A. M. Chisholm

“ Bill Hutchins and his partner, old Sam Dobbs, coldly, "why should I give ye a winter's grubstake on credit? What have ye done with the bag of dust ye washed out of yon bar on the Kachika?"
Skookum Bill, standing on the floor scales, slid the weight along the beam until it balanced. "Two hundred and seventeen I weigh," he said with satisfaction, for he was proud of his big, hard body and the tremendous strength which had earned him his sobriquet. "What did we do with that dust, McNicol? Why, we blowed it. How long d'you expect one little poke to last two growed-up men? ”

“ Into Dobbs' old eyes came the expression of a stricken animal. But he said nothing, waiting. Bill scowled at the fire.
"Hard luck, but it can't be helped," he said, at length. "I'll fix it up the best I can with splints. We won't go no farther to-day."
"If it's broke I won't be able to walk to-morrow," Dobbs ventured.
"You won't be able to walk for weeks," his partner told him. "I'll haul you on the toboggan."
"You can't—not in this soft snow," said Dobbs. "It's white of you, Bill, but it's too much."
"I never quit a partner yet," the big man announced. "I ain't no smear heel. ”

“ And so they were not surprised when he appeared at their camp two days later.
He proved to be a somewhat hard-faced gentleman of about Dobbs' age, with a cold eye and a bent mouth. He carried a rifle of a recent model, and it was noticeable that every loop of his cartridge belt contained a shell. Without preliminaries he introduced himself as Jake Flint.
"I s'pose," said Mr. Flint morosely, "you're the two pelicans that put it up I can't trap east of that washout creek?"
"And you s'pose dead right," said Skookum Bill truculently. "That's our ground." ”

“ In the mornings hoar-frost lay thick upon the ground, and thin ice formed in currentless shallows and overlay the muskrat runways. In the sloughs and ponds the rush-and-mud houses of these little workers were bound solidly. ”

“ Sam ain't done nothin' to be shot for, and he can't walk. You shoot me, and there ain't no one to haul him, without you do, and you c'n believe me when I say that pullin' a man in this snow ain't no cinch. Now, if you was to give us a hunk of that meat we could make the Portage, and any shootin' you wanted to do could come off afterward. ”

“ Still, you got a chance, Right here we split the blankets."
"Guess again," said Bill.
"I don't need to," said Dobbs. "I've seen this comin' from the first, and now it's here. When luck sets against you, you can't change it. You can't make the Portage with me. You've done more than any two men could do already. There ain't no sense in both of us dyin', and I'm elected. I'm an old dog, and my time's mighty nigh up, anyhow, so it don't matter so much."
"I said we'd make the Portage," said Bill, with an oath, "and we'll make it together or not at all. I wouldn't quit a partner while he's alive. ”

“ If we only had something to hold us over till we could find meat! Any old chunk of hide would do." Suddenly he started. "Why didn't I think of it before? But maybe it's just as well I didn't. We got the skin of that black fox. We'll eat that!"
"Eat it!" Dobbs exclaimed. "But, Bill, it's worth from a thousand up!"
"Not here it ain't," said Skookum Bill, stating a fundamental economic principle. "Here it ain't worth a tinker's curse. Nothing is that ain't grub. We'll stew her up right here. You take a knife and sorter shave the fur off while I'm rustlin' wood." ”

“ Now, fur-bearing animals are the shyest of living things, and one may very easily wander for days in their natural habitat and see none of them. And yet most of the time one will be under the observation of beady, little eyes and twitching, pointed noses and small, furred ears. It is one thing to be morally certain that one is in an excellent fur district and quite another to prove it, apart from actual results in trapping. Beaver and rats have visible habitations, and their fecundity is their chief guarantee against extinction. ”

“ And Dobbs raised a face contorted with abject misery.
"I can't be, because I ain't," he whimpered. "I ain't a man no more. I'm just a poor, broken-legged old dog, starved and froze and kicked and cussed. An' I'm goin' to die an' be finished, an' it serves me right. Take 'n' hit me on the head with the ax, an' then you won't be bothered with me no more!"
His misery was so abject and his nerve so plainly broken that Skookum Bill repented of his hasty words.
"Brace up, Sam," he said. "I sorter flew off the handle, but you know how I am. ”

“ Skookum Bill admitted. "I waited till he was out on his line, 'cause I didn't want to shoot him. I held him out some grub and his bed and all the matches he had. He has part of a deer hung up, so he has lots of meat, and he has a little toboggan with him. With luck he ought to make somewheres if he starts right away. I could."
"You're young and stronger'n a moose," Dobbs pointed out. "Durned if I believe I could make it alone, and he's about as old as me."
"He's got a chance," his partner replied doggedly. "He had fair warning. Lots of men would have shot him. ”

“ Dobbs pointed out, as they sat one night before the fire. "'Cause if Flint makes the riffle, even though he don't raise no war yell on us, next year he gets him a partner, and if we want to trap in here we got to do it in the smoke. And I ain't that fond of trappin'."
"Nor me," Bill admitted. "It ain't our business. We'll just take what we can get and quit. We ought to have enough right now to pay McNicol and live for a year, with some fun throwed in."
"We'll get more and better fur after Thanksgiving," said Dobbs. ”

“ Bill repeated. "We was sorter hungry at the time."
"We was starvin'" said Dobbs.
"And so we ain't got no furs nor money nor nothin'," Bill pursued downrightly, "but, all the same, we got to have grub and things. We'll pay up in the spring, soon as we can wash some dirt we know of."
McNicol shook his head.
" 'The way of the transgressor is hard,'" said he. "Also all men are liars—at times. Ye'll admit the relevancy of the quotations, which ye'll scarce recognize, bein' from the Scriptures. Prove to me that ye ate the skin of a black fox, and I'll grubstake ye afresh. But not unless." ”

“ Me, I allus got the worst. 'S the Scripture says I ask for bread and I get the laugh, like the Prodigal Son."
"You don't know your own luck," said Bill. "What you kickin' at? Here you got a fire and blankets and booze and eats. You're blame lucky, if you ask me. How'd you like to be mushin' along in the snow, campin' under a tree somewheres like that durn old wolverine, Flint?"
"Proves what I was savin'," Dobbs argned. "He gets the worst of it. I ain't sure we done right about that, Bill. The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. An' we're wicked—we're good 'n' wicked. ”

“ Dobbs pointed out. "And just when you need meat is the time you don't see it."
Which was so true that Skookum Bill went to loading the toboggan without reply. This done he adjusted the loops of his snowshoes and dropped the line of the sled over his shoulders.
"All set?" he asked.
"Gimme a rope of the toboggan."
"I will when I get tired," said Bill.
III. Day after day they plodded steadily in a white wilderness. By day the hard exercise kept them warm. But camping in the snow under even the most favorable conditions is not fun, and when one is short of food and blankets it is miserable. ”

“ Bill concurred. "Here we go to all the trouble of findin' a new district where we won't interfere with no one, and this blasted wolverine comes in and sets his traps right on top of us. Well, he's got to roll his blankets, that's all. There's some things I won't stand."
"Sure," said Dobbs, "he ain't actin' right. There's plenty of men been shot for less."
"So there has," Bill agreed. "Only we don't want to shoot him unless we have to. It's got so lately that there's trouble about such things. Same time we ain't goin' to let him keep on stealin' fur from us. ”

“ Dobbs agreed. "I don't believe this here valley ever was trapped. We ain't come across no sign of any old camp—not so much as a blazed tree. I wouldn't wonder if we was the only white men that ever was in here—or Injuns, either. I'll bet we'll take out a canoeload of prime fur. Marten ort to be dark in here among this timber."
"She'll be some chore packin' the outfit in over that summit," Bill observed. "There's snow there now, but there ain't enough for a toboggan. And then she's blame steep. We'll have to pack it on our backs. ”

“ He picked up the rum, shot the cork tight with a blow of his fist, and placed it behind his bunk.
"What you doin'?" Dobbs asked. "I want another drink."
"You won't get it," Bill replied, with finality. "You're drunk."
"I ain't!" Dobbs denied indignantly. "Me? Why, I ain't said a word about religion yet. I guess I know my own stages by this time."
"When an old rooster like you gets to talkin' about a moral life it's time he quit drinkin'," Bill observed. "And, anyway, we ain't goin' to mop up all we got. We want to save some for Thanksgiving, and in case of sickness." ”

“ Early in the morning they shouldered light packs, took their rifles, crossed the big draw, and entered the timber where was the deadfall.
"It ain't mine," said Dobbs positively. "I never notched a stick that way in my life. And look at them snowshoe tracks. They're longer 'n' narrower than mine, and the webbin's different."
Proof conclusive. And so they took up the stranger's trail. It led west, and when darkness fell they had not reached its end. On the way they found half a dozen traps, which they destroyed. That night they slept out uncomfortably. ”

“ We know a district that's simply crawlin' with fur, and don't look like it's never been trapped. Only she's a long, hard trail; and as there ain't no comin' out in the winter we want a pretty fair outfit, and we want to start right away. ”

“ Flint returned. "And there's only one set of tracks on this trail of yourn that I've been follerin', but there's been two men in camp."
"I'm packin' Sam on the toboggan because his leg's busted," Bill explained. "It's a hard deal on him to be shot for what I done, but, of course, he's durn near starved to death, anyway."
"You don't look as if bein' burned out 'agreed with you, either," said Flint. ”