rooks always beat the
straight men in."

"Never knowed it to fail," Lee agreed. "There's a dozen good men in
camp I'd like to see in on this find, but it'll be too late 'gin we get
back."

"Dose bum an' saloon feller got all de bes' claims at Klondike," said
Poleon. "I guess it's goin' be de same here."

"I don't like the look of this," observed the Lieutenant, thoughtfully.
"I'm afraid there's some kind of a job on foot."

"There's nothing they can do," Gale answered. "We've got our ground
staked out, and it's up to them to choose what's left."

They were nearly ready to set out for Flambeau when the five men
returned.

"Before you go," said Stark, "I think we'd better organize our mining
district. There are enough present to do it."

"We can make the kind of laws we want before the gang comes along,"
Runnion chimed in, "and elect a recorder who will give us a square
deal."

"I'll agree if we give Lee the job," said Gale. "It's coming to him as
the discoverer, and I reckon the money will be handy, seeing the hard
luck he's played in."

"That's agreeable to me," Stark replied, and proceeded forthwith to
call a miners' meeting, being himself straightway nominated as chairman
by one of the strangers. There was no objection, so he went in, as did
Lee, who was made secretary, with instructions to write out the
business of the meeting, together with the by-laws as they were passed.

The group assembled in the cleared space before the cabin to make rules
and regulations governing the district, for it is a custom in all
mining sections removed from authority for the property holders thus to
make local laws governing the size of claims, the amount of assessment
work, the size of the recorder's fees, the character of those who may
hold mines, and such other questions as arise to affect their personal
or property interests. In the days prior to the establishment of courts
and the adoption of a code of laws for Alaska, the entire country was
governed in this way, even to the adjudication of criminal actions. It
was the primitive majority rule that prevails in every new land, and
the courts later recognized and approved the laws so made and
administered, even when they differed in every district, and even when
these statutes were often grotesque and ridiculous. As a whole,
however, they were direct in their effect and worked no hardship; in
fact, government by miners' meeting is looked upon to this day, by
those who l