his harness with an air +that told how well he was accustomed to such threats. + +"Must call it a day, Shanty," he said, loosening the straps that bound +MacGregor's hands so the forearms were free while the upper arms +remained bound tightly to his sides. "Old pit's full o' smoke." In bored +sort of fashion he kicked MacGregor into the creek. "To your stable, +jackass. Day's done." + +MacGregor, tripped by the traps about his ankles, fell full length in +the water, floundered across, and crawled miserably out of sight behind +the skin front of the smaller dugout. Moir and his two henchmen watched +him, jeering and laughing. At a sign the two on the other side of the +creek came across and drew close to their chief. + +"And now, old son," snarled Moir, swinging around on Reivers like a +flash, "now, you slick waster--now we'll attend to 'ee." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX--JAMES MACGREGOR'S STORY + + +The three men moved forward until they were within arm's reach of +Reivers, and stood regarding him with open grins on their hairy faces. +Reivers, reading the import of their grins, knew that they were bent +upon enjoying themselves at his expense, and tried swiftly to guess what +form their amusement might take. If it were only horse-play he would be +able to continue in the helpless character he had assumed. If it were to +be rougher than that, if they set out to break him in real earnest, he +feared that his acting was at an end. + +Even for the sake of the gold that he was after he would hardly be able +to submit, humbly and helplessly as became a drunken squaw-man, to their +efforts to make a wreck of him. He calculated his chances of coming +through alive if the situation developed to this extreme, and decided +that the odds were a trifle too heavy against him. + +The element of surprise would be on his side, but his right shoulder +still was weak from the old bullet-wound. With his terrible ability to +use his feet he calculated that he could drop Moir and Tammy with broken +bones as they rushed him. To do that he would have to drop to his back, +and Joey, the third man, wore a long skinning-knife on his hip. No, if +he began to fight he would never get what he had come after. He wiped +his mouth furtively and swayed from the knees up. + +"I want some hooch, mister, that's what I want," he whined shakily. "You +promised you'd give me a drink when we got here, you know you did. +Haven't had a drop since morning. I wouldn't 'a' come if I'd known you +were going to treat me like this." + +Then he did the best acting of his life. He jumped sideways and +shuddered; he frantically plucked imaginary bugs off his coat sleeve; he +stepped high as if stepping over something on the ground; his eyes and +face muscles worked spasmodically. + +"O-ooh! Gimme a drink," he begged. "Please gimme a drink. I gotta have +it." + +The grins faded from the faces before him. They knew full well the signs +of incipient delirium tremens. Tammy laughed dryly. + +"Hast brought home more than an old ox and a cow, Shanty," he said. +"Hast brought a whole menagerie. Yon stick'll have tuh Wullies in a +minute if he's not liquored." + +Reivers dropped to his knees, shuddering, his arms shielding his eyes +from imaginary beasts of the bottle. + +"Take 'em away, boys," he pleaded. "Kill the big ones, let the little +ones go." + +With a snarl Moir leaped to his sledge and knocked the neck off a bottle +of hooch. + +"Drink, you scut!" he growled. "I'll have dealings with you when you're +sobered up." + +Reivers drank and began to doze. Moir kicked him upright. + +"Get into the shed with t'other jackass," he commanded, propelling him +toward the dugout into which MacGregor had crawled. "And in tuh morning +you go to work, e'en though snakes be crawling all o'er 'ee." + +A faintly muttered curse greeted Reivers as he crawled into the dugout. + +"You poor curs! What do you want with me now?" came MacGregor's voice +from a corner of the tiny room. "You skunk----" + +"Easy, MacGregor Roy," whispered Reivers quietly. "It's not one of the +'skunks.'" + +"MacGregor Roy!" By the light that entered by a slit in the skin-flap +Reivers could see the Scotchman painfully lifting his head from his +miserable bunk, as he hoarsely repeated his own name. "MacGregor Roy! +Who are you, stranger, to call James MacGregor by his family name?" + +"I'm the man that Shanty Moir brought in this afternoon," whispered +Reivers. + +"I know, I know," gasped MacGregor weakly. "But men do not call me +MacGregor Roy. James MacGregor they call me, unless--unless----" + +"Unless they have the 'Roy' straight from the lips of your daughter, +Hattie." + +For a full minute MacGregor sat stricken speechless. + +"Man, man! Speak!" The unfortunate man came wriggling over and laid his +hands pleadingly on Reivers. "Don't play with me. Is my daughter Hattie +alive and well?" + +"Very much alive," replied Reivers, "and as well as can be expected of a +girl who is worrying her heart out over why her father doesn't return or +send her word." + +"Have they no' guessed--has no' my brother Duncan guessed by this time?" +gasped MacGregor. "Can not they understand that I must be dead or held +captive since I do not return? Speak, man, tell me how 'tis with them!" + +Reivers waited until the poor man had become more quiet before replying +to him. + +"You'd better quiet down a little MacGregor," he whispered then. "You +can't tell when your friends might be listening, and it wouldn't do +either of us any good if they heard what we're saying." + +"True," said the old man more quietly. "I'm acting like an old woman. +But for three months I've been trapped like this, and my head fairly +swims when I hear you speak of Hattie. How come you to know of her?" + +Reivers related briefly that he had been ill and had been cared for at +the MacGregor cabin. + +"And my little Hattie is well? No harm came to her from the black devil +they sent to steal her? You must know, man, they taunted me by +sending----" + +"I know," interrupted Reivers; and he told how he had disposed of the +kidnapper. + +"You--you did that?" MacGregor clutched Reivers's hand. "You saved my +little Hattie?" + +"None of that," snapped Reivers, snatching away his hand. "I did nothing +for your little Hattie. Why should I? What is your Hattie to me? I +simply put that black-beard out of business because I needed food and he +had it on the sledge." + +"Yet you're not one of the gang here--now? You are no' anything but a +friend of me and mine?" + +"A friend?" sneered Reivers. "I'll tell you, Mac: I'm here as my own +friend, absolutely nothing else." + +"But Hattie--and my brother Duncan--they understand about me now." + +"They know you're either dead or worse," was the reply. "And they're at +Dumont's Camp now, waiting for Moir to come there on a spree, when they +expect to trail him back to this camp." + +MacGregor nodded his head weakly. + +"Aye. Taken the trail for revenge. No less could be expected. Please +Heaven, they'll soon win here. And James MacGregor will not forget what +he owes you, stranger, for the help you gave his daughter, when the time +of reckoning comes with Moir and his poor curs." + +Reivers laughed coldly under his breath. + +"You speak pretty confidently, old-times, for a man who's trussed up the +way you are." + +"God willna let this dog of a Moir have his will with me much longer," +said the Scot firmly. "It isna posseeble." + +"'This dog of a Moir' must be a better man than you are," taunted +Reivers. "He fooled you and trapped you as soon as you'd found this +mine." + +"Did he?" MacGregor flared up. "Shanty Moir a better man than me? Hoot, +no! He fooled me, yes, for I didna know that he'd got word to these +three hellions of his that the mine was here. I trusted him; he was my +pardner. And when we returned with proveesions for the Winter the three +devils were waiting for us, just inside the wall, where the creek comes +through. Shanty Moir alone never could ha' done it. The three of them +jumped on me from above. I had no chance. Then they strapped me. + +"They've kept me strapped ever since. I'm draft beast for them. Twice a +day they feed me. And between whiles Shanty Moir taunts me by playing +before my eyes with the dust and nuggets that are half mine." + +"Oh, well, it doesn't look to me as if there'd be enough gold here to +bother about," said Reivers casually. "It's nothing but a little freak +pocket by the looks of it." + +"So it is. A freak pocket. It could be nothing else in this district. +'Twas only by chance we found it, exploring the creek in here out of +curiosity. 'Twas in the bowels of the warm spring up yon, where the +creek starts, that the pocket was originally. The spring boiled it out +into the creek, and the creek washed it down here in its bed of sand. +The sand lodged here, against these rock walls. There's about a hundred +feet of the sand, running down under the cliffs, and it's all pocket. +Not a rich pocket, as you say, but Shanty Moir is filthy with nuggets +and dust now, and there'll be some more in the sand that's left to work +over. + +"Not a bonanza, man, but a good-sized fortune. 'Twould be enough to send +my Hattie to school. 'Twould give her all the comforts of the world. +'Twould make folk look up to her. And Shanty Moir, the devil's spawn, +has it in his keeping." + +"And he'll probably see that it continues in his keeping, too," yawned +Reivers. + +"Never!" swore MacGregor, rising to the bait. "Shanty Moir did me dirt +too foul to prosper by it, and I'm a better man than he is, besides. The +stuff will come into my hands, where it belongs, some way. I dinna see +just how for the present. But the stuff, and my revenge I will have. +E'en shackled as I am I'll have my revenge, though it's only to bite the +windpipe out of Shanty Moir's throat like a mad dog." + +"Huh!" Reivers was lying face down on some blankets, apparently but +little interested. "And suppose you do get Shanty Moir? What good will +that do you? I'll bet Shanty's got the gold hid where nobody could find +it without getting directions from him. Suppose you get him. Suppose you +get all three of 'em. Shanty Moir being dead, the nuggets and dust +probably'd be as completely lost as they were before you two boys found +the pocket in the first place." + +For a long time MacGregor sat in his corner of the dugout without +replying. Reivers could see that at times he raised his head, even +opened his mouth as if to speak, then sank back undecided. At last he +hunched himself forward inch by inch to the front of the dugout and +lifted the flap. + +The light of day had gone from the cavern. On the sand before the larger +dugout blazed a brisk cooking-fire. In the confined space the light from +its flames was magnified, reflecting from rock-wall and running water, +and illuminating brightly the miserable hole in which Reivers and +MacGregor lay. + +MacGregor held up the flap for several minutes, studying Reivers, and +though Reivers looked back with the look in his eyes that made most men +quail, the old man's sharp grey eyes studied him unruffled, even as the +eyes of his daughter had done before. + +"By the Big Nail, 'tis a man's man!" muttered MacGregor, dropping the +flap at last. "How in the name of self-respect did the likes of you fall +prey to the cur, Shanty Moir?" + +"Self-respect?" sniggered Reivers. "Did you notice me out there when you +were laying your curse on Moir?" + +"Aye. You were far gone in liquor then--by the looks of you. You'll mind +I say 'by the looks of you.' You are not in liquor now. That's what +puzzled. A man does not throw off a load of hooch so quickly. You were +playing at being drunk. Now, why might that be?" + +"To enable me to get into his hole and leave Moir thinking I'm a drunken +squaw-man without brains or nerve enough to do anything but sponge for +hooch." + +"Aye? And your reason for that?" + +"My reason for that?" Reivers laughed under his breath. "Why, did you +ever hear of a more popular reason for a man risking his throat than +gold? I heard the story of this deal from your brother Duncan and your +daughter. I need--or rather, I want money. Shanty Moir had won over you +and had gold. I came to win over Moir and get the gold away from him. +Isn't that simple?" + +"Simple and spoken well," said MacGregor calmly. "Will you answer me one +question: Did you serve notice on my brother Duncan that you were out on +this hunt?" + +"I did." + +"Fair enough again. A man has a right to take trail and do what he can +if he speaks out fair. I take it you hardly calculated to find me here +alive?" + +"No, I didn't think Moir was such an amateur as to take any chances." + +"Ah, he needed a draft beast, lad; that's why I'm alive, and no other +reason. And finding me here alive, does it alter your plans any?" + +"Only a trifle. You see, I'd made up my mind to bring Moir and your +daughter Hattie face to face to see if she could make good on her big +talk of taking revenge for putting you out of business. Now that I see +you're still alive--well, I won't let any little foolishness like that +interfere with the business I've come on." + +"I mean about the gold, man?" + +Reivers looked at his questioner in surprise. + +"About the gold?" he repeated. + +"Yes. Finding me, the rightful owner of half of the gold, here, alive +and hoping to win back with my share to my daughter Hattie--does it make +any change in your plans?" + +Reivers chuckled softly. + +"Not in the slightest," he replied. "I came to get the stuff that's come +out of this mine. Take a look at me. Do I look like a soft fool who'd +let anything interfere with my plans?" + +MacGregor looked and shook his head, puzzled. + +"I dinna understand ye, mon," he said. "I canna make you out. By the +look of you I'd be wishful to strike hands with you as one good man to +another; but your talk, man, is all wrong, all wrong. Half of the stuff +that's been taken out of this mine--Shanty Moir's half--I have made up my +mind shall be yours for the strong blow you dealt to save my Hattie from +black shame. Will you na' strike hands on a partnership like that +between us?" + +Reivers yawned. + +"Why should I? You're 'all in.' You can't help me any. I'll have to do +the job of getting the gold away from Moir. I came here to get it all. I +don't want any help, and I certainly won't make any unnecessary split." + +"Man," whispered MacGregor in horror, "is there naught but a piece of +ice where your heart should be? Do you not understand it's for a poor, +unprovided girl I'm talking? A man you might rob; but have you the +coldness in your heart to rob my little, unfortunate Hattie?" + +"'Little, unfortunate Hattie!'" mocked Reivers. "Consider her robbed +already. What then?" + +"A word to Shanty Moir and you're as good as dead," retorted MacGregor +hotly. + +Reivers' long right arm shot out and terrible fingers clutched +MacGregor's throat. The old man wriggled and gasped and tried to cry +out, but Reivers held him voiceless and helpless and smiled. + +"One word to Shanty Moir, and--you see?" he said, releasing his hold. +"Then your little, unfortunate Hattie would be robbed for sure." + +"Man--man--what are you, man or devil?" gasped MacGregor. + +"Devil, if it suits you," said Reivers. "But, remember, I'll manage to +be within reach of you when Shanty Moir's about, and I rather fancy Moir +would be glad to have me put you out of business. Now listen to me. I've +no objection to your getting out of here alive--if you can. I've no +objection to your getting your revenge on Moir, if you can, provided +that none of this interferes with my getting what I came after. You know +now what I can and will do if necessary. Your life lies right there." He +opened and closed his right hand significantly. "Well, I'll trade you +your life for a little information. Where does Shanty keep his gold?" + +MacGregor ceased gasping. He began to laugh. He leaned over and laughed. +He rocked from side to side. + +"Man, man! Do you not know that? That proves you're only human!" he +chuckled. "You came out here, like a lamb led to slaughter, to find +where Shanty Moir keeps his gold. You were on the trail with Shanty. You +had him where it was only one man to one. Well--well, the joke is too +good to keep: Shanty Moir, day and night, wears a big buckskin belt +about the middle of him, and the gold--the gold is in the belt!" + + + + +CHAPTER XL--THE WHITE MAN'S SENTIMENT + + +It was very still in the dugout. Suddenly Reivers leaned forward to see +if MacGregor were telling the truth. Satisfied with his scrutiny he sat +back and laughed softly. + +"In a belt, around his middle, eh?" he said. "Good work. Mr. Moir is +cautious enough to be interesting." + +"Cautious!" MacGregor threw up the flap of the dugout. "Look out there, +man." + +Reivers looked. On the sand directly before the door lay chained a huge, +husky dog, an ugly, starved brute with mad eyes. + +"Try but to crawl outside the shack," suggested MacGregor. + +Reivers tried. His head had no more than appeared outside when the dog +sprang. The chain jerked him back as his teeth clashed where Reivers' +head had been. He leaped thrice more, striving to hurl himself into the +dugout, then returned to his place and lay down, growling. + +"Very cautious," agreed Reivers. + +He peered carefully out toward the cooking-fire. The fire had died down +now and was deserted. By the sounds coming from the larger dugout +Reivers knew that Moir and his men were occupied with their supper, +supplemented by occasional drafts of liquor, and once more he crawled +out upon the sand. + +With a snarl the great dog leaped again, his bared fangs flashing in the +night. The snarl died in a choke. Reivers' long arms flashed out and his +fingers caught the dog by the throat so swiftly and surely that not +another sound came from between its teeth. It was a big, strong dog and +it died hard, but out there on the sand Reivers sat, silently keeping +his hold till the last sign of life had gone from the brute's body. Not +a sound rose to attract attention from the larger dugout. + +When the animal was quite dead Reivers crawled forward and untied the +chain that held it to a rock. Noiselessly he crawled farther on and +noiselessly slipped the carcass into the brook. The brisk current caught +it and dragged it down. Reivers waited until he saw the thing disappear +into the dark tunnel at the lower end of the cavern, then returned to +the dugout and quietly lay down on his blankets. + +"God's blood!" gasped MacGregor and sat silent. + +"Well," yawned Reivers, "our friend Moir is short one dog." + +"You crazy fool!" MacGregor was grinding his teeth. "Ha' you no' thought +of what Shanty Moir will do when he finds what you've done to his +watch-dog?" + +"What I have done?" Reivers laughed his idiotic squaw-man's laugh. +"D'you suppose a poor old bum like me could throttle a man-eater like +that beast? You'll be the one to be blamed for it. Why should I touch +Moir's dog? Moir and I came here together, chummy as a couple of +thieves." + +"You would not--you could not do that? You could not put it on me? Man, +they'd drop me in the river after the beast, if you got them to believe +it." + +"Well?" said Reivers gently. + +The Scot bit his lip and grew crafty. + +"Well," he said, "there'd be only you left then to do the dirt-hauling +for Shanty Moir." + +Reivers nodded appreciatively. + +"You deserve something for that, Mac," said he. + +He lay silent for a few minutes. Then he chuckled suddenly as if he had +thought of a good joke. + +"Watch me closely now, Mac," he ordered, "and if you ever feel like +speaking that word to Moir, I'll holler at you worse than this." + +He rolled himself to the front of the dugout, and suddenly there rang +out in the cavern such a shriek of terror as stopped the blood in the +veins of all who heard. Twice Reivers uttered his horrible cry. Then he +began to shout drunkenly: + +"Take him off, take him away! Oh, oh, oh! Big dog coming out of the +river. Take him away. Big dog swimming in the river. Take him away. +Help, help!" + +Shanty Moir got to the front of the little dugout in advance of the +others. He came with a six-shooter in his hand, and the gun covered +Reivers, huddled up on the sand, as steadily as if held in a vise. But +Reivers observed that Moir stopped well out of reach. + +"What tuh ----!" roared Muir, as he noted the absence of the watch-dog. +"What devil's work----" + +"The dog!" chattered Reivers. "Big dog; big as a house. Came out of the +river. Tried to jump on me. Jumped back into the river. +Swimming--swimming out there." + +Shanty Moir swung the muzzle of his six-shooter till it pointed straight +at Reivers's forehead. He did not step forward, but remained well out of +reach. + +"Steady, old son," he said quietly, "steady, or this'll go off." + +Under the influence of the threat Reivers pretended to come back to his +senses. + +"Gimme a drink, mister," he pleaded. "I'm seeing things. I was sure +there was a big dog out there. I'd 'a' sworn I saw him jump into the +river. Now I see there isn't, but gimme a drink--quick!" + +"Bring tuh old sow a cup of hooch, Joey," snapped Moir over his +shoulder. "Wilt see about this." He turned the weapon on the cowering +MacGregor. "Speak quick, Scotch jackass, or I pull trigger. What's been +done here; where's Tige?" + +"Was it a real dog?" cried Reivers before MacGregor could reply. "I saw +something--he went into the river." + +"Speak, you!" said Moir to the Scotchman. "Speak quick." + +"He's telling you straight," replied MacGregor, with a nod toward +Reivers. "The dog went into the river. I saw him go down, out of sight." + +"Out of sight," muttered Reivers, swallowing the drink which Joey had +brought him. "So it was a real dog, was it? He jumped at me, and then he +jumped back, and I guess he broke his chain, because he went into the +river and never came out." + +Moir stepped over and examined the rock from which Reivers had slipped +the dog's chain. + +"Tammy," he said quietly. Tammy came obediently, stopping a good two +paces away from Moir. + +"See that?" said Moir, pointing at the rock. Tammy nodded. + +"You tied Tige out for tuh night, Tammy?" + +"Yes, but----" + +"And you tied so well tuh beast got loose, and into tuh river and is +lost." + +"Shanty, I swear----" + +"Swear all you want to, lad," said Moir and dropped him cold with a +light tap on the jaw. + +"Pick him up." Moir's moving revolver had seemed to cover every one +present, but now the muzzle hesitated on Joey. "Carry him into tuh +shack." + +As Joey obeyed Moir stepped back toward the little dugout, but stopped +well out of reach of a possible rush. + +"Old son," he said slowly, and the gun barrel pointed at Reivers' right +eye, "old son, if you yell again tonight let it be your prayers, because +you'll need 'em. Dost hear? I suspect 'twas thy yelling scared Tige into +the river. Wouldst send thee down after him, only I've use for you in +tuh pits. Crawl in and lie still if wouldst live till daylight, ---- you. +Wilt pay for the loss of Tige, I warn you that." + +He turned away and Reivers fell back on his blankets chuckling boyishly. +He was in fine fettle. The Snow-Burner was coming back to his old form, +and in the delight of the moment's difficulties he had temporarily lost +the softening memories that had disturbed him of late. + +"How was it, old-timer?" he laughed. "Could you pick any flaw in it?" + +MacGregor shook his head in wonder. + +"I had a man go fey on me once, up on the Slave Lake trail," he said +slowly. "He let go just such yells as came from your mouth now. I'm +thinking no man could yell so lest he's fey himself, or has travelled +wi' auld Nickie and stole some of his music." + +"Quite so. Exactly the impression I wished to create," said Reivers. "I +thank you for your compliment, but your analysis is all wrong. Complete +control of your vocal organs, that's all. You see I wished to let out +just such a yell. It was rather hard, because my vocal organs never had +made such a sound before, and they protested. I forced them to do it. + +"The man with the superior mind can force his body to do anything. +Understand, Mac? It's the superior mind that counts. If you'd had a mind +superior to Moir's you'd be top dog here, with Moir fetching bones for +you. As it is, you're doing the fetching, and Moir's growing fat. And +here I come along, with a mind superior to Moir's, and I'm going to be +top dog now and gobble the whole proceeds of your squabbling. The mind, +Mac, the grey stuff in the little bone-box at the top of your neck, +that's all that counts. Nothing else. And I've got the best grey matter +in this camp, and I'm going to be top dog as a matter of course." + +MacGregor flared up hotly. + +"You say, that's all that counts?" he said. "D'you mean to tell me to my +face that after I'd struck hands with a man to be my partner, as I did +with Shanty Moir, that I'd turn on him and play him the scurvy trick he +played me, just because I could? Well, if you say that, mon, you lie, +and I throw the word smack in your teeth. Go back on my hand-shake, just +to be top dog and get the bones! God's blood! There's other things +better than bones, and there's other things that count besides a +superior mind. How many times do you suppose I could have shot Shanty +Moir after we'd found this mine?" + +"Not once. You didn't have it in you. You couldn't do it. If you could +you'd have been the superior man, and you're not." + +MacGregor thought it over. + +"You're right, mon, I couldn't do it. I thank God I couldn't. I'd rather +be the slave I am at present than be able to do things like that." + +"Sentiment, Mac; foolish, unreasonable sentiment." + +"Sentiment!" MacGregor spoke hotly, then suddenly subsided. "Yes, you're +right, lad," he admitted after awhile. "It's naught but sentiment. I see +now. It's the kind of sentiment that white men die for, and that makes +them the boss men of the world. Well, lad, I am sorry to hear you talk +as if 'twas only your skin was white. But I do not see you top dog of +this camp yet. I'll warrant Shanty Moir didn't allow you to slip a gun +or knife into camp. And did you notice the little tool he had in his +hand?" + +"A six-shooter," said Reivers. "A crude weapon compared to a good mind, +MacGregor." + +"Aye? I'm glad to hear you say so, lad, for I've only a mind, such as it +is, left me for a weapon, and I'm quite sure I must overcome the six-gun +in Shanty's hand ere I ever win back to lay eyes on my daughter Hattie." + +"Your daughter Hattie!" Reivers sat up, jarred out of his composure. +"You forget your daughter Hattie; you hear, MacGregor? And now shut up. +There's been enough yawping to-night; I want to sleep." + +He rolled himself tightly in his blankets. MacGregor crawled miserably +to his corner and huddled down to sleep as best he could in his cruel +shackles. The dugout grew as still as a tomb. Faint sounds came from the +place where Moir and his men were living, but as the night grew older +these ceased, and a silence as complete and primitive as it knew before +man bent his steps thither fell over the isolated cavern. + +Reivers did not sleep. MacGregor's last words had done the work. "My +daughter Hattie." Hattie with the clean, pure face of her. Hattie with +the wide grey eyes; with the look of pain upon her. Curse MacGregor! +What business had he mentioning that name? Reivers had forgotten, or +thought he had. He was himself again. And then this old fool--curse him! +Curse the whole MacGregor tribe. And especially did he curse himself for +being weak and foolish enough to permit such trifles to interfere with +his sleep. + +He dozed away toward daylight and dreamed that Hattie MacGregor was +looking at him. The hard look on her face had softened a little, and she +said she was glad he had sent Neopa back to her lover, Nawa. + +"---- you, get out of there!" + +In his half-waking Reivers fancied it was his own voice driving the +picture from his mind. + +"Get out, beasts, and get out quick!" + +It was Shanty Moir's voice and he was calling to MacGregor and Reivers +to get up. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI--SHANTY MOIR--TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE + + +Reivers came forth from the dugout, stooped and shaking, the drunken +squaw-man's morning condition to perfection, but in reality alert and +watchful for the opportunity he was seeking. He had had a bad night, and +he was anxious to have the job over with and get away with his loot to +some place where he could forget. + +A surprise awaited him outside. Two tin plates loaded with meat and a +tin cup half full of liquor were placed on the sand before the dugout. +Ten feet away stood Shanty Moir, his six-shooter covering the two men as +they emerged. With the instinct of the wild animal that he was, Moir +knew the value of clamping his hold firmly on his victims in the cold +grey of morning. + +"Drink and eat," he said, satisfied with the humility with which the two +went to their food. "Eat fast, or you'll go into tuh pit with tuh belly +empty." + +"I thought you hired me for a cook, mister," whined Reivers, as he +raised the tin cup to his lips. "I want to cook." + +"Cook, ----!" sneered Moir. "Tuh squaw'll do all tuh cooking done here. +Draft beast with tuh Scotch jackass, that's what 'ee be, old ox. Hurry +up. Wilt have a little of tuh prod?" + +Out of the corner of his eye Reivers saw that MacGregor was eying the +cup of liquor wistfully. Moved by an impulse that was strange to him he +took a small drink and held out the cup to his companion. As MacGregor +eagerly reached for it Moir's gun crashed out and the cup flew from +Reivers's hand. + +"Tuh motto of this camp is, 'No treating,'" chuckled Moir. "Hooch is +good on tuh trail. We're on tuh job now. You get liquor, old son, +because 'tis medicine to you, and any hooch drinked here, I must +prescribe." + +Across the creek, Tammy, at work building a fire under the thawing-pan, +heard his chief's words and growled faintly. + +"Yes, and 'ee prescribe terrible small doses, too, Shanty," he muttered. +"A good thing can be over-played. Hast no reason for refusing Joey and +me a nip before starting work this morning." + +Moir, moving like a soft-footed lynx, was across the creek and behind +Tammy before the latter realised what was coming. From his position Moir +now dominated the whole camp, and a sickly smile appeared on Tammy's +mouth. + +"Aw, Shanty!" he whined. "Didst only mean it for a joke. Can take a joke +from an old chum, can't 'ee, Shanty?" + +"Get into tuh pit, Tammy," said Moir quietly, pointing with his gun to +the tunnel where sounds indicated that Joey already was at work. + +"Aw, Shanty----" + +"Get in!" + +Slack-jawed with terror Tammy crawled into the dark tunnel. + +"Eh, Joey, ma son!" called Moir down the pit-mouth. + +"Aye?" came back the answer. + +"Dost 'ee, too, think 'ee should have a drink this morn'?" + +"Aye, Shanty," replied the unsuspecting Joey. + +"Have a hot one, then!" roared Shanty and kicked a blazing log from +Tammy's fire into the pit. + +A mingling of shrieks and protests greeted its arrival. + +"Aw, Shanty! Blood of tuh devil, chief! Canst not take a joke?" + +"Am taking it now, ma sons," laughed Moir, and kicked more brands down +the tunnel. + +Gasping and choking from the smoke that filled the tiny pit, Joey and +Tammy essayed to crawl out. Bang! went Moir's six-shooter and they +hastily retreated. The tunnel was filled with smoke by this time. Down +at the bottom, choking coughs and cries told that the two unfortunate +men were being suffocated. Moir waited until the faintness of the sounds +told how far gone the men were. Then he motioned to Reivers with his +revolver. The smoke was leaving the pit by this time. + +"Step down and drag 'em out, old son," he said. "Come now, no hanging +back. Tuh trigger on this gun is filed down so she pulls very light." + +Reivers obeyed, climbing into the pit as if trembling with fear, and +toiling furiously as he dragged the unconscious men out, though he could +have walked away with one under each arm. + +"Throw water on 'em. Splash 'em good." + +Ten minutes later Joey and Tammy were sitting up, coughing and sneezing, +and trying their best to make Moir believe they had only been joking. + +"Good enough, ma sons; so was I," chuckled Moir. "Now back to tuh job, +and if ever you doubt who's top man here you'll stay in tuh pit till +you're browned well enough to eat. Dost hear me?" + +"Aye, Shanty," said the two men humbly, and hurried back to their tasks. + +"And now, jackass and old ox, step over here and get into tuh harness," +commanded Moir. + +He continued to hold the gun in his hand and motioned to the sledge near +the thawing-pan. High side-boards had been placed on the sledge, making +it capable of holding twice its former load, and a looped rope +supplemented the traces to which MacGregor was so ignominiously hitched. + +"Take hold of the rope, old son," directed Moir. + +He did not approach as MacGregor resignedly led the way to the sledge. +Tammy turned from his thawing-pan to hitch the Scotchman to his traces +and to strap down his hands. Moir stood back, the gun in his hand, +dominating all three. + +"Now into tuh pit; Joey's got a load waiting," he commanded. "And one +whine out of you, old ox, and you get the prod. Hi-jah! Giddap!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLII--THE SNOW-BURNER WORKS FOR TWO + + +With MacGregor leading the way, Reivers humbly picked up his rope and +helped drag the sledge into the mine. The tunnel, high and broad enough +only for two men to crawl abreast, ran at a steep slant into the sand +for probably twenty-five feet. At its end it spread into a small room in +which Joey was at work, chopping loose chunks of frozen earth. + +One glance around and Reivers knew from experience that this room had +been the home of the pocket, and that, unless the signs lied, the pocket +soon would be worked out. Judging by the extent of the excavation the +pocket had been a good-sized one, and the amount of dust and nuggets +taken from it undoubtedly would foot up to a neat sum. Yes, it would be +a tidy fortune. It would be plenty to give him a new start in life, +plenty to pay him for the trouble he had gone to, plenty even to pay him +for the baseness of his present position. + +He obeyed Joey meekly when ordered, with curses and insults, to load the +sledge. He could have throttled Joey down there in the mine without a +sound coming up to warn those above of what was happening, but Moir's +conduct of the morning had made an impression upon Reivers. A man who +kept himself out of reach, who kept his six-shooter pointed at you all +the time, and who could shoot tin cups out of your moving hand, was not +a man to be despised. + +The first hour of work that day convinced Moir and his henchmen that +their original unflattering estimate of Reivers was correct. Even a +close observer, regarding him during that period of probation, would +have seen nothing to indicate that he was anything but what Shanty Moir +had judged him to be. A miserable, broken-down squaw-man, without a will +of his own, and only one ambition--to clamour for as much liquor as +possible--that was the character that Reivers played perfectly for the +benefit of Moir and his two men. + +At first, they kept an eye on him, watching to see if by any chance the +old fool might be dangerous. They discovered that he would be dangerous +if turned loose--to their supply of liquor. Beyond that he had, +apparently, not a single aim in the world. His physical weakness, they +soon discovered, was exactly what was to be expected of a whisky bloat. +He was able to help haul the sledge-loads of frozen earth up the incline +of the shaft, and that was all. Even that left him puffing and +trembling. + +"Is an old ox, as 'ee said, Shanty, with even tuh horns burnt off him by +tuh hooch," said Joey, after the first few loads. "Keep a little o' tuh +liquor running down his throat each day and he'll be a good draft beast +to us. Nothing to fear o' him. Didst well when 'ee picked him out, +chief." + +They stopped watching him. He was harmless. Which was exactly the frame +of mind which Reivers had worked to create. + +MacGregor alone knew how cleverly Reivers was playing his part, and he +regarded his new companion in misery with greater awe and swore beneath +his breath in unholy admiration. He had excellent opportunity to +appreciate Reivers's ability to play the part of a weakling, for the +Snow-Burner, when not observed, caught his free hand in MacGregor's +traces and pulled the full weight of the heavy sledge as if it had been +a boy's plaything. + +"Eh, mon!" gasped the weakened Scotchman in relief. "I begin to +comprehend now. 'Tis a surprise you're planning for Shanty Moir. Oh, +aye! 'Tis a braw joke. But you maun l'ave me finish him, man; 'tis my +right. And I thank you and will repay you well for the favour you are +doing me in my present bunged-up condition." + +"Favour your eye!" snapped Reivers. "It's easier to pull the whole thing +than to have you dragging on it. Don't think I'm doing it for your sake. +You'll have a rude awakening, my friend, if you're building any hopes on +me." + +"I dinna understand you," said MacGregor with a shake of his head. +"You're different from any man I ever met. But at all events, you've +made the loads lighter, and I think I must have perished soon had you +not done so." + +"Shut up!" hissed Reivers irritably. "I tell you I'm doing it because +it's easier for me." + +His attitude toward the old man was brutally domineering when they were +alone and openly abusive when they were in the presence of Moir or the +others. He showered foul epithets upon him, pretended to shoulder the +greater part of the work on him, and abused him in a fashion that won +the approval of the three brutes over them. + +"Make him do his share, old sonny," roared Moir. "Wilt have tuh prod? +Joey, give him tuh prod so he can poke up tuh jackass when he lags +back." + +"Don't need no prod," boasted Reivers. "I can handle him without any +prod. Come on, pull up there, you loafer. Think I'm going to do it all?" + +MacGregor on such occasions would hold his head low to hide the gleam in +his eyes and the grin that strove for room on his tightly pressed lips. +His harness was hanging slack; Reivers took more of the load upon +himself with every curse that he uttered. + +All through the day it was Reivers' strength that pulled the heavy +sledge up the dirt incline of the tunnel, and at night, when the day's +work was done, and MacGregor, tottering feebly toward his bunk, fell +helpless through the dugout's flap, Reivers picked him up, laid him down +gently and placed his own blanket beneath his head. + +"God bless you, lad!" whispered MacGregor. + +"Shut up!" hissed Reivers. "I don't want any talk like that." + +He looked down at the prostrate man for a moment. Then with a muttered +curse he unloosened the straps that bound MacGregor's arms to his sides +and hurled himself over to his own side of the shack. He was very angry +with himself. Pity and succour for the helpless had never before been a +part of his creed. Why should he trouble about MacGregor? + +"I'll have to strap you up again in the morning," he flung out suddenly, +"but it won't hurt to have your hands free for the night. Shut up--lay +still! I hear somebody coming." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII--"THE PENALTY OF A WHITE MAN'S MIND" + + +"Oh, Snow-Burner!" It was Tillie who came, bearing the evening food, and +Reivers crept out on the sand to meet her. "Oh, Snow-Burner," she +whispered quietly, "I am weary of this camp. The air is bad, and the +country is not open. It is in my heart to poison Iron Hair as soon as +the Snow-Burner says we are ready to go from this place." + +Reivers stared at her. A short while ago he would not have been shocked +in the slightest degree to have heard this--to her, natural speech--fall +from Tillie's lips. But of late another woman, another kind of woman, +had been in his thoughts, and Tillie's words left him speechless for the +moment. + +The squaw continued placidly-- + +"The Snow-Burner comes here after gold?" + +"Yes." + +"And when he has the gold we go away?" + +"Yes." + +"Good. The pig, Iron Hair, wears a great belt of buckskin about his +middle. The gold is in there, much of it. I will poison him to-night, +and we will take the belt and go away from here in the morning." + +Reivers made no reply. Here was success offered him without so much as a +move of his hand. He need have no part in it, none at all. Tillie would +bring him the gold belt. That was what he had come for; and hitherto he +had never let anything in the world stand between him and the +gratification of his desires. Yet he hesitated. + +"Is there more gold here than Iron Hair wears in his belt?" asked +Tillie. + +Reivers shook his head. + +"Then why wait?" Her whisper was full of amazement. "It is not like the +Snow-Burner. Was there ever a man who could make him do his will? And +yet now the Snow-Burner labours for Iron Hair like a woman." + +"Like a woman?" He repeated her bold words in surprise, while she sat +humbly awaiting the careless, back-hand blow which knocked her rolling +on the sand. "And was that hand like the hand of a woman?" he asked. + +Tillie picked herself up with a gleam of hope in her eyes. It was long +since the Snow-Burner had struck her strongly. + +"Oh, Snow-Burner!" she whispered proudly as she crawled back to his +side. "Why do we wait? It is all ready. The Snow-Burner knows where the +gold is that he came for. Tillie will do her share. The sleep-medicine +is sewed in the corner of my blanket. There is enough to kill this big +pig, Iron Hair, and his men three times over. Will not the Snow-Burner +give the sign for Tillie to put the sleep-medicine in their food? Then +they will sleep and not awaken, and the Snow-Burner and Tillie can go +away with the gold. Was it not so that the Snow-Burner wished to do?" + +Reivers nodded. That was what he wished. + +It was very simple. Only a nod. After that--the sleep-medicine, the +tasteless Indian poison, the secret of which Tillie possessed, and which +she would have used on a hundred men had Reivers given the word. + +Yes, it was very simple--except that he could not forget Hattie +MacGregor. The memory of her each hour had grown clearer, more +torturing. Because of it he had taken the killing load of work from her +father's shoulders; because of it he was growing weak. He swore +mutteringly as he thought of it. He had permitted her memory to soften +him, to make a boy of him. But now he was himself again. Tillie's words +had done their work. He turned toward the squaw, and she saw by the look +in his eyes that the Snow-Burner at last was going to give the fatal +sign. + +"To-night," she pleaded. "Let it be to-night. It is a bad camp here. The +air is not good. Iron Hair is a pig. Let me give the sleep-medicine +to-night; then we go from here in the morning--together." + +She crept closer to him, slyly smiling up at him; and suddenly Reivers +flung her away with a movement of loathing and sprang up, tall and +straight. + +"No," he said quietly, "not to-night." And Tillie crouched at his feet. + +"Snow-Burner," she whispered, "I hear Iron Hair and his men talk. They +go away soon. They take the gold with them. Does not the Snow-Burner +want the gold?" + +Reivers looked down upon her. He was standing up, stiff and proud, as he +should stand, but as he had not stood since he had begun to play at +being a drunken squaw-man. + +"I do not want you to help me get the gold," he said slowly. "I do not +want you to give Iron Hair the sleep-medicine, to-night, or any night. I +will take the gold from Iron Hair without your help. I have spoken." + +He stood looking down at her, and Tillie, looking up at him, once more +was reminded that he was a white man and that the vast gulf between them +never might be bridged. Wearily, hopelessly, she rose to her feet. + +"The Snow-Burner has spoken; I have heard," she whispered, and went +humbly back into the large dugout. + +Reivers laughed a small laugh of bitterness as he heard the flap drop +behind her. He threw his head far back and gazed up at the slit of +starlit sky that showed above the mouth of the cavern, and for once in +his life he felt the common insignificance of human-kind alone in the +vast scheme of Nature. He was weak; he had thrown away the easy way to +success; he had let the memory of Hattie MacGregor's face, flaring +before his eyes in the instant that Tillie thrust her lips up to his, +beat him. + +He threw up his great arms and held them out, tense and hard as bars of +living steel. He felt of his shoulders, his biceps, his chest, his legs, +and he laughed sardonically. + +"Body, you're just as superior to other men's bodies as you ever were," +he mused. "Yes, Body, you're just as fit to rend and prey on others as +ever. But you're handicapped now. You're not permitted to do things as +you used to do them. Body, you're paying the penalty of being burdened +with a white man's mind." + +MacGregor looked up as Reivers re-entered the dugout bearing the evening +food. A tiny fire in one corner lighted up the room and by its +flickering flames he saw Reivers' face. + +"Blood o' God!" whispered the old man in awe. "What's come over you, +man?" + +He rose on his elbow and peered more closely. + +"Man--man--you ha' not overcome Shanty Moir? You have not finished him +without letting me----" + +Reivers laughed. + +"What are you talking about? Do I look as if I'd been fighting?" + +MacGregor studied him seriously. + +"I donno," said he slowly. "I donno that you look as if you had been +fighting. But you come in with your head high up, and the look in your +eyes of a man who has conquered. That I do know. Tell me, lad, what's +taken place wi' you outside?" + +"None of your business," snapped Reivers. "Here's your supper." And he +returned to his side of the dugout to sit down to think. + +He was on his mettle now. He had put to one side the easy, certain way +to success that Tillie had offered. Success was not to be so easy as he +had thought. Thus far it had been easy. He had met Moir, he had won his +way into the mine, he had learned where the gold was hidden, all as he +had planned. Remained to get the gold and get safely away. The time to +do it in was short. + +Reivers' experienced miner's eyes had told him that the pocket was +perilously near to being mined out. Any day, any hour now, and the +pay-streak which they were following might end in barren dirt. That +would be the end of his opportunity. Moir and his men would waste no +time in the Dead Lands after making their cleanup. They would pack and +travel at once, southward, to the railroad. They would not permit even +so harmless an individual as a sodden squaw-man to trail them. Hence, +Reivers knew that he must find or make his opportunity without waste of +time and strike the instant it was found or made. + +He had been unable to find an opportunity that first day. Moir in his +camp was a different man from Moir on the trail. He was the boss man +here, and Reivers granted him ungrudged admiration for it. Liquor was +his master on the trail; here he was master of it. His treatment of Joey +and Tammy in the morning had explained his attitude on that question too +clearly to make it worth while to attempt to entice him into a bout at +drinking. Moir was boss here, boss of himself and others, and he always +had his six-shooter handy to prove it. + +Tammy and Joey wore knives at their hips, but no guns. Moir's 30.40 +rifle hung carelessly on a nail near the door of his dugout. This had +puzzled Reivers at first. Would a bad man like Moir be so simple as to +leave his rifle where any one might lay hands on it, and carry a +six-shooter in a manner to provoke a gun-fight? When he was ordered to +carry a pail of water to the dugout Reivers managed to take a careful +look at the rifle, and the puzzle was explained. The breech-block had +been taken out and the fine weapon was no more deadly than any club +eight pounds in weight. + +His respect for Moir had increased with this discovery. Evidently Moir +was not so thick-headed after all. He took no chances. The only +effective shooting-iron in camp was his six-shooter and, with this he +was thoroughly master of the situation. + +In the first hour Reivers had noticed that Moir had a system of guarding +himself. It was the system of the primitive fighting man and it +consisted solely of: let no man get at your back. At no time, whether in +the mine, at the washing-pans, in the open, or in the dugout did Moir +permit any one to get behind him. He made no distinction. In the pit he +stood with Joey before him. At the pans he worked behind Tammy. When the +others grouped together he whirled as smoothly as a lynx if any one made +to pass in his rear. Even when he sat at ease in the dugout with Tillie +he placed his back against the bare stone wall at the rear of the room. +So much Reivers had seen during his first day in the camp. + +"Does he sleep soundly at night?" he asked suddenly. + +"Who?" asked MacGregor. + +"Moir, of course." + +"Soundly?" The Scotchman gritted his teeth. "Aye as soundly as a lynx +lying down by its kill in a wolf country." + +Reivers smiled a grim smile. There was no chance, then, of rushing +Shanty Moir in his sleep. It would be harder to get the gold and get +away than he had expected. In fact, the difficulties of it presented +quite a problem. He liked problems, did the Snow-Burner, and his smile +grew more grim as he rolled himself in his blankets and lay down to +wait, dream-tortured by pictures of Hattie MacGregor, for the coming of +daylight of the day in which he had resolved to force the problem to +solution. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV--THE MADNESS OF "HELL-CAMP" REIVERS + + +The day opened as the day before had opened. A bellow from Shanty Moir, +and Reivers strapped MacGregor into his harness again and they tumbled +out to their rude morning meal. Again Moir stood a distance away, the +big six-shooter balanced easily in his hand. But this morning Joey and +Tammy, over by the pit-mouth, also were awaiting the appearance of their +two beasts of burden, and Reivers instantly sensed something new and +sinister afoot. At the sight of MacGregor's decrepitude, as, stiff and +tottering, he made his way to his meal, Joey and Tammy strove vainly to +conceal the wolfish grins that appeared on their ugly faces. + +"Aye, Shanty, art quite right. Is worth his keep no longer," said Tammy. +"Hast been a fair animal for a Scotch jackass, but does not thrive on +his oats no more." + +"One fair day's work left in him," said Joey, appraising MacGregor +shrewdly. "Will knock off a little early, eh, Shanty, so's to have tuh +light to see him swim." + +"Would not miss tuh sight of that for a pound of dust," replied Shanty, +and the three roared fiendishly together. + +"You poor, misbegotten spawn," said MacGregor, quietly beginning to eat, +eyeing them one after the other. "I'll live to spit on the shamed +corpses of the lot of you." + +As the day's work began, Reivers started to calculate each move that he +and Moir made with a view to discovering the opportunity he was looking +for. All that he wished was a chance to rush Shanty without giving the +latter an opportunity to use his gun. + +The odds of three to one against him, and Joey and Tammy armed with +knives, he accepted as a matter of course. But a six-shooter in the +hands of a man who could use one as Shanty Moir could was a shade too +much even for him to venture against. The manner in which Moir had shot +up the tin cup the morning before proved how alert and sure was his +trigger-finger. To make the suspicion of a move toward him, with the gun +in his hand, would have spelled instant ruin. + +As he watched now, Reivers saw that Moir was more vigilant than ever. He +kept far away from the pit-mouth. The gun either was in his hand or +hanging ready in the holster. And when Reivers saw the first load of +sand he understood why. + +The pay-streak had paid out. They were winnowing the drippings of dust +washed down from the pocket now, and this job soon would be done. Moir +was not taking any chances of losing at this stage of affairs. The +fortune was in his grasp; he would break camp and be off in the same +hour that the sand began to run low-grade. + +He took no part in the work to-day. He merely stood and watched. And +Reivers watched back, and the hours passed, and the short day began to +draw to a close, and still not the slightest chance to rush Shanty Moir +and live had presented itself. + +As the early twilight began to creep down into the cavern, the ugly +grins with which Joey and Tammy regarded MacGregor began to increase. +Suddenly Tammy, washing a pan of sand in the brook, threw up both hands. + +"Not a trace in the last load, Shanty!" he shouted. + +"All out!" came Moir's bellow, as if he had been waiting for the signal. + +Joey and Tammy threw down their tools and came over and stood behind +Reivers and MacGregor who came up dragging a loaded sledge behind them. + +"Take that load down yonder!" ordered Moir, pointing to the black tunnel +into which the creek disappeared in leaving the cavern. + +Tammy and Joey followed, grinning, two paces behind the sledge. Moir, +gun in hand, walked ten feet behind them. + +"Whoa!" he laughed when Reivers and MacGregor had drawn up against the +cliff beside the stream's exit. "You can unhitch tuh old jackass now, ma +sons. Then over with it quick." + +With a yelp Tammy and Joey tore loose MacGregor's traces. They held him +between them, and in his bound and weakened condition he was unable to +struggle or turn around. + +Before Reivers could move they had hurled MacGregor into the deep water +in the tunnel. He sank like a stone and the current sucked him in. + +"Good-by, MacGregor of the big boasts!" laughed Moir, but he laughed a +trifle too soon. + +In the instant that the current bore MacGregor into the darkness of the +tunnel his face bobbed up above the waters. He looked up, and looked +straight into Reivers's eyes. It was not a look of appeal; it was the +same look that had been in the eyes of Hattie MacGregor the day when +Reivers had left her cabin. + +Then Hell-Camp Reivers felt himself going mad. He hit Tammy so hard and +true that he flew through the air and struck against Moir. The next +instant Reivers was diving like a flash into the black water, groping +for MacGregor, while the current swept him into the total darkness. + +He heard the bullet from Moir's revolver strike the water behind him in +the instant that his hands found MacGregor; heard mocking laughter as he +pulled the old man's head above water; then the current whirled him and +his burden away. It whisked him downstream with a power irresistible. It +threw him from side to side against the ragged rock walls. It sucked him +and the load he bore down in deep whirlpools and spewed them up again. + +He bumped his head against the stone roof of the tunnel and swore. The +roof was a scant foot above the water. He put his hand up. The roof was +getting closer to the water with every yard. Soon there was only room +for their upturned faces above the water. + +Reivers laughed heartily. So this was to be the end! The joke was on +him. After all he had gone through, he was to drown like a silly fool +through a fool's impulse. + +Presently roof and water came together. For a moment Reivers fought with +his vast strength, holding his own for an instant against the current, +hanging on to the last few seconds of life with a fury of effort. The +current proved too strong. It sucked them under; the water closed above +them. They were whirled and buffeted to the last breath of life in them, +and then suddenly their heads slipped above water and they were looking +straight up at the gray Winter sky. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV--A SURPRISE FOR SHANTY MOIR + + +Reivers caught hold of a spear of rock the instant his head came out of +water, and held on. He did not try to think or understand at first. +Sufficient to know that he was alive and to pump his lungs full of the +air they were crying for. He held MacGregor under his left arm, and he +rather wondered that he hadn't let him go in that moment when he went +under. MacGregor was beginning to revive, too. Reivers looked around. + +There was not much to see. They were in a tiny opening in the rocks, a +yard or two in length. It was a duplicate of Moir's cavern on a +miniature scale, except that here the rock walls were not high or +impossible to climb. For this space the brook showed itself once more to +the sun, then vanished again under the cliffs. + +"Is it Heaven?" gasped MacGregor, only half conscious. + +"Nearer hell," laughed Reivers. + +He lifted himself and his burden out of the water to a resting-place on +a shelf of rock. For a minute or two he sat looking up at the rock walls +and the grey sky above them. He looked down at the water, at the spot +where they had been spewed from death back into life. And then he leaped +upright and laughed, laughed so that the rocks rang with it, laughed so +that MacGregor's senses cleared and he looked at his saviour in +consternation. His laughter was the uncontrollable, heart-free laughter +of the man who suddenly sees a great joke upon his enemy. + +He smote MacGregor between the shoulder-blades so he gasped and coughed. +He tore the straps and harness from his arms, body and legs, tossed him +up in the air, shook him and set him down on the rock. + +"I've got him!" he said at last. "Oh, Shanty Moir, what a surprise you +have coming to your own black self!" + +MacGregor, with his senses cleared enough to realise that he was alive, +and to remember how the miracle had come about, said quietly-- + +"Man, that was the bravest thing I ever saw a man do." + +"What?" + +"Diving into that hole after me." + +"Oh, to ---- with that! That's past. The past doesn't count--not when the +very immediate future is so full of juice and interest as happens to be +the case just now. I've got Shanty Moir, old-timer. Do you understand? +He's mine and all that he's got is mine, and he's going to be surprised. +Oh, how surprised he's going to be!" + +MacGregor looked down at the two yards of rushing water, up at the rock +walls and then at the jubilant Reivers. + +"I dinna see it," he said dryly. + +"Really?" Reivers suddenly became interested in him as if he presented a +rare mental problem. "Can't you make that simple mind of yours work out +the simple solution of this problem?" + +MacGregor shook his head. + +"What I see is this: we're alive, and that only for the present. We're +in a little hole in the Dead Lands. Happen we climb out of the hole, we +have no dogs, food, or weapons. The nearest camp is two good days' +mushing, with good fresh dogs. Too far. If I could manage to stagger +five miles I'd surprise myself. There is not so much as a dry match on +us. No, I maun say, lad, my simple mind does not see the solution of the +problem." + +"Try again, Mac," urged Reivers. "Make your mind work. What do we need +to make our condition blessed among men; what do men need to be +well-fitted on the Winter trail? You can make your mind do that sum, +can't you?" + +"We need," replied MacGregor doggedly, "dogs, and food, and fire, and +weapons." + +"Correct. And now what's the next thought that your grey matter produces +after that masterpiece?" + +"That the nearest place where we may obtain these things is too far away +for us to make, unless happen we meet some one on the trail, which is +not likely." + +"Pessimism!" laughed Reivers. "Too much caution stunts the possibility +of the mind. Interesting demonstration of the fact, with your mind as an +example." He turned and smote with the flat of his hand the stone wall +from under which they had just emerged. "What's the other side of those +rocks, Mac?" + +"Shanty Moir and his six-shooter." + +"And dogs, and food, and matches, and cartridges, and gold, everything, +everything to make us kings of the country, Mac! And they're ours--ours +as surely as if we had 'em in our hands now." + +"I dinna see it," said MacGregor. + +"Pessimism again. How can Moir and his gang get out of their camp?" + +"Up-stream, by the creek, of course." + +"Any other way?" + +"There's the way we came--but they do not know that." + +"Correct, and when we've plugged up that single exit they can't get away +from us, Mac, and then we've got 'em!" + +MacGregor's eyes lighted up, then he grew dour again. + +"We have got 'em, if we plug up the river, I see," he admitted, "but +when we have got them, what good does it do us? What are you going to +do, then?" + +"That's the surprise, Mac; I won't tell even you." He looked swiftly for +a way up the rock walls and found one. "The first question is: Do you +think you can climb after me up that crevice there?" + +"I could climb through hell and back again if it would help in getting +Shanty Moir." + +"All right. I can't quite give you hell, but I'll give Shanty Moir an +imitation of it before he's much older. Come on. We've got some work to +do before it gets dark." + +He led the way into the crevice he had marked for the climb up from the +hole and boosted MacGregor up before him. It was slow, hard work, but +MacGregor's weak hold slipped often, and he came slipping down upon +Reivers' shoulders. In the end Reivers impatiently pulled him down, took +him on his back and crawled up, and with a laugh rolled himself and his +burden in the snow on top of the cliffs. A few rods away smoke was +rising through the opening above Moir's camp, and at the sight of it +MacGregor's numbed faculties came to life. + +"Lemme go, man!" he pleaded as Reivers caught him as he staggered toward +the opening. "It's my chance, man. I can kill the cur with a rock from +up here." + +"Save your strength; I've got use for it," said Reivers. "Can you walk? +All right. Come on, then, and don't try to get near that gap." + +Taking MacGregor by the hand he led the way carefully around the big +opening till they came to the opposite side of the mass of rocks, where +the creek entered the tunnel by which Moir reached his camp. Crawling +and slipping, they made their way down until they stood beside the bed +of the stream. + +"Now to work, Mac," said Reivers, and seizing a rock bore it to the +tunnel's mouth and dropped it into the water. + +"Aye, aye!" chuckled MacGregor, as he understood the significance of +this move. "We'll wall the curs in." + +For half an hour they laboured. Reivers carried and rolled the heaviest +rocks he could move into position across the tunnel, and MacGregor +staggered beneath smaller pieces to fill up the chinks. When their work +was finished there was a rock wall across the mouth of the tunnel which +it would have been almost impossible to tear down, especially from the +inside. + +It was growing dark when the task was completed, and Reivers nodded in +great satisfaction. + +"That'll hold 'em long enough for my purpose, and we just made it in +time," he said. "Now come on up the mountain again, and then for the +surprise." + +"The surprise, man?" panted MacGregor as he toiled up the rocks. "What +are you going to do? Tell me what's in your head?" + +"Hush, hush!" laughed Reivers, pulling him up to the top. "Your position +is that of the onlooker. It would spoil it for you if you knew what was +going to happen." + +"An onlooker--me--when it's a case of getting Shanty Moir? Don't say that, +lad. Don't leave me out. He's mine. You know that by all the rights of +men and gods it's my right to get him. Give me my just share of +revenge." + +"Shut up!" + +They were nearing the brink of the opening. Reivers' hand covered +MacGregor's mouth as they leaned over and looked down upon the +unsuspecting men in the cavern below. + +In the shut-in spot night had fallen. On the sand before the dugout +Tillie was cooking over a brisk fire, going about her work as calmly as +if nothing of moment had happened during the afternoon. Near by, Moir +and Joey were packing the dog-sledge and repairing harness, evidently +preparing to take the trail after the evening meal. Tammy sat by the +fire, holding together with both hands the pieces of his nose which +Reivers' blow had smashed flat on his face. + +Reivers scarcely looked at the men, but began to scan the walls for a +way to get down. The walls slanted inwardly from the top, and at first +it seemed impossible that a man could get safely into the cavern without +the aid of a rope. But presently Reivers saw that for thirty feet +directly above the large dugout the rocks were ragged enough to afford +plenty of holds for hands and feet. + +The walls were nearly fifty feet high. If he could reach to the bottom +of this rough space he would be hanging with his feet, ten or twelve +feet above the cavern floor. + +"Good enough," he said aloud. "It's a cinch." + +"A cinch it is," breathed MacGregor softly. "We'll roll up a pile of +rocks and kill 'em like rats in a pit. But you maun leave Shanty to me, +lad, I----" + +"Shut up!" Reivers thrust the Scotchman back from the brink. "Do you +want me to go after the harness for you? I told you that your job was to +be the onlooker. I settle this thing with Shanty Moir myself." + +"But man----" + +"Moir kicked me. Do you understand? He placed his dirty foot on me. Do +you see why I'm going to do it by myself?" + +"Placed his foot on you? God's blood! What has he done to me--robbed me, +made an animal of me, stabbed me with a prod! Who has the better right +to his foul life?" + +"It isn't a case of right, but of might, Mac," chuckled Reivers. "I've +got the better might. Therefore, will you give me your word that you'll +refrain from interfering with my actions until I've paid my debt to Mr. +Moir, or must I go back after the harness and strap you up?" + +"Cruel----" + +"Promise!" + +"I promise," said MacGregor. "But it's wrong, sore wrong. I protest." + +"All right. Protest all you want to, but do it silently. Not another +word or sound out of you now until the job's done." + +Together they crawled back to the brink above the large dugout and +peered down into the darkening cavern. In a flash Reivers had his +mackinaw and boots off. The cooking-fire was deserted. No one was in +sight. Moir and his men and Tillie were at supper in the dugout, and +Reivers's chance had come. He swung himself silently over the brink and +hung by a handhold on the rock. + +"Don't interfere, Mac," he said warningly. "Not till I've paid Shanty +Moir for the touch of his foot." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI--A FIGHT THAT WAS A FIGHT + + +With a twist of his body he threw his stockinged feet forward and caught +toe-holds on the rough surface of the wall. Next he released his right +hand and fumbled downward till he found a solid piece of protruding +rock. Having tested it thoroughly he let go his holds with both feet and +left hand and dropped his full weight into the grip of his right. Above +him, MacGregor, with his face glued to the brink of the opening, gasped +twice, once because he was sure Reivers was dropping straight to the +bottom, and again when his right hand took the shock of his full weight +without loosening its grip. + +Reivers heard and looked up and smiled. Then he swung his feet inward +again, secured another hold, lowered his right hand to another sure +grip, and so made his startling way down the inwardly slanting cliff. + +At the third desperate drop MacGregor drew back, unable to stand the +strain of watching. Had Reivers been able to see on top of the cliff he +would have laughed, for the Scotchman was down on his knees in the snow, +earnestly praying. + +Finally MacGregor summoned up courage to peer down once more. Then he +knew his prayers had been answered. Reivers was hanging easily by his +hands, directly above the front of the large dugout, and his feet were +less than ten feet above the bottom of the cave. MacGregor gave a whoop +of thanksgiving and gathered to him an armful of stones. + +For a moment Reivers hung there, looking down and appraising the +situation. He loosened his hold until his whole weight hung on the ends +of his fingers. + +"Come out and fight, Shanty!" he bellowed suddenly. "Come out, you cheap +cur, and fight like a man!" + +Nothing loath Moir came, responding like a wild animal on the instant of +the weird challenge from above. Like a wild man he came, six-shooter in +hand, tearing the front of the dugout away in his rush, and Reivers +dropped and struck him neatly the instant he appeared. + +It was a carefully aimed drop. Landing on Moir's neck, Reivers would +have killed him. He had no wish to kill him--yet. He landed on Moir's +shoulders and the six-shooter went flying away as the two bodies crashed +together and dropped on the sand with a thud. + +Reivers was up first. It was well that he was. Tammy and Joey were only +a step behind Moir. Like wildcats they clawed at Reivers and like +wildcats they rolled on the ground when his fists met them. Then Moir +was up on his feet. His senses were a little dull, but he saw enough of +the situation to satisfy him. Before him was something to fight, to +rush, to annihilate. And he rushed. + +Up on the cliff the maddened MacGregor yelped joyously, a stone in each +hand, as Reivers leaped forward to meet the rush and struck. Shanty Moir +had expected a grapple, and Reivers' fist caught him full in the mouth +and threw him back on his shoulders a man's length away. + +When Moir arose then, the lower part of his face had the appearance of +crushed meat, but he growled through the blood and rushed again. Reivers +struck, and Moir's nose disappeared in a welter of blood and gristle. He +struck again, but Moir came on and locked him in his huge arms. + +Joey and Tammy were up now. Their knives were out. They saw their chance +and leaped forward to strike at Reivers' back. With his life depending +upon it, the Snow-Burner swung Moir's great body around, and Joey and +Tammy stayed their hands barely in time to save plunging their knives +into the back of their chief. + +Growling a wild curse, MacGregor dropped two stones the size of his +head. One struck Joey on the shoulder and sent him shrieking with pain +into the dugout; the other dropped at Reivers' feet. With a yell he +hurled Moir from him and snatched up the stone. Joey, reading his doom +in the Snow-Burner's eyes, backed away into the brink of the brook. The +heavy stone caught him in the chest. Then he struck the water with a +splash and was gone. + +But Moir was up in the same instant and his arms licked around from +behind and raised Reivers off his feet. The hold was broken as suddenly +as it was clamped on. They were face to face again, and face to face +they fought, trampling the sand and the fire indiscriminately. Each blow +from Reivers now splashed blood from Moir's face as from a soaked +sponge, and at each blow MacGregor shouted wildly: + +"That for the kick you gave him, Shanty! That for the dirt you did me!" + +The dogs, mad with terror, fled up the brook, met the stone wall and +came whining back. They cowered, jammering in fright at the terrible +combat which raged, minute after minute, before them. + +Out of the dugout softly came stealing Tillie. A knife, dropped by Joey +or Tammy, gleamed in the light of the fire. She picked it up. With a +smile of great contentment on her face she crept noiselessly toward the +struggling men. They were locked in a clinch now, and with the smile +widening she moved around behind Moir's broad back. The knife flashed +above her head. Reivers saw it. With an effort he wrenched an arm free +and knocked the knife away. + +"Keep away!" he roared, springing out of the clinch. "This is between +Iron Hair and me." + +Up on the cliff MacGregor groaned. In freeing himself Reivers had hurled +Moir to one side, and Moir had dropped with his outstretched hands +nearly touching his six-shooter, where it had fallen when Reivers had +dropped upon him. Like the stab of a snake his hand reached out and +snapped it up. + +"Your soul to the devil, Shanty Moir!" shrieked MacGregor and hurled +another stone. + +His aim was true this time. The stone struck Moir squarely on his big +head and drove his face into the sand. He never moved after it. + +Reivers looked up. On the brink of the cliff MacGregor on his knees was +chanting his war-cry, his thanks that vengeance had not been denied him. +Reivers smiled. + +"That's a good song, Mac, whatever it is!" he laughed, when the maddened +Scotchman had grown quieter. "But the fact remains that you disobeyed my +orders and interfered." + +"Aye! I interfered. I hurled a stone and sent the black soul of Shanty +Moir back to his brother the devil!" chanted MacGregor. "But, lad, I did +not interfere until you'd paid him in full--until you'd paid double--for +the kick he gave you. Three of them there were, and they were armed and +you with bare fists! God's blood! Never since men stood up with fist to +fist has there been such fighting. One disabled, and two men dead! Dead +you are, you poor pups! And I can tell by the way you lived where you're +roasting now. + +"Ah, ah! I ha' seen a man fight; I ha' seen what I shall never forget, +and, poor stick that I am compared to him, I ha' e'en had a hand in it +myself. Man, man! Would you grudge me a little bite after your belly's +full of battle?" + +Reivers spoke quietly and coldly. + +"Go down and tear out as much of the stone wall as you can. I'll take +the heavy stones from this side." He turned to Tillie. "Take the big +belt from Iron Hair and give it to me. Then make all ready for the +trail. We march to-night." + +And Tillie, as she harnessed the dogs, spat upon Iron Hair, the beaten. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII--THE SNOW-BURNER PAYS + + +"And now the Snow-Burner has his gold. He has robbed the great Iron Hair +in his own camp. Great is the Snow-Burner! Now he has the gold which he +longed for. Now he is rich. The white men will bow down to him. Great is +the Snow-Burner!" + +Tillie crouched beside Reivers as, an hour later, he stood on the edge +of the Dead Lands, and triumphantly crooned the saga of his success. The +gold belt of Shanty Moir hung heavily over his shoulder, its great +weight constantly reminding him of the fortune that it contained. The +dogs were held in leash, eager to be quit of the harsh rock-chasms +through which they had just travelled, and to strike their lope on a +trail over the open country beyond. + +MacGregor sat wearily on one side of the sledge. The exertions and +excitement of the afternoon had exhausted him in his weakened condition. +He sat slumped together, only half conscious of what was going on. In a +moment he would be sound asleep. + +And Reivers had the gold. He had succeeded. He had the gold, and he had +a supply of food and a strong, fresh team of dogs eager for the trail. +All that was necessary was to turn the dogs toward the south. Two, +three, four days' travelling and he would strike the railroad. And the +railroad ran to tide-water, and on the water steamboats would carry him +away to the world he had planned to return to. + +It was very simple, as simple as had been Tillie's scheme for getting +rid of Moir. But he couldn't do it. He didn't want to do it. He wanted +to do just one thing now, above all others, and that was what he set out +to do. + +He stood down and strapped the belt of gold around MacGregor's middle. +MacGregor was sound asleep now, so he placed him on the sledge and bound +him carefully in place. Tillie's chant died down in astonishment. + +"We take the old one with us?" she asked. + +"We do," said Reivers. "Hi-yah! Together there! Mush, mush up!" + +To Tillie's joy he turned the dogs to the northwest, in the direction of +the camp of her people. The Snow-Burner was lost to her; she knew that, +when he had refused her help with Shanty Moir; but it was something to +have him come back to the camp. + +Reivers, driving hard and straight all night, brought his team up the +river-bed to Tillie's camp in the morning. MacGregor was out of his head +by then, and for the day they stopped to rest and feed. Reivers sat in +the big tepee alone with MacGregor and fed him soft food which the old +squaws had prepared. In the evening he again tied the old man and the +belt of gold to the sledge and hitched up the dogs. Tillie had read her +doom in his eyes, but nevertheless she came out to the sledge prepared +to follow. + +"You do not come any farther," said Reivers as he picked up the +dog-whip. + +Tillie nodded. + +"I know. With gold the Snow-Burner can be a great man among the white +women. Will the Snow-Burner come back--some time?" + +"I will never come back." + +"Ah-hh-hh!" Tillie's breath came fiercely. "So there is one white woman, +then. If I had known----" + +But Reivers was whipping and cursing the dogs and hurrying out of +hearing. + +MacGregor, clear-headed from the rest and food, but still weak, lifted +his head and looked around as the sledge sped over the frozen snow. + +"A new trail to me, lad," he said. "Where to, now?" + +"On a fool's trail," laughed Reivers bitterly, and drove on. + +Next morning MacGregor recognised the land ahead. + +"Straight for Dumont's Camp we're heading, lad," he said. "Is it there +we go?" + +"Yes." + +They came to Dumont's Camp as night fell. Reivers halted and made sundry +enquiries. + +"In a shack half ways between here and Fifty Mile," was the substance of +the replies. + +"Hi-yah! Mush, mush up!" and they were on the trail again. + +At daylight the next day, from a rise in the land, he saw the shack that +had been designated. Smoke was rising from the chimney, and a small +figure that he knew even at that distance came out, filled a pail with +snow and went in again. + +Reivers stopped his dogs some distance from the shack. He threw +MacGregor, gold belt and all, over his shoulder and went up to the door +and knocked. For a second or two he smiled triumphantly as Hattie +MacGregor opened the door and stood speechless at what she saw. Then he +bowed low, laid his burden on the floor and went out without a word. + +The dogs shuddered as they heard him laugh coming back to them. + +"Hi-yah, mush!" + +He drove them furiously into a gully that shut out the sight of the +shack and sat down on the sledge. The dogs whined. It was the time for +the morning meal and the master was making no preparations to eat. + +"Still, you curs!" The whip fell mercilessly among them and they +crouched in terror. + +The time went by. The sun began to climb upward in the sky. Still the +man sat on the sledge, making no preparations for the morning meal. The +memory of the whip-cuts died in the dogs' minds under the growing +clamour of hunger. They began to whine again. + +"Still!" The master was on his feet, but the whip had fallen from his +hand. + +Down at the end of the gully a small figure was coming over the snow. +She was running, and her red hair flowed back over her shoulders, and +she laughed aloud as she came up to him. The pain was gone from Hattie +MacGregor's lips, and her whole face beamed with a complete, unreasoning +happiness, but the pride of her breed shone in her eyes even unto the +end. + +"Well, well!" sneered Reivers. "Aren't you afraid to come so near +anything that pollutes the air?" + +She laughed again. She did not speak. She only looked at him and smiled, +and by the Eve-wisdom in the smile he knew that his secret was hers. He +felt himself weakening, but the Snow-Burner died hard. He tried to laugh +his old, cold laugh, but the ice had been thawed in it. + +"What do you want?" he sneered. "I'm not a good enough man for you. Why +did you come out here?" + +"Because I knew you would not go away again," she said, "and because now +I know you are a good enough man for me." + +"You red-haired trull!" He raised his hand to strike her. + +She did not flinch; she merely smiled up at him confidently, +contentedly. Suddenly she caught his clenched fist in her hands and +kissed it. With a curse Reivers swung around on his dogs. + +"Hi-yah! Mush, mush out of here!" + +Out of the gully into the open he kicked and drove them. He did not look +back. He knew that she was following. + +She followed patiently. She knew that there was nothing else for her to +do. She had known it the first day she had looked into his eyes. He was +her man, and she must follow him. + +So she trudged on behind her man as he forced the tired dogs to move. +She smiled as she walked, and the wisdom of Eve was in her smile. She +had reason to smile, for the Snow-Burner was driving straight toward the +little shack. + + + THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Snow-Burner, by Henry Oyen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SNOW-BURNER *** + +***** This file should be named 36121.txt or 36121.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/2/36121/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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