had heard from a pard o' Juneau's that Dumb MacMillan had
got over the Chilkoot an' struck it rich on what he called Dumb Creek,
runnin' into the Tanana. He'd come back an' cashed his dust, blowed it
in on one wild spree, an' gone over the Pass again. He hadn't never
been heard of no more.

"Since his second trip, though, the Canadian Government had got a
strangle-hold on the Chilkoots an' was makin' 'em behave. It had
forced 'em to make peace wi' the Stick Indians o' the interior, an'
thrown the fear o' the whites into 'em good an' plenty. So I wasn't
worryin' over Injuns none. The Chilkoot Pass, though, was said to be
something awful to cross, but that wasn't goin' to stop me, when I
knew there was good goin' on the other side an' all the creeks full o'
gold.

"So I quit Treadwell an' French Pete an' got back to Juneau. There, I
heard that a bunch o' prospectors led by the Schiefflin Brothers had
taken a steamboat, got as far as St. Michael, gone up the Yukon,
wintered at Nuklukayet an' found gold all the way. They'd struck good
placers on Mynook, Hess an' Shevlin Creeks, but the Schiefflins found
the ground always frozen an' terrible hard to work, an' the summer was
so short they figured pannin' on the Yukon wouldn't pay.

"Think o' that, will you! The Klondyke an' the Eldorado wouldn't pay!

"That same summer, we heard that there was new gold strikes on the
Lewes an' Big Salmon Rivers, which run into the Upper Yukon. Dumb
MacMillan had found payin' color on the Tanana, flowin' into the
Middle Yukon. The Schiefflins had located plenty o' placers on the
Lower Yukon.

"It didn't take much figurin' to guess that there was gold all the
way along. I made up my mind to strike over the Chilkoot into the
Stewart River section, jest about unknown then; preparin', durin' the
winter, for an early start.

"Early in the spring o' '84, eight of us was ready. We had a
sure-enough outfit an' plenty o' grub. We was well fixed for
shootin'-irons, too, for we was goin' up into hostile Injun country.

"Joe Juneau, who knew a lot about the mountains, tried to head us off,
tellin' what happened to Holt an' MacMillan, but we was sot on goin',
an' struck out for Dyea along the canal trail. There we headed for the
interior.

"I've seen some rough goin' in my time, an' I come of a stock o' tough
uns, but, I'm tellin' you, that first trip over the Chilkoot Pass was
more'n horrible. I dream about it, yet--an' it's over thirty years
a