from
the Lower River to take charge of the hospital) had met him a couple of
hundred miles on his way north of St. Michael's. Captain Alexander, of
the Police, had rubbed shoulders with him in the British Legation at
Peking. And Bettles, another old-timer of standing, had met him at
Fort o' Yukon nine years before.

So Dawson, ever prone to look askance at the casual comer, received him
with open arms. Especially was he a favorite with the women. As a
promoter of pleasures and an organizer of amusements he took the lead,
and it quickly came to pass that no function was complete without him.
Not only did he come to help in the theatricals, but insensibly, and as
a matter of course, he took charge. Frona, as her friends charged, was
suffering from a stroke of Ibsen, so they hit upon the "Doll's House,"
and she was cast for Nora. Corliss, who was responsible, by the way,
for the theatricals, having first suggested them, was to take Torvald's
part; but his interest seemed to have died out, or at any rate he
begged off on the plea of business rush. So St. Vincent, without
friction, took Torvald's lines. Corliss did manage to attend one
rehearsal. It might have been that he had come tired from forty miles
with the dogs, and it might have been that Torvald was obliged to put
his arm about Nora at divers times and to toy playfully with her ear;
but, one way or the other, Corliss never attended again.

Busy he certainly was, and when not away on trail he was closeted
almost continually with Jacob Welse and Colonel Trethaway. That it was
a deal of magnitude was evidenced by the fact that Welse's mining
interests involved alone mounted to several millions. Corliss was
primarily a worker and doer, and on discovering that his thorough
theoretical knowledge lacked practical experience, he felt put upon his
mettle and worked the harder. He even marvelled at the silliness of
the men who had burdened him with such responsibilities, simply because
of his pull, and he told Trethaway as much. But the colonel, while
recognizing his shortcomings, liked him for his candor, and admired him
for his effort and for the quickness with which he came to grasp things
actual.

Del Bishop, who had refused to play any hand but his own, had gone to
work for Corliss because by so doing he was enabled to play his own
hand better. He was practically unfettered, while the opportunities to
further himself were greatly increased. Equipped wit