Smoke Bellew by Jack London (chrome ebook reader txt) đ
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Next, Smoke and Shorty together invaded Wentworthâs cabin, throwing him out in the snow while they turned the interior upside down. Laura Sibley hobbled in and frantically joined them in the search.
âYou donât get none, old girl, not if we find a ton,â Shorty assured her.
But she was no more disappointed than they. Though the very floor was dug up, they discovered nothing.
âIâm for roastinâ him over a slow fire anâ make âm cough up,â Shorty proposed earnestly.
Smoke shook his head reluctantly.
âItâs murder,â Shorty held on. âHeâs murderinâ all them poor geezers just as much as if he knocked their brains out with an ax, only worse.â
Another day passed, during which they kept a steady watch on Wentworthâs movements. Several times, when he started out, water-bucket in hand, for the creek, they casually approached the cabin, and each time he hurried back without the water.
âTheyâre cached right there in his cabin,â Shorty said. âAs sure as God made little apples, they are. But where? We sure overhauled it plenty.â He stood up and pulled on his mittens. âIâm goinâ to find âem, if I have to pull the blame shack down a log at a time.â
He glanced at Smoke, who, with an intent, absent face, had not heard him.
âWhatâs eatinâ you?â Shorty demanded wrathfully. âDonât tell me youâve gone anâ got the scurvy!â
âJust trying to remember something, Shorty.â
âWhat?â
âI donât know. Thatâs the trouble. But it has a bearing, if only I could remember it.â
âNow you look here, Smoke; donât you go anâ get bug-house,â Shorty pleaded. âThink of me! Let your think-slats rip. Come on anâ help me pull that shack down. Iâd set her afire, if it waânât for roastinâ them spuds.â
âThatâs it!â Smoke exploded, as he sprang to his feet. âJust what I was trying to remember. Whereâs that kerosene-can? Iâm with you, Shorty. The potatoes are ours.â
âWhatâs the game?â
âWatch me, thatâs all,â Smoke baffled. âI always told you, Shorty, that a deficient acquaintance with literature was a handicap, even in the Klondike. Now what weâre going to do came out of a book. I read it when I was a kid, and it will work. Come on.â
Several minutes later, under a pale-gleaming, greenish aurora borealis, the two men crept up to Amos Wentworthâs cabin. Carefully and noiselessly they poured kerosene over the logs, extra-drenching the door-frame and window-sash. Then the match was applied, and they watched the flaming oil gather headway. They drew back beyond the growing light and waited.
They saw Wentworth rush out, stare wildly at the conflagration, and plunge back into the cabin. Scarcely a minute elapsed when he emerged, this time slowly, half doubled over, his shoulders burdened by a sack heavy and unmistakable. Smoke and Shorty sprang at him like a pair of famished wolves. They hit him right and left, at the same instant. He crumpled down under the weight of the sack, which Smoke pressed over with his hands to make sure. Then he felt his knees clasped by Wentworthâs arms as the man turned a ghastly face upward.
âGive me a dozen, only a dozenâhalf a dozenâand you can have the rest,â he squalled. He bared his teeth and, with mad rage, half inclined his head to bite Smokeâs leg, then he changed his mind and fell to pleading. âJust half a dozen,â he wailed. âJust half a dozen. I was going to turn them over to youâto-morrow. Yes, to-morrow. That was my idea. Theyâre life! Theyâre life! Just half a dozen!â
âWhereâs the other sack?â Smoke bluffed.
âI ate it up,â was the reply, unimpeachably honest. âThat sackâs all thatâs left. Give me a few. You can have the rest.â
âAte âem up!â Shorty screamed. âA whole sack! Anâ them geezers dyinâ for want of âem! This for you! Anâ this! Anâ this! Anâ this! You swine! You hog!â
The first kick tore Wentworth away from his embrace of Smokeâs knees. The second kick turned him over in the snow. But Shorty went on kicking.
âWatch out for your toes,â was Smokeâs only interference.
âSure; Iâm usinâ the heel,â Shorty answered. âWatch me. Iâll cave his ribs in. Iâll kick his jaw off. Take that! Anâ that! Wisht I could give you the boot instead of the moccasin. You swine!â
There was no sleep in camp that night. Hour after hour Smoke and Shorty went the rounds, doling the life-renewing potato-juice, a quarter of a spoonful at a dose, into the poor ruined mouths of the population. And through the following day, while one slept the other kept up the work.
There were no more deaths. The most awful cases began to mend with an immediacy that was startling. By the third day, men who had not been off their backs for weeks crawled out of their bunks and tottered around on crutches. And on that day, the sun, two months then on its journey into northern declination, peeped cheerfully over the crest of the canyon for the first time.
âNary a potato,â Shorty told the whining, begging Wentworth. âYou ainât even touched with scurvy. You got outside a whole sack, anâ youâre loaded against scurvy for twenty years. Knowinâ you, Iâve come to understand God. I always wondered why he let Satan live. Now I know. He let him live just as I let you live. But itâs a cryinâ shame, just the same.â
âA word of advice,â Smoke told Wentworth. âThese men are getting well fast; Shorty and I are leaving in a week, and there will be nobody to protect you when these men go after you. Thereâs the trail. Dawsonâs eighteen daysâ travel.â
âPull your freight, Amos,â Shorty supplemented, âor what I done to you wonât be a circumstance to what them convalescentsâll do to you.â
âGentlemen, I beg of you, listen to me,â Wentworth whined. âIâm a stranger in this country. I donât know its ways. I donât know the trail. Let me travel with you. Iâll give you a thousand dollars if youâll let me travel with you.â
âSure,â Smoke grinned maliciously. âIf Shorty agrees.â
âWHO? ME?â Shorty stiffened for a supreme effort. âI ainât nobody. Woodticks ainât got nothinâ on me when it comes to humility. Iâm a worm, a maggot, brother to the pollywog anâ child of the blow-fly. I ainât afraid or ashamed of nothinâ that creeps or crawls or stinks. But travel with that mistake of creation! Go âway, man. I ainât proud, but you turn my stomach.â
And Amos Wentworth went away, alone, dragging a sled loaded with provisions sufficient to last him to Dawson. A mile down the trail Shorty overhauled him.
âCome here to me,â was Shortyâs greeting. âCome across. Fork over. Cough up.â
âI donât understand,â Wentworth quavered, shivering from recollection of the two beatings, hand and foot, he had already received from Shorty.
âThat thousand dollars, dâ ye understand that? That thousand dollars gold Smoke bought that measly potato with. Come through.â
And Amos Wentworth passed the gold-sack over.
âHope a skunk bites you anâ you get howlinâ hydrophoby,â were the terms of Shortyâs farewell.
X. A Flutter in Eggs
It was in the A. C. Companyâs big store at Dawson, on a morning of crisp frost, that Lucille Arral beckoned Smoke Bellew over to the dry-goods counter. The clerk had gone on an expedition into the storerooms, and, despite the huge, red-hot stoves, Lucille had drawn on her mittens again.
Smoke obeyed her call with alacrity. The man did not exist in Dawson who would not have been flattered by the notice of Lucille Arral, the singing soubrette of the tiny stock company that performed nightly at the Palace Opera House.
âThings are dead,â she complained, with pretty petulance, as soon as they had shaken hands. âThere hasnât been a stampede for a week. That masked ball Skiff Mitchell was going to give us has been postponed. Thereâs no dust in circulation. Thereâs always standing-room now at the Opera House. And there hasnât been a mail from the Outside for two whole weeks. In short, this burg has crawled into its cave and gone to sleep. Weâve got to do something. It needs liveningâand you and I can do it. We can give it excitement if anybody can. Iâve broken with Wild Water, you know.â
Smoke caught two almost simultaneous visions. One was of Joy Gastell; the other was of himself, in the midst of a bleak snow-stretch, under a cold arctic moon, being pot-shotted with accurateness and dispatch by the aforesaid Wild Water. Smokeâs reluctance at raising excitement with the aid of Lucille Arral was too patent for her to miss.
âIâm not thinking what you are thinking at all, thank you,â she chided, with a laugh and a pout. âWhen I throw myself at your head youâll have to have more eyes and better ones than you have now to see me.â
âMen have died of heart disease at the sudden announcement of good fortune,â he murmured in the unveracious gladness of relief.
âLiar,â she retorted graciously. âYou were more scared to death than anything else. Now take it from me, Mr. Smoke Bellew, Iâm not going to make love to you, and if you dare to make love to me, Wild Water will take care of your case. You know HIM. Besides, IâI havenât really broken with him.â
âGo on with your puzzles,â he jeered. âMaybe I can start guessing what youâre driving at after a while.â
âThereâs no guessing, Smoke. Iâll give it to you straight. Wild Water thinks Iâve broken with him, donât you see.â
âWell, have you, or havenât you?â
âI havenâtâthere! But itâs between you and me in confidence. He thinks I have. I made a noise like breaking with him, and he deserved it, too.â
âWhere do I come in, stalking-horse or fall-guy?â
âNeither. You make a pot of money, we put across the laugh on Wild Water and cheer Dawson up, and, best of all, and the reason for it all, he gets disciplined. He needs it. Heâsâwell, the best way to put it is, heâs too turbulent. Just because heâs a big husky, because he owns more rich claims than he can keep count ofââ
âAnd because heâs engaged to the prettiest little woman in Alaska,â Smoke interpolated.
âYes, and because of that, too, thank you, is no reason for him to get riotous. He broke out last night again. Sowed the floor of the M. & M. with gold-dust. All of a thousand dollars. Just opened his poke and scattered it under the feet of the dancers. Youâve heard of it, of course.â
âYes; this morning. Iâd like to be the sweeper in that establishment. But still I donât get you. Where do I come in?â
âListen. He was too turbulent. I broke our engagement, and heâs going around making a noise like a broken heart. Now we come to it. I like eggs.â
âTheyâre off!â Smoke cried in despair. âWhich way? Which way?â
âWait.â
âBut what have eggs and appetite got to do with it?â he demanded.
âEverything, if youâll only listen.â
âListening, listening,â he chanted.
âThen for Heavenâs sake listen. I like eggs. Thereâs only a limited supply of eggs in Dawson.â
âSure. I know that, too. Slavovitchâs restaurant has most of them. Ham and one egg, three dollars. Ham and two eggs, five dollars. That means two dollars an egg, retail. And only the swells and the Arrals and the Wild Waters can afford them.â
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