Evening star., 1912-09-01

to sit about in the cabin cooking tasty
messes to tearing through blizzards al
the tail of dog team. They wanted
to wait for their million dollars until
spring. but Beach wanted his by Christ;
their goods. and Beach began pro,
gressive selection of partners. One
| was a sneak thief who had escaped
from workhouse at Seattle: Another
camp in the Klondike. Another had
been one of party of mutineers who
killed the officers OF a whaling vessel or
the Hershell Islands. He got SO that he
didn't mind the morals of his partners
very much-he changed so often that II
made little difference-but he objects
plaintively that each in turn wanted
him to do all the work.
Il said goodbye to the red-headed
sneak thief" said he, latter I had
worked month or more on his claim
Then 1 worked on the mutineer's claim
/ for another month. 1 had not seen q
sign of color at that time One day
| l walked down the creek to the red
heads claim. l found him on the dump
picking nuggets out of the dirt as one
would raisins out Of a pie, and dropping
! them in a baking powder can. My eyes
hung ont like loose overcoat buttons"
A Hungry Dog.
| Eventually he got q claim of his own
and hired two men at SO a day each
to work it. When the spring cleanup
came he found that he owed them just
5000. and that the claim wasn't wortf,
jumping. Then he had an inspiration.
Steamers bound up-river had to burn
cordwood. and wood. he heard, sold at
$40 a cord. With two partners he To-
Gated on the banks of the Yukon. sew
enty miles below Rampant. and became
wood chopper. ANY man." he said,
can cut two cords day. That's $50.
Multiply that by 500 days, and you
have an enormous income
only few days would be needed
to pay off the 5000 he owed. and he
would have money in his pocket. But
the spruce trees on the river banks
were wind-twisted and tough. 1t was
all they could do to cut half cord
Of wood day EACH but they kept cut
ting because when at work they forgot
the mosquitoes. Then they found that
the large pile of wood they had cut
could by no possibility be reached by
steamer. so they moved farther down
river and started the next pile on a
bluff bank. alongside which a steamer
could easily be tied. By and by they
were SO very hungry they just sat
ners they had eaten. The one thing
they had left was a ham, which they
I, had lashed to the ridge pole of the
tent Tor future feast. In the mean
time they lived on fish.
"One day." said Beach. "a dog came
to camp. We were flattered by that
dog. 1t was the first time any atten-
ton had been shown us in Alaska, and
we petted him and coaXed him. l was
down on the river bank with the boys
when l saw that dog leave camp.
Boys / said. hes got our ham,
They didn't believe it. They thought
no dog could get that ham. it was
lashed SO tightly to the ridge pole. But
recognized the irregularity in that
pups outline. So we killed the dog
not with any hope of retrieving the
ham, but because we We're angry. That
almost got US into race war, for kill
ing an Indians dog leads to reprisals
as surely as stealing cowboys pony.
But we sunk his body in the river.
weighted with heavy stones, and bore
the look OF three friends who could not
be coaxed to kill a dog. The Indians
suspected US, but they couldn't prove
it."
Passed Them By.
Steamers began to crowd up-river
as the ice went out. Scurvy-bitten
and half starved prospectors began
floating down stream from Dawson,
telling stories Of the frantic thousands
! in that foodless camp. The wood
speculation didn't look as promising as
it had for some time before, and the
three friends stepped chopping and sat
on the bank, waiting to sell. They sat
there all the time, for there was no
night during the Alaskan summer
| They dared not go away. for fear a
| steamer might slip past unaware. AT
last one steamer indicated a willing
ness to purchase.
| How mu-u-ch:" megaphoned her
captain from the bridge.
"Fo-o-orty dollars cord" yelled
Beach
The captain just reached down. by
his side pulled a rope, and the wood
cutters heard q bell clang twice. The
steamer moved on. The passengers
crowded by the rail to look at the three
| tatterdemalions in the woods. The
steward threw overheard a bucket OF
table scraps.
1--WE saw the lovely potato parings and
apple cores and lemon rinds floating of
down stream" said Beach, land We came
mighty near plunging In and swimming
after them. We were not far from
scurvy."
At last they sold their wood-at SIC
cord, and not at forty-and returned to
Rampant. They were not happy over the
price, but they had bargained for a square
meal as a part Of the price. and they ate
steadily for eighty up-river miles. Al
| Rampant Beach found that he had made
| a reputation as a man willing to work
| hard, and he was hired to go with q
| crew Of woodsmen to get out logs and
| raft them down river to the sawmill
| which had been set up.
II found I was one Of the peavy gang
| All the time We were in the woods
| didn't get to handle an ak. There were
four Of us in the gang. and our job was
to wrestle the peeled logs into the river
| along rude skid road.
] "The logs were three feet thick al
the butt. sixteen feet long, full Of saI
and heavy as lead. We would catch
hold with our canthooks. and lift with
all our strength. The log would move
the fraction Of an inch. Then the boss
would yell at us: Put your backs into
| it.: he'd say. Take a run with it,
| The novelist declares this sort OF
work was done by oxen originally. But
as man became more civilized 1T was
lrecognized that it was sheer brutality
to work an OK so hard. and sosdOnkey
engines were substituted. As there
were no donkey engines in Alaska, the
ipeavy gang was substituted for ma.
tchinery.
An Easy $50.
81 got so could eat soup with a
peavy," he said. THE men in oui
gang acted like oxen. We didn't ca,
I've browsed on leaves and brush
When we got angry about something
I'VE raped our horns. It's a~wonde,