Smoke Bellew by Jack London (chrome ebook reader txt) đ
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âItâs business,â Smoke retorted. âYou donât think weâre peddling eggs for our health, do you?â
âAw, listen to reason,â Wild Water pleaded. âI only want a couple of dozen. Iâll give you twenty apiece for âem. What do I want with all the rest of them eggs? Iâve went years in this country without eggs, anâ I guess I can keep on managinâ without âem somehow.â
âDonât get het up about it,â Shorty counseled. âIf you donât want âem, that settles it. We ainât a-forcinâ âem on you.â
âBut I do want âem,â Wild Water complained.
âThen you know what theyâll cost youâninety-six hundred anâ twenty dollars, anâ if my figurinâs wrong, Iâll treat.â
âBut maybe they wonât turn the trick,â Wild Water objected. âMaybe Miss Arralâs lost her taste for eggs by this time.â
âI should say Miss Arralâs worth the price of the eggs,â Smoke put in quietly.
âWorth it!â Wild Water stood up in the heat of his eloquence. âSheâs worth a million dollars. Sheâs worth all Iâve got. Sheâs worth all the dust in the Klondike.â He sat down, and went on in a calmer voice. âBut that ainât no call for me to gamble ten thousand dollars on a breakfast for her. Now Iâve got a proposition. Lend me a couple of dozen of them eggs. Iâll turn âem over to Slavovitch. Heâll feed âem to her with my compliments. She ainât smiled to me for a hundred years. If them eggs gets a smile for me, Iâll take the whole boiling off your hands.â
âWill you sign a contract to that effect?â Smoke said quickly; for he knew that Lucille Arral had agreed to smile.
Wild Water gasped. âYouâre almighty swift with business up here on the hill,â he said, with a hint of a snarl.
âWeâre only accepting your own proposition,â Smoke answered.
âAll rightâbring on the paperâmake it out, hard and fast,â Wild Water cried in the anger of surrender.
Smoke immediately wrote out the document, wherein Wild Water agreed to take every egg delivered to him at ten dollars per egg, provided that the two dozen advanced to him brought about a reconciliation with Lucille Arral.
Wild Water paused, with uplifted pen, as he was about to sign. âHold on,â he said. âWhen I buy eggs I buy good eggs.â
âThey ainât a bad egg in the Klondike,â Shorty snorted.
âJust the same, if I find one bad egg youâve got to come back with the ten I paid for it.â
âThatâs all right,â Smoke placated. âItâs only fair.â
âAnâ every bad egg you come back with Iâll eat,â Shorty declared.
Smoke inserted the word âgoodâ in the contract, and Wild Water sullenly signed, received the trial two dozen in a tin pail, pulled on his mittens, and opened the door.
âGood-by, you robbers,â he growled back at them, and slammed the door.
Smoke was a witness to the play next morning in Slavovitchâs. He sat, as Wild Waterâs guest, at the table adjoining Lucille Arralâs. Almost to the letter, as she had forecast it, did the scene come off.
âHavenât you found any eggs yet?â she murmured plaintively to the waiter.
âNo, maâam,â came the answer. âThey say somebodyâs cornered every egg in Dawson. Mr. Slavovitch is trying to buy a few just especially for you. But the fellow thatâs got the corner wonât let loose.â
It was at this juncture that Wild Water beckoned the proprietor to him, and, with one hand on his shoulder, drew his head down. âLook here, Slavovitch,â Wild Water whispered hoarsely, âI turned over a couple of dozen eggs to you last night. Where are they?â
âIn the safe, all but that six I have all thawed and ready for you any time you sing out.â
âI donât want âem for myself,â Wild Water breathed in a still lower voice. âShir âem up and present âem to Miss Arral there.â
âIâll attend to it personally myself,â Slavovitch assured him.
âAnâ donât forgetâcompliments of me,â Wild Water concluded, relaxing his detaining clutch on the proprietorâs shoulder.
Pretty Lucille Arral was gazing forlornly at the strip of breakfast bacon and the tinned mashed potatoes on her plate when Slavovitch placed before her two shirred eggs.
âCompliments of Mr. Wild Water,â they at the next table heard him say.
Smoke acknowledged to himself that it was a fine bit of actingâthe quick, joyous flash in the face of her, the impulsive turn of the head, the spontaneous forerunner of a smile that was only checked by a superb self-control which resolutely drew her face back so that she could say something to the restaurant proprietor.
Smoke felt the kick of Wild Waterâs moccasined foot under the table.
âWill she eat âem?âthatâs the questionâwill she eat âem?â the latter whispered agonizingly.
And with sidelong glances they saw Lucille Arral hesitate, almost push the dish from her, then surrender to its lure.
âIâll take them eggs,â Wild Water said to Smoke. âThe contract holds. Did you see her? Did you see her! She almost smiled. I know her. Itâs all fixed. Two more eggs to-morrow anâ sheâll forgive anâ make up. If she wasnât here Iâd shake hands, Smoke, Iâm that grateful. You ainât a robber; youâre a philanthropist.â
Smoke returned jubilantly up the hill to the cabin, only to find Shorty playing solitaire in black despair. Smoke had long since learned that whenever his partner got out the cards for solitaire it was a warning signal that the bottom had dropped out of the world.
âGo âway, donât talk to me,â was the first rebuff Smoke received.
But Shorty soon thawed into a freshet of speech.
âItâs all off with the big Swede,â he groaned. âThe cornerâs busted. Theyâll be sellinâ sherry anâ egg in all the saloons to-morrow at a dollar a flip. They ainât no starvinâ orphan child in Dawson that wonât be wrappinâ its tummy around eggs. What dâye think I run into?âa geezer with three thousanâ eggsâdâye get me? Three thousanâ, anâ just freighted in from Forty Mile.â
âFairy stories,â Smoke doubted.
âFairy hell! I seen them eggs. Gautereauxâs his nameâa whackinâ big, blue-eyed French-Canadian husky. He asked for you first, then took me to the side and jabbed me straight to the heart. It was our cornerinâ eggs that got him started. He knowed about them three thousanâ at Forty Mile anâ just went anâ got âem. âShow âem to me,â I says. Anâ he did. There was his dog-teams, anâ a couple of Indian drivers, restinâ down the bank where theyâd just pulled in from Forty Mile. Anâ on the sleds was soap-boxesâteeny wooden soap-boxes.
âWe took one out behind a ice-jam in the middle of the river anâ busted it open. Eggs!âfull of âem, all packed in sawdust. Smoke, you anâ me lose. Weâve been gamblinâ. Dâye know what he had the gall to say to me?âthat they was all ourn at ten dollars a egg. Dâye know what he was doinâ when I left his cabin?âdrawinâ a sign of eggs for sale. Said heâd give us first choice, at ten a throw, till 2 P. M., anâ after that, if we didnât come across, heâd bust the market higherân a kite. Said he wasnât no business man, but that he knowed a good thing when he seen itâmeaninâ you anâ me, as I took it.â
âItâs all right,â Smoke said cheerfully. âKeep your shirt on anâ let me think a moment. Quick action and team play is all thatâs needed. Iâll get Wild Water here at two oâclock to take delivery of eggs. You buy that Gautereauxâs eggs. Try and make a bargain. Even if you pay ten dollars apiece for them, Wild Water will take them off our hands at the same price. If you can get them cheaper, why, we make a profit as well. Now go to it. Have them here by not later than two oâclock. Borrow Colonel Bowieâs dogs and take our team. Have them here by two sharp.â
âSay, Smoke,â Shorty called, as his partner started down the hill. âBetter take an umbrella. I wouldnât be none surprised to see the weather raininâ eggs before you get back.â
Smoke found Wild Water at the M. & M., and a stormy half-hour ensued.
âI warn you weâve picked up some more eggs,â Smoke said, after Wild Water had agreed to bring his dust to the cabin at two oâclock and pay on delivery.
âYouâre luckier at finding eggs than me,â Wild Water admitted. âNow, how many eggs have you got now?âanâ how much dust do I tote up the hill?â
Smoke consulted his notebook. âAs it stands now, according to Shortyâs figures, weâve three thousand nine hundred and sixty-two eggs. Multiply by tenââ
âForty thousand dollars!â Wild Water bellowed. âYou said there was only something like nine hundred eggs. Itâs a stickup! I wonât stand for it!â
Smoke drew the contract from his pocket and pointed to the PAY ON DELIVERY. âNo mention is made of the number of eggs to be delivered. You agreed to pay ten dollars for every egg we delivered to you. Well, weâve got the eggs, and a signed contract is a signed contract. Honestly, though, Wild Water, we didnât know about those other eggs until afterward. Then we had to buy them in order to make our corner good.â
For five long minutes, in choking silence, Wild Water fought a battle with himself, then reluctantly gave in.
âIâm in bad,â he said brokenly. âThe landscapeâs fair sproutinâ eggs. Anâ the quicker I get out the better. There might come a landslide of âem. Iâll be there at two oâclock. But forty thousand dollars!â
âItâs only thirty-nine thousand six hundred anâ twenty,â Smoke corrected. âItâll weigh two hundred pounds,â Wild Water raved on. âIâll have to freight it up with a dog-team.â
âWeâll lend you our teams to carry the eggs away,â Smoke volunteered.
âBut whereâll I cache âem? Never mind. Iâll be there. But as long as I live Iâll never eat another egg. Iâm full sick of âem.â
At half-past one, doubling the dog-teams for the steep pitch of the hill, Shorty arrived with Gautereauxâs eggs. âWe dang near double our winnings,â Shorty told Smoke, as they piled the soap-boxes inside the cabin. âI holds âm down to eight dollars, anâ after he cussed loco in French he falls for it. Now thatâs two dollars clear profit to us for each egg, anâ theyâre three thousanâ of âem. I paid âm in full. Hereâs the receipt.â
While Smoke got out the gold-scales and prepared for business, Shorty devoted himself to calculation.
âThereâs the figgers,â he announced triumphantly. âWe win twelve thousanâ nine hundred anâ seventy dollars. Anâ we donât do Wild Water no harm. He wins Miss Arral. Besides, he gets all them eggs. Itâs sure a bargain-counter all around. Nobody loses.â
âEven Gautereauxâs twenty-four thousand to the good,â Smoke laughed, âminus, of course, what the eggs and the freighting cost him. And if Wild Water plays the corner, he may make a profit out of the eggs himself.â
Promptly at two oâclock, Shorty, peeping, saw Wild Water coming up the hill. When he entered he was brisk and businesslike. He took off his big bearskin coat, hung it on a nail, and sat down at the table.
âBring on them eggs, you pirates,â he commenced. âAnâ after this day, if you know whatâs good for you, never mention eggs to me again.â
They began on the miscellaneous assortment of the original corner, all three men counting. When two hundred had been reached, Wild Water suddenly cracked an egg on the edge of the table and opened it deftly with his thumbs.
âHey! Hold on!â Shorty objected.
âItâs my egg, ainât it?â Wild Water snarled. âIâm paying ten dollars for it, ainât I? But I ainât buying no pig in a
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