Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 2 — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

278 ‘ You’re a white man, Tamada,” he said. “You, too, Sandy. I'll not forget it. Rainey, round up these derelicts an’ help Tamada fix ’em up. Ill settle with ’em later. Hansen, put the rest of ’em to work, an’ keep ’em tq it! They got to do the work of the whole bunch.” They: went willingly enough, limping, nursing their bruises, while Hansen, his stolidity momentarily vanished in the rush of the fight and not yet regained, exhibited an unusual vocabulary as he ‘bossed them. Lund turned to the two hunters, who had stood apart. “Wal, you yellow-bellied neutrals,” he said, his voice cold and his eyes hard. “Thought I might lose, and hoped so, didn’t you? Pick up thet skunk Beale an’ tote him aboard. Then come back an’ go to work. You'll git yore shares, but you'll not git what’s comin’ to those who. stood by. Now git out of my sight. You can bury That when you come back.’”’ He nodded at the sodden corpse of Deming. ‘‘ You can take yore pay as grave-diggers out of what you owe him at poker. He ain’t go- in’ to collect this trip.” Rainey, lame and sore, helped Tamada patch up the wounded, ‘turning the hunters’ quarters into a sick bay, using the table for operation. Beale was the worst off, but Tamada pronounced him not vitally dam- aged. After he had finished with them he insisted upon Rainey’s lying, face down, on the table, stripped to the waist, while he rubbed him with oil and then kneaded him. Once he gave a sudden, twisting wrench, and Rainey saw a blur of stars as something snapped into place with a click. ‘“T think you soon all right, now,” said Tamada. ‘Vou and Miss Simms turned the tide,”’ said Rainey. “If they’d got those tools first they’d have finished us in short order.” “Fools!” said Tamada. ‘ Suppose they kill Lund, how they get away? No one to navigate. Presently the gunboat would find them. I think Mr. Lund will maybe trust me now,”’ he said quietly. “ What do you mean?” “Mr. Lund think in the back of his head I arrange for that gunboat to come. He cannot understand how they know the THE ARGOSY. schooner at the island. He think to come jus’ this time too much curious, I think.” “ It was a bit of a coincidence.” Tamada ‘shrugged his shoulders slightly. “T think Japanese government know all that goes on in North Polar region,” he said. There is wireless station on Wrangell Island. We pass by that pretty close.” Rainey chewed that information as he put on his clothes, wondering if they had seen the last of the gunboat. They would have to pass south through Bering Strait. It would be easy to overhaul them, halt them, search the schooner, confiscate the gold. They were not out of trouble yet. When he went into the cabin to replace his torn coat—he had hardly a button intact above the waist, from jacket to undershirt —he found the girl there with Lund. Ap- parently, they had just come in. Peggy Simms, with a face aglow with the excite- ment that had not subsided, was proffering Lund her pistol. “ Keep it,” he said. I’ve got mine.”’ “But you threw it into the water. I saw you.” . “No.” He laughed. “ That wasn’t my gun. They thought it was. I wanted to bring the thing to grips. But I wasn’t fool enough to chuck away my gun. That was a wrench I was usin’ ‘this mornin’ to fix the cabin stove—hooks jest like an ottermatic. I stuck it in my inside pocket. I was half a mind to shoot when they showed their knives, but I didn’t want to use my gun on that mess of hash.”’ He stood tall and broad above her, look- ing down at the face that was raised to his. Rainey, unnoticed as yet, saw her eyes bright with admiration. é “You are a wonderful fighter,”’ she said softly. “Wonderful? What about you? A man’s woman! You saved the day. Com- in’ to me with them drills. An’ we licked ‘em. We. God!” He swept her up into his aris, lifting her in his big hands, making no more of her than if she had been a feather pillow, up till her face was on a level with his, pressing her close, while in swift, indignant rage she fought back at him, striking fu- ‘“ You may need it. =GOmMmiGbooks (E@)