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

~ bis GEE camp. Joe Ladne sssu1s In
frun Bonanxa Creek. Re led Daylight
away frum the camp and Den and
told him things IN confidence.
She's sure there" he said ta co.,
clusioz- 7 didn't slascs II. or cradle
f. PANIED ~. al In that sack. yes-
tsrday. On thu rtnxoek- tell you Pen
can shake Il cut o. the graxs-rooss.
And what's % the bedrock 1owu ln
tho bottom Of the creek they ANT 40
way Of teiiin' Bat she's big. tell
you. big Keep IL quie.. and locate al
you can. It's IN spots. but I wouldn't
be none surprised II some Of them
claims yielded - high N Atty tho1-
sand. The only trouble II that It's
spotted"
A month passed by. and BONANZA
Creek remained quiet A sprinkifng
OF men had ssaksd: but most Of them.
after stalking, had goas OF down TO
Forty Nile and Circle City. The few
that possessed sufficient faith 10 re-
main were busy building log cabins
against the coming Of winter. Car
mack and his Indian relatives were &C.
cupied IN building a sluice box and
getting a head of water. The work
was slow, for they had to saw their
lumber by hand from the standing for
est. But farther down BONANZA were
four men who had drifted In from up
river, Dan McGilvary, Dave Mckay.
Dave Edwards, and Harry Waugh
rrss.- f>x ~ n.
ing nor giving condolences. and they
herded by themselves. But Daylight,
who had PANIED the spotted rim OF
Carmack's claim and shaken coarse
gold from the grass-roots, and who
had panned the rim at hundred 9th
er places up and down the length OF
the creek and found nothing, was Gu
rious to know what lay on bedrock.
He had noted the four quiet men sink
ing a shaft close by the stream, and
he had heard their whip-saw going as
they made lumber for the slu'ce boxes.
He did not wait for an invitation: but
he was present the first day they
sluiced. And at the end of five hours
shoveling for one man, he saw them
take out thirteen ounces and half Of
gold 1t was coarse gold, running from
pinheads to a twelve-dollar nugget,
and 1t had come from eff bedrock.
The first fall snow was flying that day,
and the Arctic winter was closing
down; but Daylight had no eyes for
the bleak-gray sadness of the dying,
short-lived summer. He saw his Wis
ion coming true, and on the big fiat
was upreared anew his golden city Of
the SHOWS. GOLD had been found on
bedrock. That was the big thing.
Carmack's strike was assured. Day
light staked a claim in his own name
adjoining three he had purchased with
plug tobacco. This gave him a block
two thousand feet long and extending
In width from rim-rock to rim-rock.
Returning that night to his camp at
the mouth of Klondike, he found in 1t
Kama, the Indian chief he had left at
Dyea. Kama was travelling by ca.
noe, bringing in the last mail of the
year. In his possession was some two
hundred dollars in gold-dust, which
Daylight Immediately borrowed. In
return, he arranged to stake a claim
for him, which he was to record when
he passed through Forty Mile. When
Kama departed next morning, he car
ried a number of letters for Daylight,
addressed to all the old -timers down
river, in which they were urged to
come up Immediately and stake. Also
Kama carried letters of similar import,
given him by the other men on b.
nanza.
1T will sure be the gosh-dangdest
stampede that ever was, Daylight
chuckled, as he tried to vision the ex-
cited populations of Forty Mile and
Circle City tumbling into poling-boats
and racing the hundreds of miles up
the Yukon; for he knew that his word
would be unquestioningly accepted.
One day In December Daylight filed
a pan from bedrock on his own claim
and carried it into his cabin. Here a
fire burned and enabled him to keep
water unfroZen In a canvas tank. He
sqaatted over the tank and began to
wash. Earth and gravel seemed to fill
the pan. AS he impaired to it cir
cular movement, the lighter, coarser
PARTICLES washed out over the edge.
At times he combed the surface with
his fingers, raking out handfuls of
gravel. The contents of the pan di-
minished. At Is drew near to the
bottom, for the purpose of feeting and
tentative examination, he gave the
pan a sudden sloshing movement,
emotying 1t of wafer. And the whole
bottom showed as if covered with but
ter. Thus the yellow gold flashed
up as the muddy water was filtered
away. 1t was gold-gold-dust, coarse
gold, nuggets, large nuggets. He was
all alone. He set the pan down for a
moment and thought long thoughts.
Then he finished the washing, and
weighed the result in his scales At
the rate of sixteen dollars to the ounce
the pan had contained seven hundred