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Updated: June 6, 2025
Shorty cursed the universe with less geniality than usual, and looked at Kit. "We'll be the last boat this year to make Dawson," Kit said. "But they ain't no water, Smoke." "Then we'll ride the ice down. Come on." Futilely protesting, Sprague and Stine were bundled on board. For half an hour, with axes, Kit and Shorty struggled to cut a way into the swift but solid stream.
"Sure," Shorty affirmed. "It was just what I was stopping to think about. I knew there was some reason I ought to do it." Again they turned to go, but Sprague and Stine made no movement. "Good luck, Smoke," Sprague called to him. "I'll er " He hesitated. "I'll just stay here and watch you." "We need three men in the boat, two at the oars and one at the steering-sweep," Kit said quietly.
Everywhere men were at work, and at work desperately, for the closing down of winter was so imminent that it was a gamble whether or not they would get across the great chain of lakes before the freeze-up. Yet, when Kit arrived at the tent of Messrs Sprague and Stine, he did not find them stirring.
They had not gone a hundred yards when they met Stine and Sprague coming down. "Where are you going?" the latter demanded. "To fetch that other boat through," Shorty answered. "No you're not. It's getting dark. You two are going to pitch camp." So huge was Kit's disgust that he forebore to speak. "He's got his wife with him," Shorty said. "That's his lookout," Stine contributed.
He could eat anything, in any quantity, and be unaware that he possessed a digestion. Shorty he found voluble and pessimistic, and from him he received surprising tips concerning their bosses and ominous forecasts of the expedition. Thomas Stanley Sprague was a budding mining engineer and the son of a millionaire. Doctor Adolph Stine was also the son of a wealthy father.
"This is mutiny," Stine broke in. "You were engaged to obey orders." Shorty turned on him. "Oh, you'll get yours as soon as I finish with your pardner, you little hog-wallopin' snooper, you." "Sprague," Kit said, "I'll give you just thirty seconds to put away that gun and get that oar out." Sprague hesitated, gave a short hysterical laugh, put the revolver away and bent his back to the work.
Between Linderman and Lake Bennet was a portage. The boat, lightly loaded, was lined down the small but violent connecting stream, and here Kit learned a vast deal more about boats and water. But when it came to packing the outfit, Stine and Sprague disappeared, and their men spent two days of back-breaking toil in getting the outfit across.
Ah! there they are. Quick-eyed Vittoria has seen the cavalcade first, and dances off to tell Ermentrude and Stine time enough to prepare their last batch of fritters for the new-comers; Ebbo and Gotz rush headlong down the hillside; and the Lady Baroness lays down her distaff, and gazes with eyes of satisfied content at the small party of horsemen climbing up the footpath.
There was only one spoon, a long-handled one, and they dipped, turn and turn about, into the pot. Kit was filled with an immense certitude that in all his life he had never tasted anything so good. "Lord, man," he mumbled between chews, "I never knew what appetite was till I hit the trail." Sprague and Stine arrived in the midst of this pleasant occupation. "What's the delay?" Sprague complained.
At least Lea was doing something constructive; he could look in on her. He opened the door to the lab with a feeling of pleasant anticipation. It froze and shattered instantly. Her microscope was hooded and she was gone. She's having dinner, he thought, or she's in the hospital. The hospital was on the floor below, and he went there first. "Of course she's here!" Dr. Stine grumbled.
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