tly sickening, being out like this
with nothing to eat. Wouldn't have thought a fellow'd feel so bad after
only a day of it. Have you ever been out without grub?" said Peter
cheerfully, warming his hands at the blaze.

"Forty days and nights," said the stranger.

"Forty days! Ph--e--ew!" said Peter. "You must have have had a lot to
drink, or you wouldn't have stood it. I was feeling blue enough when you
turned up, but I'm better now, warmer."

Peter Halket re-arranged the logs on the fire.

"In the employ of the Chartered Company, I suppose?" said Peter, looking
into the fire he had made.

"No," said the stranger; "I have nothing to do with the Chartered
Company."

"Oh," said Peter, "I don't wonder, then, that things aren't looking very
smart with you! There's not too much cakes and ale up here for those
that do belong to it, if they're not big-wigs, and none at all for those
who don't. I tried it when I first came up here. I was with a prospector
who was hooked on to the Company somehow, but I worked on my own account
for the prospector by the day. I tell you what, it's not the men
who work up here who make the money; it's the big-wigs who get the
concessions!"

Peter felt exhilarated by the presence of the stranger. That one unarmed
man had robbed him of all fear.

Seeing that the stranger did not take up the thread of conversation, he
went on after a time: "It wasn't such a bad life, though. I only wish I
was back there again. I had two huts to myself, and a couple of nigger
girls. It's better fun," said Peter, after a while, "having these black
women than whites. The whites you've got to support, but the niggers
support you! And when you've done with them you can just get rid of
them. I'm all for the nigger gals." Peter laughed. But the stranger sat
motionless with his arms about his knees.

"You got any girls?" said Peter. "Care for niggers?"

"I love all women," said the stranger, refolding his arms about his
knees.

"Oh, you do, do you?" said Peter. "Well, I'm pretty sick of them. I had
bother enough with mine," he said genially, warming his hands by the
fire, and then interlocking the fingers and turning the palms towards
the blaze as one who prepares to enjoy a good talk. "One girl was only
fifteen; I got her cheap from a policeman who was living with her, and
she wasn't much. But the other, by Gad! I never saw another nigger like
her; well set up, I tell you, and as straight as that--" said Peter