over that situation as pretty much everyone in town knew what Pete Marliss was like and had expected nothing more. But Marliss did buy a round of drinks for the VIP table, and once they arrived he stood on his chair and waited for the crowd of diners, some sixty strong, to quiet down.
“You all know,” he started, looking what Samuel thought was pretty damned smug, “that our friends Michael Callahan and Roger Templeton recently found the whole remains of a supposedly ancient baby mammoth—” Someone at another table raised a hand, and Marliss paused, obviously trying very hard to not get angry at being interrupted so early in his speech. “What?”
“Um. Who found the mammoth?”
Marliss rolled his eyes and then looked down and gestured to Mick and Temple to stand. When they did, he said, “These guys,” which was followed by a lot of muttering and nods as people who had never in their lives heard Mick and Temple’s proper names finally understood. Applause followed, and Marliss had to wait even longer, and finally he pointed at their chairs; the two miners, both somewhat red-faced, sat back down.
“As I was saying, Mick and Temple discovered the body, and our friend Samuel Denicola was the one who identified it.” More polite applause, although Samuel could see by the looks on the faces of most of those nearby that they were indeed worried that he was here. Marliss carried on. “Now, as you are no doubt aware, there has been some controversy over the final disposition of the body of this creature that Mick and Temple found, but I am here to tell you that I have no doubt more bodies will be found as more of the north is opened up and explored, and I also have no doubt that some of those creatures will be sacrificed on the altar of science rather than the altar of community and business. But with Ed Mortensen here to take a photograph . . .” Here he paused and gestured at Ed, who was busy setting up his camera on the stage in preparation of taking a picture of everyone as they tucked into their meal. Again, everyone applauded, and Ed took a second to wave in response. “As I was saying, with Ed here to take a photograph and to write about this historic event, we can be assured of plenty of attention by the outside world. Why, all that coupled with some good and honest hard work, and we may be able to recreate some of the action that we all remember from the peak times of the gold rush. And wouldn’t that be something!”
There were cheers and huzzahs at this, and soon enough most people in the room were standing as they applauded. There were few trappers and prospectors who would say they wanted more people coming back to Dawson, but most of the folk in the room that evening were businessmen, people whose livelihoods depended on as much custom as possible. Store owners, bar owners, hotel owners, restaurant owners, now that Samuel was paying attention he could see that most attendees held those occupations; as he’d been told in the barbershop, others from town couldn’t afford the tickets, or perhaps had been too late to buy them. At that moment he understood why his belief that the mammoth should have gone to science would have never panned out: too many people in town had a stake in the success of this evening. He sat back in his chair, finally feeling the complete acceptance of defeat.
Marliss sat back down, and the people around Samuel made small talk as they waited for their dinner. Samuel brooded, idly playing with his silverware and waiting for the first course to arrive. Fanny Alice stirred in her chair, looking increasingly uncomfortable whenever Samuel glanced up at her, but she didn’t seem to want to make eye contact with him, so he left her alone.
Waiters finally came out from the kitchen, and Samuel saw that almost all of them were prospectors that Marliss must have hired for the occasion. Each table got a large plate of sourdough bread and a bowl of thin soup, which Marliss stood and announced was the course before the stew and contained nothing from the mammoth. There were more mutterings at this, although Samuel imagined they were likely in relief that this meagre offering hadn’t been what everyone had come for.
Happy that there was at least something there he could