ave it. We can't do nothin' else.
Great box we're in, to be sure," and the man laughed heartily in spite
of his infirmity. Continuing, he said:

"It's the best place we could be in, I tell you; especially so for Bill
who can't buy a drop of whiskey for a thousand dollars, although he
would buy it sometimes at that price, I think, if he could."

"It don't hinder him playing that violin of his'n, does it? Do you mind
how he played last night?"

"You bet your life. I had nothin' else to do. He's a crackerjack, and
that's no josh, either. But here comes Mac. What in thunder's that?" The
question was put to the man entering with a heavy load in his hands.

MacDougall laughed.

"Only a nugget that Tom turned up. I brought it in to show you, and the
Canadian placed the mammoth chunk of gold on the floor near the bunk.

"What do you think of it?"

"Great Scott and little fishes! She's a bird! Why, man, this new
Klondyke will make the old one look like thirty cents!"

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V

ESTELLA THE ESKIMO

Estella was not the name her parents had given her. That was
unpronounceable to the white man's tongue and was replaced by Estella
when she married the trader not many years ago.

She was a bright and amiable young woman, though not actually pretty.
Born and raised on the Seward Peninsula, she had learned to hunt, fish
and trap, as do all the Eskimo women while still in their teens. Numbers
of young men among her people had sought her hand in marriage, but up to
the time of the advent of the white men into the country she had never
yielded to their entreaties.

When approached on the subject she glanced demurely down at the toe of
her mukluks, tossed back her long hair, and, turning her back on the
suitor who did not suit, ran away to play on the beach with the
children.

Her people did not know her heart. She had ambition, though it was
unknown to them. None of the young Eskimos entirely pleased her. Some
one with better looks and more supplies than they must offer himself
before she decided to take a life-mate, she told herself.

At her birth some planet must have bestowed upon her many aspirations
above those of the common Eskimo, and though she was ignorant of the
cause of her ambition she realized the possession of it.

Being a sensible young woman she hid these things in her own bosom, for
why should she trouble her parents? They would not understand her, but
would oppose, say harsh t