Red Jacket Read Online Free PDF Page B

confidence.
    â€œHow’s Louie?” the trapper asked the doctor.
    â€œI wanted to do some tests, but the big man refused. In some ways he has the emotional stability of a child. Some sort of spell, I’d say, but that’s a catchall bogus term we doctors use when we don’t know what the hell’s happening, and in this case, I don’t, and won’t unless he lets me try to figure it out. Why do I have the honor of being summoned to meet with you esteemed gentlemen?”
    â€œZakov the Russian wolfer has a bad leg break and a broken arm. Bone pressing against his skin,” Bapcat reported.
    â€œDid you clean it?”
    â€œBest I could.
    â€œWhere is he now?”
    â€œWith the Widow Frei. I suspect she’ll do further tidying.”
    The gray-headed Kochendorfer nodded. “Hope that’s all she does.” That said, he left to find a way to Copper Harbor.
    â€œDidn’t expect you until July for the fur sale,” Vairo told his friend.
    â€œGot other business.”
    Vairo grinned. “Word’s out: Roosevelt. You hear about the troubles brewing hereabouts?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œOne-man drills.”
    â€œThis is bad?”
    â€œYou were underground; you know. Fewer jobs, greater danger. A man from the Western Federation of Miners is here trying to stir the soup and make it boil over.”
    Bapcat had spent a horrendous three years as a trammer, hand-filling metal and wood cars with ore. He’d seen at least thirteen men die in his last two years, and was driven out by what became an uncontrollable fear of being in a tight place in the darkness. His heart would race, sweats would start, and he would nearly pass out. Kochendorfer had finally ordered him to stay aboveground and find another way to make a living. By then he had saved a stake, turned to trapping, and never looked back.
    â€œStrike coming?”
    â€œAt first I thought not, but now I’m not so sure. The low-pay boys seem pretty troubled by everything. I hear the union will call for a member vote and ask mine operators to meet. If dey agree to meet the union, maybe stoppage can be avoided. If not, who knows? Seems to me likelihood of operators agreeing is nil.”
    â€œMine owners always have the high ground,” Bapcat said to Vairo.
    â€œ Si, is always the same. The country you are in does not matter,” Vairo said. “Calumet and Hecla is Rome, capisce , a cold and ruthless city-state that enforces its will? C and H owns the town, and everybody lives here, me included. I doubt the WFM has faced the likes of C and H. How long you out of the woods, Lute?”
    â€œTonight, but I’ll be back.” He left coins on the bar, but Vairo pushed them back. “Dominick’s friends don’t pay. Good furs this winter?”
    â€œQuality’s the best ever, but numbers are way down.”
    â€œThat mean anything, you think?”
    â€œJust that there’s fewer animals.”
    â€œWhat about nature’s so-called bounty? Is such shortage in this country even possible?”
    â€œI think it must be,” Bapcat said.
    â€œYou’d think God would arrange it so man never runs out. Genesis tells us God made whales and fowl and so forth before He made man, and this was for man, his crowning creation.”
    â€œI guess it comes down to the fact that people keep making too many more people,” Bapcat said.
    â€œLike coniglio,” Vairo said, elbowing him. “Ah . . . but family is the only thing, my friend. We should find for you a fine Italian wife, and you should start making your own bambinos.”
    Bapcat held up his hands and laughed. Being with Jaquelle Frei three times a year was about as much distaff company as he could tolerate. To live with a woman? Not likely.
    â€œ Ciao , Dominick,” Bapcat said on his way out, walking past two bloodied men who were whaling at each other in the street with sturdy barrel staves