BEAR-HUNTING 



Ah, well, the coffee of Kodiak was, perhaps, not 

 quite so good; mayhap the tea had smaller flavor 

 of the Orient; but the bacon, the bean, the prune, 

 and eke the salt of commerce are much the same 

 the world over, after all. Any business system must 

 be flexible enough to meet sudden emergencies like 

 this. 



We now added to our staff two new members, 

 saffron brown in exterior color, Aleuts by tribe, 

 though of what exact extraction none might say. 

 First was Kuroki so called because I could not 

 pronounce his other name and because he looked 

 like that Japanese commander. He had been a cook, 

 a steamboat waiter, prospector, miner, stevedore, 

 and other things. Also he was a mighty hunter 

 before the Lord, if you left it to him. The other 

 man, Czaroff, was a Rembrandt study ; an old samu- 

 rai of the sea, a sea-otter hunter and hence an 

 aristocrat. He, being an aristocrat, always let 

 Kuroki do the work. Kuroki also let anyone do 

 the work who felt like it. 



The question of transportation is important in 

 any business enterprise. Of a United States Deputy 

 Marshal we chartered a brand-new schooner, the 

 most sausage-like craft that ever was on land or sea. 



Her name was Linea L , but we called her 



Literal L > for short. At last, with the dory 



213 



