(no subject)
The wind sliced back into the Silver Corporal as if he'd never left the moment he stepped out the door. His lead dog was waiting for him exactly where he'd left the brown-and-white husky, head cocked exactly as it'd been when he left for Milliways. The door-checks he'd made had shown a frozen-still world, but it was reassuring to find things exactly as he'd left them.
That was a week and change ago. He's spent that time on Shipman's trail- at least, he did at first. The thing with men like Shipman is that they dont' think ahead far enough. Shipman had shot his victims over a game of cards, stolen their dogs out of the need to get away- and then set off with only the vaguest idea what he was going to do next. The Corporal was used to hunting down men who had plans and schemes, who set elaborate ideas in motion to get rid of him or throw him off their trails. Shipman had very little in the way of such cunning, only a desire to enrich himself and stay alive.
In the North Country, desire is seldom anywhere near enough.
Shipman had been trying to buy supplies for the long haul north to Paulatuk when a passing trapper mentioned the stranger to the little Mountie. He'd let the purchase go through. No sense making a mess of things in the mercantile, after all. He'd even waited for Shipman to load up his sled before coming up behind him. Shipman tried to run, of course- they always did- but when your dogs don't much like you, and several of them've been released from their harness bindings, well. . .
After that it was only a matter of getting the other team to come along as evidence on the way back to the judge at Fort Norman. The trial didn't take long. It scarcely needed to. Were it any other crime it would've been over in an eyeblink, the weight of the evidence being what it was- but this wasn't the sort of thing you went a man to jail for, and the law liked to be careful when hangings were concerned. It ended, though, and Shipman swung for his crimes at the end of it.
That was yesterday. His superiors at the Fort asked him to set off for Paulatuk himself; seems there's evidence of something bigger going on among the Eskimos up there, and they want someone the natives fear, if not respect, on the case. That suits him just fine. It's a long run for anybody, but it's through country he doesn't mind at all- and it gives him a chance, once he's made enough time, to go and find that girl and the puppy.
That was a week and change ago. He's spent that time on Shipman's trail- at least, he did at first. The thing with men like Shipman is that they dont' think ahead far enough. Shipman had shot his victims over a game of cards, stolen their dogs out of the need to get away- and then set off with only the vaguest idea what he was going to do next. The Corporal was used to hunting down men who had plans and schemes, who set elaborate ideas in motion to get rid of him or throw him off their trails. Shipman had very little in the way of such cunning, only a desire to enrich himself and stay alive.
In the North Country, desire is seldom anywhere near enough.
Shipman had been trying to buy supplies for the long haul north to Paulatuk when a passing trapper mentioned the stranger to the little Mountie. He'd let the purchase go through. No sense making a mess of things in the mercantile, after all. He'd even waited for Shipman to load up his sled before coming up behind him. Shipman tried to run, of course- they always did- but when your dogs don't much like you, and several of them've been released from their harness bindings, well. . .
After that it was only a matter of getting the other team to come along as evidence on the way back to the judge at Fort Norman. The trial didn't take long. It scarcely needed to. Were it any other crime it would've been over in an eyeblink, the weight of the evidence being what it was- but this wasn't the sort of thing you went a man to jail for, and the law liked to be careful when hangings were concerned. It ended, though, and Shipman swung for his crimes at the end of it.
That was yesterday. His superiors at the Fort asked him to set off for Paulatuk himself; seems there's evidence of something bigger going on among the Eskimos up there, and they want someone the natives fear, if not respect, on the case. That suits him just fine. It's a long run for anybody, but it's through country he doesn't mind at all- and it gives him a chance, once he's made enough time, to go and find that girl and the puppy.