United States or Benin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"And with your cold bed and daughters old enough to be the mother of El-Soo! Ho! ho! ho!" He began to cough and strangle, and the old slaves smote him on the back. "Ho! ho!" he began again, and went off into another paroxysm. Porportuk waited patiently, sipping from his glass and studying the double row of faces down the board. "It is no joke," he said finally. "My speech is well meant."
El-Soo thrust the scoop into the heap, and with a sudden turn whirled the contents out and down to the Yukon in a golden shower. Porportuk seized her wrist as she thrust the scoop a second time into the heap. "It is mine," she said calmly. Porportuk released his grip, but he gritted his teeth and scowled darkly as she continued to scoop the gold into the river till none was left.
I but speak in fairness. It was for this I sent for you, Porportuk. Make out the note." "I have no dealings with the next world," Porportuk made answer slowly. "Have you no thought to meet me before the Great Father!" Klakee-Nah demanded. Then he added, "I shall surely be there." "I have no dealings with the next world," Porportuk repeated sourly. The dying man regarded him with frank amazement.
"But manner of life is neither here nor there," he went on. "We have other business, Porportuk, you and I, to-night. Debts are mischances, and I am in mischance with you. What of my debt, and how great is it?" Porportuk searched in his pouch and brought forth a memorandum. He sipped at his glass and began. "There is the note of August, 1889, for three hundred dollars.
And with equal promptness came the "Eight hundred" of the voyageur. Then Porportuk swung his club again. "Twelve hundred!" he shouted. With a look of poignant disappointment, the voyageur succumbed. There was no further bidding. Tommy worked hard, but could not elicit a bid. El-Soo spoke to Porportuk. "It were good, Porportuk, for you to weigh well your bid.
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.
El-Soo signed the document, and Porportuk folded it and put it away in his pouch. Suddenly his eyes flashed, and in sudden speech he addressed El-Soo. "But it was not your father's debt," he said, "What I paid was the price for you. Your sale is business of to-day and not of last year and the years before.
The winter wore away, and the early spring, and still the claims of Porportuk remained unpaid. He saw El-Soo often and explained to her at length, as he had explained to her father, the way the debt could be cancelled. Also, he brought with him old medicine-men, who elaborated to her the everlasting damnation of her father if the debt were not paid.
Word Of The Day