"Gawd A'mighty!" breathed Claw, incredulously, "An' the game owin' you millions. Well, have a drink on it, anyway."
Claw refilled Brent's glass, and thrust it into his hand, with a wink at the captain, for he had been quick to note that the liquor and the hot fetid air of the room was making Brent drowsy. His eyes had become dull and heavy lidded, and his chin rested heavily upon the throat of his parka. "Ain't happened to run onto a little bunch of Injuns, up the river, have you?" asked the man, as Brent gagged at the liquor.
"No," answered Brent, drowsily, "No Injuns in Copper Mountains—nothing in the mountains—nothing but snow." Gradually his eyes closed, and his head rolled heavily to one side. The drunken klooch rose to her knees, and with a maudlin giggle, seized Brent's half empty glass and drained it.
With a curse, the captain kicked her into her corner, and turned to Claw with a suggestive motion: "Slit his gullet, an' we'll slip him down a seal hole with some scrap iron on his legs. He's prob'bly lyin' 'bout leavin' the dust in camp."
Claw shook his head: "Not him," he opined, "Search him first."
The Captain and the mate subjected the unconscious man to a thorough search, at the conclusion of which Scroggs tossed a small lean gold sack upon the table. "Prob'ly all he's got left, anyhow," he growled in disgust. "Le's jest weight him an' slip him through the ice the way he is. 'Tain't so messy."
"Not by a damn sight!" objected Claw. "It's jest like I told you, when we was watchin' him through the glass. He's got anyways clost to a hundred ounces. I seen it, when he paid me fer the hooch, like I was tellin' you."
"Well, we kin back-track him to his camp, an' if we can't find it we kin put the hot irons to the Injun's feet till he squeals."
"The Injun don't know where it's at," argued Claw contemptuously, "He's too damn smart to trust a Siwash. An' you bet he's got it cached where we couldn't find it. He wouldn't leave it round where the first bunch of Huskies that come along could lift it, would he?"
"Well," growled the Captain, "Yer so damn smart, what's yer big idee?"