The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1911-11-02


she they laid over two days for the
Sz1s of the dogs, and at Sixty Mile
nyiIght's team was left with the
trader. Unlike Daylight. after the
HsRY1ble run from Selkirk TO Circle
CITY. they had been unable 10 recup-
NFz4e on the back trail. So the four
<nsn pulled on from Sixty Mile with
. fresh team OF dogs on Daylight's
aied. The following night they
eAEped IN the cluster of islands at
The mouth OF the Stewart Daylight
Azlked town sites. and, though the
zsthers laughed at him, he staked the
whole maze Of high, wooded island.
Just supposing the big strike does
come on the Stewart" he argued.
>Nebbe you-all IL be In on 1t, and then
again mebbe you-all won't. But sure
ELL You-all d better reconsider and
70 In with me on It."
I But they were stubborn.
you're as bad as Harper and Joe
EAdue," said Joe Hines. They're al
ways at that game. You know that
big fat Jest below the Klondike and
Hnder Moosehide Mountain? Well,
che recorder at Forty Mile was tellin'
me they staked that not a month ago
The Harper & Ladue Town Site.
Ea! Ha! Hal"
Elijah and Finn Joined In his laugh
ber: but Daylight was gravely In earn
est
There she Isl" he cried. "The
$AunCh IL working! It's In the air. I
tel you-all! What'd they-all stake
Ehe big fiat for If they-an didn't get
che bunch? Wish I'd staked It,"
The regret in his voice was provoca-
Give Of second burst of laughter.
Laugh, dang you, laugh! Why
Your eyes amt open yet. You-all are
q bunch of little mewing kittens.
'4sn you-all II that strikes come on
Klondike. Harper and Ladue will be
tminionaires. And If 1t comes on Stew
art, you-all watch the Elan Harnish
Ytown site boom. In them days, when
zou-an come around maxim poor
mouths -" He heaved a sigh of
resignation. well, I suppose I'll
have to give you-all a grub-stake or
soup. or something or other"
In the meantime there was naught
eto show for 1t but bunch. But 1t was
coming. AS he would stake his last
ounce on a good poker hand, so he
gtaked his life and effort on the bunch
that the future held in store a big
Sseike on the Upper River. So he and
his three companions, with dogs, and
"asleds, and snowshoes, toiled up the
frozen breast Of the Stewart, toiled
+zun and ON through the white wilder
mess where the unending stiffness was
never broken by the voices of men,
rthe lBtFnke of an ak, or the distant
crack of rifle. Gold they found on
che bars, but not in paying quantities,
and in the following May they re-
aurned to Sixty Mile.
Ten days later, Harper and Joe La
clue arrived at Sixty Mile, and Day
Tight, strong to obey the bunch that
had come to him, traded a third in
Sserest IN his Stewart town site for
third interest in theirs on the Klondike.
They had faith in the Upper Country,
ssnd Harper left downstream, with a
Taftiua1 OF supplies, to start a small
post at the mouth Of the Klondike.
~Why don't you tackle Indian River,
Daylight Harper advised. at part
ing. There's whole slathers of creeks
sand draws draining In up there, and
somewhere gold just crying to be
Iou1d. That's my bunch. There's
toig strike coming, and Indian River
saint going to be a million miles
oaway."
and the place is swarming with
moose" Joe Ladue added. Bob Hen
~derson's up there somewhere, been
5ahere three years now. swearing
something big is going to happen.
Giving olf'n straight moose and pros
Decting around like crazy man."
Daylight decided to go Indian River
" futter, rs he expressed it; and lin
Egereda few days longer arranging his
ssneager outfit He planned to go in
light. carrying a pack of seventy-five
pounds and making his five dogs pack
sas well, Indian fashion, loading them
with thirty pounds each. Depending
on the rerort Of Ladue, he intended to
follow Boo Henderson's example and
live practically On straight meat.
When Jack Kearns' scow, laden with
the ,sawnsin from Lake Linderman,
sled up at Sixty Mile, Daylight bum
died his outfit and dogs on board,
Eurned his town-site application over
to Elijah to be filed, and the same day
was landed at the mouth of Indian
River He continued down Hunker
ITO the Klondike, and on to the sum-
mer fishing camp Of the Indians on
the Yukon.
Here for a day he camped with Car
xnack, "a ysquaw-man, and his Indian
Fbrother-inIlaW, Skookum Jim, bought
q boat, and, with his dogs on board,
edrifted down the Yukon to Forty Mile.
Then it was that Carmack, his broth
~erIn-1aw, Skookum Jim, and Cultus
Charlie, another Indian, arrived in a
scanoe at Forty Mile, vent straight to
zhe gold commissioner, and recorded