From the Valley of the Missing | Page 5

Hones' Injun, don't
she never come about this here scow, Lem?"
"Hones' Injun," replied Lem laconically, without looking up from his
work.
Presently Eli continued:
"Mammy says as how the winter's comin', and some 'un ought to look
out for Scraggy. She goes 'bout the lake doin' nothin' but hollerin' like a

hoot-owl, and she don't have enough to eat. But she's been gone now
goin' on two weeks, disappearin' like she's been doin' for a few years
back. Scraggy allers says she has bats in her head."
"So she has bats," muttered Lem, "and she allers had 'em, and that's
why I made her beat it. I didn't want no woman 'bout me for good and
all."
Lem Crabbe lifted his head and glanced toward the small window
overlooking the dark canal. He had always feared the crazy
squatter-woman whom he had wrecked by his brutality.
"I says that I don't want no woman round me for all time," he repeated.
The third man raised his right shoulder at that; but sank into a heap
again, working more assiduously. The slight trembling of his body was
the only evidence he gave that he had heard Crabbe's words. Snip, snip,
snip! went the bits of gold into the kettle, until Eli spoke again.
"Ye can't tell me that ye ain't goin' never to get married, Lem?"
Crabbe lifted his hooked arm viciously. "I ain't said nothin' like that. I
says as how Scraggy can keep away from my scow."
"Don't she never come here no more?" asked Eli in disbelief.
"Nope, not after them three beatin's I give her. She kept a comin', and I
had to wallop her. I'd do it again if she snoops 'bout here."
"Ye beat her up well, didn't ye, Lem? And she telled Mammy that yer
brat were drowned one night in the river. Were it, Lem?"
There was an expectant pause between his first and last questions, and
Lem waited almost as long before he grunted:
"Yep."
"Did ye throw it in when ye was drunk?"

"Nope, he jest fell in--that's all."
"I guess that last beatin' ye give Scraggy made her batty. Mam says that
she ain't no more sense than her cat."
"Let her keep to hum then, and she won't get beat. I don't do no runnin'
after her!"
Again there came a space of time during which Eli and Lem worked in
silence. From far away in the city there came the sound of the fire
whistle, followed by the ringing of bells. But not one of the men ceased
his clipping to satisfy any curiosity he might have had.
Suddenly Lem Crabbe spoke louder than he had before that evening.
"Women ain't no good, nohow! They don't love no men, and men don't
love them. What's the good of havin' 'em round to feed and to bother a
feller 'bout drinkin' an' things? Less a man sees of 'em the better!"
The third man, Silent Lon Cronk, sunk lower at his work, even more
fiercely flattening the gemless rings under the pressers. After a few
moments he laid down his tools and began to stretch his long legs,
scraping into a cup the bits of gold from his lap.
"I've been goin' to ask ye fellers somethin' for a long time. Might as
well now as any other night, eh?"
"Yep," replied Eli eagerly.
"'Tain't nothin' that will take any money out yer pockets; 'twill put it in,
more likely. We've been stealin' together for how long, Lem? How long
we been pals?"
"Nigh onto ten years, I'm thinkin'. It were that year that Tilly Jacobson
got burned, weren't it?"
"Yep, for ten years," replied Lon, ignoring Lem's last query, "and we've
allers been hones' with each other. I've been hones' with both of ye, and
ye've been hones' with me. Eh?"

"Yep."
"Lem, do ye want all the swag in this here room, only a sharin' up with
Eli, without havin' to share and share alike with me?"
A small jewel bounded from the steel hook, and the pliers fell from
Lem's fingers. Eli dropped back upon his bare feet.
"What's in the wind?" demanded Lem.
"Only want ye to help me with a job some night that won't be nothin' to
nuther of ye. But it's all to me. Will ye?"
Lem wriggled nearer on the floor. "Ye mean stealin', Lon?" he
demanded.
"Yep."
"And we ain't to share up with it?"
"Nope; but ye're to have all that's in this here room. If I tell ye, will ye
help?"
Crabbe looked at Eli, and a furtive look was shot back. Each was afraid
of the other; but for the big, gloomy man before them they had vast
respect.
"What be ye goin' to steal, Lon? Tell us before