steamboat to a trading camp known as Fort
Cudahy. They had received several letters from him while he was up
there, working for the Alaskan Transportation Company part of the time
and hunting for gold whenever the opportunity offered. The letters had
told of the intense cold and the suffering, and of numerous unsuccessful
attempts to strike a paying claim around Fort Cudahy and at another
camp, known as Circle City. His uncle had taken up several claims, but
they had not panned out very well, and Mr. Portney had finally returned
to the United States, to interest himself in a Colorado silver mine.

"Let me see the letter," said Randy, and Earl handed it over. "I don't
see how we are to pay our way to Alaska or anywhere else," added the
younger boy, ruefully, as he opened the epistle.

"You will see presently," rejoined Earl. "Read it aloud. Uncle writes
such a twisted hand, I want to make sure I read aright." And Randy
started at once:--

"CREEDE, COL., April 5.

"MY DEAR NEPHEWS:--I suppose you have been looking for a letter
from me all winter, but the fact is I have been away from this vicinity
since last December. A man from British Columbia wanted me to buy an
interest in a gold mine at a settlement called Dunbar's, and I went with
him. The mine proved to be worthless, and I left Dunbar's, and went to
Victoria, and stayed there until three weeks ago.

"While I was in Victoria, I ran across two miners whom I had met while
at Fort Cudahy in Alaska. They reported that a new gold field had been
discovered farther up the Yukon River, at a place known as Klondike
Creek. There had been an exodus from Circle City and Fort Cudahy to this
new region, and a camp known as Dawson City had been started. They said
that there were about a dozen small creeks flowing into the Klondike and
into the Yukon at this point, and that it was reported and proved that
the entire district was rich with gold.

"I was chary of believing the men at first, for I know only too well how
many wild-cat reports start up in every mining camp. But a couple of
days later I heard another report from Juneau, Alaska, to the effect
that several miners had come down from this same territory by way of the
lakes and Chilkoot Pass, and had brought with them over thirty-five
thousand dollars in nuggets and gold dust, taken out of a place called
Hunker's Creek, which runs into the Klondike.

"From these reports, and from others which are floating around, I am