when they had started.

They had just stepped from a Market Street car in front of the hotel
when they saw a youth coming down the hotel steps who looked strangely
familiar, in spite of the somewhat ragged clothing he wore.

"Randy, who is that fellow?" questioned Earl, quickly, as he caught his
brother by the elbow.

"Why, if it isn't Fred Dobson!" burst from Randy's lips. "How in the
world did he get away out here? Fred Dobson! Fred Dobson! Stop, we want
to talk to you!" he called out, as the youth in question was on the
point of hurrying off.

CHAPTER VI.

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE.

"Randy Portney!" came from the lips of the boy addressed, as he turned
to stare at the person who had called out his name. "And Earl, too!
Where--where did you come from?"

"From Basco, of course," returned Randy. "How did you get away out
here?"

"I--I came out on a train from Chicago," stammered Fred Dobson, but he
did not add that the train had been a freight, and that the stolen ride
had been both uncomfortable and full of peril.

"We met your father in Boston," put in Earl. "He said if we should ever
run across you to tell you to come home."

"I'm not going back," was the reply of the squire's son. "I came out
here to make my fortune."

"I'm afraid you'll find it rather hard work," ventured Randy, and he
glanced at Fred's shabby suit. Around Basco the youth had dressed better
than any one else.

"I've been playing in hard luck lately," was the slangy reply. "But
say, what are you two fellows doing out here?"

"We came on to join our uncle," said Randy. "He is going to take us to
Alaska with him."

"Alaska! To those new gold fields a fellow reads about in the daily
papers?"

"Yes."

"I'd like to go there myself," said the runaway, readily.

"It costs a good deal of money to go, Fred," remarked Earl. He rather
liked the squire's son, in spite of his wild ways. "A fellow must take
along a year's provisions."

"So I've heard. I wonder if I couldn't work my way up on one of the
boats."

"I wouldn't advise you to go," said Randy. "Why, you are not used to
hard work, and they say work up there is of the hardest kind."

"Oh, I can work if I have to. Where is your uncle?"

"He's stopping at this hotel." Randy turned to Earl. "Let us see if
Uncle Foster is in, and we can talk to Fred some time later."

This was decided upon, and the squire's son walked off, promising to be
back in a few hours.

"He p