breeze snatched it often my haid, and lit out with it
for foreign parts," he drawled sadly as he smoothed down his wildly
blown locks. Despite Ellen's anxious protests he went bareheaded after
that, although he wound his scarf about his ears on extra cold days.
His hair continued to grow unchecked also, for after watching Ellen
earnestly manipulating an inverted bowl and a pair of scissors while
she trimmed her protesting husband's hair, Kayak spoke with slow
conviction:

"I hearn tell o' lady barbers down in the States, but I ain't no nature
for 'em a-fussin' round my noggin. My kin folks drug me to the
Methydist meetin' house once a-fore I stampeded from Texas, and the
sarmon teched on a long-haired pugilist, Samson, what was trimmed by a
lady barber by the name o' Dahlia." . . .

For some time Kayak and Boreland had been trying, as they put it, to
"taper off" on their tobacco. Harlan, when he found that the _Hoonah_
was not coming, had given up smoking so that the older men might longer
enjoy what tobacco was left. After days of silent, mental wrestling
with his desire, he reached the stage where he had successfully downed
the craving, and he watched with grim amusement, and no little
sympathy, his partners' vain efforts to limit themselves to one pipe
after each meal.

There finally came a day when Kayak and Shane sat at the supper table
lighting their farewell pipes.

"Goo' bye, lovely Lady Nicotine!" Airily Boreland waved a hand through
the smoke. "I bid thee farewell without fear and without regret! . . .
As a matter of fact, Bill, I've intended to quit right along, and this
makes it easy. Filthy habit, anyway, and I don't want to set a bad
example for Loll."

It was from Jean that Harlan learned the details of the following
dismal day. It was so stormy that the men could not go out to work.
After breakfast Shane and Kayak had risen from the table and, pipes in
hand, instinctively sought the tobacco-box in the corner. Their
fingers met on the bare tin bottom. With blank looks they faced each
other.

"Hell, Kayak, I'd forgotten!" Boreland grinned sheepishly. "Now
begins the battle of Nicotine! Buck up, pard!" He forced a
cheerfulness into his tones as he slapped Kayak's shoulder.

Kayak Bill looked down at the empty pipe cupped lovingly in his hand.
With a sound between a grunt and a groan he put it back into his pocket
and dawdled dispiritedly off into the other room to his bunk behind the