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Then, catching the light that flamed into the miner's eyes, Petellin hastened to observe: "But you can't get there. It's across the Straits Shelikof Straits." "What of that! We can hire a sail-boat, and " "I ain't got any sail-boat. I lost my sloop last year hunting sea-otter." "We can hire a small boat of some sort, can't we, and get the natives to put us across?
It's more of that damned Company business. They own this whole country, and run it to suit themselves." "She ain't my boat," said Petellin. "You'd ought to have got here a few days sooner." "My God! I'm sorry we waited at the Pass," said Emerson. "The weather couldn't have been any worse that first day than it was when we came across."
But the fisherman only goaded himself into a greater passion, during which Petellin, the storekeeper, entered, and forthwith began to cross himself devoutly. Observing this fervent pantomime, Balt turned upon the trader and directed his outburst at him: "Where in hell is this steamer?" "Out to the westward somewhere." "Well, she's a mail-boat, ain't she? Then why don't she stop here coming back?
Using the Russian as interpreter, he coaxed and wheedled, increasing his offer out of all proportion to the exigencies of the occasion; and still finding them obdurate, in despair he piled every coin he owned upon the counter. But the men only shook their heads and palavered among themselves. "They say it's too cold," translated Petellin. "They will freeze, and money is no good to dead men."
But Petellin's arguments were as ineffective as Emerson's, and after an hour's futile haggling the natives were about to leave when Emerson said: "Ask them what they'll take to sell me a bidarka." "One hundred dollars," Petellin told him, after an instant's parley. Emerson turned to George. "Will you tackle it alone with me?" The fisherman hesitated. "Two of us couldn't make it.
Petellin, the fat little trader, explained that roofs in Katmai had a way of sailing off to seaward when the wind blew. He listened to their plan of crossing the divide and nodded. It could be done, of course, he agreed, but they were foolish to try it, when the Illiamna route was open. Still, now that they were here, he would find dogs for them, and a guide.
Again Petellin importuned them to forego this journey, and again they turned deaf ears to his entreaties and retired early, to awaken with the rickety log store straining at its cables under the force of a blizzard that had blotted out the mountains and was rousing the sea to fury.
"Fifty miles of that kind of water in an open canoe may be just as bad as five hundred unless you're lucky. And I ain't noticed anything so damned lucky about us." "Well, it's that or nothing. It's our only chance. Are you game?" "Come on," cried Big George, "let's find Petellin!" When that worthy heard their desire, he uttered a shriek of denial. "In summer, yes, but now you can't do it.
Gee! this is a shine village." "Then take your medicine like a man, and quit kicking." "If you prefer to swallow your groans, you do it. I like to make a fuss when I suffer. I enjoy it more that way." Again Petellin called them at daylight, and they were off; this time with better success, for the waves had abated sufficiently for them to venture beyond the partial shelter of the bay.
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