XI

His friends, even including Skookum Charlie, left Pete where he lay.

If a man killed his klootchman and then got pahtlum, or

"blind-speechless-paralytic" on something cousin-german to methylated

spirit, what could be done with him but let him alone till the police

came for him by daylight? Don't forget, tilikums, that none of the

officers of the law could come in Sawdust Shack-Town after dark.

They would as soon have gone to Cloud Cuckoo Town. It was as much as

their cabezas were worth, and that's a hard-wood truth, without knots

or shakes. The last time a constable (under the influence of a good

but uninstructed superior and some bad whisky) did go into Shack-Town

after dark he stayed there in a pool of blood (or what would have

been a pool but for the convenient sawdust) till it was broad

daylight, and he took much patching-up before he got into running

again. After dark we had it to ourselves, Whites, Reds, and all

colours who were of the order of the Mill, or the disorder of it.

The "bulls" or "cops" or "fingers," as hoboes say, kept order in the

orderly uptown streets.

Skookum "quit" and went home. So did Annawillee, whom Chihuahua

hauled off as he was doubtful of her morals in the dark. But Annie,

whose windpipe was exceedingly sore, went out several times and

booted Pete in the ribs where he lay, as a kind of compensation or

cough lozenge. However, she let up on him at last and went home to

"pound her ear" in the sleep of the just and virtuous. It never even

occurred to her that Pete didn't know anything whatsoever about Quin

being the man who had kapsuallowed or stolen his dear Jenny.

Everybody else knew, Chinamen, Swedes, Lapps, Letts, Finns, Spaniards

and a number of whites of the rougher kind who camped in Shack-Town.

I knew myself. But the man who ought to have known didn't. It was a

sign that life is the same everywhere.

Pete woke up before dawn, as it seems to be a revenge of nature to

make drunken men wake when they can't find a drink, and when he woke

he hadn't the remotest notion of what had happened to him. He knew

that he had a thirst on him of a miraculous intensity, and when he

moved he was aware that he had a pain in his side which almost made

him forget his thirst. For Annie wore a man's shoes, with heavy

soles to them. And when a man is helpless and his ribs open even a

woman's kicks can do mischief.

"Oh," said Pete, "ah!"

He rolled over and groaned, poor devil. And, just as the secret dawn

began to flame, so the red deeds of the night before began to come up

to him. He sat up and his jaw fell.

"Ah," said Pete, "I tink I--I kill Jenny!"

There's a crowd of virtuous ones who will imitate Annie and boot him

in the ribs, poor devil. He drank and gambled and played hell and

beat his wife and drove her into the arms of Quin. Even a

missionary, who ought to know something about such humanity, would

disapprove of him. And those whites of high nobility and much money

and great station, who are ready, in like cases, to drag their own

wretched women by the hair of the head through the bloody sawdust of

the Divorce Court, and who hire (at so many guineas and one or two

more) some gowned ruffian to boot her in the ribs, will objurgate

Pete perhaps, poor chap. He had no chance to know better and now the

terrors of the rope and the gallows had hold of him.

Pete was brave enough, even if he did kick klootchmen. As Ginger

White knew, he was the best wedger-off thereabouts, and could have

got a job at any of the big Mills of the Sound or the Inlet. He

could ride a horse and fight a man of his own weight quite well

enough. Indeed there was nothing wrong with him but the fact that he

was a Sitcum Siwash and given to drink when it was handy. Up at

Cultus Muckamuck's, where it wasn't handy, he was as sober as any

judge and a deal more sober than some out West. He was brave enough.

But when he thought of being hanged he wasn't brave. He sat up and

wondered why he wasn't in the Calaboose or cooler or jail already.

He looked round fearfully as if he expected to see Jenny's body

there. Then he groaned and felt his ribs. It was odd he should be

so sore. But the oddest thing was that he wasn't already jailed.

"I don' b'lieve I kill Jenny after all," said Pete. And as soon as

he didn't believe it, he very naturally determined to do it as soon

as possible. He staggered to his feet, and made for his shack,

thinking that Jenny perhaps was there. Of course it was as empty as

an old whisky bottle, and Pete scratched his head. Then the dawn

came up, and just about the time that Jenny was murmuring that she

didn't want to be good but only wanted "Tchorch," he went out again

and ran against Annie, who had also waked up with a thirst and with

an idea that it would ease her throat and her mind if she went out

and had another go at Pete's ribs.

"Yah, you pig Pete," she said with her jaw out at him and her skinny

throat on the stretch.

"Why you call me pig, you damn Annie?" demanded Pete, savagely.

"Because you halo good, no good, damn bad man, try to kill you tenas

klootchman," yapped Annie raucously as she spat.

"You a damn fool," said Pete. "Jenny she been away from me----"

"Yah," yelled Annie, "she find a good man, and Mista Quin, he give

her good dlesses, he velly kind to Jenny."

It was a blow between the eyes for Pete, and he staggered as if he

had been struck. His jaw dropped.

"Mista Quin, kahta mika wau-wau, what you say?" he stammered.

"I say she now Mista Quin's klootchman: he velly good to her. By-by

he come and kill you, because you kick his klootchman. Las' night he

say he mamook you mimaloose, kill you dead, you pig Pete," she

squealed, withdrawing into her house, so that she could slam the door

on him if he made a rush. But truly it was the last thing he thought

of.

"The Tyee take my klootchman!" he said with a fallen jaw, "the

Tyee----"

The boss had taken Jenny!

"Dat tlue, Annie?" he asked weakly.

"Dat tlue, you pig," said Annie.

Pete made a horrid sound in his throat like a strangled scream and

Annie slammed and bolted her door and got a bar of iron in her hands

as quick as she could move.

"I kill Mista Quin," screamed Pete. "I kill heem!"

He ran to his shack on the instinct to find something then and there

to kill the boss with. But he had no weapon, not even a good knife.

"I kill him all same," said Pete. As the men in the South would have

said he was "pretty nigh off his cabeza."

He started to work on his shack, and smashed the windows and their

frames and then all the wretched furniture in both rooms. By the

time the house was an utter wreck he felt a little calmer. But

though many heard him none came near. It might be dangerous. Then

at last it was daylight: there was a pleasant golden glow, and the

river was a stream of gold. The tall Mill chimneys began to smoke,

for Scotty's helper fed the fires early.

"I go to work all same," said Pete, "and I see Quin."

He ground his teeth and then took a drink of water, and spat it out.

There was nothing that he wouldn't have given for some whisky, but

who ever had whisky in Shack-Town early in the morning? He had to do

without it. And at last the whistle spoke and the sun shone, and the

working bees came out of their hives and went to the Mill.

There was a devil of a wau-wau going on that morning in the

Engine-Room, for the place was crowded. Some Chinamen even were

allowed to come inside, for they had news to give. The patriarch and

philosopher Wong was interrogated by Mac and Shorty Gibbs and Tenas

Billy (white man in spite of Tenas).

"Quin--eh, what?" said Tenas Billy with open eyes.

"He took Jenny! Well I'm damned," said Gibbs.

"I never reckoned that slabsided cockeyed roust-about Jack Mottram

took her," said Long Mac. "But I own freely I never gave a thought

to Quin."

"Oh, he was always a squaw-man," said Ginger White. "What was that

talk of a gal called Lily? Wasn't she from Coquitlam?"

"She was a Hydah, but I never seen her," said another. Papp the

German intervened.

"She was a bretty gal. I zeen her mit Quin at Victoria; no, at

Nanaimo. She died of gonsumption, boys."

They had heard Quin had killed her, kicked her when she was going to

be a mother.

"It ain'd drue," said Papp. "Thad was the odder Quin, him dey galls

Gultus Muckamuck. When I was ub to Gamloops I saw her grave. Gultus

kigged her in the stomag, poor thing, and she died."

"Is it true Pete killed Jenny last night?" asked young Tom Willett,

who had just come in.

Wong had told Long Mac all about it and he had told the others. They

all told Tom Willett all about it at once.

"Pete hadn't better run up agin Quin this day," said Ginger. "I've

lost the best wedger-off I ever struck."

He saw Skookum Charlie grinning in a corner.

"And now I've got to put up with Skookum. I guess Pete has lighted

out."

"Pulled his freight for sure," said Tenas Billy. Then Scotty yanked

the whistle lanyard and the men sighed and moved off.

And as they moved Pete came in.

"Oh, hell," said those that saw him. They scented trouble quick.

There was no doubt there would be trouble. By all accounts Pete had

only just failed to kill the little klootchman, and that he showed up

afterwards, when he knew that Quin had cut him out, was proof enough

of coming woe.

Ginger White didn't like it. He had no nerve for rows, in spite of

his nasty temper, and to have a murderous struggle between the

wedger-off and Quin, with guns shooting it might be (though gun-play

is rare in B.C.), made him shake. Even if no "guns" came in there

would be blood and hair flying, and mauls and wedges and pickareens,

and perhaps a jagged slab or two. Ginger remembered the huge nose

with which outraged Simmons had decorated him.

"I ain't goin' to let Quin come in ignorant," said Ginger. At the

very first pause, while they were rolling a mighty five foot log on

the carriage, he shoved his head through the wall to the Engine-Room.

"Say, Scotty, send over to the Office and let Mr. Quin know that that

swine Pete has turned up to work."

Scotty nodded.

"And say he looks mighty odd, likely to prove fightable," added

Ginger. He went back to the lever.

It was one of his off-days, when he couldn't drive the Mill or the

Saws for sour apples. It's the same with everyone. It's no sacred

privilege of artists to be off colour. And yet in his way Ginger was

an artist. He played on the Mill and made an organ of it: pulled out

stops, made her whoop, voix celeste, or voix diabolique. Or he waved

his bâton and made the Stick Moola a proper old orchestra, wind and

strings, bassoon, harp, lute, sackbut, psaltery and all kinds of

raging music. Now he was at a low ebb and played adagio, even

maestoso, and was a little flat with it all.

The quick men of the Mill loafed. Long Mac flung off the tightener

and put new teeth into his saw with nicely-fitting buckskin. He took

it easy. So did everyone. The very Bull-Wheel never groaned. Down

below the Lath Mill chewed slowly. The Shingle Mill, though it had

all the cedar it could eat, said at slow intervals, "I cut-a-shingle,

ah," ending with a yawn instead of a "Phit."

The truth was that everyone was waiting. They loafed with their

hands but their minds were quick enough. Tenas Billy of the Lath

Mill every now and again climbed up the chute to see if bloodshed was

imminent. Shorty Gibbs, the Shingle Sawyer, did the same. The very

Chinamen sorting flooring underneath bobbed up like Jacks out of

Boxes.

Only Pete never raised his head from his work. When he drove a steel

dog into a log he did it with vim and vice.

He smashed Quin's big head every stroke. Quin's head was a wedge

under the maul. And it was nine o'clock. Before ten Quin always

came into the Mill and stood as it were on deck, looking at his crew

as they sailed the Mill through forests, making barren the lives of

the green hills fronting the Straits.

As ten drew on the work grew more slack and men's minds grew intense.

But a big log was on the carriage, one nigh six foot in diameter.

The slab came off, and Pete and Skookum Charlie handled it. Ginger

set her for a fifteen-inch cant and sent her at it. Just as the log

obscured the doorway Quin came in and no one saw him but Skookum.

Pete drove a wedge, and reached out his hand for a loose one. Then

he saw Quin. As he saw him he forgot his work, and the saw nipped a

little and squealed uneasily. Ginger threw up his angry head and

stopped her and saw that Pete saw Quin.

"Here's trouble," said the men. The Pony Saw stopped dead. The

Trimmers ran back into their casings. There was silence. The Lath

Mill stayed and the Shingle Saw and men's heads came up from below.

They heard Quin speak.

"Get off that log," said Quin.

Pete dropped off on the side away from Quin, as quick as a

mud-turtle. As he fell upon his feet he grabbed a pickareen lying on

the skids and ran round the end of the carriage.

"Look out, Sir," yelled Ginger. A dozen men made a rush.

Long Mac came over two skids at a time. The only man who was near

enough to do anything was Skookum Charlie, but he feared Pete and had

no mind for any trouble. He was safer on the top of the log. Ginger

took a heavy spanner in his hand and went round the other end of the

log. He was in time to see Pete rushing at Quin, who had nothing in

his hands. Quin was the kind of man who wouldn't have, so much can

be said for him.

Now Quin was standing at the opening of the great side chute, down

which big cants and bents for bridge-work were thrown sideways. It

was a forty-foot opening in the Mill's wall. It was smooth, greasy,

sharply inclined. At the foot of it were some heavy eighteen-foot

bents for bridge repairing.

"Ah," said Pete. It seemed to Quin that Pete came quick and that the

other men who were running came very slow. Perhaps they did, for

Pete was as quick on his feet as any cat or cougar. He weighed a

hundred and fifty pounds of muscle and light bone. Quin weighed two

hundred at the least. He wasn't quick till he was hot.

But Pete's quickness, though it caught Quin, yet saved him.

Had he been less quick Quin would have stopped his sharp downward

pickareen. But Pete delivered his blow too soon. He aimed for

Quin's head, but Quin dodged and the blow was a little short: instead

of catching him inside the collar-bone and penetrating his lung, the

steel point grazed the bone and came down like fire through the

pectoral muscle. And Quin struck out with his right and caught Pete

on the point of his left elbow. The Sitcum Siwash went back reeling

and Ginger White flung his spanner at him. It missed him by a hair's

breadth and Pete recovered. Before he could make another rush Mac

was within a yard of him. But something passed Mac and struck Pete

on the side of the head. It was an iron ring from an old roller.

The philosopher Wong had flung it. Pete went over sideways, grabbed

at nothing, lost his pickareen, caught his feet on the sill of the

chute and pitched out headlong. He shot down the ways into the bents

below and lay there quiet as a dead man.

"Are you hurt?" asked Ginger White. Quin's hand was to his breast.

"A bit," said Quin, as he breathed hard.

"It was a close call," said Ginger. The men stood round silently.

Skookum clambered down from the log. He was a dirty-whitish colour,

for he wasn't brave.

"Pick that chap up," said Quin, "and see if he is hurt. If he is

some of you can carry him up to the hospital."

Though he pressed his hand tight to the open wound in his breast he

bled pretty fast, and presently sat down on one of the skids.

"I'll help you over to the Office," said Ginger White, ever ready to

be of service to the Tyee. They went across together while Long Mac

and some of the boys picked up Pete. If it had been a close call for

Quin it had been even a closer one for the Sitcum Siwash. He was as

near a dead man to look at as any man could be. The iron ring had

only caught him a glancing blow and cut his scalp, but when he slid

down the chute head-foremost his skull came butt on solid lumber.

Then he had turned over and struck the edge of a bent with his arm.

It was broken. When Long Mac and three Chinamen carried him to the

hospital, on a door borrowed from the Planing Mill, the surgeon there

found his left collar-bone was in two pieces as well. He had serious

doubts as to whether his skull was fractured or not. On the whole,

when he had made his examination, he did not think so. But he had

every sign of severe concussion of the brain.

"How did it happen?" asked Dr. Green when they had turned Pete over

to the nurses.

Mac told him.

"Humph," said Green, who knew something about Quin, "it is lucky for

Quin that the chap went for him first."

"You think he'll die then?" asked Mac.

"He might," said Green. "But he has a skull that's thicker than

paper. They can stand a lot, some of em'. And others peg out very

easy. It's diseases fetch 'em, though, not injuries."

So Mac went to the Mill again, leaving Pete on his back in a fine

clean bed for the first time in his life. He was very quiet now.

While Mac was at the hospital they had sent for Dr. Jupp to look

after Quin. When the old doctor heard what had happened he shook his

head.

"What did I tell him?"

He found Quin pretty sick, but smoking all the same. He was

partially stripped and he had plastered the wound till help came with

a large pad of blotting paper, which was nearly as primitive as

spiders' webs.

"Well, I got it, doc'," said Quin.

Jupp shook his head again.

"You'll never learn sense, I suppose. Let's look. What was the

weapon?"

They showed him a pickareen, a half-headed pick of bright steel some

six inches long.

"Lucky for you it wasn't an inch nearer," said Jupp, "or you would

have had froth in this blood!"

Quin knew what he meant. In any case it was a nasty wound, for part

of it was ripped open. Nevertheless Quin smoked all the time that

Jupp washed and dressed it, and said "Thank you" pleasantly enough

when the job was over.

"Go home and lie down," said Jupp. "I'll be up in an hour and see

the cause of the war."

So Quin, with the help of a clerk in the office, found his way home

to Jenny. As he went he saw Mac coming down the road with long

strides and waited to hear what they said of Pete.

"Will he go up the flume?" asked Quin, using a common Western idiom.

"Mebbe," said Mac. "The doc' allowed he couldn't give me a pointer.

He said it was a case of might or mightn't."

"Damn," said Quin.

When he got back to Jenny he never told her he was hurt. He didn't

even squeal when she rose up in bed and put her arms about his neck

and hurt his wound badly.

"I love you, Tchorch. You are velly good to me," said Jenny.