rheumatism. I looked at my
location stake, beside which I had fallen.

"I can't do it," I said; "my feet are out of business."

"You must," he insisted. "Come, buck up, old man. Bathe your feet in the
creek, and then you'll feel as fit as a fighting-cock. We've got to get
into town hot-foot. They've got a bunch of crooks at the gold office,
and we're liable to lose our claims if we are late."

"Have you staked, too?"

"You bet. I've got thirteen below. Hurry up. There's a wild bunch coming
from town."

I groaned grievously, yet felt mighty refreshed by a dip in the creek.
Then we started off once more. Every few moments we would meet parties
coming post-haste from town. They looked worn and jaded, but spread
eagerly up and down. There must have been several hundred of them, all
sustained by the mad excitement of the stampede.

We did not take the circuitous route of the day before, but one that
shortened the distance by some ten miles. We travelled a wild country,
crossing unknown creeks that have since proved gold-bearing, and
climbing again the high ridge of the divide. Then once more we dropped
down into the Bonanza basin, and by nightfall we had reached our own
cabin.

We lay down for a few hours. It seemed my weary head had just touched
the pillow when once more the inexorable Prodigal awakened me.

"Come on, kid, we've got to get to Dawson when the recording office
opens." So once more we pelted down Bonanza. Fast as we had come, we
found many of those who had followed us were ahead. The North is the
land of the musher. In that pure, buoyant air a man can walk away from
himself. Any one of us thought nothing of a fifty-mile tramp, and one of
eighty was scarcely considered notable.

It was about nine in the morning when we got to the gold office. Already
a crowd of stampeders were waiting. Foremost in the crowd I saw Jim. The
Prodigal looked thoughtful.

"Look here," he said, "I guess it's all right to push in with that
bunch, but there's a slicker way of doing it for those that are 'next.'
Of course, it's not according to Hoyle. There's a little side-door where
you can get in ahead of the gang. See that fellow, Ten-Dollar Jim they
call him; well, they say he can work the oracle for us."

"No," I said, "you can pay him ten dollars if you like. I'll take my
chance in the regulation way."

So the Prodigal slipped away from me, and presently I saw him admitted
at the side entrance. Surely, thought I, t