"Oh, I dare say I should enjoy the scenery," she observed, with a glance at Boyd; "but, on the other hand, I don't care for rough things, and I prefer hearing about canneries to visiting them. They must be very smelly. Above all, I simply refuse to be seasick." In her eyes was a half-defiant look which Emerson had never seen there before.
"I am sorry," Marsh acknowledged, frankly. "You see, there are no women in our country; and six months without a word or a smile from your gentle sex makes a man ready to hate himself and his fellow-creatures."
"Are there no women in Alaska?" questioned the girl.
"In the mining-camps, yes, but we fishermen live lonely lives."
"But the coy, shrinking Indian maidens? I have read about them."
"They are terrible affairs," Marsh declared. "They are flat of nose, their lips are pierced, and they are very—well, dirty."
"Not always!" Boyd gave voice to his general annoyance and growing dislike for Marsh in an abrupt denial, "I have seen some very attractive squaws, particularly breeds."
"Where?" demanded the other, sceptically.
"Well, at Kalvik, for instance,"
"Kalvik!" ejaculated Marsh.