torm, and
though it was as close as pepper down there I hadn't a mouthful to
drink. I thought I was going to die just before they opened the hold and
began to remove the cargo."

"But, Fred, what made you do it?" asked Earl, reproachfully. "It was the
height of foolishness."

"I'm bound to go to the gold fields, Earl. You two are going there to
make a fortune, and why can't I make a fortune, too?"

"Because you are not fit for life out there, that's why. You suffered a
good deal in coming this far, but let me tell you that I expect to
suffer a good deal more than that before the Klondike River is reached
and we have endured the hardships of an Alaskan winter. Supposing you
succeed in getting away up in Alaska and are taken sick, who is going to
care for you, and how are you going to get back home? Now I don't want
to preach, but my advice is, to go back to Basco at once."

"And that's my advice, too, Fred," broke in Randy. "I know you are as
old as I am, but you know you never did such work as Earl and I are used
to, and some of the experienced miners even laugh at us. If Uncle
Foster hadn't known that we were used to hard work out in the open, in
midwinter at that, he would never have dreamed of asking us to go with
him; he told us so."

Randy and Earl both spoke earnestly, and it was not their fault that
what they had to say did not take effect. But Fred Dobson was both wild
and reckless, and he shook his head.

"I'm bound to go if I have to walk the rest of the way," he said. "I
thought I would strike your uncle again when we reached the place, but
if you are so dead set against me I'll not say another word, but try to
paddle my own canoe, as the saying is. Of course I'm much obliged for
what you did for me in San Francisco and here, and some day I'll make it
up to you, see if I don't."

"We don't want you to make it up, Fred; only act sensible and steer for
home when you next strike out," said Earl. He was about to go on, when
the entrance of his uncle and Captain Zoss into the restaurant caused
him to stop.

"Humph! so you've turned up again!" were Foster Portney's words. "I
heard there had been a stowaway on board of the _Golden Hope_. It was
the most foolish move you could make, lad." The prospector turned to his
youngest nephew. "Randy, where are our outfits?"

"Oh my!" burst out Randy, leaping to his feet. "Earl, we forgot all
about them!"

Earl said nothing, but he reached the door of the restaura