ad happened was a dream till he
felt for his revolver and found it gone. Next he became aware of a sharp
stinging of his thigh, and after investigating, he found his hand warm
with blood. It was a superficial wound, but it was incontestable. He
became wider awake, and kept up the lumbering run to Canyon City.

He found a man, with a team of horses and a wagon, who got out of bed and
harnessed up for twenty dollars. Churchill crawled in on the wagon-bed
and slept, the gripsack still on his back. It was a rough ride, over
water-washed boulders down the Dyea Valley; but he roused only when the
wagon hit the highest places. Any altitude of his body above the wagon-
bed of less than a foot did not faze him. The last mile was smooth
going, and he slept soundly.

He came to in the grey dawn, the driver shaking him savagely and howling
into his ear that the _Athenian_ was gone. Churchill looked blankly at
the deserted harbour.

"There's a smoke over at Skaguay," the man said.

Churchill's eyes were too swollen to see that far, but he said: "It's
she. Get me a boat."

The driver was obliging and found a skiff, and a man to row it for ten
dollars, payment in advance. Churchill paid, and was helped into the
skiff. It was beyond him to get in by himself. It was six miles to
Skaguay, and he had a blissful thought of sleeping those six miles. But
the man did not know how to row, and Churchill took the oars and toiled
for a few more centuries. He never knew six longer and more excruciating
miles. A snappy little breeze blew up the inlet and held him back. He
had a gone feeling at the pit of the stomach, and suffered from faintness
and numbness. At his command, the man took the baler and threw salt
water into his face.

The _Athenian's_ anchor was up-and-down when they came alongside, and
Churchill was at the end of his last remnant of strength.

"Stop her! Stop her!" he shouted hoarsely.

"Important message! Stop her!"

Then he dropped his chin on his chest and slept. When half a dozen men
started to carry him up the gang-plank, he awoke, reached for the grip,
and clung to it like a drowning man.

On deck he became a centre of horror and curiosity. The clothing in
which he had left White Horse was represented by a few rags, and he was
as frayed as his clothing. He had travelled for fifty-five hours at the
top notch of endurance. He had slept six hours in that time, and he was
twenty pounds lighter th