Lost Face

J >> Jack London >> Lost Face


"Gone!" Tommy's voice rang out. "To Porportuk, for twenty-six thousand
dollars."

Porportuk glanced uneasily at Akoon. All eyes were centred upon Akoon,
but he did nothing.

"Let the scales be brought," said El-Soo.

"I shall make payment at my house," said Porportuk.

"Let the scales be brought," El-Soo repeated. "Payment shall be made
here where all can see."

So the gold scales were brought from the trading post, while Porportuk
went away and came back with a man at his heels, on whose shoulders was a
weight of gold-dust in moose-hide sacks. Also, at Porportuk's back,
walked another man with a rifle, who had eyes only for Akoon.

"Here are the notes and mortgages," said Porportuk, "for fifteen thousand
nine hundred and sixty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents."

El-Soo received them into her hands and said to Tommy, "Let them be
reckoned as sixteen thousand."

"There remains ten thousand dollars to be paid in gold," Tommy said.

Porportuk nodded, and untied the mouths of the sacks. El-Soo, standing
at the edge of the bank, tore the papers to shreds and sent them
fluttering out over the Yukon. The weighing began, but halted.

"Of course, at seventeen dollars," Porportuk had said to Tommy, as he
adjusted the scales.

"At sixteen dollars," El-Soo said sharply.

"It is the custom of all the land to reckon gold at seventeen dollars for
each ounce," Porportuk replied. "And this is a business transaction."

El-Soo laughed. "It is a new custom," she said. "It began this spring.
Last year, and the years before, it was sixteen dollars an ounce. When
my father's debt was made, it was sixteen dollars. When he spent at the
store the money he got from you, for one ounce he was given sixteen
dollars' worth of flour, not seventeen. Wherefore, shall you pay for me
at sixteen, and not at seventeen." Porportuk grunted and allowed the
weighing to proceed.

"Weigh it in three piles, Tommy," she said. "A thousand dollars here,
three thousand here, and here six thousand."

It was slow work, and, while the weighing went on, Akoon was closely
watched by all.

"He but waits till the money is paid," one said; and the word went around
and was accepted, and they waited for what Akoon should do when the money
was paid. And Porportuk's man with the rifle waited and watched Akoon.

The weighing was finished, and the gold-dust lay on the table in three
dark-yellow heaps. "There is a debt of my father to the Company for
three thousand dollars," said El-Soo. "Take it, Tommy, for the Company.
And here are four old men, Tommy. You know them. And here is one
thousand dollars. Take it, and see that the old men are never hungry and
never without tobacco."

Tommy scooped the gold into separate sacks. Six thousand dollars
remained on the table. El-Soo thrust the scoop into the heap, and with a
sudden turn whirled the contents out and down to the Yukon in a golden
shower. Porportuk seized her wrist as she thrust the scoop a second time
into the heap.

"It is mine," she said calmly. Porportuk released his grip, but he
gritted his teeth and scowled darkly as she continued to scoop the gold
into the river till none was left.

The crowd had eyes for naught but Akoon, and the rifle of Porportuk's man
lay across the hollow of his arm, the muzzle directed at Akoon a yard
away, the man's thumb on the hammer. But Akoon did nothing.

"Make out the bill of sale," Porportuk said grimly.

And Tommy made out the till of sale, wherein all right and title in the
woman El-Soo was vested in the man Porportuk. El-Soo signed the
document, and Porportuk folded it and put it away in his pouch. Suddenly
his eyes flashed, and in sudden speech he addressed El-Soo.

"But it was not your father's debt," he said, "What I paid was the price
for you. Your sale is business of to-day and not of last year and the
years before. The ounces paid for you will buy at the post to-day
seventeen dollars of flour, and not sixteen. I have lost a dollar on
each ounce. I have lost six hundred and twenty-five dollars."

El-Soo thought for a moment, and saw the error she had made. She smiled,
and then she laughed.

"You are right," she laughed, "I made a mistake. But it is too late. You
have paid, and the gold is gone. You did not think quick. It is your
loss. Your wit is slow these days, Porportuk. You are getting old."

He did not answer. He glanced uneasily at Akoon, and was reassured. His
lips tightened, and a hint of cruelty came into his face. "Come," he
said, "we will go to my house."

"Do you remember the two things I told you in the spring?" El-Soo asked,
making no movement to accompany him.

"My head would be full with the things women say, did I heed them," he
answered.

"I told you that you would be paid," El-Soo went on carefully. "And I
told you that I would never be your wife."

"But that was before the bill of sale." Porportuk crackled the paper
between his fingers inside the pouch. "I have bought you before all the
world. You belong to me. You will not deny that you belong to me."

"I belong to you," El-Soo said steadily.

"I own you."

"You own me."

Porportuk's voice rose slightly and triumphantly. "As a dog, I own you."

"As a dog you own me," El-Soo continued calmly. "But, Porportuk, you
forget the thing I told you. Had any other man bought me, I should have
been that man's wife. I should have been a good wife to that man. Such
was my will. But my will with you was that I should never be your wife.
Wherefore, I am your dog."

Porportuk knew that he played with fire, and he resolved to play firmly.
"Then I speak to you, not as El-Soo, but as a dog," he said; "and I tell
you to come with me." He half reached to grip her arm, but with a
gesture she held him back.

"Not so fast, Porportuk. You buy a dog. The dog runs away. It is your
loss. I am your dog. What if I run away?"

"As the owner of the dog, I shall beat you--"

"When you catch me?"

"When I catch you."

"Then catch me."

He reached swiftly for her, but she eluded him. She laughed as she
circled around the table. "Catch her!" Porportuk commanded the Indian
with the rifle, who stood near to her. But as the Indian stretched forth
his arm to her, the Eldorado king felled him with a fist blow under the
ear. The rifle clattered to the ground. Then was Akoon's chance. His
eyes glittered, but he did nothing.

Porportuk was an old man, but his cold nights retained for him his
activity. He did not circle the table. He came across suddenly, over
the top of the table. El-Soo was taken off her guard. She sprang back
with a sharp cry of alarm, and Porportuk would have caught her had it not
been for Tommy. Tommy's leg went out, Porportuk tripped and pitched
forward on the ground. El-Soo got her start.

"Then catch me," she laughed over her shoulder, as she fled away.

She ran lightly and easily, but Porportuk ran swiftly and savagely. He
outran her. In his youth he had been swiftest of all the young men. But
El-Soo dodged in a willowy, elusive way. Being in native dress, her feet
were not cluttered with skirts, and her pliant body curved a flight that
defied the gripping fingers of Porportuk.

With laughter and tumult, the great crowd scattered out to see the chase.
It led through the Indian encampment; and ever dodging, circling, and
reversing, El-Soo and Porportuk appeared and disappeared among the tents.
El-Soo seemed to balance herself against the air with her arms, now one
side, now on the other, and sometimes her body, too, leaned out upon the
air far from the perpendicular as she achieved her sharpest curves. And
Porportuk, always a leap behind, or a leap this side or that, like a lean
hound strained after her.

They crossed the open ground beyond the encampment and disappeared in the
forest. Tana-naw Station waited their reappearance, and long and vainly
it waited.

In the meantime Akoon ate and slept, and lingered much at the steamboat
landing, deaf to the rising resentment of Tana-naw Station in that he did
nothing. Twenty-four hours later Porportuk returned. He was tired and
savage. He spoke to no one but Akoon, and with him tried to pick a
quarrel. But Akoon shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Porportuk
did not waste time. He outfitted half a dozen of the young men,
selecting the best trackers and travellers, and at their head plunged
into the forest.

Next day the steamer _Seattle_, bound up river, pulled in to the shore
and wooded up. When the lines were cast off and she churned out from the
bank, Akoon was on board in the pilot-house. Not many hours afterward,
when it was his turn at the wheel, he saw a small birch-bark canoe put
off from the shore. There was only one person in it. He studied it
carefully, put the wheel over, and slowed down.

The captain entered the pilot-house. "What's the matter?" he demanded.
"The water's good."

Akoon grunted. He saw a larger canoe leaving the bank, and in it were a
number of persons. As the _Seattle_ lost headway, he put the wheel over
some more.

The captain fumed. "It's only a squaw," he protested.

Akoon did not grunt. He was all eyes for the squaw and the pursuing
canoe. In the latter six paddles were flashing, while the squaw paddled
slowly.

"You'll be aground," the captain protested, seizing the wheel.

But Akoon countered his strength on the wheel and looked him in the eyes.
The captain slowly released the spokes.

"Queer beggar," he sniffed to himself.

Akoon held the _Seattle_ on the edge of the shoal water and waited till
he saw the squaw's fingers clutch the forward rail. Then he signalled
for full speed ahead and ground the wheel over. The large canoe was very
near, but the gap between it and the steamer was widening.

The squaw laughed and leaned over the rail.

"Then catch me, Porportuk!" she cried.

Akoon left the steamer at Fort Yukon. He outfitted a small poling-boat
and went up the Porcupine River. And with him went El-Soo. It was a
weary journey, and the way led across the backbone of the world; but
Akoon had travelled it before. When they came to the head-waters of the
Porcupine, they left the boat and went on foot across the Rocky
Mountains.

Akoon greatly liked to walk behind El-Soo and watch the movements of her.
There was a music in it that he loved. And especially he loved the well-
rounded calves in their sheaths of soft-tanned leather, the slim ankles,
and the small moccasined feet that were tireless through the longest
days.

"You are light as air," he said, looking up at her. "It is no labour for
you to walk. You almost float, so lightly do your feet rise and fall.
You are like a deer, El-Soo; you are like a deer, and your eyes are like
deer's eyes, sometimes when you look at me, or when you hear a quick
sound and wonder if it be danger that stirs. Your eyes are like a deer's
eyes now as you look at me."

And El-Soo, luminous and melting, bent and kissed Akoon.

"When we reach the Mackenzie, we will not delay," Akoon said later. "We
will go south before the winter catches us. We will go to the sunlands
where there is no snow. But we will return. I have seen much of the
world, and there is no land like Alaska, no sun like our sun, and the
snow is good after the long summer."

"And you will learn to read," said El-Soo.

And Akoon said, "I will surely learn to read." But there was delay when
they reached the Mackenzie. They fell in with a band of Mackenzie
Indians, and, hunting, Akoon was shot by accident. The rifle was in the
hands of a youth. The bullet broke Akoon's right arm and, ranging
farther, broke two of his ribs. Akoon knew rough surgery, while El-Soo
had learned some refinements at Holy Cross. The bones were finally set,
and Akoon lay by the fire for them to knit. Also, he lay by the fire so
that the smoke would keep the mosquitoes away.

Then it was that Porportuk, with his six young men, arrived. Akoon
groaned in his helplessness and made appeal to the Mackenzies. But
Porportuk made demand, and the Mackenzies were perplexed. Porportuk was
for seizing upon El-Soo, but this they would not permit. Judgment must
be given, and, as it was an affair of man and woman, the council of the
old men was called--this that warm judgment might not be given by the
young men, who were warm of heart.

The old men sat in a circle about the smudge-fire. Their faces were lean
and wrinkled, and they gasped and panted for air. The smoke was not good
for them. Occasionally they struck with withered hands at the mosquitoes
that braved the smoke. After such exertion they coughed hollowly and
painfully. Some spat blood, and one of them sat a bit apart with head
bowed forward, and bled slowly and continuously at the mouth; the
coughing sickness had gripped them. They were as dead men; their time
was short. It was a judgment of the dead.

"And I paid for her a heavy price," Porportuk concluded his complaint.
"Such a price you have never seen. Sell all that is yours--sell your
spears and arrows and rifles, sell your skins and furs, sell your tents
and boats and dogs, sell everything, and you will not have maybe a
thousand dollars. Yet did I pay for the woman, El-Soo, twenty-six times
the price of all your spears and arrows and rifles, your skins and furs,
your tents and boats and dogs. It was a heavy price."

The old men nodded gravely, though their weazened eye-slits widened with
wonder that any woman should be worth such a price. The one that bled at
the mouth wiped his lips. "Is it true talk?" he asked each of
Porportuk's six young men. And each answered that it was true.

"Is it true talk?" he asked El-Soo, and she answered, "It is true."

"But Porportuk has not told that he is an old man," Akoon said, "and that
he has daughters older than El-Soo."

"It is true, Porportuk is an old man," said El-Soo.

"It is for Porportuk to measure the strength his age," said he who bled
at the mouth. "We be old men. Behold! Age is never so old as youth
would measure it."

And the circle of old men champed their gums, and nodded approvingly, and
coughed.

"I told him that I would never be his wife," said El-Soo.

"Yet you took from him twenty-six times all that we possess?" asked a one-
eyed old man.

El-Soo was silent.

"It is true?" And his one eye burned and bored into her like a fiery
gimlet.

"It is true," she said.

"But I will run away again," she broke out passionately, a moment later.
"Always will I run away."

"That is for Porportuk to consider," said another of the old men. "It is
for us to consider the judgment."

"What price did you pay for her?" was demanded of Akoon.

"No price did I pay for her," he answered. "She was above price. I did
not measure her in gold-dust, nor in dogs, and tents, and furs."

The old men debated among themselves and mumbled in undertones. "These
old men are ice," Akoon said in English. "I will not listen to their
judgment, Porportuk. If you take El-Soo, I will surely kill you."

The old men ceased and regarded him suspiciously. "We do not know the
speech you make," one said.

"He but said that he would kill me," Porportuk volunteered. "So it were
well to take from him his rifle, and to have some of your young men sit
by him, that he may not do me hurt. He is a young man, and what are
broken bones to youth!"

Akoon, lying helpless, had rifle and knife taken from him, and to either
side of his shoulders sat young men of the Mackenzies. The one-eyed old
man arose and stood upright. "We marvel at the price paid for one mere
woman," he began; "but the wisdom of the price is no concern of ours. We
are here to give judgment, and judgment we give. We have no doubt. It
is known to all that Porportuk paid a heavy price for the woman El-Soo.
Wherefore does the woman El-Soo belong to Porportuk and none other." He
sat down heavily, and coughed. The old men nodded and coughed.

"I will kill you," Akoon cried in English.

Porportuk smiled and stood up. "You have given true judgment," he said
to the council, "and my young men will give to you much tobacco. Now let
the woman be brought to me."

Akoon gritted his teeth. The young men took El-Soo by the arms. She did
not resist, and was led, her face a sullen flame, to Porportuk.

"Sit there at my feet till I have made my talk," he commanded. He paused
a moment. "It is true," he said, "I am an old man. Yet can I understand
the ways of youth. The fire has not all gone out of me. Yet am I no
longer young, nor am I minded to run these old legs of mine through all
the years that remain to me. El-Soo can run fast and well. She is a
deer. This I know, for I have seen and run after her. It is not good
that a wife should run so fast. I paid for her a heavy price, yet does
she run away from me. Akoon paid no price at all, yet does she run to
him.

"When I came among you people of the Mackenzie, I was of one mind. As I
listened in the council and thought of the swift legs of El-Soo, I was of
many minds. Now am I of one mind again but it is a different mind from
the one I brought to the council. Let me tell you my mind. When a dog
runs once away from a master, it will run away again. No matter how many
times it is brought back, each time it will run away again. When we have
such dogs, we sell them. El-Soo is like a dog that runs away. I will
sell her. Is there any man of the council that will buy?"

The old men coughed and remained silent

"Akoon would buy," Porportuk went on, "but he has no money. Wherefore I
will give El-Soo to him, as he said, without price. Even now will I give
her to him."

Reaching down, he took El-Soo by the hand and led her across the space to
where Akoon lay on his back.

"She has a bad habit, Akoon," he said, seating her at Akoon's feet. "As
she has run away from me in the past, in the days to come she may run
away from you. But there is no need to fear that she will ever run away,
Akoon. I shall see to that. Never will she run away from you--this is
the word of Porportuk. She has great wit. I know, for often has it
bitten into me. Yet am I minded myself to give my wit play for once. And
by my wit will I secure her to you, Akoon."

Stooping, Porportuk crossed El-Soo's feet, so that the instep of one lay
over that of the other; and then, before his purpose could be divined, he
discharged his rifle through the two ankles. As Akoon struggled to rise
against the weight of the young men, there was heard the crunch of the
broken bone rebroken.

"It is just," said the old men, one to another.

El-Soo made no sound. She sat and looked at her shattered ankles, on
which she would never walk again.

"My legs are strong, El-Soo," Akoon said. "But never will they bear me
away from you."

El-Soo looked at him, and for the first time in all the time he had known
her, Akoon saw tears in her eyes.

"Your eyes are like deer's eyes, El-Soo," he said.

"Is it just?" Porportuk asked, and grinned from the edge of the smoke as
he prepared to depart.

"It is just," the old men said. And they sat on in the silence.