Samuel Alexander White

“ He looked down at Alabama, but the breeze had not penetrated to the latter's consciousness. He snored peacefully on a blanket, unaware of Strickland and Rooney keeping vigil over him, unaware of Trudis's, Gayle's, and the other men's creation, and likewise unaware of the advent of Cronin Hess and his companions, who, with the exception of Thorpe Calgour, stepped forth at that moment from completing their preparations in the back room.
"Where's Thorpe?" demanded Ryan suspiciously. "Mind you ain't working no trick in the dark. I've got my lamps skinned. What's Thorpe doing back in there?" ”

“ Alabama's shriek smothered Cronin's voice. "Hold on," Alabama yelled, imploring eyes fixed on Rooney Ryan, who stood beside the ex-marshal. "I ain't dead. Hey, you batty ginks, pull me out! Rooney, make them pull me out."
BUT Rooney, with twenty thousand dollars forfeited if he opened his mouth, could do nothing but stare down like a graven image, denying himself even the luxury of a smile lest he jeopardize his stake. Nor was there any greater hope in the attitude of the men about him. ”

“ When the big strike comes they lose their sense of values, they lose their ballast, they go up like a balloon, and when the gas gives out you find them lying quiet in a snow bank."
"Well," returned Cronin determinedly, "it's up to us to see that there's no snow-bank stunt for Alabama Horbeed. He's a nice fellow and a true friend when he's sober. Then there's the wife to be considered, and the kids likewise. I know how it is with the family that waits at home. I know just how them three's banking and building on Alabama's stake and what it's going to do for them. ”

“ If you want to send him out, you'd better put him aboard while he's asleep and get Captain Cambonne to lock him in a stateroom."
"Our mentalities must be twin systems, Gunderhein," observed Thorpe. "I suggested tying him up with pack lashings."
"No, boys, nothing like that," warned Hess hastily. "No strong-arm tactics for Alabama. He wouldn't stand for them. He'd break the very minute he got a chance to break. He's just like a high-strung horse. ”

“ You're to keep your mouth shut during the course of persuasion where Alabama's concerned and not restrain him by any word or enticement. Is the bet still on?"
"Still on, Cronin. Rush to your own loss, fast as your legs'll let you."
"With pleasure, Rooney! You follow up to Gayle's cabin on the hill and you'll find how fast I'll go. Gunderhein, you and Gayle take half the boys and gather Alabama. Thorpe and me'll go through town with Strickland and the rest. Strickland'll bring his permit. We'll bring what other fixtures we need, and we'll give Captain Cambonne the tip as we go by." ”

“ They're the deciding factor. Yes, you're right. And it's between ourselves. No one can know anything of it. He's dead in the eyes of Dawson City. He's dead in the burial permit. He owes it to those who'll benefit by it to play the man and go on and be buried. So lay hold of the tump lines again, boys. Lay hold and lower away!"
Outremont and Hess made a grab at the lines, but Alabama by frantic struggling and kicking, all the while yelling for help, had contrived to work free of them. He sprang erect and seizing the poke sitting in the salt, swung it round his head like a bludgeon. ”

“ The fire was out in the Yukon stove, the table shoved behind the stove and both concealed by a strip of canvas. Walls and ceiling were plastered with flour, and salt covered the floor like snow. In the center of the floor yawned a black gap where a seven-foot plank had been lifted. Through the gap rose a chill air, for the cabin sat sidewise on the incline, one of its sills supported by piles, and underneath the gap was open hillside.
"Ugh!" gasped Ryan, as the frosty air struck him. "You boys are sure strong on ventilation. That breeze ought to wake anybody." ”

“ AS if he had seen a ghost arise, Inspector Strickland staggered back ind sat down heavily in a drift of salt, his mouth gaped big and round, and his eyes, as big and as round as his mouth, stared dazedly at Alabama.
"Alabama," he protested, as a man who cannot believe the evidence of his own eyes, "you're dead. You can't be anything else but dead. ”

“ The company arose from around the stove and lined up in front of the gold scales which stood upon the end of Ryan's ornate bar.
"What'll you have, boys?" asked Ryan, presuming that they desired refreshments.
"We're not imbibing," Cronin told him. "We imbibe only with our friends. You're our hereditary enemy, Rooney, an enemy to society in general and to this committee in particular. It's Alabama Horbeed we've come to converse about. How much is left in his poke?" ”

“ It's a raw land up here. All the men in it are men with hair on their chests, and it ain't for any one of us to criticize. So let us be glad for Alabama's sake that he didn't come to a more violent end. Also let us be thankful for the sake of the widow and the two fatherless children down in Los Angeles that he died before his stake gave out entirely."
HESS raised Horbeed's poke, now prone to sag and with much loose buckskin puckered under the poke strings, and let it thump dully in the salt. "Nearly forty pounds in it yet! Close on ten thousand dollars! ”

“ You'll soon see what they're all for. You sit over there with Strickland beside Alabama and don't get in the road. We got our work cut out for us. Tru, it's a good cause, and I know you don't mind us taking possession. So go to it, boys, according to the blue prints."
OUTREMONT'S cabin, since it was graced by a woman's presence, was somewhat pretentious and contained two rooms. In the back room, which held a big stone fireplace and bunks, Thorpe and Cronin were accustomed to sleep. In the front room, where stood the Yukon stove, was Gayle's and Trudis's bunk, the plank table and chairs. ”

“ And the wife and two kids in Los Angeles can look their eyes out and yearn their hearts out for his coming. It's a piercing pity any way you glimpse it. Rooney's mostly to blame, of course. But at that I never thought Alabama'd copper himself for such a varnished fool!"
"That's the curse of this land," philosophized Gayle, dreaming eyes fixed on Trudis, who was doing up the supper things while listening to the talk—"prodigality like his. It hoodooes political economy and puts any kind of administration on the bum. Still, it's the way it hits the most of them. ”

“ Alabama solemnly proclaimed. "I wired my woman in Los Angeles not five minutes ago that I'd struck it and was comin' on the jump. I can't go back on my word. Her and the two little tykes are lookin' for me and yearnin' for the stake. It travels to them, boys, as a proper man's earnings should travel. I'm goin' to hit Dyea over the ice as soon as the ice'll bear me all the way, and I'll sail with poke intact. I've never been what you'd call a frugal character, but here's where I draw the poke strings. ”

“ And Gayle and Thorpe and me was figuring on sending him out on the Victorian in the morning. Mebbe there's no use sending him? Mebbe his stake's all blowed already?"
"Not all of it," informed Strickland. "What's left of it is in his main poke over there by Ryan's gold scales right under Ryan's guarding eye. It's the shape of a punctured football, Cronin, and sagging fast. Rooney won't stand for giving it up till there's only the buckskin left."
"Won't he?" growled Cronin speculatively. "But where's Alabama got to? He ain't in vision." ”

“ Outremont held Two Below. Cronin Hess held Three Below. Lucky Alabama's prize was Number Four. His claim was as rich as any of the claims of the first four stakers, and, like the first four, he sold it the night of the wedding banquet in Dawson City to Gunderhein of the Gunderhein Syndicate for thirty thousand dollars.
"What you fellows goin' to do with your stake?" Alabama asked the partners after the banquet.
"Plant her in other creek holdings," Cronin Hess told him. "You'd better do likewise, Alabama. Thirty thousand dollars is a lot of money. ”