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He fell asleep over his food, and his sleep was heavy and beastly, save when he was aroused, screaming with agony, by the cramps in his legs. Every part of him ached. He tramped on raw blisters; yet even this was easier than the fearful bruising his feet received on the water-rounded rocks of the Dyea Flats, across which the trail led for two miles.
Fair and flaxen-haired, typically Saxon, was the likeness she had drawn, filled out largely with knowledge gained from her father and from old Andy of the Dyea Post. The discussion had then turned upon the race in general, and Frona had said things in the heat of enthusiasm which affected the more conservative mind of Corliss as dangerous and not solidly based on fact.
Hundreds of men, with money but no food, had been compelled to leave the country. Many had gone down the river on the last water, and many more with barely enough food to last, had walked the six hundred miles over the ice to Dyea. Smoke met Shorty in the warm saloon, and found the latter jubilant.
The Countess shrugged unconcernedly. "As for the rice being stolen before he " "'Countess. Ha!" Jim burst forth again. "Swell countess you are! The Dyea dance-halls are full of 'countesses' like you counting percentage checks. Boys, who are you going to believe? She slept all night " McCaskey got no further, for with a cry of rage Pierce Phillips set his muscles and landed upon him.
By the firelight his sharp eyes scanned the woe in her face, but he received the extraordinary command as though it were the most usual thing in the world. "Oui, madame," he assented. "Which way? Dawson?" "No," she answered, lightly enough; "up; out; Dyea."
"I am down, a thing to make a jest upon, a thing to pity, but I promise you that I can drag you with me. My kisses have cheapened you, eh? Then how must you have felt at Happy Camp on the Dyea Trail?" As though in answer, Corliss swung down upon them with the tow-rope. Frona beckoned a greeting to him.
The Dyea River as of old roared turbulently down to the sea; but its ancient banks were gored by the feet of many men, and these men labored in surging rows at the dripping tow-lines, and the deep-laden boats followed them as they fought their upward way.
Here the Dyea River became a rushing mountain torrent, plunging out of a dark canyon from the glaciers that fed it far above. And here, early next morning, he beheld a little man weighing no more than a hundred, staggering along a foot-log under all of a hundred pounds of flour strapped on his back.
"At Dyea I met Perry and together we returned to Skagway in a small sailing boat. The weather was very cold and as the tide was out we were obliged to wade through the pools in our moccasins. When we embarked we were soaked to the hip and our clothes were frozen like boards."
"There!" leaning swiftly to him and kissing him. "How could I remember the Dyea days and be angry?" "Ah, Frona darlin', well may ye say it. I'm the dust iv the dirt under yer feet, an' ye may walk on me anything save get mad. I cud die for ye, swing for ye, to make ye happy.
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