her,' he said,
simply, in a low voice. 'I want you here to help me keep house, to mend
my clothes, to bake bread and fry griddle cakes, and do the many little
things for Father and me that only you can do. In this way I can keep my
health and give all my time to my mining.'

"'I want you, Father,' he continued, laying his hand affectionately on
his pa's knee, 'to do my book-keeping, reckoning the time and wages of
my men at work on the claims. Accounts of assessment work on twenty
claims, besides new prospecting in different localities, will give you
something to do after cutting the kindling for Mother; and neither of
you need feel that you are useless nor idle. Part of these gold claims
are yours, and in your own names, and you can both make short 'mushing'
trips of inspection over the country when you like; though the new
railroad up Anvil will be finished in a few weeks, and then you can
ride. Under no consideration must either of you think for one moment of
buying steamer tickets back to the States inside of a year. At the end
of that time we will be taking out so much gold that you will not wish
to leave, I assure you. I am almost thirty years old now, Mother, and
you and Father are all I have,' he said softly, pressing my hand.

"Then I kissed his forehead and promised to stay, and I have never been
sorry. Father said he would try it a year, and then see about staying
longer, and here we are still in Nome after four years without once
going 'outside'.

"And you like it here?" they asked.

"Very much indeed, because our ground is turning out finely, and Leroy
is so good to us.

"About that tundra claim, however, nothing was ever done. Pa could never
be induced to step his foot upon it again, and being so determined in
the matter, we just let it drop.

"There it is yet, St. Charles cream can, stakes, and all; but the four
foot hole, with its icy foundations, is nowhere to be seen, having been
long ago levelled by wind and weather."

[Illustration]

CHAPTER III

THE HIDDEN LEDGE

The summer of 1897 was a memorable one in the great Northwest. It was
then that the first authentic news of the immense richness of the
Klondyke region became public. Less than a dozen persons had wintered on
Bonanza and Eldorado, the famous gold creeks discovered by Carmack in
September, 1896, and these reported the marvelously rich "strikes."
Certain weighty moose-hide sacks they carried, confirmed their stories.

T