ing and
warring precisely as their ancestors had fed and warred for a million
years. Small wonder that the red men believe the white invader must have
used some evil medicine, some magic power in sweeping these majestic
creatures from the earth. Once they covered the hills like a robe of
brown, now only a few small bands are left to perpetuate the habits and
the customs of the past.

As we watched, they fed, fought, rose up and lay down in calm disdain of
our presence. It was as if, unobserved, and yet close beside them, we
were studying the denizens of a small corner of aboriginal America,
America in pre-Columbian times. Reluctantly, slowly we turned and rode
away, back to our tent, back to the railway and the present day.

* * * * *

On our return to Missoula we found the town aflame with a report that a
steamer had just landed at Seattle, bringing from Alaska nearly three
million dollars in gold-dust, and that the miners who owned the treasure
had said, "We dug it from the valley of the Yukon, at a point called
the Klondike. A thousand miles from anywhere. The Yukon is four
thousand miles long, and flows north, so that the lower half freezes
solid early in the fall, and to cross overland from Skagway--the way we
came out--means weeks of travel. It is the greatest gold camp in the
world but no one can go in now. Everybody must wait till next June."

It was well that this warning was plainly uttered, for the adventurous
spirits of Montana instantly took fire. Nothing else was talked of by
the men on the street and in the trains. Even my brother said, "I wish I
could go."

"But you can't," I argued. "It is time you started for New York. Herne
will drop you if you don't turn up for rehearsal in September."

Reluctantly agreeing to this, he turned his face toward the East whilst
I kept on toward Seattle, to visit my classmate Burton Babcock, who was
living in a village on Puget Sound.

The coast towns were humming with mining news and mining plans. The word
"Klondike" blazed out on banners, on shop windows and on brick walls.
Alert and thrifty merchants at once began to advertise Klondike shoes,
Klondike coats, Klondike camp goods. Hundreds of Klondike exploring
companies were being organized. In imagination each shop-keeper saw the
gold seekers of the world in line of march, their faces set toward
Seattle and the Sound. Every sign indicated a boom.

This swift leaping to grasp an o