Smoke returned jubilantly up the hill to the cabin, only to find Shorty playing solitaire in black despair.  Smoke had long since learned that whenever his partner got out the cards for solitaire it was a warning signal that the bottom had dropped out of the world.

“Go ’way, don’t talk to me,” was the first rebuff Smoke received.

But Shorty soon thawed into a freshet of speech.

“It’s all off with the big Swede,” he groaned.  “The corner’s busted.  They’ll be sellin’ sherry an’ egg in all the saloons to-morrow at a dollar a flip.  They ain’t no starvin’ orphan child in Dawson that won’t be wrappin’ its tummy around eggs.  What d’ye think I run into?—­a geezer with three thousan’ eggs—­d’ye get me?  Three thousan’, an’ just freighted in from Forty Mile.”

“Fairy stories,” Smoke doubted.

“Fairy hell!  I seen them eggs.  Gautereaux’s his name—­a whackin’ big, blue-eyed French-Canadian husky.  He asked for you first, then took me to the side and jabbed me straight to the heart.  It was our cornerin’ eggs that got him started.  He knowed about them three thousan’ at Forty Mile an’ just went an’ got ’em.  ’Show ’em to me,’ I says.  An’ he did.  There was his dog-teams, an’ a couple of Indian drivers, restin’ down the bank where they’d just pulled in from Forty Mile.  An’ on the sleds was soap-boxes—­teeny wooden soap-boxes.

“We took one out behind a ice-jam in the middle of the river an’ busted it open.  Eggs!—­full of ’em, all packed in sawdust.  Smoke, you an’ me lose.  We’ve been gamblin’.  D’ye know what he had the gall to say to me?—­that they was all ourn at ten dollars a egg.  D’ye know what he was doin’ when I left his cabin?—­drawin’ a sign of eggs for sale.  Said he’d give us first choice, at ten a throw, till 2 P. M., an’ after that, if we didn’t come across, he’d bust the market higher’n a kite.  Said he wasn’t no business man, but that he knowed a good thing when he seen it—­meanin’ you an’ me, as I took it.”

“It’s all right,” Smoke said cheerfully.  “Keep your shirt on an’ let me think a moment.  Quick action and team play is all that’s needed.  I’ll get Wild Water here at two o’clock to take delivery of eggs.  You buy that Gautereaux’s eggs.  Try and make a bargain.  Even if you pay ten dollars apiece for them, Wild Water will take them off our hands at the same price.  If you can get them cheaper, why, we make a profit as well.  Now go to it.  Have them here by not later than two o’clock.  Borrow Colonel Bowie’s dogs and take our team.  Have them here by two sharp.”

“Say, Smoke,” Shorty called, as his partner started down the hill.  “Better take an umbrella.  I wouldn’t be none surprised to see the weather rainin’ eggs before you get back.”

Smoke found Wild Water at the M. & M., and a stormy half-hour ensued.

“I warn you we’ve picked up some more eggs,” Smoke said, after Wild Water had agreed to bring his dust to the cabin at two o’clock and pay on delivery.