best; for he quarrelled with the chief over the possession of Wertz's
rifle, and took more than his share of the part-sack of beans. Also he
appropriated the bearskin, and caused grumbling among the tribesmen. And
finally, he tried to kill Sigmund's dog, which the girl had given him,
but the dog ran away, while he fell into the shaft and dislocated his
shoulder on the bucket. When the camp was well looted they went back to
their own lodges, and there was a great rejoicing among the women.
Further, a band of moose strayed over the south divide and fell before
the hunters, so the witch doctor attained yet greater honor, and the
people whispered among themselves that he spoke in council with the gods.

But later, when all were gone, the shepherd dog crept back to the
deserted camp, and all the night long and a day it wailed the dead. After
that it disappeared, though the years were not many before the Indian
hunters noted a change in the breed of timber wolves, and there were
dashes of bright color and variegated markings such as no wolf bore
before.

A DAUGHTER OF THE AURORA

"You--what you call--lazy mans, you lazy mans would desire me to haf for
wife. It is not good. Nevaire, no, nevaire, will lazy mans my hoosband
be."

Thus Joy Molineau spoke her mind to Jack Harrington, even as she had
spoken it, but more tritely and in his own tongue, to Louis Savoy the
previous night.

"Listen, Joy--"

"No, no; why moos' I listen to lazy mans? It is vaire bad, you hang
rount, make visitation to my cabin, and do nothing. How you get grub for
the famine? Why haf not you the dust? Odder mans haf plentee."

"But I work hard, Joy. Never a day am I not on trail or up creek. Even
now have I just come off. My dogs are yet tired. Other men have luck
and find plenty of gold; but I--I have no luck."

"Ah! But when this mans with the wife which is Indian, this mans
McCormack, when him discovaire the Klondike, you go not. Odder mans go;
odder mans now rich."

"You know I was prospecting over on the head-reaches of the Tanana,"
Harrington protested, "and knew nothing of the Eldorado or Bonanza until
it was too late."

"That is deeferent; only you are--what you call way off."

"What?"

"Way off. In the--yes--in the dark. It is nevaire too late. One vaire
rich mine is there, on the creek which is Eldorado. The mans drive the
stake and him go 'way. No odddr mans know what of him become. The mans,
him w