d up to the front of the stove with divers articles of damp
clothing spread likewise to the heat.

"Thought you said you never were married?" he asked.

"Did I? No more was I--that is--yes, by Gawd! I was. And as good a
woman as ever cooked grub for a man."

"Slipped her moorings?" Dick symbolized infinity with a wave of his hand.

"Ay."

"Childbirth," he added, after a moment's pause.

The beans bubbled rowdily on the front lid, and he pushed the pot back to
a cooler surface. After that he investigated the biscuits, tested them
with a splinter of wood, and placed them aside under cover of a damp
cloth. Dick, after the manner of his kind, stifled his interest and
waited silently. "A different woman to Molly. Siwash."

Dick nodded his understanding.

"Not so proud and wilful, but stick by a fellow through thick and thin.
Sling a paddle with the next and starve as contentedly as Job. Go
for'ard when the sloop's nose was more often under than not, and take in
sail like a man. Went prospecting once, up Teslin way, past Surprise
Lake and the Little Yellow-Head. Grub gave out, and we ate the dogs.
Dogs gave out, and we ate harnesses, moccasins, and furs. Never a
whimper; never a pick-me-up-and-carry-me. Before we went she said look
out for grub, but when it happened, never a I-told-you-so. 'Never mind,
Tommy,' she'd say, day after day, that weak she could bare lift a snow-
shoe and her feet raw with the work. 'Never mind. I'd sooner be flat-
bellied of hunger and be your woman, Tommy, than have a _potlach_ every
day and be Chief George's _klooch_.' George was chief of the Chilcoots,
you know, and wanted her bad.

"Great days, those. Was a likely chap myself when I struck the coast.
Jumped a whaler, the _Pole Star_, at Unalaska, and worked my way down to
Sitka on an otter hunter. Picked up with Happy Jack there--know him?"

"Had charge of my traps for me," Dick answered, "down on the Columbia.
Pretty wild, wasn't he, with a warm place in his heart for whiskey and
women?"

"The very chap. Went trading with him for a couple of seasons--_hooch_,
and blankets, and such stuff. Then got a sloop of my own, and not to cut
him out, came down Juneau way. That's where I met Killisnoo; I called
her Tilly for short. Met her at a squaw dance down on the beach. Chief
George had finished the year's trade with the Sticks over the Passes, and
was down from Dyea with half his tribe. No end of Siwashes at the da