Then they started for the door.
Joan clung to Cleve on one side, and on the other, instinctively
with a frightened girl's action, she let go Kells's arm and slipped
her hand in his. He seemed startled. He bent to her ear, for the din
made ordinary talk indistinguishable. That involuntary hand in his
evidently had pleased and touched him, even hurt him, for his
whisper was husky.
"It's all right--you're perfectly safe."
First Joan made out a glare of smoky lamps, a huge place full of
smoke and men and sounds. Kells led the way slowly. He had his own
reason for observance. There was a stench that sickened Joan--a
blended odor of tobacco and rum and wet sawdust and smoking oil.
There was a noise that appeared almost deafening--the loud talk and
vacant laughter of drinking men, and a din of creaky fiddles and
scraping boots and boisterous mirth. This last and dominating sound
came from an adjoining room, which Joan could see through a wide
opening. There was dancing, but Joan could not see the dancers
because of the intervening crowd. Then her gaze came back to the
features nearer at hand. Men and youths were lined up to a long bar
nearly as high as her head. Then there were excited shouting groups
round gambling games. There were men in clusters, sitting on
upturned kegs, round a box for a table, and dirty bags of gold-dust
were in evidence. The gamblers at the cards were silent, in strange
contrast with the others; and in each group was at least one dark-
garbed, hard-eyed gambler who was not a miner. Joan saw boys not yet
of age, flushed and haggard, wild with the frenzy of winning and
cast down in defeat. There were jovial, grizzled, old prospectors to
whom this scene and company were pleasant reminders of bygone days.
There were desperados whose glittering eyes showed they had no gold
with which to gamble.
Joan suddenly felt Kells start and she believed she heard a low,
hissing exclamation. And she looked for the cause. Then she saw
familiar dark faces; they belonged to men of Kells's Legion. And
with his broad back to her there sat the giant Gulden. Already he
and his allies had gotten together in defiance of or indifference to
Kells's orders. Some of them were already under the influence of
drink, but, though they saw Kells, they gave no sign of recognition.
Gulden did not see Joan, and for that she was thankful. And whether
or not his presence caused it, the fact was that she suddenly felt
as much of a captive as she had in Cabin Gulch, and feared that here
escape would be harder because in a community like this Kells would
watch her closely.