The only bad effect of all this was to make the lives of Mrs. Schoville
and divers others of her sex more monotonous, and to cause them to lose
faith in certain hoary and inconsequent maxims. Furthermore, Captain
Alexander, as highest official, was a power in the land, and Jacob
Welse was the Company, and there was a superstition extant concerning
the unwisdom of being on indifferent terms with the Company. And the
time was not long till probably a bare half-dozen remained in outer
cold, and they were considered a warped lot, anyway.
CHAPTER XXII
Quite an exodus took place in Dawson in the spring. Men, because they
had made stakes, and other men, because they had made none, bought up
the available dogs and rushed out for Dyea over the last ice.
Incidentally, it was discovered that Dave Harney possessed most of
these dogs.
"Going out?" Jacob Welse asked him on a day when the meridian sun for
the first time felt faintly warm to the naked skin.
"Well, I calkilate not. I'm clearin' three dollars a pair on the
moccasins I cornered, to say nothing but saw wood on the boots. Say,
Welse, not that my nose is out of joint, but you jest cinched me
everlastin' on sugar, didn't you?"
Jacob Welse smiled.
"And by the Jimcracky I'm squared! Got any rubber boots?"
"No; went out of stock early in the winter." Dave snickered slowly.
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