British Columbia -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Revenge -- Fiction; Sawmills -- Fiction
"Kahta you damn plisman tink I hide Pete?" she yelled. "Pete hyu
mesachie, him damn bad Siwash; if him come I say 'mahsh, klatawa, go,
you damn thief.' Oh, you damn plisman, what for you make mess my
house? You tink Pete him one pin I hide him lik' dat?"
They bade her dry up and when she refused they took her by the scruff
of the neck and bundled her outside. She sat in sawdust and yelled
till they left her shack and searched the others. They found
nothing, of course, but they found out one thing, and that was the
readiness of most of the men of the Mill, Siwashes or Whites, to give
away Pete with both hands. For they, at any rate, were certain that
it was he who had spiked the logs and killed poor old Skookum
Charlie. And since he had killed a Chinaman, too, all the men from
the Flowery Kingdom were ready to do the same. Old Wong said so to
the "damned plismen." But as the Chinamen relied on the police to
save them from abuse and injury, they were even readier to help than
the Siwashes.
"Supposee we savvy Pete, we tellee you allo tim'," said Wong. "My
tink Pete damn bad man, spikee logs, killee my flin Fan. Fan velly
good man, my flin, and Pete spoilum 'tumach,' killee him dead. All
light, we come tellee."
There wasn't a doubt about it, that if Pete turned up in Shack-Town
he would be given away, and though the police went away empty-handed
they had high hopes of nailing him shortly.
They had had a considerable pow-pow that morning in the Engine-Room
before work started up and there wasn't a soul found there to say a
word for Pete. This was natural enough.
"A man that'll spike logs ain't a human being, boys," said Long Mac
seriously.
"Killing his own tilikums," said Shorty Gibbs. "It was horrid seein'
pore old Skookum!"
"The Chinky was horridest," said Tenas Billy. "I picked him up."
"So you did," said Shorty. "But what d'ye think Pete's doin'?"
"He'll be on the scoot."
"To be sure, but where?"
"Oh, to hell and gone out of this."
"That's your tumtum. It ain't mine by a mile. If he's been spoilin'
Ned Quin's face what'll he do 'bout George, eh?"
Mac intervened.
"Waal, boys, these Injuns are a rotten crowd. You can't bet on what
they'll do. Some o' them don't care a damn if their klootchmen quit.
I know, for I've run with 'em on the Eastern Slope o' the Rockies and
on the plains. Sometimes they will though."
He told a ghastly tale.
"Pete's a holy terror, that's what," said Tenas Billy. "I never give
him credit for sand, I admit, but he has it."
"Sand be damned," said Long Mac; "he hasn't sand. It's only Injun
temper. I know 'em. They ain't sandy in the way we speak of it,
boys. Bein' sandy is bein' cool. Pete don't do notion' unless he's
mad. None of 'em do, at least none of these fish-fed coast Injuns.
They's a measly crowd."
The men chewed on that.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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