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"Then it would seem I owe you a sum of money which I cannot pay . . . in this world?" Porportuk nodded and glanced down the table. "Then it would seem that you, Porportuk, are a poor business man," Klakee- Nah said slyly. And boldly Porportuk made answer, "No; there is security yet untouched." "What!" cried Klakee-Nah. "Have I still property? Name it, and it is yours, and the debt is no more."
Porportuk once took it upon himself to chide El-Soo upon the wasteful way of life in the large house it was when he had about absorbed the last of Klakee-Nah's wealth but he never ventured so to chide again. El-Soo, like her father, was an aristocrat, as disdainful of money as he, and with an equal sense of honour as finely strung.
"I know naught of the next world," Porportuk explained. "I do business in this world." Klakee-Nah's face cleared. "This comes of sleeping cold of nights," he laughed. He pondered for a space, then said, "It is in this world that you must be paid. There remains to me this house. Take it, and burn the debt in the candle there." "It is an old house and not worth the money," Porportuk made answer.
And Porportuk, always a leap behind, or a leap this side or that, like a lean hound strained after her. They crossed the open ground beyond the encampment and disappeared in the forest. Tana-naw Station waited their reappearance, and long and vainly it waited.
The story was called The Wit of Porportuk, and it presented a native chief in almost baronial state, with slaves waiting upon him in a large banqueting hall and I know not what accumulated wealth of furs and gold. Such pictures are far more flagrantly untrue to any conditions that ever existed in Alaska than anything Fenimore Cooper wrote about the Five Nations.
"It is for Porportuk to measure the strength his age," said he who bled at the mouth. "We be old men. Behold! Age is never so old as youth would measure it." And the circle of old men champed their gums, and nodded approvingly, and coughed. "I told him that I would never be his wife," said El-Soo. "Yet you took from him twenty-six times all that we possess?" asked a one- eyed old man.
And while Tommy's "Going going going " dominated the air, the slave went up to Akoon and spoke in a low voice in his ear. Akoon made no sign that he had heard, though El-Soo watched him anxiously. "Gone!" Tommy's voice rang out. "To Porportuk, for twenty-six thousand dollars." Porportuk glanced uneasily at Akoon. All eyes were centred upon Akoon, but he did nothing.
Then the unexpected happened. A still heavier club was swung. In the pause that ensued, the gambler, who had scented a speculation and formed a syndicate with several of his fellows, bid sixteen thousand dollars. "Seventeen thousand," Porportuk said weakly. "Eighteen thousand," said the king. Porportuk gathered his strength. "Twenty thousand." The syndicate dropped out.
And Porportuk came in from the outside frost to look with disapproving eyes upon the meat and wine on the table for which he had paid. But as he looked down the length of flushed faces to the far end and saw the face of El-Soo, the light in his eyes flared up, and for a moment the disapproval vanished. Place was made for him at Klakee-Nah's side, and a glass placed before him.
"Five hundred dollars!" he bid in a loud voice, then looked about him proudly to note the effect. He was minded to use his great wealth as a bludgeon with which to stun all competition at the start. But one of the voyageurs, looking on El- Soo with sparkling eyes, raised the bid a hundred. "Seven hundred!" Porportuk returned promptly.
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