The Silver Horde

ge and afire with impatience. On the homeward drive he had bombarded Cherry with a running fusillade of questions, so that by the time they had arrived at her house she was mentally and

ered all feeling into one definite passion,

here was a limit to his period of action, for he seemed obsessed by an ever-growing passion to accomplish some end within a given time, and had no thought for anything beyond the engrossing issue into which he had p

he nearest cannery, permission to go over which Cherry had secured from the watchman, who was indebted to her. The man was timid at first, but Emerson won him over, then proceeded to pump him dry of information, as he had done wi

uperintendent does," she remarked, after nearly a we

on, and this is really in my line. It'

an hand

sly. A score of times he had voiced his impati

change in him; Fraser followed him

fast. Why, he was the darndest crape-hanger I ever met till you got him gingered up; he didn't have no more spirit than a sick kitten. Of cou

ul of

he's a puzzle to me. Hopeful

irl declared, emphatically. She would have liked to ask Fraser if he k

e somebody was going to ring the gong on him if this fish t

. "My men are ready to quit, and-well, Willis

s" Fraser. "Now, I had a different idea as to why you

idea,

ge, this is a lonely place for a woman like you, a

her tone was icy. "This is

you touted none as a busines

ded from the girl's face, and it was

moral," Fraser replied, indirectly. "He won't stand for anything

er my question,"

around here till spring and look-out your game? I'll drop a monkey-wrench in his gear-case or put a spider in his dumplin

myself!" said the girl, in a to

n and well-nigh exhausted, with the marks of hard travel showing in their sunken cheeks and in the bleeding pads of their dog-team. But alth

of her, staring with suspi

tanding bristle of hair topped a leather countenance from which gleamed a pair of the most violent eyes Emerson had ever beheld, the dominant expression of which was rage. His jaw was long, and the seams from nostril and lip, half hidden behind a stiff stubble, gave it the set of gran

n unholy joy overspread the fisherman's visage; his thick lips writhed i

siness?" he bel

d

you f

es

l you, or have you got

won't do what you or anybody else tells me. I'll do what I pleas

stop at anythin

rawing of his lip corners. "I've got to win, so don't waste time wonderin

irthless chuckle. "I'

," flashed Cherry

ble of carrying out his threat, for his bloodshot eyes were lit with bitter hatred a

I've been living on dog fish

lung it in a sodden heap beside the stove; the

t taste his meal nor note its character, but demolished whatever fell first to his hand, staring curiously up from under his thatched brows at Emerson, now and then grunting some interruption to the other's rapid talk. Of Cherry and of "Fi

the stove. I've been

and long after she had gone to bed

dvised her at the breakfast

" she echoe

"Oh, say! You can't do that. My feet are too sore t

morning. We have

sherman. "You can't get

w," answered

most reckless man on the Behring coast. She cast a frightened glance at Emerson, but none of the men noticed it. Even if they had observed the light that had come into those clear eyes, they would n

the mail-bo

n, sharply. "You said

na ro

her is

ly. "You know better than

id Balt. "It's Mr. Emerso

me," Fraser announced, as if settling the ma

rtly upon his revery. "Y

t!" exploded the

ou understand-it's hard

tes," the adventurer demurred. "You wouldn't slough me at t

If you feel that way about it, come alon

. "I guess I can pick up a pinch of ch

n?" Cherry asked Emerson, whe

every day

season, and you may have to wait two weeks

one day, it would mean a month's delay. She ought to b

w you are safely over," said the girl, a n

all taken bigge

've been thinking that perhaps you'd bette

redulous stare. "I thought you w

imped on, "but-well, I was entirely selfish in getting y

That's only another reason for you to contin

character of the men you will clash with. There is actual physical peril attached to this undertaking, and Marsh w

o risk for those 'few dollars'; you don't know what success means to me. Why, if I don't make this

h

scrupulous, so shall I be. If he undertakes to

en troubling her of late. She saw again that old light of sullen desperation in the man's eye, and mar

ange your mind?" he asked, causing th

s and dislikes grow rapidly when they are not choked by convention. I like you too well to see

et. For the first time

is M

advice and reconsid

stly. I didn't crave the pleasure of earning it nor the thrill of finding it; I just wanted the thing itself, and came up here because I thought the opportunities were greater here than elsewhere. I'd have gone to the Sahara or into Thibet just as willingly. I left behind a good many things to which I had been raised, and forsook opportunities which to most fellows of my age would seem golden; but I did it eagerly, because I had only three years of grace and k

, it rose with me at dawn and lay down by me at night. Misfortune beleaguered me and dogged my heels, until it became a thing of amusem

e robbed of it by the Canadian laws in such a manner that there wasn't the faintest hope of my recovering the property. Men told me about opportunities they couldn't avail themselves of, and, although I did what they themselves would have done, these chances proved to be ghastly

unseen hand which I always felt but could never avoid. I leased proven properties, only to find that the pay ceased without reason. I did this so frequently that owners began to refuse me and came to consider me a thing of evi

at just as I drove away my friend came to the door and called after me, but the day was bitter, and my ears were muffled with fur, while the dry snow beneath the runners shrieked so that it drowned his cries. Me chas

itious. No man ever had more opportunities than I, and no man was ever so miserably unfortunate in missing them. In time I b

l time. I realized, as you said, that I was 'miscast,' that I had never been of this land, so I was headed for home. Home!" Emerson smiled bitterly. "The word doesn't mean anything to me now, but anyhow I was headed for God's country, an utter failure, in a worse plight than when I came here, when you put this last chance in front

. His poignant pessimism, however, only seemed to throw into relief the stubborn fixedness of his dominant purpose. The

. You say your time

race allowed me." He turned his eyes directly upon her, and concluded, in a matter-of-fact tone: "That's why I can't quit, now that y