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Updated: June 18, 2025
El-Soo was silent. "It is true?" And his one eye burned and bored into her like a fiery gimlet. "It is true," she said. "But I will run away again," she broke out passionately, a moment later. "Always will I run away." "That is for Porportuk to consider," said another of the old men. "It is for us to consider the judgment." "What price did you pay for her?" was demanded of Akoon.
"Who knows but that the things we believe come true?" El-Soo went on. "Why not? The next world to you may be heaven and harps . . . because you have believed heaven and harps; to my father the next world may be a large house where he will sit always at table feasting with God." "And you?" Sister Alberta asked. "What is your next world?" El-Soo hesitated but for a moment.
The years passed. She was eight years old when she entered the Mission; she was sixteen, and the Sisters were corresponding with their superiors in the Order concerning the sending of El-Soo to the United States to complete her education, when a man of her own tribe arrived at Holy Cross and had talk with her. El-Soo was somewhat appalled by him. He was dirty.
"I'll buy you in to be my my sister," Tommy whispered to El-Soo, then called aloud, "Fifteen hundred!" At two thousand one of the Eldorado kings took a hand, and Tommy dropped out. A third time Porportuk swung the club of his wealth, making a clean raise of five hundred dollars. But the Eldorado king's pride was touched. No man could club him. And he swung back another five hundred.
Much to the despair of the Sisters, the brand plucked from the burning went back to the burning. All pleading with El-Soo was vain. There was much argument, expostulation, and weeping. Sister Alberta even revealed to her the project of sending her to the United States. El-Soo stared wide-eyed into the golden vista thus opened up to her, and shook her head. In her eyes persisted another vista.
"It is the custom of all the land to reckon gold at seventeen dollars for each ounce," Porportuk replied. "And this is a business transaction." El-Soo laughed. "It is a new custom," she said. "It began this spring. Last year, and the years before, it was sixteen dollars an ounce. When my father's debt was made, it was sixteen dollars.
Porportuk nodded, and untied the mouths of the sacks. El-Soo, standing at the edge of the bank, tore the papers to shreds and sent them fluttering out over the Yukon. The weighing began, but halted. "Of course, at seventeen dollars," Porportuk had said to Tommy, as he adjusted the scales. "At sixteen dollars," El-Soo said sharply.
Now let the woman be brought to me." Akoon gritted his teeth. The young men took El-Soo by the arms. She did not resist, and was led, her face a sullen flame, to Porportuk. "Sit there at my feet till I have made my talk," he commanded. He paused a moment. "It is true," he said, "I am an old man. Yet can I understand the ways of youth. The fire has not all gone out of me.
"No price did I pay for her," he answered. "She was above price. I did not measure her in gold-dust, nor in dogs, and tents, and furs." The old men debated among themselves and mumbled in undertones. "These old men are ice," Akoon said in English. "I will not listen to their judgment, Porportuk. If you take El-Soo, I will surely kill you." The old men ceased and regarded him suspiciously.
Tommy, the little Englishman, clerk at the trading post, was called in by El-Soo to help. There was nothing but debts, notes overdue, mortgaged properties, and properties mortgaged but worthless. Tommy called him a robber many times as he pondered the compounding of the interest. "Is it a debt, Tommy?" El-Soo asked. "It is a robbery," Tommy answered. "Nevertheless, it is a debt," she persisted.
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