News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1910-10-05

This is certainly swell tepee." Fra
ser remarked. How did you do it?"
II brought my things with me from
Nome"
"Nome!" CALCULATED Emerson quickly.
yes"
"Why. I've been In Nome ever since
the camp was discovered. It's strange
we never met"
II didn't stay there very long; | went
back to Dawson"
Again he fancied the girls eyes held
n vague challenge, but be could not
be sure. for she seated him and then
gave some instructions to the Aleut
! girl. Boyd, becoming absorbed in his
own thoughts, grew more silent as the
signs of refinement and civilization
about him revived memories long
| stifed This was not the effect for
which the girl had striven. Her
| younger guests taciturnity. which grew
as the dinner progressed. piqued her.
| so at the first opportunity she bent her
efforts toward rallying him. He an
swered politely but she was powerless
to shake Off his mood.
At last he spoke:
"You said those watchmen have In
Btructions not to harbor travellers.
Why is that|
1T is the policy Of the companies.
They are afraid somebody will discov-
err gold around here. You see. this is
the greatest salmon river in the world.
The run is tremendous and seems to
be unfailing: hence the cannery people
wish to keep it all to themselves"
81 don't quite understand
ut Is simple enough. Kalvik is so
isolated and the fishing season is so
short that the companies have to send
their crews in from the States and
take them out again every summer.
Now. if gold were discovered here
abouts the fishermen would all quit
and follow the strike which would
mean the ruin of the years catch and
the loss of many hundreds of thou
sands of dollars. Why. this village
would become a city in no time if such
a thing were to happen. The whole
region would fill up with miners. and
not only would labor conditions be en-
tirely upset for years. but the eyes of
the world. being turned this way, 9TH
er people might go into the fishing
business and create competition
which would both influence prices and
deplete the supply of fish inAthe Kali
vik river. So, you see, there are many
reasons why this region is forbidden
to miners. You couldn't buy pound
of food nor get nights lodging here
for kings ransom. The watchmen's
jobs depend upon their unbroken bond
of inhospitality, and the Indians dare
not sell you anything, not even a dog
fish. under penalty of starvation. for
they are dependent upon the compa-
MES stores"
80 that is why you have establish |
ed trading post of your own?"
"Oh. dear no This isn't store
This food Is for my men"
Your men,
"Yes, have crew out in the hills
on grub stake. This is our cache.
While they prospect for gold stand
guard over he provisions"
Fraser churklpd softly Then you
are bucking the salmon trust?"
After n fashion, yes. | knew this
country bad never been gone over. SO
Staked six men. chartered a Srhoon
er and came down here from Nome in
the early spring. We stood off the
Waterman. and when the supply ships
arrived we had these houses compIet-
ed. and my men were out in the hills
where it was hard TO follow them. |
stayed behind and stood the brunt of
things"
But surely they didn't undertake to
iniure you?" said Emerson, now thor
oughly interested in this extraordinary
young woman.
ooh, didn't they she answered.
with a peculiar laugh. You don't APP s
preciate the character of these people.
There is no real code of financial mo- {
rality, and the battle for dollars is the !
bitterest of all contests. OF course, {
being woman. they couldn't very well
attack me personally, but they tried
everything except physical violence, 4
and don't know how long they will
refrain from that. These plants are
owned separately, but they operate I'M
der an agreement with one man at the
head His name is Marsh-WilliS
Marsh-and of course he's not my
friend"
sort of united we stand. divided
we fall" Q
Exactly. That spreads the respon-
sibility and seems to leave nobody
guilty for his evil deeds. The first t
thing they did was to sink my schoon ,
,r. In the morning you will see her a
spars sticking up through the ice out =
N front there. One Of their tugs 'ac. r
,identally' ran her down. although she p
vas at anchor fully 800 feet inside the
channel line, Then Marsh actually
had the effrontery to come here per- :
;onally and demand damages for the
injury 70 his towboat. falsely claiming
here were no lights on the schooner.
When l still remained obdurate he l,
le"- She paused. You may have d
eard of it. He killed one of my men" o.
'Impossiblew calculated Boyd. u