Part 53 (2/2)
”Nothing doing with that party; he's quit like a house cat, and gone to bed.”
”Very well; he's no good, anyhow; he's better out of the way.”
He hurried through the building, now silent and half deserted, gathering a crew; then, leaving only the Orientals and the watchman to guard the plant, he loaded his men into the boats and set out.
All that afternoon and on through the long, murky hours of the night the battle raged on the lower reaches of the Kalvik. Boat crews clashed; half- clad men cursed each other and fought with naked fists, with oars and clubs; and when these failed, they drove at one another with wicked one- tined fish ”pues.” All night the hordes of salmon swarmed upward toward the fatal waters of their birth, through sagging nets that were torn and slit; beneath keels that rocked to the impact of struggling, heedless bodies.
CHAPTER XXIV
WHEREIN ”THE GRANDE DAME” ARRIVES, LADEN WITH DISAPPOINTMENTS
As the sun slanted up between the southward hills, out from the gossamer haze that lay like filmy forest smoke above the ocean came a snow-white yacht. She stole inward past the headlands, as silent as a wraith, leaving a long, black streamer penciled against the sky; so still was the dawn that the breath from her funnel lay like a trail behind her, slowly fading and blending with the colors of the morning.
The waters were gleaming nickel beneath her prow, and she clove them like a blade; against the dove-gray sky her slender rigging was traced as by some finely pointed instrument; her sides were as clean as the stainless b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the gulls that floated near the sh.o.r.e.
As she came proudly up through the fleets of fis.h.i.+ng-boats, perfect in every line and gliding with stately dignity, the grimy little crafts drew aside as if in awe, while tired-eyed men stared silently at her as if at a vision.
To Boyd Emerson she seemed like an angel of mercy, and he stood forth upon the deck of his launch searching her hungrily for the sight of a woman's figure. When he had first seen the s.h.i.+p rounding the point he had uttered a cry, then fallen silent watching her as she drew near, heedless of his surroundings. His heart was leaping, his breath was choking him. It seemed as if he must shout Mildred's name aloud and stretch his arms out to her.
Of course, she would see him as _The Grande Dame_ pa.s.sed--she would be looking for him, he knew. She would be standing there, wet with the dew, searching with all her eyes. Doubtless she had waited patiently at her post from the instant land came into sight. Seized by a sudden panic lest she pa.s.s him unnoticed, he ordered his launch near the yacht's course, where he could command a view of her cabin doors and the wicker chairs upon her deck. His eyes roved over the craft, but all he saw was a uniformed officer upon the bridge and the bronzed faces of the watch staring over the rail. By now _The Grande Dame_ was so close that he might have flung a line to her, and above the m.u.f.fled throbbing of her engines he heard the captain give some low-spoken command. Yet nowhere could he catch a glimpse of Mildred. He saw close-drawn curtains over the cabin windows, indicating that the pa.s.sengers were still asleep. Then, as he stood there, heavy-hearted, drooping with fatigue, his wet body chilled by the morning's breath, _The Grande Dame_ glided past, and he found the sh.e.l.l beneath his feet rocking in her wake.
As he turned sh.o.r.eward George Balt hailed him, and brought his own launch alongside.
”What craft is that?” he inquired.
”She is the Company's yacht with the N. A. P. A. officers aboard.”
The big fellow stared curiously after the retreating s.h.i.+p.
”Some of our boys is hurt pretty bad,” he observed. ”I've told them to take in their nets and go back to the plant.”
”We all need breakfast.”
”I don't want nothing. I'm going over to the trap.”
Emerson shrugged his shoulders listlessly; he was very tired. ”What is the use? It won't pay us to lift it.”
”I've watched that point of land for five years, and I never seen fish act this way before,” Balt growled, stubbornly. ”If they don't strike in to- day, we better close down. Marsh's men cut half our nets and crippled more than half our crew last night.” He began to rumble curses. ”Say! We made a mistake the other day, didn't we? We'd ought to have put that feller away.
It ain't too late yet.”
”Wait! Wayne Wayland is aboard that yacht; I know him. He's a hard man, and I've heard strange stories about him, but I don't believe he knows all that Marsh has been doing. I'm going to see him and tell him everything.”
”S'pose he turns you down?”
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