besides, Father an' I promised to give him a quarter o'
whatever we got for our claims, if we ever sold 'em.

"Off went French Pete in the sail-boat, leavin' us marooned on Douglas
Island, an' in a pickle of a mess supposin' he shouldn't return! But
he come back, sure enough, after about six weeks, havin' found John
Treadwell, a minin' man, who undertakes to buy our claims if Juneau,
after havin' looked 'em over, says they're all right.

"Juneau an' Treadwell come, a couple o' days after, wi' one o' these
up-to-date engineer Johnnies. The ore's low-grade, but there's head
enough in the creek to run stamp mills by water-power, which makes
cheap crushin'. Treadwell pays French Pete $15,000 for his claims an'
Father an' me $10,000 apiece. Then he buys up the rest o' the island
for next to nothin'. The Treadwell mine's a big un, now, workin' 540
stamp mills, an', as Mr. Owens says, it's makin' millions out o' low
grade ore.

"Father had promised Mother, as soon as he got $10,000 clear, he'd go
back home. She holds him to it. After payin' French Pete what we
promised, there's $10,000 for Father an' $5,000 for me, besides what
was left from the Cassiar an' Douglas Island placer clean-ups. Father
an' Mother went back to Utah, leavin' me wi' French Pete an'
Treadwell.

"But Father couldn't stand it long. While he was prospectin', all
hours, all weathers, he was tough an' strong. Back in town, he begun
to pine. In less'n a year he was dead. Mother didn't live long after
him. That lef' me on my own hook. Douglas Island was too slow, though
Treadwell offered me a good job as long's I cared to stick it out. But
I wanted to be off an' away, feelin' sure, some day, I'd make my big
strike.

"I was foot-loose, now, wi' five thousand in dust an' the whole world
to roam in. Where was I goin' to find the place where the sands was
nothin' but gold? Somewheres, I was sure! Some day I'd strike it rich
an' never have to work no more. Out in the wild beyond, where no one
else was, millions was waitin' for me!"

CHAPTER X

THE ROARING NORTH

"I was young an' tough in them days an' liked to buck agin hard goin'.
If gold was gettin' scarce where folks was, it was plenty an' free in
the lands that folks didn't dare go to. Naturally enough, I begun to
think o' the Chilkoot country.

"Ever since Georgie Holt had been tortured to death in a Chilkoot
Indian camp, prospectors had been leery o' that huntin' ground. But
French Pete