Big George had lost no time, and already the tow-boats were overboard,
while a raft of timber was taking form alongside the ship. As soon as
it was completed, it was loaded with crates and boxes and paraphernalia
of all sorts, then towed ashore as the tide served. Another took its
place, and another and another. All that night the torches flared and
the decks drummed to a ceaseless activity. In the morning Boyd sent a
squad of fishermen ashore to clear the ground for his buildings, and
all day new rafts of lumber and material helped to increase the pile at
the water's edge.
His early training as an engineer now stood him in good stead, for a
thousand details demanded expert supervision; but he was as completely
at home at this work as was Big George in his own part of the
undertaking, and it was not long before order began to emerge from what
seemed a hopeless chaos. Never did men have more willing hands to do
their bidding than did he and George; and when a week later _The
Juliet_, with Willis Marsh on board, came to anchor, the bunk-houses
were up and peopled, while the new site had become a beehive of
activity.
The mouth of the Kalvik River is several miles wide, yet it contains
but a small anchorage suitable for deep-draught ships, the rest of the
harbor being underlaid with mud-bars and tide-flats over which none but
small boats may pass; and as the canneries are distributed up and down
the stream for a considerable distance, it is necessary to transport
all supplies to and from the ships by means of tugs and lighters. Owing
to the narrowness of the channel, _The Juliet_ came to her moorings not
far from _The Bedford Castle_.
To Marsh, already furious at the trick the ice had played him, this
forced proximity to his rival brought home with added irony the fact
that he had been forestalled, while it emphasized his knowledge that
henceforth the conflict would be carried on at closer quarters. It
would be a contest between two men, both determined to win by fair
means or foul.
Emerson was a dream-dazzled youth, striving like a knight-errant for
the love of a lady and the glory of conquest, but he was also a born
fighter, and in every emergency he had shown himself as able as his
experienced opponent.
As Marsh looked about and saw how much Boyd's well-directed energy was
accomplishing, he was conscious of a slight disheartenment. Still, he
was on his own ground, he had the advantage of superior force, and
though he was humiliated by his failure to throttle the hostile
enterprise in its beginning, he was by no means at the end of his
expedients. He was curious to see his rival in action, and he decided
to visit him and test his temper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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