Longarm and the Yukon Queen by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

McConnell’s attempt to lure passengers away from the Yukon Queen was only partially successful. By the middle of the afternoon, forty-one men had paid for their passage and come aboard the riverboat with their gear, bound for Circle City. That seemed to be all the passengers, however, so the boat would be leaving St. Michael without being completely booked.

Still, Longarm figured, the fares would be enough to pay the crew and cover the other expenses of the voyage, with enough left over to make a healthy profit for Kate. He was anxious to leave the port settlement behind him and so was she, so after a brief consultation in the wheelhouse, they decided the time had come.

The boilers were hot and steam was up. Longarm checked to make sure everyone was on board who intended to make the trip, then waved to Pete and Carl, who waited on the wharf. They untied the thick ropes binding the boat to the dock and jumped aboard, then took up heavy poles and pushed the vessel clear. Joe was in the engine room, and when Kate called down to him through the speaking tube, he pushed the throttle forward and engaged the paddlewheel. The giant wheel at the stern of the boat began to turn, slowly at first and then faster and faster, churning the waters of Norton Sound as it backed away from the wharf.

Longarm went up to the wheelhouse. Kate was at the helm, her hands resting easily on the large, brightly polished wooden wheel. She glanced back over her shoulder, saw Longarm standing there, and gave him a determined nod. “Take the speaking tube,” she ordered.

“Yes, ma‘am, Cap’n,” he replied.

Kate spun the wheel and said, “All stop.”

“All stop,” Longarm repeated into the speaking tube.

The paddlewheel ground to a halt.

“Ahead one-half,” Kate ordered. Longarm repeated the command into the rubber tube, and the wheel began to turn in the other direction, biting into the water and sending the boat forward. The speed increased steadily until the Yukon Queen was steaming easily along the shoreline of the peninsula on which St. Michael was located.

The estuary was so wide it was like part of the sound at first, but gradually the shores drew in so that the stream began to look more like a river. Longarm went to the door of the wheelhouse and looked astern. The settlement was barely visible in the distance. Another few minutes and he wouldn’t be able to see it anymbre.

That was all right with him. St. Michael had been only a stop along the way, and while he had enjoyed the time he spent there with the blond prostitute Caroline, he was more than ready to leave.

Somewhere up ahead in the vast Alaskan wilderness was the reason he had come here in the first place, the fugitive named Harrison Dodge. Longarm turned away from St. Michael and once more looked where he was going, rather than where he had been.

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