hts. They strutted and bragged as if the millions were already
theirs. To hear them, you would think they had an exclusive option on
the treasure-troves of the Klondike. Yet, before and behind us, were
dozens of similar vessels, bearing just as eager a mob of
fortune-hunters, all drawn irresistibly northward by the Golden Magnet.

Nevertheless, it was hard not to be affected by the prevailing spirit of
optimism. For myself the gold had but little attraction, but the
adventure was very dear to my heart. Once more the clarion call of
Romance rang in my ears, and I leapt to its summons. And indeed, I
reflected, it was a wonderful kaleidoscope of a world, wherein I, but a
half-year back cooling my heels in a highland burn, should be now part
and parcel of this great Argonaut army. Already my native uncouthness
was a thing of the past, and the quaint mannerisms of my Scots tongue
were yielding to the racy slang of the frontier. More to the purpose,
too, I was growing in strength and wiry endurance. As I looked around me
I realised that there were many less fitted for the trail than I, and
there was none with such a store of glowing health. You may picture me
at this time, a tallish young man, with a fine colour in my cheeks,
black hair that curled crisply, and dark eyes that were either alight
with eagerness or agloom with dreams.

I have said that we were all more or less in a ferment of excitement,
but to this I must make a reservation. One there was who, amid all our
unrest, remained cold, distant and alien--the Jewish girl, Berna. Even
in the old man the gold fever betrayed itself in a visionary eye and a
tremor of the lips; but the girl was a statue of patient resignation, a
living reproof to our febrile and purblind imaginings.

The more I studied her, the more out of place she seemed in my picture,
and, almost unconsciously, I found myself weaving about her a fabric of
romance. I endowed her with a mystery that piqued and fascinated me, yet
without it I have no doubt I would have been attracted to her. I longed
to know her uncommon well, to win her regard, to do something for her
that should make her eyes rest very kindly on me. In short, as is the
way of young men, I was beginning to grope blindly for that affection
and sympathy which are the forerunners of passion and love.

The land was wintry and the wind shrilled so that the attendant gulls
flapped their wings hard in the face of it. The wolf-pack of the sea
w