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Updated: June 12, 2025
"An' we had a hard an' tight agreement drawn up on paper, signed, witnessed an' recorded. 'Course it holds him as well as it holds me, but he gits the long end of that stick. W'en I read, or got it read to me, in the Seattle News-Courier, that the Karluk was listed as 'Arrived' in San Francisco, it was all I could do to git carfare an' grub money.
Tamada's story held the elements of truth. Even Lund nodded in reserved affirmation. "Also I ship on Karluk as cook because of perhaps trouble if some one know me in San Francisco. I think much better if they do not see me. I have a plan. Also I want my share of gold. Suppose that gunboat find me, find out about gold, they will not give me reward. You do not know Japanese.
The sheets were well flattened, the wind almost abeam, and there was no need to change the set of fore and main. Forward, the men jumped to handle the headsails. The Karluk started to spin about on its keel, instinct to the changing plane of the rudder.
If the sun's arc above the horizon had been longer, its rays more vertical, the ice must infallibly have melted and freed the Karluk, for it was salt-water ice, and there were times when the thermometer stayed above its freezing point for two or three hours around noon. Lund gave the holding floe scant attention.
He felt as if he had been fighting for an hour, yet it had all taken place during the leap of the Karluk between two long swells that she had negotiated with a sidelong lurch to the cross seas and wind. Rainey came up uppermost. The hunter's head struck the rail heavily. His shoulder was free, but he could see ravelings of his coat in the other's teeth.
And all this time the Karluk would be thrashing north, well out to sea, unsighted, perhaps, for all her trip, along that coast of fogs. Rainey had disappeared, dropped out of sight. He would be a front-page wonder for a day, then drop to paragraphs for a day or so more, and that would be the end of it. But they had made him comfortable.
A sudden wind materialized from the north, stiffening the canvas with its ice-laden breath, glazing the schooner wherever moisture dripped, bringing up an angry scud of clouds that fought with the moon. The sea appeared to have thickened. The Karluk went sluggishly, as if she was sailing in a sea of treacle. "Half slush already," said Lund. "We're in for a real cold snap.
For the time being, the safety of the Karluk and the successful carrying out of the purpose of the trip took all of Lund's attention and energy. Twice he had been thwarted by the weather from gleaning his golden harvest, and it began to look as if the third attempt might be no more fortunate. "The Karluk's stout," he said once, "but she ain't built for the Arctic.
Won't you accept it? Perhaps, later, we can talk this matter out. I am upset. But you'll accept the apology, and believe me?" She put out her hand across the table and Rainey gripped it. "We'll be friends?" she asked. "I need a friend aboard the Karluk, Mr. Rainey." He experienced a revulsion of feeling toward her.
Supposing that card of his did win, how could they handle the schooner? He, in his capacity of eyes for Lund, would be about as competent as a poodle trying to lead a blind pedler out of a maze. The lookout broke in on his mulling over with a sudden shout. "Ice! Ice! Close on the starboard bow!" Rainey put the helm over, throwing the Karluk on the opposite tack.
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