ukon, Bondell and Churchill waving farewell and mutual
affection to the last.

That was in midsummer. In the fall of the year, the _W. H. Willis_
started up the Yukon with two hundred homeward-bound pilgrims on board.
Among them was Churchill. In his state-room, in the middle of a clothes-
bag, was Louis Bondell's grip. It was a small, stout leather affair, and
its weight of forty pounds always made Churchill nervous when he wandered
too far from it. The man in the adjoining state-room had a treasure of
gold-dust hidden similarly in a clothes-bag, and the pair of them
ultimately arranged to stand watch and watch. While one went down to
eat, the other kept an eye on the two state-room doors. When Churchill
wanted to take a hand at whist, the other man mounted guard, and when the
other man wanted to relax his soul, Churchill read four-months' old
newspapers on a camp stool between the two doors.

There were signs of an early winter, and the question that was discussed
from dawn till dark, and far into the dark, was whether they would get
out before the freeze-up or be compelled to abandon the steamboat and
tramp out over the ice. There were irritating delays. Twice the engines
broke down and had to be tinkered up, and each time there were snow
flurries to warn them of the imminence of winter. Nine times the _W. H.
Willis_ essayed to ascend the Five-Finger Rapids with her impaired
machinery, and when she succeeded, she was four days behind her very
liberal schedule. The question that then arose was whether or not the
steamboat _Flora_ would wait for her above the Box Canon. The stretch of
water between the head of the Box Canon and the foot of the White Horse
Rapids was unnavigable for steamboats, and passengers were transhipped at
that point, walking around the rapids from one steamboat to the other.
There were no telephones in the country, hence no way of informing the
waiting _Flora_ that the _Willis_ was four days late, but coming.

When the _W. H. Willis_ pulled into White Horse, it was learned that the
_Flora_ had waited three days over the limit, and had departed only a few
hours before. Also, it was learned that she would tie up at Tagish Post
till nine o'clock, Sunday morning. It was then four o'clock, Saturday
afternoon. The pilgrims called a meeting. On board was a large
Peterborough canoe, consigned to the police post at the head of Lake
Bennett. They agreed to be responsible for it and to deli