d of Nome. Jameine's hopeful spirit and
her determination to make good on Jim's strike had been infectious.
Owens had set out, almost gaily. But this grim, inhospitable sea put a
damper on his spirits.

"Doesn't the sun ever shine here, Jack?" he asked abruptly.

"Not often," was the yachtsman's cheerful answer. "That's why the fur
seals love it. Why, bless you, on Pribilof Islands, where the seal
rockeries lie, there aren't twenty days of sunshine in a year. I know
these waters. I came hunting sea-otter once. We ran two summer months
without seeing the sun."

"It's no place for me!" declared the mine-owner. "Those who like the
sea can have it, and be welcome!"

The yachtsman bridled. He loved the sea.

"Open your nostrils, man, and sniff; that's pure air, at least. It
isn't like what I smelt last time I visited your dirty old coal mine!"
he retorted. "Every dog to its own kennel, Owens! After all, you
wanted to come here."

Jim felt much the same way. Standing on the foc's'le head, the raw
air, with its sudden hot spells when the sun gleamed dully through the
fog, brought him welcome memories. It seemed homelike, after his brief
experience in a coal mine. As he had said himself, he was a
"sour-dough." The uncanny fascination that the Far North exerts on
those who have once lived there, gripped him hard.

"Ain't no crowd here to worry a man!" he declared, drawing in deep
breaths, "an' there's room enough to stand straight! Would you want
to go back to them coal galleries, Clem, four feet high an' stinkin'?"

"They suited me all right before, Jim," the young fellow answered,
"and I don't see why they shouldn't again. I got mightily interested
in coal. Still, I needed a rest, and this trip is interesting, I'll
allow. But wait till we get to the actual mining of the gold, and then
I'll tell you which I like best."

"An' you, Anton?"

"I never want to go below ground again," the boy answered promptly.
"But it must be awful cold here in winter--if this is summer!"

"Ay, it's cold an' dark, no sun at all for two months. An' a man'll go
hungry often. But it's free an' open an' no one has a boss! What's
more, there's gold!"

Anton shivered. The call of the North had not gripped him, yet.

Otto, beside the helmsman, was worrying him--neither with the weather,
nor with the question of treasure. To the first he was indifferent, to
the second he was satisfied with drawing full pay every day and not
doing any hewing