19. Dogs
We returned to the shaft with gusto, as Roland began to make a second pile of gravel next to the discarded muck. We wouldn’t be able to use the sluices until spring, so there was no way to know how much gold we were truly bringing up. But given the promising start, none of us doubted that every shovelful was one step closer to making us rich beyond anything we’d imagined.
That night, Steve took out a flask of brandy. “I’ve been saving this for a special occasion,” he said, splashing it into our tin cups. “And I’d say this counts.”
“See, my girl?” Roland said, turning to Anna. “I told you, didn’t I? You’ll live like a queen as soon as we get back to Seattle.”
For some reason she glanced at Eleanor, before turning to her husband. “It will be nice to have someone else do all the cooking and cleaning for me.”
“Exactly! The only reason you’ll have to lift a finger will be so I can put another diamond ring on it.”
“I might buy a yacht,” Steve mused. “Sail to Tahiti and lay on a warm beach for the rest of my life.”
“That sounds amazing,” I said.
His smile made my heart swell in my chest. “You should join me, then.”
The fantasy seemed so real, I could reach out and touch it. Sailing away with Steve, leaving everything else behind…
Except for the fact he had no legal claim to any of the gold he was laboring to pull from the ground. If all went according to Doug’s plan, my brother and I would abscond with everything, leaving our partners penniless.
My gut clenched. I couldn’t go through with it.
I’d take Doug aside tomorrow and tell him outright. This scheme went too far, and I wouldn’t be a part of it a moment longer.
The faint sound of a dog barking came on the wind.
Doug’s head snapped up. He’d been sitting a bit apart, turning one of the nuggets we’d found over and over in his hands.
“Was that a dog?” Eleanor asked.
More barks sounded, from more than one animal. Steve got up and began pulling on his outerwear, and I followed suit.
When we emerged, holding our lanterns high, it was to see the dark shape of a dogsled on the frozen creek. The dogs barked wildly, while their master cursed them. When he spotted our lanterns, he waved enthusiastically.
“Halloo!” he called. “Goodness, it’s nice to see a friendly face.”
Unease touched me as we drew closer. Doug wouldn’t be happy about this…but perhaps it would work in my favor. If we told someone else about the gold we’d found, word would spread fast. The more people around us, the less likely his scheme would work.
“Do you need help?” Steve asked. As we got closer, it became apparent the dogs were in a turmoil. They pulled against their harness as if they wanted to turn the sled and go back the way they’d come. The lead dog stared at the forest, ears alert and a growl rumbling in his throat.
“The dogs have lost their minds,” the man said, then brightened. “But at least they decided to do it outside your cabin, eh?”
“Maybe they’ve scented wolves,” I suggested. Any bears were long curled up in their dens for the winter, and I couldn’t think of anything else that would put the dogs off so.
Steve nodded. “That must be it. Let us help you get them settled, then come join us in the cabin. I’m Steve Kilgore.”
“Tommy Tatum.” Tommy shook his hand, then mine as I introduced myself.
We helped him unharness the dogs and fed them their ration of dried fish. They milled about, content to eat but unwilling to come any closer to the forest. Tommy shrugged philosophically, and we helped him drag the sled up to the cabin.
“Can’t leave it with them—they’ll eat it if they have the chance,” he explained. “The harness, the leather straps, anything they can reach.”
Inside, Anna had prepared another serving of food, which Tommy wolfed down eagerly. “Much obliged to you folks,” he said, stretching his hands out to the stove to warm them. “Are there any other claims on this creek?”
“Not yet,” I replied. “Though I imagine that will change once word gets out.”
His eyes lit up with interest. “That so?”
Doug glared daggers at me, but I ignored him. I fetched the gold we’d dug out that morning and showed it to him. “We just hit paydirt today,” I explained. “But we have high hopes.”
“That’s good to know.” Tommy’s fork scraped against his tin plate. “Listen, do any of you know where Dante Creek is? I’m looking for some friends there. I thought this was it, but if you’re the only ones here, I’ve gone the wrong way.”
“The name isn’t familiar,” Doug said. “Did your friends mention any landmarks?”
I watched his face while Tommy spoke. I knew Doug was angry at me, but he hid it well, putting on the friendly mask he wore whenever approaching a mark. When Tommy was done, he nodded.
“I know the place,” he said. “We passed it on the way to Dawson, just a few miles downstream.”
Had we? I couldn’t recall, but then I hadn’t been paying a great deal of attention to Tommy’s relayed description.
“Tell you what,” Doug added. “Tomorrow, as soon as it’s light, I’ll show you just where to go. Steve, will you lend me your snowshoes?”
“Of course.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Tommy said. “I don’t want to put you to any trouble, though.”
“No trouble.” Doug leaned back. “I could use a change of scenery.”
It wasn’t like him to be so generous if he didn’t think he could get anything out of it. Perhaps he did need to get away from the cabin for a bit, but I suspected he meant to use the time alone to talk Tommy out of spreading the word about our strike.
It wouldn’t work, I told myself as we readied for bed later, Tommy stretched out in front of the stove. Tommy would let it slip to his friends, then they would tell others, and we’d have a rush of miners up the creek as soon as the weather allowed. Doug would give up on his plan to swindle the others, and I could stop feeling so damn guilty all the time.
The next day, Tommy harnessed his dogs, who were much more cooperative once they realized they were going back the way they’d come. He left with Doug perched on top of his supplies in the sled, turning to wave one mittened hand as they disappeared around the bend.
The rest of us returned to work. Roland once again manned the windlass, while Steve and I descended into the earth, away from the howling wind.
Doug returned just before nightfall. “Did you see him on his way?” I asked as I tossed wood down to Steve to start the nightly fire.
He grinned at me. “That I did.”
Something about his grin bothered me, though it took a moment to realize what. “Are your gums bleeding?”
He frowned, pulled off his glove, then put his hand to his mouth. He pushed on something, then pulled.
A tooth came free, trailing a bloody root after it.
“Huh,” he said, staring at it. “Would you look at that.”
* * *
“Scurvy,” Eleanor said. “It must be. Damn it, if only we hadn’t lost the lime juice at Dyea!”
My heart sank. I had only the vaguest idea what scurvy did to a body, but I knew it wasn’t good. “So what do we do?”
“Not much without fresh food or the lime juice.” Eleanor’s mouth set in a grim line. “Doug, do you have any joint pain? Doughy skin? Old wounds opening again?”
Anna grimaced and cringed away, as if it might be contagious. Eleanor absently reached out and squeezed her hand.
“No.” Doug shrugged. “I feel fit as a fiddle.”
“Maybe it isn’t scurvy, then,” Roland suggested. “Just a bad tooth.”
“Perhaps.” Eleanor didn’t sound at all convinced. “If you have any more symptoms, let me know. That goes for everyone.”
Doug ate as heartily as ever that night, seeming completely unbothered by his loss of a tooth. He even refused Eleanor’s offer of laudanum, claiming to feel no pain.
At least that was something. Maybe the lack of suffering meant Eleanor was wrong, and Roland right.
The next morning Doug seemed as chipper as ever. Deciding this was a good time to approach him about abandoning the scheme, I asked him to help me bring in some firewood before going to the mine.
Anna had declared it laundry day, so she and Eleanor busied themselves bringing in buckets of snow to melt near the stove, while Roland and Steve went to the windlass and pit. As soon as Doug and I were out of earshot, I slowed my step.
“Did you go all the way to the other camp with Tommy?” I asked to open the conversation.
“I’d have to walk awfully fast to have done that and come back in a day, even on snowshoes.” Doug’s breath steamed in the frigid air as he went to the pile of firewood, which was kept dry in a shed-like enclosure with canvas forming the front wall.
“True.” I helped him roll up the canvas; the thin layer of snow and ice on it cracked under my gloved hands. “I guess we have to abandon the swindle now.”
Doug had just reached in for a log. He turned to me, log held loosely in one hand, and frowned. “We’re not abandoning anything.”
Now it was my turn to frown. Doug wasn’t stupid; we’d had to cut our losses and run plenty of times. “Tommy knows about the claim. Even if you managed to talk him into keeping quiet, he’ll know we were all here working the mine together. Sure our names are on the certificate, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be investigated for fraud. It would be our word against Tommy, Eleanor, the Kilgores, and anyone else who decides to come take a look.”
Doug grabbed another log and added it atop the first one. “You don’t have to worry about him,” he said, not looking at me. “He won’t be telling anyone.”
“Did you bribe him?” He must have; what else would make a man keep quiet about a rich gold strike? “It’s a long winter—he’s bound to tell someone. We should just forget about stealing and?—”
“I said don’t worry about him!” Doug snarled.
He glared at me from beneath his cap, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. The bloody gap seemed to open onto blackness rather than a human mouth. His breath came hard, puffing out like the smoke from a dragon.
Shocked, I took a step back. He’d never looked at me with such anger, and for a moment I thought he might actually take a swing at me.
What had he done?
The thought came unbidden and chilled me to the bone, even as I tried to deny it. This was my brother; I knew him, loved him. How could I even think he might have done something to Tommy Tatum?
“Keep your mouth shut and do what I tell you,” he ordered. “I don’t want to hear any more whining from you.”
He flung down the logs and stamped off, making for the mineshaft. I watched him go, a new emotion rising in me, one I’d never before felt in regards to my brother.
Fear.