"
"Quite right! And you may count on the hearty co-operation of the
police, Mr. Welse." The speaker, a strong-faced, grizzled man,
heavy-set and of military bearing, pulled up his collar and rested his
hand on the door-knob. "I see already, thanks to you, the newcomers
are beginning to sell their outfits and buy dogs. Lord! won't there be
a stampede out over the ice as soon as the river closes down! And each
that sells a thousand pounds of grub and goes lessens the proposition
by one empty stomach and fills another that remains. When does the
Laura start?"
"This morning, with three hundred grubless men aboard. Would that they
were three thousand!"
Amen to that! And by the way, when does your daughter arrive?"
"'Most any day, now." Jacob Welse's eyes warmed. "And I want you to
dinner when she does, and bring along a bunch of your young bucks from
the Barracks. I don't know all their names, but just the same extend
the invitation as though from me personally. I haven't cultivated the
social side much,--no time, but see to it that the girl enjoys herself.
Fresh from the States and London, and she's liable to feel lonesome.
You understand."
Jacob Welse closed the door, tilted his chair back, and cocked his feet
on the guard-rail of the stove. For one half-minute a girlish vision
wavered in the shimmering air above the stove, then merged into a woman
of fair Saxon type.
Pages:
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71