"Aren't you going to Dawson?" Pierce was incredulous; he could not understand this fellow.
Doret's expression changed; a fleeting sadness settled in his eyes. "I been dere," said he. "I ain't care much for seein' beeg city. I'm lonesome feller." After a moment he exclaimed, more brightly: "Now we go, I see if I can hire crew to row your boats."
"How does she look to you?" Lucky Broad inquired, when Pierce and his companion appeared. He and Bridges had not taken the trouble to acquaint themselves with the canon, but immediately upon landing had begun to stow away their freight and to lash a tarpaulin over it.
"Better go up and see for yourself," the young man suggested.
Lucky shook his head. "Not me," he declared. "I can hear all I want to.
Listen to it! I got a long life ahead of me and I'm going to nurse it."
Kid Bridges was of like mind, for he said: "Sure! We was a coupla brave guys in Dyea, but what's the good of runnin' up to an undertaker and giving him your measurements? He'll get a tape-line on you soon enough."
"Then you don't intend to chance it?" Pierce inquired.
Broad scowled at the questioner. "Say! I wouldn't walk down that place if it was froze."
"Nor me," the other gambler seconded. "Not for a million dollars would
I tease the embalmer that way. Not for a million. Would you, Lucky?"
Broad appeared to weigh the figures carefully; then he said, doubtfully: "I'm a cheap guy. I might risk it once—for five hundred thousand, cash. But that's rock bottom; I wouldn't take a nickel less."