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Nat's heart died within him as he imagined the effect these glowing tales would have at Plumfield not that he had wilfully deceived them, but in his letters many things were left untold; and when Carlsen added, with a friendly wink, that he would merely hint at the coming betrothal of the fair Minna and his 'heart's friend', Nat found himself devoutly hoping that this other inconvenient heart's friend might go to the bottom of the sea before he reached Plumfield to blast all his hopes by these tales of a mis-spent winter.
It was not a clever opening, but she seemed to rob him of wit, to an extent. He had yet to know how she stood concerning his presence aboard. Did she countenance the forcible kidnapping of him as a possible tattler? Or ? "My father tells me you have decided to go with us," she said, pleasantly enough, but none too cordially, Rainey thought. "Doctor Carlsen helped me to my decision."
"We are waiting to know whether you agree with us?" replied Carlsen. His voice had altered quality. It held the direct challenge. Lund accepted it. "I don't," he answered dryly. "There ain't enny one of you my equal, an' you've showed it. There ain't enny one of you, from Carlsen to Harris, who'd have the nerve to put it up to me alone.
A hunter named Deming made no misses, and secured first prize of ten dollars in gold, with a man named Beale scoring two behind him, and getting half that amount from Carlsen. Then came the test with the rifles. The weapons were all of the same caliber, well oiled, and in perfect condition.
From the work-shed beyond the barn the strokes of a hammer told Saxon that Carlsen was wire-binding vegetable boxes. Mrs. Paul's cheery soprano, lifted in a hymn, doated through the trees, accompanied by the whirr of an egg-beater. A sharp barking told where Possum still waged hysterical and baffled war on the Douglass squirrels.
And if you murdered the whole ship where would you be? You talk as if you were a little mad. Suppose I told Carlsen of this?" Tamada was smiling again. He seemed to know that Rainey was in no position to betray him if he wished to do so. "I did not say I would do it. And, except under certain circumstances, it do me little good. I do not expect to do it. But it would be easy.
Carlsen drew in his chips and leisurely made a note of the amount. "Quite a while yet to settling-day," he said to the players. "Luck may swing all round the compass before then, boys. All right, Rainey, you needn't wait." Rainey ignored the omitted "Mister."
Rainey gripped the spokes hard until he felt the pressure of his bones against the wood. Carlsen's attitude had had one good effect. His nervousness had disappeared, and a cold rage taken its place. He could cheerfully have attempted to throttle Carlsen without fear of his gun. For that matter, he had faced the pistol once and come off best.
He's a bloody fox, is Carlsen." "When's this coming off?" asked Rainey. "Quick! They're goin' to sight land ter-morrer, they say. I heard that this mornin'. I hid in my bunk. It heads ag'inst the wall of the hunters' mess an', if it's quiet, you can hear what they say. "They ain't goin' in to Bering Strait through Unimak Pass. They're goin' in through Amukat or Seguam Pass.
As for yore standin' as his doctor, all I've got to say is that yo're a damned pore doctor, so fur as the skipper's concerned, ennyway." The two men stood facing each other, Carlsen looking evilly at the giant, whose black glasses warded off his glance. It was wasting looks to glare at a blind man. Equally to sneer.
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