ever, to make it worth while for us. Now you my stateroom—and had a man take me out
do your business with me—on the quiet, you from Whitehorse,” the fur-man chuckled. know—and I’ll make it all right with you and
“You’ve been playing a losing game right
the old man.”
from the start.”
“What’s your terms?” Rod sparred to
“How did you come to know I was
gain time.
heading up this way?” Rod insisted with a
“You draw me a map of the secret
shade less resentment in his voice.
valley and I’ll turn you loose. De Friers and Raus showed a mouthful of well-kept
the parson will think you made your getaway.
teeth. “We knew you would go as soon as you I’ll send a man to see if you have played fair read the note. You passed it up three times, on the map—and I’ll hold Tom as a hostage.”
and we kept carrying it back to your table.”
Rod knew that the north would be a
“Then it was a plant—just to get me up
very unhealthy place for the gang of fur-
here into your bull-pen?”
thieves the minute he regained his liberty. He
“No, Tom wrote the note all right—
realized that Raus wasn’t fool enough to give but I happened to find it first—and I let it help him an even break in the game, now that he me play my game. I just wanted to show you had his enemy down. But there was nothing in what you are bucking up against. It isn’t the his voice to indicate that he suspected
wilderness law—no strong-arm stuff will treachery.
work here. It’s brains you are up against. As
“Give me something to write on—I’m
soon as you get that through your skull you’ll hungry to get out into the woods again.” Rod be ready to talk business.”
Selkirk fairly radiated happiness.
“Sure
about
that?”
He reached a hand for the pencil and
“I got a proposition that don’t need any
paper Raus offered, and carefully began work argument,” Raus indulged in what was upon a fake map. When it was finished he intended to be a friendly smile. “You see we hesitated.
intended to split the loot in the middle—but
“I’m selling out too cheap,” he
the company detectives got to be such a pondered as he crumpled the sheet of paper in nuisance that I had to take the parson in to his hand, and gave it a measured toss among help me with the Seattle end of the business.”
the mink-fat.
“You got a good mate all right.” Rod
Raus eyed the discarded map and
sneered.
measured the length of the prisoner’s chain
“Sure I did—I never make any with a careful glance.
mistakes in my men.” The assistant manager Then he made a dive for the piece of
smiled over his own cleverness. “He was paper that lay temptingly exposed in the taking a watch out of a man’s pocket, and I littered grease.
got the goods on him. After that he was
There was a snap of steel jaws, and a
mighty glad to come in and help play the
howl of rage from the fur-man who sprawled game. That’s another case of brains.”
among the rancid scrapings.
Peon of the Snows
11
Rod Selkirk reached out a long arm,
He knew it would be no easy job to
caught hold of the trap-chain, and began overpower De Friers. That wiry Frenchman hauling his helpless enemy toward him. Raus weighed over two hundred pounds, and was as was like a baby in the hands of the man who full of fight as a wild-cat.
had been educated in the hard school of the Rod heard the man stamp up and set his rifle wilderness.
against the wall. He fumbled a moment with For a moment his cries mingled with
the lock, and the door swung open.
the shrieking of the gale outside. Then a heavy The trapper knew the only safe thing
hand shut off his breath.
was to shoot the slave-master on sight. Rut he Rod Selkirk stepped back panting always had taken a chance in a fight—and he when the scuffle was over. His shirt had been took one now.
torn open, but he was free.
De Friers was well within the room
Louie Raus was chained to the wall,
when Rod struck. The blow landed where it
and his gagged, bound figure had been molded was aimed, and the big man settled to his
into a position that suggested sleep.
knees.
He staggered to his feet before Selkirk
VI.
could strike again, and his hand was reaching for a weapon.
As soon as he had unfastened the padlock that Rod pinned the slave-master’s arms
held Tom a prisoner, the young man removed down in a bearlike hug. Tom Larkin sprang
the two keys he had used to free them from from his corner, as ready as ever to fight for their chains and hid them in the corner of the the safety of a friend. His legs collapsed room.
before he reached them. Crawling like a
The old man reeled as he walked. Rod
wounded animal, he endeavored to get into the forced him to pace back and forth across the battle. But the straining antagonists were little room that he might regain the use of his whirling in a giddy death-dance and managed legs.
to keep beyond the reach of his grasping arms.
He now had to contrive some way to
The trapper realized that his only hope
relock the door. De Friers would miss his
lay in keeping his hold about the body of his bunch of keys. He must find them still adversary. De Friers had won his place as hanging in the door when he came back.
master of the Wolf Canon country by the
After hard work Selkirk managed to
power of his bull-like muscles. Rod never
remove the bolt that held the hasp. Then he could hope to win in a fair fight. There was snapped the padlock into its usual place and one other chance. He might suddenly release left the keys swinging from it. With the help his hold upon the slave-driver and draw the of a string he drew the bolt back through the pistol which he had taken from Raus, but Rod door and secured it. Then he settled down to Selkirk was not prepared for such drastic
wait for the finish of the game.
measures as yet.
The night-shadows were beginning to
As the minutes passed he felt the
sift through the swirling snowflakes when strength seeping from his body, and knew he Rod, watching from the window, saw De could keep his hold upon the enraged Friers hurrying toward the cabin.
Frenchman but for a short time.
He motioned for Tom to go back to his
At last the moment came when Rod
corner. Then he took up his own position close Selkirk must decide whether his own life was to the door.
worth the price of another man’s blood.
All-Story Weekly
12
But in that instant something beyond
smile breaking up the studied solemnity of his his control made that decision unnecessary.
face.
The struggling fur-man sent him lurching
There was the stamping of feet, and
against the wall, and Rod’s weapon thudded to two constables of the Mounted Police stalked the floor. He was helpless.
into the room.
With a roar of rage De Friers tore
“Don’t let that fellow get away,” Rod
himself from the trembling arms that encircled pointed an accusing finger at the parson, “He him and plunged after the exhausted trapper.
has got more brains than the rest o
f the bunch For the time the Frenchman had ceased
put together. If you let him escape the
to be a man. He was an animal of the company ’ll break you for it!”
wilderness who fought with tooth and nail,
“He’s valuable all right,” agreed one of
and never thought to draw a weapon.
the policemen. “I reckon he’ll be worth a
Warily Rod eluded his flailing blows,
million dollars to the Hudson Bay people yet, and worked his way to where Tom Larkin
if some fur-thief don’t get wise to him and swayed drunkenly upon his hands and knees.
stick a knife between his ribs. But that is all in If they came to close quarters the old man the game—hey, parson?”
might be able to give his young friend some
“Sure,” grinned the officer. “Us
much-needed help.
fellows take a lot of risks, and play some Then across the massive shoulders of
queer games—but this is the first time I ever De Friers, Rod Selkirk saw the parson come smuggled a wolf-trap in to a prisoner so he lunging through the door. With a groan he
could catch the jailer. They say ‘once a
dodged the blow the Frenchman aimed at him, trapper—always a trapper,’ and Selkirk hadn’t and scurried along the wall, searching with forgot how to make a wolf set.”
hands and feet for the lost pistol, determined A volley of half-strangled oaths welled
to sell his life as dearly as possible.
up out of the thick neck of De Friers. He
The blows he expected to rain down
brandished his manacled hands. There was
upon his back did not materialize. Instead, the flecks of yellow foam upon his lips.
heavy body of De Friers came swaying
“Take it easy, old fellow,” one of the
through the air, and fell beside him on the dirt officers smiled. “If the curses of fur-thieves floor.
amounted to anything the parson would have But the fur-man made no effort to died a hundred times—I guess he has sent regain his feet. Like a lithe-limbed panther the about that many of your breed to the pen
parson stepped toward them and dragged the already.”
limp form of his confederate into the middle
“A hundred and three, counting this
of the room.
last bag.” the pious-faced man nodded
One moment he fumbled over the solemnly.
unconscious man. Then he rose with a slow
Peon of the Snows by Chart Pitt Page 3