at a time of such
wondrous opportunity, and plunged their hands into all sorts of nooks
and crannies for their long hoarded but smaller denominations.

* * * * *

A few months and the scene was changed. Two miners poled their small
boats down the Koyukuk River. Winter was gone, taking ice and snow with
it. Instead of these, the waters of the great river, fed by melted snow
and tributaries, surged on mightily, now whirling in swift rapids where
huge boulders impeded their progress; or to lower levels where green
islands caused a division of the floods allowing reunion later.

The men in the boat talked little. They managed to drift past the
principal mining camps during the night in order not to be much seen. To
be sure, there was no darkness at this time of the year, but the camps
were not stirring much through the night; and in the event of a near
approach to a trading post in daylight they rested a few hours among the
willows on the river banks or upon some island in mid-stream. When they
had slept and eaten before their camp fire their journey was resumed.

In the bow of the boat lay two sacks of very great weight. They were not
large, but were made of strong, thick material, such as is used for
tents. Great care was given these sacks by the two men. At every halt
along the river they were carefully lifted out upon the ground above the
reach of the water, and covered by some article of clothing or bedding.

The sacks contained gold.

The men had come from Nome to the Koyukuk, where at a small trading post
they had changed a large amount of currency into gold dust and nuggets,
mined from adjacent creeks. With this they were making their way south
to the Yukon River where they intended to go quietly on board a steamer
heading up stream, thus making their way to the Klondyke and later to
the States.

Reaching the Yukon River, a small steamer was hailed; they boarded her
and soon smoked contentedly on deck in the sunshine.

"Are you going on to 'Frisco' as you first thought of doing, Dunbar?"
inquired Gibbs, for these were the two Midas Creek promotors.

"You bet I am, and you go, too, for you are pledged to the scheme to the
end, you know. You won't back down now, will you?" with some anxiety
the question was asked by Dunbar.

"I couldn't with honor, old man, could I?" and the young miner laughed,
tossing a handful of gold nuggets up in the air and carelessly catching
them as h