As briefly as possible she outlined the situation the while Boyd Emerson took his measure, for no person quite like this fisherman had ever crossed the miner's path. He saw a huge, barrel-chested creature whose tremendous muscles bulged beneath his nondescript garments, whose red, upstanding bristle of hair topped a leather countenance from which gleamed a pair of the most violent eyes Emerson had ever beheld, the dominant expression of which was rage. His jaw was long, and the seams from nostril and lip, half hidden behind a stiff stubble, gave it the set of granite. His hands were gnarled and cracked from an age-long immersion in brine, his voice was hoarse with the echo of drumming ratlines. He might have lived forty, sixty years, but every year had been given to the sea, for its breath was in his lungs, its foaming violence was in his blood. As the significance of Cherry's words sank into his mind, the signs of an unholy joy overspread the fisherman's visage; his thick lips writhed into an evil grin, and his hairy paws continued to open and close hungrily. "Do you mean business?" he bellowed at Emerson. "I do." "Can you fight?" "Yes." "Will you do what I tell you, or have you got a lot of sick notions?" "No," the young man declared, stoutly, "I have no scruples; but I won't do what you or anybody else tells me. I'll do what I please. I intend to run this enterprise absolutely, and run it my way." "This gang won't stop at anything," warned Balt. "Neither will I," affirmed the other, with a scowl and a dangerous down-drawing of his lip corners. "I've _got_ to win, so don't waste time wondering how far I'll go. What I want to know is if you will join my enterprise." The giant uttered a mirthless chuckle. "I'll give my life to it." "I knew you would," flashed Cherry, her eyes beaming. "And if we don't beat Willis Marsh, by God, I'll kill him!" Balt shouted, fully capable of carrying out his threat, for his bloodshot eyes were lit with bitter hatred and the memory of his wrongs was like gall in his mouth. Turning to the girl, he said: "Now give me something to eat. I've been living on dog fish till my belly is full of bones." He ripped the ragged parka from his back and flung it in a sodden heap beside the stove; then strode after her, with the others following.