Colorado Jim Part 18

Dan nodded.

"You hike there, Jim, afore it goes to someone else."

"Ain't a healthy sort of name--Red Ruin," said Jim with a laugh.

"Names don't count."

Jim was finally persuaded to try his luck there. He left the party, followed by their best wishes for success, and made for the camp up the hill. He found Angela in a fit of revolt. She had done nothing since he left that morning. Dirty pans and dishes littered the ground and blankets were lying in heaps all round.

"Angela!"

She looked at him.

"You ain't bin hustling overmuch."

She flared up in an instant.

"I'm sick of this. You brought me here by brute force. I won't go on with it. Do you understand? I've tramped over that icy wilderness with you.

I've suffered until I can suffer no longer. You never were a gentleman, and ordinary courtesy and respect for a woman are unknown to you, but surely you have a heart somewhere within you. Can't you see this is killing me? Do you want to break my heart?"

"Hearts are hearts, ain't they? And breaking one ain't no worse than breaking another. No, I'm no gentleman--not the kind you bin used to.

That's why I came here--because here they're only men, and I'd jest as soon be a man as anything else on earth. I reckon that where a man goes his woman should go too."

She flushed at the appellation "woman."

"You talk like a barbarian. I'm not your woman--you understand? Not your woman."

"Figure out how you may," he retorted, "when you buy a thing, you buy it, and it's yours until someone pays you to git it, or someone is hefty enough to take it from you. As for that, if any guy thinks about cuttin'

in, he's welcome to try."

The true sense of his position was made patent. His rough philosophy was good. Had she been his by mere conquest, no man in the Klond.y.k.e would have disputed it. Being his wife, legally, his position was doubly strong. Only cunning could win through. She meant to exercise that faculty as soon as opportunity presented itself. And the opportunity was close at hand.

"I'm going up-river to-morrow," he said, "to prospect a creek, and to stake two claims if it's a promising place. I'll be back before sundown.... Ain't you goin' to git supper?"

She was on the point of refusing to carry out the necessary abhorrent domestic work, but the chance of escape which his words gave rise to brought discretion to the forefront. She cooked a dish of beans and opened some canned fruit, and they took their meal, thrusting it beneath the shielding mosquito-nets which seldom left their heads.

Half an hour later they made ready for sleep, in very close proximity to the hard ground, with a hanging canvas curtain between them.

"Good-night, Angela!" he said.

She returned no answer.

Down in the town things were just beginning to wake up. No one worried about time in Dawson City. The nights were like the days, the only difference being that the nights were more noisy. Time was stretched and manipulated with as much ease as an elastic band. Men went to bed at eight in the morning, and woke up to take their breakfast at three or four in the afternoon. Thereafter came dancing, drinking, mirth, and boisterous song. The conditions of the northern summer aided and abetted this queer juggling with time, for it was never dark, and 3 A.M. was not much different to 3 P.M. And as a rule, the life of the saloons was too busy a thing to take notice of any changes in the position of the sun.

The next morning Jim, armed with a pick and shovel and some stakes, left for Red Ruin. Angela watched him disappear over a bluff, and immediately prepared to put into operation her scheme for escape. She packed a small sack with the few things she would require, and wrote a short note which she pinned to the flap of the tent.

"I warned you I should go. There is no other way but this.--ANGELA."

She took the sack and descended to the crowded town. The river was still belching ice into the Bering Sea, but the last floes were leaving the upper reaches, and she knew that in a few hours navigation would be possible, up-stream. Whilst many parties were content to wait for the steamer's arrival, others, less patient, were preparing to "make out" up the river and lakes and over the Chilcoot.

She began to put out a few furtive inquiries, and secured the names of several men who were preparing for immediate departure. She was wise enough to take a look at these worthies before committing herself to their charge, and most of them did not please her. Wandering in the back areas at noon, she noticed a rough shack bearing an obviously new announcement "For Sale." Already a queue of prospective purchasers was lining up. When the owner--a sallow man of about fifty--appeared, he was besieged. The shack was sold in a few minutes to the highest bidder. Angela, nervous but determined, interrogated the sallow man.

"Excuse me, but are you leaving?"

He ran his keen eyes over her, immediately impressed by her beauty and her bearing.

"I am."

"Soon?"

"To-morrow morning if the river's clear."

"Alone?"

"No--two others."

Angela breathed a sigh of relief. There was safety in numbers.

"I want to go to England--or to New York. Will you take me? I've no money or food, but I'll pay you well when I get away."

The man stared.

"As soon as I can cable to my people they will send me money," she resumed. "Take me as far as the first cable station, and in forty-eight hours I will get money to recompense you," she added quickly.

His brows contracted.

"What's the hurry?"

"I want to get away from someone."

"Ah--I see."

"Will you--will you take me? I'll work."

He looked at her soft, exquisite face and figure, and grinned as he reflected that the work she could do was negligible; but the suggestion had its fascination. She was beautiful--and beautiful women were rare in the Klond.y.k.e. He opened the door of the shack and called "Tom!" Tom appeared in his shirt-sleeves--a big awry figure with a face like a chimpanzee.

"Got a grub-staker. What do you say?"

Tom's face relaxed into a smirking smile as he also took a long survey of Angela.

"Canoe's purty full up, but I dare say we can find room. Where'd ye want to go?"

"Anywhere out of this. Some place from where I can cable to England--for money."

He looked at "Connie," the sallow man, and nodded. The latter turned to Angela.

"We're off in the morning. Is that your grip?"

"Yes."