ed how he had
become separated from his party, and how he was hurrying forward to
rejoin them. Under the circumstances, it was only natural that his
hosts should supply him with enough food for a day or two. Besides, it
would never do to let him die of starvation and he carrying their good
money and insurance policies in his satchel--the little black
hand-satchel wherein he kept his collars.

He reached Dawson early in the rush, but we do not know how it fared
with him there---whether he crushed his money from stones or bones--for
it was probable he took a new name, and, needless to say, he did not
return via the overland route to Edmonton.

Two others who reached the northern Eldorado were Jim Kenealey and Jack
Russell. It took them two years to get in. Russell struck pay-dirt in
the Cape Nome District, but Kenealey, after abandoning several claims,
came out penniless. He died recently at the Cameron House, Strathcona,
of which hotel he was proprietor. Kenealey, who came from Peterboro',
Ontario, in the early eighties, was a clever sleight-of-hand artist and
one time had an encounter with an Indian, it being natural and entirely
reasonable that the Indian should demand the fifty cents that Kenealey
claimed to have taken from his ear.

"But there were others who reached the gold zone," explains a lawyer
who was, in those days, a cub-reporter, type-setter, and I know not
what besides. "I have forgotten their names, but you may find them in
the files of _The Bulletin_."

One of these parties comprised four men, Martin McNeeley from Sault
Ste. Marie, Michigan, George Baalam, W. Schreeves and W. J. Graham.

Schreeves and Baalam reached Dawson safely; Graham was drowned on the
way, and McNeeley, who injured his foot, was left behind by the others
somewhere near the Devil's Portage.

Some months afterwards, Mr. E. T. Cole of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota,
with his party, stumbled upon a small tent in which they found a
terribly decomposed body. It was McNeeley's. By his side there was a
knife, a compass, a rifle, twenty-five rounds of cartridges, twenty
pounds of flour, some meat, matches and wood. The following excerpts
are from his diary--

"December 28, 1897--My partners deserted me and tried to cripple me
further by taking my grub.

"January 5, 1898--Walked eight miles on my awful foot and am crippled
on an Island alone. The pain of my foot is terrible."

The files reveal another tragedy in which two men