Samuel Alexander White

“ Instead of answering further, Cronin Hess choked in an ever-rising paroxysm of mirth. Other men all round him choked also. Pandemonium reigned in the court room, while Inspector Strickland nearly split the table with his pounding gavel.
"Order! Order!" Strickland shouted. "I will not have disorder here. I'll fine you all for contempt of court. Stop that laughter this minute."
"It isn't laughter, inspector," wept Thorpe in all humility. "They're choking with the smoke."
"Then open the door and clear the smoke out," directed Strickland. "It's enough to strangle anyone." ”

“ We'll cable Seattle and the steamer'll be stopped outside the port The Alaska Commercial Company'll find their hundred thousand if they have to strip every passenger stark naked and pull the Seattle apart to the last rivet. They don't stand for robbery, that firm!"
"Robbery?" Gayle's swaying figure stiffened, and his eyes blazed into Silgarde's. "You're a new man on the Yukon, sergeant, and you don't happen to know me or my partner. That's why you're getting palaver instead of a fist under your jaw. Do I understand you to say you take me for a thief?" ”

“ What worries me is that Ryan's branded us for tenderfeet all over Dawson."
Trudis's tears turned suddenly to hysterical laughter. "I know," she choked. "They'll die of laughteritis. Cronin, didn't you know Ryan better than to be taken in by his tableau?"
"You'd have been taken in yourself," snapped Hess. "And I don't see no joke. It's too serious a thing."
"It's the serious side of any joke that makes it good," reminded Tru.
"I don't mind the joke," complained Gayle. "I don't mind the seriousness of the thing much. What I do mind is that our record run was all for nothing." ”

“ I'm going to light right back to Dawson with you now."
"Thunderation, Cronin!" exclaimed Gayle, reaching for a gulp of brandy "What do you know about that?"
Hess, leaning limply against Healey as against a wall, began to quiver with weak laughter.
"What you cackling at?" demanded Silgarde indignantly. "Mail robbery isn't any laughing matter, and you'll soon find that out."
"You don't understand, sergeant," chuckled Hess. "You've got the wrong men. It's Rooney Ryan you want, and we know where he is. ”

“ The old-age grease has been plastered on and plastered on thick. A stove can be rusted and robbed, you know, a blanket of dust kicked up and a bunk filled with spruce mold and snow in a very short time. Ryan couldn't do it himself. The Swede Borg Larvon's done it. Ryan's bribed him to do it. They've sky-hiked to nowhere, but mind we'll get trace of them. A broken-legged man can't vanish in a country like this. We'll sure get trace of them in Dawson."
"I hope so," breathed Silgarde grimly. We may as well camp to-night by the old shack, and you can search it to see if you strike any clue." ”

“ That's Ryan."
"Oh, it is!" Silgarde gazed hard at Ryan's sound limbs, and as he gazed the faith in his prisoners that had accumulated within him suddenly went out. "Then your broken-legged story isn't worth a Siwash curse. It's cells for you now, and the only person that'll see you is Outremont's wife."
"Can't we see her brother, our third partner, Thorpe Calgour?" asked Hess.
"No. Men that'll put up a brazen story like you have must be watched close. You can't see anybody but Outremont's wife."
"That's the person I want to see—Trudis," declared Gayle. "Silgarde, you send for her on the jump." ”

“ Outremont and Hess, you are honorably dismissed on the robbery charge. It now remains to apprehend the real culprits. The Crown can do that on its own initiative unless the defense wishes to lay a countercharge."
"The defense does," declared Trudis. "It loses no time in laying that countercharge, and it asks this court to arrest Rooney Ryan and Seattle Simons, and arraign them on the said charge. The defense, which now becomes the prosecution, has further incriminating evidence to submit."
"Arrested they are," nodded Strickland with a quick gesture to Silgarde and Mattan. ”

“ So roll into camp here, boys, and bind my splints a little better, and to-morrow you can haul me up to Borg Larvon's."
"No, we'll haul you up to Larvon's now, bind your leg a little better and then strike out with the mail," declared Gayle determinedly.
"But it's bloody craziness," protested Rooney. "The snow's against you and the blizzard. You'll hit ice jams and open water. The time limit ain't near enough so early in the winter, and I'm the one as knows it. Blazes!—if I hadn't wasted ten days in this cove. Curse that Borg Larvon to perdition' Why didn't he hear?" ”

“ There are no lawyers in Dawson, but remember I can handle your case better than either of you. Ryan knows we haven't anything on him, or he wouldn't be here in Dawson. Neither he nor Seattle Simons would be here. They're not afraid of arrest. So just postpone their arrest till we have proof enough to convict them. They haven't the loot with them. Another thing: Seattle Simons has been in the business along with Ryan. They knew when you were due to leave the Selwyn and when the mail courier according to schedule was due to pass the White. ”

“ The pace took it out of themselves and out of the animals. Onward they flew through a wall of darkness, through a void that seemed no void at all but a space blocked with the stiff thrust of some intangible power. ”

“ It was just about the height of a wall bunk, and there the partners fiddled with Thorpe's leg a second and then made for their outfit again. "I tank you ban batter stop till morning," Seattle leered. "The wind she drop then, yas."
"Can't risk it," Cronin refused. "It might be worse. It always blows for days here. Gets a clean sweep down the White and up the Stewart. It wasn't blowing much up Selwyn way. So Gayle and me been talking it over, and we figure we'll be running out of the storm all the time. If we run fast enough and far enough, we ought to strike tolerably clear country to-morrow. ”

“ Men with broken legs don't run much. The spruce tree capped his play, sergeant, or he'd have been out of the country with the one hundred thousand before this and we'd have never run foul of you. The one hundred thousand didn't go with the letters. You can bank on that. He has it cached somewhere, and we'll find it along with him. But you'll have to sled us back."
WHILE Hess and Gayle stretched themselves upon the sledge and commenced to appropriate what they needed from the grub sack, Sergeant Silgarde scribbled a cable message to be sent from Skagway. ”

“ Don't muddle them any worse. Silgarde's not to blame. He's only doing his duty. He says two men waylaid Betteille Trentoin, the mail courier, and stole the Dawson mail. Sake of a hundred thousand, you said, sergeant?"
"Sure," nodded Silgarde. "One hundred thousand hard cash, in big bills, belonging to the Alaska Commercial people. That was the only value in it. Trentoin said. The rest was letters, twenty-four hundred letters. Betteille crawled into Sixty-mile with a broken head, no dogs, and the story of how the two men jumped him from behind on the river trail. ”

“ Cronin told him. "And it ain't any pleasure trip either. Ryan's got a broken peg. Did it in the cove down yonder by the river mouth. He's been shooting signs to you for a week and a half."
"By tam!" ejaculated Larvon, a regretful, pained expression dimming his eyes. "Ay ban hear that shootin', but ay ban tank her Sticks after moose!"
"That's what I said you'd think," put in Gayle. "But never mind, Larvon. Don't feel guilty about it. You can do your part now. Hess and I are going to take his mail on to Dyea. Bonus on her. Savvy? Got to run on time. ”

“ And have them hitched and ready while we dress and eat."
"But it's plumb lunacy and brainstorm," the old-timers still argued. "Besides, there's a blizzard blowing on the tip of Chilkoot. Nobody's gone over for a week. Nothing can live through the pass."
"You get the clothes and dogs!"
That run of the partners is a lengthy story in the annals of the north. Wherever dogs and sleds are talked of, in camp or on trail, the tale of the run goes forth. It established a record in Arctic travel, and it lives in the history of the land. ”

“ Don't forget what you're to do. And see that you sling the patter right smart."
BY the red-hot stove in the haze of grease smoke Seattle stood, fork in air above the pan of moose steak, nodding his head comprehendingly. Instantly behind the curtain of smoke there arose a scuffling among the row of chairs of the prosecution. Ryan was desperately struggling to rise and yell a warning to Seattle, but at a sign from Trudis Sergeant Silgarde and Private Mattan on either side of him were holding him in his seat and Silgarde's huge hand was gagging his mouth. ”

“ Sergeant Silgarde, Private Mattan, Betteille Trentoin, and Ryan were present, summoned by the Crown. On the bench Gayle Outremont and Cronin Hess sat alone until joined a few minutes before the opening of the court by Trudis and her brother Thorpe Calgour.
"This court," thundered Inspector Strickland, "is now doing business. The prisoners Gayle Outremont and Cronin Hess appear after remand to be tried on the charge of robbing the Dawson mail to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. Sergeant Silgarde, enter the Seattle report, which was not available at the preliminary hearing." ”