CHAPTER XVI
KEEKO AND NICOL
It was all so drab, so cheerless. Outside the snow was still piled tothe depth of many feet, the ice still held the river in its chillembrace. But the temperature was rising. The open season was advancing.
Keeko was aware of it. There were weeks of melting to pass yet. Butsoon----
Inside, the vault-like store was warm enough. But it was dark, andsqualid, and it reeked with the taint which only the centuries canimpart. These things impressed themselves never so much upon Keeko asnow, while she sat over the warming stove.
She had just returned from Seal Bay. She had passed most of the winteron the trail with her Indians. She preferred their company in desperatecircumstances to the associations of Fort Duggan. During those longmonths she had planned the future for herself, a future which hadnothing to do with Nicol, but which took him into her calculations. Shepossessed a wonderful faculty for clear thinking. And her decision hadbeen irrevocably taken.
Nicol was leaning on the heavy oaken bench that served him for acounter, and about him, and behind him, were the piled stocks of histrade. He was preoccupied. Keeko was glad enough. She had returned onlyin the execution of her plans, and to prepare for the moment when sheintended to steal her freedom, and shut this man's companionship forever out of her life.
Just now her thoughts were far away as she basked in the warmth of thestove. They were upon the coming spring, the opening river, upon the oldmoose head set up to watch for her coming, and--upon Marcel.
Once she turned her head, and into her pretty eyes there crept a lookwhich was almost of disquiet. The man's dark head and bearded face werebent over the sheet of paper upon which he was scratching with a stub ofpencil. There was a small heap of paper money beside him. There was alsoa largish glass of raw rye whisky, from which he frequently drank. Itwas the sight of this latter that caused the girl's look of disquiet. Itwas the second drink in less than half an hour. She turned away with anadded feeling of repugnance, and she reckoned again the number of weeksthat must pass before her freedom came.
It was at the moment of her turning back to the stove that thescratching of the pencil ceased. The man looked up, and his bold smilingeyes were turned upon the girl. He drained his glass noisily while hiseyes remained upon the pretty buckskin-clad figure that so lewdlyattracted him. There was nothing pleasant in the smile. And the glazingof his eyes was that of excessive alcoholism, and primitive, animalpassion. He was unobserved, and he knew there was no need to disguisehis feelings.
After a while he crushed the pile of paper money into a hip pocket, andhelped himself liberally to more of the spirit.
"It's pretty darn good," he said abruptly, with an appreciative smack ofthe lips under his curtain of whiskers.
"You mean--?" Keeko did not look round.
"Why, the price." Nicol laughed harshly.
Keeko heard him drink. She heard him gasp with the scorch of the liquorpassing down his throat. She waited.
The man moved round and came across to the stove. His gait was unsteadyand Keeko was aware of it. She hated, and well-nigh feared the proximityof a man who drugged himself with alcohol on every pretext and at everyopportunity.
"Say, you've done well, kid," Nicol exclaimed, with coarse familiarity,and with the intention of conciliation. "Sixteen hundred dollars forthose pelts? Gee! You surely must have set Lorson hating you bad."
Keeko was torn by emotions she was powerless to check as she desired.She knew this man for all he was. She knew that he was little betterthan a savage animal, and, at moments, when alcohol had completed itswork, was something even more to be feared.
Of the sober savage in him she had no fear. She had the means to dealwith that always to her hand. But influenced by drink it was a differentmatter. That was his condition now. It was a condition to disturb anyyoung, lonely woman.
She knew she had a difficult part to play. But her mind was made up. Shewould play it so long as it would serve. After that----
She shook her head.
"No," she said coldly, without looking up. "Guess he didn't know hisdollars were going to Fort Duggan. If he had, maybe it would have beendifferent. He doesn't figger to pay big money to the folks he--owns. I'mjust a free trader to him. He doesn't even know my name. Maybe he hatesfree traders. But he's ready to pay if the pelts are fine quality. Hedidn't worry a thing."
The man's amiability beamed.
"You're a smart kid," he said, with his bold eyes on the pretty figurewhich the girl's mannish buckskin had no power to conceal.
Again she shook her head.
"The North teaches a mighty tough lesson. If you don't learn it goodyou're beat right away." Keeko suddenly looked up, and her eyes weregazing directly into the man's. "I've learned a heap. I'm not yearningto learn more. Still--Say, there's times I feel I'd like to get back tothe sheltered days when the school-ma'm sat around over a girl till shehated herself. If I'm smart I'm no smarter than I need to be."
"No."
Nicol's eyes were almost devouring as Keeko turned back to the stove.
"We've all got to be smart if we're going to lay hold of the things heldout to us," he said. He laughed cynically. "That's how I always figger.Guess I haven't a notion to miss a thing now. The days of foolishnessare over."
Keeko was well enough aware of the thoughts which lay at the back of herown words. Now she strove to penetrate his.
"Yes," she said with a quiet confidence which she by no means felt.
Ease, confidence could never be hers in this man's presence, for all shehad been brought up to look on him as a step-father. The thoughts of theweeks lying ahead were in her mind. They were always there now. Time.She was playing for time. So she adopted the tone and attitude bestsuited to help her.
After a moment's silence the man suddenly flung out his hands. It was amovement expressive of his volcanic temper. That which had for itsinspiration cynical disregard for anything and everything whichinterfered with the fulfilment of his own selfish desire.
"Hell!" he cried. "What's the use talking? We got to fix things righthere and now. It's for you, as it's for me. We've got to play the gametogether. There's no other way. Say, I got to make a trip when the icebreaks. It's a hell of a trip. It's going to hand us one of the thingsheld out to us." He laughed harshly. "I've got to grab it for both ofus. I need you to stop around while I'm away. You can run this layoutjust as you fancy to. It don't matter a curse to me, so you stoparound."
"What's the trip?" There was a sharpness in the girl's question whichhad not been in her tone before. "What's the thing held out that'sfor--both of us?"
"Money. Big money."
"Big money?"
In a moment the girl's every faculty became alert.
Nicol realized the change. His temper resented it. But his cunningrobbed him of the retort that leapt to his lips. And all the while thegirl's cold, pretty eyes provoked those passions in him which the deadmother had dreaded. Keeko could have no understanding of the unbridledlicence rampant in his besotted body.
He nodded.
"It's so big I just can't get all it means--yet. You and me--we're goingto be partners in it."
"Partners?"
"Sure."
"What's needed from me?"
Keeko's suspicions were stirring When Nicol talked of "big money" andsnatching that held out to him, it was not easy to believe in thehonesty of it all.
"Just stop around till I get back."
The girl withdrew her gaze and sat with hands spread out to the warmthof the stove.
"You best tell me," she said quietly but firmly.
She looked for an explosion and she was not disappointed. The hot bloodrushed to the man's bloated cheeks. His eyes lit furiously. He hadlooked for prompt acquiescence. It had been his habit to browbeat thewoman who had followed him throughout a long career of crime, and itdrove him half crazy to find opposition in her daughter. There could beno doubt of Keeko's determination. She was tacitly demanding her
placein the proposed partnership.
"I'm telling nothing--not a darn thing. It's up to me, and no concern ofanyone else. Get that. We're either partners or crosswise. And I guessit's not healthy getting crosswise with me. You'll share in the result.Ain't that good enough? All I need from you is to sit around till I getback."
Keeko choked back the angry retort she longed to hurl at him. Thosenightmare weeks that lay ahead were uppermost in her mind. They must bebridged at any cost. So she smiled in a fashion that stirred the man'spulses and melted his swift wrath instantly.
"Say, you're asking me to partner in this thing whatever it is," Keekosaid in a disarming fashion. "You're asking me to act the grown woman,and treating me like a foolish kid. You guessed just now I was smart.Well? Let's be reasonable folk. Here, listen. You're talking of bigmoney. I guess I know all about big money in this country. The onlyfeller north of 60 deg. who can handle and pay big money is Lorson Harris.And he only reckons to pay big money for something he's looking for bad.The thing he needs bad generally has a deal of dirt in it. Well, howmuch dirt is there to this trip while I sit around? Guess I'm either awoman or a kid. If I'm a kid I can't run the layout with you away. IfI'm a woman I'll be treated that way. There's nothing in the North toscare me, not even your bluff, any more than Lorson Harris. But tell itall. We'll stand even then. Anyway it's not good betting blind, and Idon't feel like acting that way."
The girl's smile robbed her determination of its offence. And Nicol fellfor it. The bully in him was struggling with those purposes, thatpassion which was his greatest weakness. The struggle was brief enoughas such a struggle is bound to be. In a moment he capitulated.
"Say," he cried, "you'd break up the patience of Satan. Here, thething's worth a hundred thousand dollars."
"A hundred thousand dollars?"
The startled tone, the amazement in Keeko's eyes, were genuine enough,and the man grinned his enjoyment.
"Sure," Nicol laughed in the delight of his success. "Do you know whatit means? How'd you fancy living like a swell woman on the world's best,and with folks around you to act the way you say? How'd you feel withpockets stuffed with dollars, and wearing swell gowns instead of thedarn buckskin that hides up half the woman in you? How'd you like livingwhere you've as much chance of snow as eating ice cream in hell, andsupping your tea without needing to blow aside the dead flies floatingon top to make a place for your dandy lips? It means that--all that--andmore, and it's for you and me."
The girl had recovered from her surprise. Her worst suspicions wereconfirmed. Her wits were alert, sharpened by the hideous necessity ofplacating this amazing creature she dared not openly flout.
She smiled again. She threw into her smile all the blandness her sexalone can command.
"I guess you're right. It's Lorson all right. It's too good to let slip.Well?"
"Too good? Well, I'd smile. Too good? Gee!" Nicol was wholly deceived asKeeko intended him to be. He turned abruptly away to the counter wherethe bottle of rye whisky stood and helped himself to a full measure ofit. He drank it down at a gulp. He had won the day. He had swept asidethe antagonism he had felt threatened his ultimate purposes. He was onthe high road to achieving all he had promised the dead mother in hertortured moments. He felt that Keeko was dazzled. He was buying her ashe believed he could buy any woman. The rest would be easy. It onlyneeded a little patience, a little care. So he drank without fear of thepotent spirit he loved.
He staggered back to the stove and stood swaying beside the girl. And herested one powerful hand on her buckskin-clad shoulder while his lewdfingers moved, gently caressing the soft flesh underneath. A wild,panicky desire set Keeko half mad to fling his filthy hand from itscontact. But she resisted the impulse. She knew she dared not risk it inhis present mood and condition. Filled with unutterable loathing shesubmitted to it.
"Well?" she demanded, while she forced the smile to her eyes again.
The man leered down at her out of his inflamed eyes. He shook his headwith maudlin indulgence.
"You don't need to know any more," he said thickly. "What's the use?You're a gal with clean notions. Guess my hands are used to the dirtysort of work Lorson needs."
"Then it is Lorson?"
"Lorson? Sure it's Lorson. Is there any other dirty swine in the Northready to buy the lives of men?"
"Life?"
"Oh, hell! Yes," the man cried, with a gesture of tolerant impatience."Of course it's life. Lorson! A hundred thousand dollars! It couldn't befor a thing less than life. It don't rattle me any."
Suddenly he flung caution to the winds. His passions were aflame, andhis bemused brain was incapable of reckoning cost.
"It's some folks up north," he went on. "They've a secret trade. Lorsonneeds that trade. He's had 'em trailed, but they're wise, and they'vefooled him all the time. He's crazy about it, and----"
Keeko had risen abruptly from her seat. The movement had rid her ofthose hideously searching fingers. She could stand them no longer. Shestood up with one foot resting on the bench she had vacated, tilting it,and holding it balanced. Her smile had gone, but she was searching thebleared eyes of the man.
"He wants them--murdered!" she said.
But her tone, her look conveyed nothing to the man who had been herstep-father. He went on ignoring the interruption completely.
"He means to get them. He set it up to me to locate 'em last summerwhile you were on the river. It was a tough trip, but I beat all Ineeded out of the hides of an outfit of the Shaunekuk, and I got thelocation of their post all right. Gee!" He laughed drunkenly. "Oh, yes,I got all the word I need, an' I guess there ain't a soul but me knowsit. Well, I'm going along up north this opening, and I'm going to finishthe job, and when it's done, and Lorson's handed the cash-pappy over,and it's set deep in my dip, why, then I'll pass him all he needs. Hecan get all I know--then. It's a cinch that hundred thou----"
"Who are the folks Lorson means to murder? Do I know them? Have I----?"
The man shook his head. The change in the girl's tone was lost upon him.
"Guess not. I'd say no one knows 'em except Tough Alroy and Lorson.They're an outfit carrying on a trade under the name of Brand--MarcelBrand----"
The bench under the girl's moccasined foot crashed to the ground.Instantly she was stooping over it.
When Keeko finally looked up the bench was under her foot again,balanced as before, and she was smiling. She was pale under the weathertanning of her face. That was all. Her mouth was set, and sharp lineswere drawn about it. But she smiled. Oh, how she smiled.
Her lips parted. Her parching tongue moved in a vain effort to moistenthem. She cleared her throat which was dry--dry as a lime kiln. When shespoke it was with effort, and her voice had lost its usual quality.
"Marcel--Marcel Brand," she said. "It--it sounds foreign. Maybe it'sFrench-Canadian."
The man shrugged. The nationality of the name did not concern him. Hewas not even thinking of the murder for which he was to receive a price.It was of the girl he was thinking with all the animal there was in him.The alcohol he had consumed was driving him to let go all control.
"Don't know. Can't say," he said indifferently. "It don't matter twocents to me. It's the dollars when I've done and what they'll buy me.Say, kid--" he drew a long breath like a man preparing for aplunge--"what's the matter with us two making out together? I'll be ableto buy you----"
"You're my step-father!" Keeko's eyes lit curiously.
"Step-father?" The man laughed as if he had just listened to somethingprofoundly humorous. "Step-father?" He shook his head. He moved a stepnearer, his swaying body ill-balanced as he approached. "I'm nostep-father to you, kid. There ain't a sign of relationship. You're yourmother's kid by her man, the man she married, and she and I never sawthe inside of a church together. She couldn't have married me if I'dfelt that way. Her man's alive I guess. Leastways, we ain't heard of hisdeath. I'm no step-father of yours. That's the stuff she handed you soyou wouldn't think bad of her. I couldn't marry her
and didn't want to,but I can marry you. See? And this hundred thousand dollars makes it soI can hand you----"
He lurched forward, his arms out-held. And as he came Keeko sprang back.
"Quit it!" she threatened. "Quit! A step nearer and----"
But the man's passions were aflame. He laughed roughly.
"Quit nothing," he cried. "You can't fool me. I'm out to make good foryou, and you're standing in. You're going to----"
"You fool man!"
Keeko's tone was cold and her words full of contempt. The white ring ofher gun barrel covered him squarely. It was directed at the pit of hisstomach, while her eyes, alight with cold purpose, stared unflinchinglyinto his drunk and passion-distorted face.
The man's movement ceased. The animal shining in his eyes changed to asudden, livid fury. The standing veins at his temples visibly pulsed,and Keeko knew he was only gathering afresh the forces which her actionhad momentarily paralyzed. With lightning impulse she seized the chanceafforded her.
"You cur! You filthy brute!" she cried fiercely. "Do you think you canplay me as you play the miserable women of the Shaunekuks? Get sense asquick as you know how. Get sense. Do you hear? Get out and do the workyou reckon to do, but don't dare to make an inch towards me, or you'llnever live to do the murder you're reckoning on."
It was the promptness, the strength and nerve of it all that achievedthe girl's purpose. There was no pretence now. Her eyes were alight witha sober, frigid hate and determination.
The man understood. His fury was that of a man whose lusts are thwarted,but his helplessness before the threatening gun was sufficientlyobvious.
He sobered abruptly, as once before Keeko had sobered him.
"You can put up your gun," he cried savagely.
He waited. As the girl ignored his invitation he turned abruptly to thecounter.
But he was not permitted to reach it. Keeko's voice rang stridentlyamongst the rafters of the place.
"Stop!"
Nicol stopped and turned.
"You can stop right there," the girl said coldly. "I'm going right out.I'm quitting. You best understand that. I'm quitting, and I'm taking myoutfit with me. I don't pass another night under this roof. You bestremember I've all I need to fight you. If you get out after me you'llget shot like the dog you are. So you best think--hard."
Keeko moved towards the door. Not for one moment did she turn her back,or lower her gun. And the man's furious eyes followed her till the slamof the door shut her out from his view.
For awhile Nicol remained staring at the dark timbers of the closeddoor. For awhile it seemed as if his bemused brain failed to grasp themeaning of that which had happened. Then he turned swiftly. He reachedthe counter and drained the bottle of the last dregs of the spirit itcontained. Then, reaching under the counter, he possessed himself of thegun that was always lying there, and made for the door and flung itopen.
He stood in the doorway seeking a sight of the girl he had marked downfor his own. But there was none. She was nowhere to be seen. Only helooked out upon, the snow, and the woods, and the ice-bound river. So,after awhile, he seemed to change his mind. He closed the door andreturned to the stove and seated himself on the bench beside it.
* * * * *
Keeko was with her Indians at work. Snake Foot, and Med'cine Charlie,and Little One Man were working as they always worked for the whitewoman they loved.
The outfit with which they had returned from Seal Bay was changed. Thedogs were fresh, and the long sled was laden with a canoe that wassecurely lashed to it. The blankets and stores were loaded in the frailbody of the light vessel.
Keeko's plan was clear in her mind, and urgency was speeding her effortsand the efforts of her helpers. She had only one thought now. Itwas--Marcel. She knew. Oh, yes. There could be no doubt. For her therewas only one Marcel. There could be no other. It was Nicol's purpose tomurder him and his people. It was for her to defeat that purpose.
Daylight was at its last extremity when the work was completed. And,while Keeko enveloped herself in her heavy Arctic furs, and secured thelashings of her snow-shoes, Little One Man put the only question he hadasked as to the journey about to begin.
"We mak' him--yes?" he said, his parchment-like eyelids blinking hisenquiry.
"North." Keeko's answer came promptly. "Guess we follow the river tillthe ice breaks up. Then we camp, and I make the rest by the water."
"Oh, yes. Him moose head. Yes? And him big hunter--Marcel?"
Keeko smiled into the dusky face of her faithful ally.
"That's so--if God wills it."