Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 2 — page 123: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A MAN TO Lund would be a figure in war and peace, peace of the practical sort, the kind of, peace that went with plenty. He was no ‘dreamer, but a utilitarian. Perhaps, after all, the world most needed such men just now. As for Peggy Simms, she did not lose the polish of her culture, she was always femi- nine, even dainty : . times, despite her work that could not help but be coarse to a cer- tain extent. She was full of vigor, she showed unexpected strength, she was a source of encouragement to the men as she waited on them. And also a source of un- disguised admiration, all of which she shed as a duck sheds water. She was filled with abounding health, she moved with a free erace that held -the eye and lingered in the mind. She was eminently a woman, and she also was big. Rainey gained an increasing respect in her prowess, and a swift conversion to the equality of the sexes. ‘There were times when he doubted his own equality. Had she met him on his own ground, in his own realm of what he considered vaguely as cul- ture, he would have known a mastery that he now lacked. As it was, she averaged higher, and she shed an attraction of sex that was compelling. Here was a girl who would demand cer- tain standards in the man with whom she would mate, not merely accompany through life. There were times when Rainey felt irresistibly the charm of her as a woman, longed for her in the power- ful sex reactions that inevitably follow hard labor. There were times when he felt that she did not consider that he measured up to her gages, and he would strive to change the atmosphere, to dominate the situation in which Lund was the greater figure of the two men. The rivalry that Lund had suggested be- tween them, as regards the girl, Rainey felt almost thrust upon him. There were moods which Peggy Simms turned to him for shar- ing, but there was scant time in the wak- ing hours for love-making, or even its con- sideration. Lund was centered on one achievement, the gold harvest. He ordered the girl with the rest; there were even times when he 8 Arcosy -worn trail to the fires. HIS MATE, 273 reprimanded her, while Rainey burned with the resentment she apparently did not share. ? A little before dawn on the eighteenth day of the work upon the beach Lund was out upon the floe, examining the con- dition of the ice. He had declared that two days more of hard endeavor would complete their labors. What dirt remained at the end of that time they would trans- ship. Rainey had joined the girl and Tamada at the cook fires. The sky was bright with the aurora borealis that would pale before the sun, The men were not yet out of their bunks. They were bone and muscle tired, and Rainey doubted whether Lund, gaunt and lean himself, could get two days of top work out of them. Near the fires for the cook- ing, the melting of water and the forge, that were kept glowing all night, the tools were stacked, to help preserve their temper. The aurora quivered in varying incandes- cence as Rainey, watched Lund prodding at the floe ice with a steel bar. The girl was busy with the coffee, and Tamada was com- pounding two pots of stew and bubbling peas pudding for the breakfast, food for heat and muscle making. Sandy appeared on deck and came swift- ly over the side of the vessel and up the He showed ex- citement, Rainey fancied, sure of it as the lad got within speaking distance. “Where is Mr. Lund?” he panted. Rainey pointed to Lund, now examining a crack that had opened up in the floe, a possible line of exit for the Karluk, later on. ‘The men were beginning to show on the schooner. They, too, he noted some- what idly, acted differently this morning. Usually they were sluggish until they had eaten, sleepy and indifferent until the cof- fee stimulated them, and Lund took up this stimulus and fanned it to a flame of work. This morning they walked differently, ab- normally active. : “They're drunk, an’ they’re goin’ on > strike,”’.said Sandy. “ You know the big demijohn in the lazarette?” Rainey nodded. It was a two-handied affair holding five gallons, a reserve sup- ply of strong rum from which Lund dis- mMicboo (c <S (E@) (E@)