this did little good, and the captain was getting into a bad way when
one of the old miners, who had just come in, came to his aid.

"Eat tomatoes, cap'n," he said. "Best thing on airth fer scurvy. Bill
Watson wuz down with it wust way an' nuthin' helped him but tomatoes. He
eat 'most a bushel o' 'em, an' they made a new man o' him. Eat
tomatoes."

"Tomatoes may be very good," said the doctor. "They are a very strong,
green vegetable, you know. You might try them."

And the captain did try them, first using up some of the cans brought
along, and then buying a quart of fresh tomatoes at Dawson City, for two
dollars. Sure enough, the tomatoes helped wonderfully, and about a week
later the scurvy left him.

Nearly a month had now passed since the party had located at Mosquito
Hollow, and in that time they had taken out three small nuggets worth
probably fifty dollars apiece, and a little short of a hundred and
fifty ounces of gold dust. Counting the gold dust as worth sixteen
dollars an ounce, this gave them, in round figures, twenty-five hundred
dollars for their labor.

"Twenty-five hundred dollars!" said Earl. "That's a good deal more than
we could earn at home."

Captain Zoss gave a deep sigh and shook his head. "I ain't satisfied,"
he said. "I didn't come up to Alaska to work fer no five hundred a
month. I'm goin' elsewhar fer luck."

"You won't stay here?" asked Randy, quickly. He had begun to like the
captain very much.

"No, lad; I'm yere to make a fortune or nuthin'. I quit the hollow
ter-morrow."

"Well, you have that right, captain, although I'm sorry to see you go,"
said Foster Portney.

"Which means thet you an' the boys stay," answered the captain, quickly.
"I'm sorry ye won't go with me. I want ter try Hunker Creek."

"I think I'll stay," said Foster Portney, quietly. "I'll give the gulch
a few weeks longer, for the way I look at it we're making wages and have
the chance to make a strike. What do you say, boys?"

Randy was in for following the captain, but a look from Earl made him
change the words on the end of his tongue. "I'll do as you think best,
Uncle Foster."

"And so will I," said Earl.

Then they looked at the doctor, who was kicking the toe of his boot
against the tent pole in speculative way. It was several seconds before
the medical man spoke.

"I--I think I'll go with the captain," he said finally. "Not but that I
hate to part company," he added hastily. "But I came up here