close
upon the solution of a problem that has baffled us for a long time.

One form of this emotion was the impatience to get forward faster than
before. There was nothing of the feeling when leaving Seattle or Juneau
or Dyea, nor did they experience it to any degree while toiling through
the hundreds of miles from lake to lake and down the upper waters of
the streams which help to form the Yukon.

Roswell and Frank were grateful for one blessed fact--they were
stronger and in more rugged health than ever in their lives. When
making their way through the passes and helping to drag the sleds, they
felt more than once like giving up and turning back, though neither
would have confessed it; but now they were hopeful, buoyant, and eager.
They had sent the last letter which they expected to write home for a
long time upon leaving Dyea, where they bade good-by to civilization.

The afternoon was young when the raft drifted into a portion of the
Yukon which expanded into a width of two miles, where it was joined by
another large stream. On the eastern shore loomed a straggling town of
considerable proportions.

"Tim," said Frank, suspecting the truth, "what place is that?"

"Frinds," replied Tim, vainly trying to conceal his agitation, "that
town is Dawson City, and the river flowing into ours is the Klondike.
Ye have raiched the goold counthry, which, being the same, I
rispictfully asks ye all to jine mesilf in letting out a hurrah which
will make the town trimble and the payple open their eyes so wide that
they won't git them shet agin for a wake to come. Are ye riddy?
Altogither!"

[Illustration: AND THE THREE CHEERS WERE GIVEN WITH A WILL.]

And the cheers were given with a will.

CHAPTER XIII.

ON THE EDGE OF THE GOLD-FIELDS.

The little party of gold-seekers had every cause to congratulate
themselves, for after a journey of nearly two thousand miles from
Seattle, through wild passes, dangerous rapids and canons, over
precipitous mountains, amid storm and tempests, with their lives many a
time in peril, half frozen and exhausted by the most wearisome toil,
they had arrived at Dawson City, in the midst of the wonderful gold
district of the Northwest, all without mishap and in better condition
than when they left home.

The boys, in roughing it, had breathed the invigorating ozone and
gained in rugged health and strength. Youth and buoyant spirits were on
their side, and their muscles, which would have