Hard Country Hotel

By three o'clock the storm had chosen its side. It came first as fine powder sweeping low along the street, then as a white thickness that erased corners and softened men into moving shadows. Wagons stood with blankets over the horses. Smoke was beaten flat from chimneys. The road to Barkerville disappeared behind a wall of weather, and the road up toward the workings seemed to climb into the inside of a flour sack.

The electrical men had been up at the line since morning, swearing at connections and weather. The small plant and distribution gear had been coaxed, tested, insulted, and blessed. A broken insulator had delayed them. A teamster had gone for a replacement. Somewhere between the supply shed and the last pole above town, the replacement had not arrived.

By four, Paddy's face had gone from red to the colour of tallow.

"No insulator, no current to the lower string," one of the electricians said in the lobby, his cap in his hand. "We can light part of the mine office, maybe. Not the hotel. Not safely."

"The whole town is coming here," Paddy said.

"Then give them candles."

"They've come to see the place finished," Paddy said. "I can't put them all round a lamp."

Mrs. MacDonell stood behind him, silent, which was worse than any speech she might have made.

"Where is the teamster?" Amos asked.

The electrician looked at him. "Who are you?"

"Rudd. I've hauled freight on that road."

"He went toward the upper shed by the old corduroy, then down. He should've been back by now."

"Could have broken a runner," a carpenter said.

"Could have found whisky," another said.

"Could have found the ditch," the electrician snapped. "You men think current runs on jokes."

Amos looked toward the kitchen. Elsie stood there with a tray in both hands. Beyond her, Li Ming was taking off his patched coat, the freighter's message answered at last. Oram leaned against the desk with a glass he had not paid for. His eyes moved from the electrician to Amos to the old man, and Amos wished he had noticed that movement sooner.

"I'll go," Amos said.

Paddy turned. "You know the line?"