t a boat, and, with his dogs on
board, drifted down the Yukon to Forty Mile. August was drawing to a
close, the days were growing shorter, and winter was coming on. Still
with unbounded faith in his hunch that a strike was coming in the Upper
Country, his plan was to get together a party of four or five, and, if
that was impossible, at least a partner, and to pole back up the river
before the freeze-up to do winter prospecting. But the men of Forty
Mile were without faith. The diggings to the westward were good enough
for them.

Then it was that Carmack, his brother-in-law, Skookum Jim, and Cultus
Charlie, another Indian, arrived in a canoe at Forty Mile, went
straight to the gold commissioner, and recorded three claims and a
discovery claim on Bonanza Creek. After that, in the Sourdough Saloon,
that night, they exhibited coarse gold to the sceptical crowd. Men
grinned and shook their heads. They had seen the motions of a gold
strike gone through before. This was too patently a scheme of Harper's
and Joe Ladue's, trying to entice prospecting in the vicinity of their
town site and trading post. And who was Carmack? A squaw-man. And
who ever heard of a squaw-man striking anything? And what was Bonanza
Creek? Merely a moose pasture, entering the Klondike just above its
mouth, and known to old-timers as Rabbit Creek. Now if Daylight or Bob
Henderson had recorded claims and shown coarse gold, they'd known there
was something in it. But Carmack, the squaw-man! And Skookum Jim! And
Cultus Charlie! No, no; that was asking too much.

Daylight, too, was sceptical, and this despite his faith in the Upper
Country. Had he not, only a few days before, seen Carmack loafing with
his Indians and with never a thought of prospecting?

But at eleven that night, sitting on the edge of his bunk and unlacing
his moccasins, a thought came to him. He put on his coat and hat and
went back to the Sourdough. Carmack was still there, flashing his
coarse gold in the eyes of an unbelieving generation. Daylight ranged
alongside of him and emptied Carmack's sack into a blower. This he
studied for a long time. Then, from his own sack, into another blower,
he emptied several ounces of Circle City and Forty Mile gold. Again,
for a long time, he studied and compared. Finally, he pocketed his own
gold, returned Carmack's, and held up his hand for silence.

"Boys, I want to tell you-all something," he said. "She's sure
come--the u