roperties in
copper, iron, and coal; and that the miners should be well-equipped,
ransacked the lands of the Arctic even as far as Siberia for
native-made snow-shoes, muclucs, and parkas.

He bore the country on his shoulders; saw to its needs; did its work.
Every ounce of its dust passed through his hands; every post-card and
letter of credit. He did its banking and exchange; carried and
distributed its mails. He frowned upon competition; frightened out
predatory capital; bluffed militant syndicates, and when they would
not, backed his bluff and broke them. And for all, yet found time and
place to remember his motherless girl, and to love her, and to fit her
for the position he had made.

CHAPTER VI

"So I think, captain, you will agree that we must exaggerate the
seriousness of the situation." Jacob Welse helped his visitor into his
fur great-coat and went on. "Not that it is not serious, but that it
may not become more serious. Both you and I have handled famines
before. We must frighten them, and frighten them now, before it is too
late. Take five thousand men out of Dawson and there will be grub to
last. Let those five thousand carry their tale of famine to Dyea and
Skaguay, and they will prevent five thousand more coming in over the
ice."

"Quite right! And you may count on the hearty co-operation of the
police, Mr. Welse." The speaker, a strong-faced, grizzled man,
heavy-set and of military bearing, pulled up his collar and rested his
hand on the door-knob. "I see already, thanks to you, the newcomers
are beginning to sell their outfits and buy dogs. Lord! won't there be
a stampede out over the ice as soon as the river closes down! And each
that sells a thousand pounds of grub and goes lessens the proposition
by one empty stomach and fills another that remains. When does the
Laura start?"

"This morning, with three hundred grubless men aboard. Would that they
were three thousand!"

Amen to that! And by the way, when does your daughter arrive?"

"'Most any day, now." Jacob Welse's eyes warmed. "And I want you to
dinner when she does, and bring along a bunch of your young bucks from
the Barracks. I don't know all their names, but just the same extend
the invitation as though from me personally. I haven't cultivated the
social side much,--no time, but see to it that the girl enjoys herself.
Fresh from the States and London, and she's liable to feel lonesome.
You understand."

J