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.