my love
you'll be my light-of-love. Come, Berna, come!"

I paused. With her head lying on the cushioned edge of the box she was
crying. The plush was streaky with her tears.

"Will you come?" I asked again.

She did not move.

"Then," said I, "there are others, and I have money, lots of it. I can
buy them. I am going down into the vortex. Look on and watch me."

I left her crying.

CHAPTER VI

It is with shame I write the following pages. Would I could blot them
out of my life. To this day there must be many who remember my meteoric
career in the firmament of fast life. It did not last long, but in less
than a week I managed to squander a small fortune.

Those were the days when Dawson might fitly have been called the
dissolute. It was the regime of the dance-hall girl, and the taint of
the tenderloin was over the town. So far there were few decent women to
be seen on the streets. Respectable homes were being established, but
even there social evils were discussed with an astonishing frankness and
indifference. In the best society men were welcomed who were known to be
living in open infamy. A general callousness to social corruption
prevailed.

For Dawson was at this time the Mecca of the gambler and the courtesan.
Of its population probably two-thirds began their day when most people
finished it. It was only towards nightfall that the town completely
roused up, that the fever of pleasure providing began. Nearly every one
seemed to be affected by the spirit of degeneracy. On the faces of many
of the business men could be seen the stamp of the pace they were going.
Cases in Court had to be adjourned because of the debauches of lawyers.
Bank tellers stepped into their cages sleepless from all-night orgies.
Government officials lived openly with wanton women. High and low were
attainted by the corruption. In those days of headstrong excitement, of
sudden fortune, of money to be had almost for the picking up, when the
gold-camp was a reservoir into which poured by a thousand channels the
treasure of the valley, few were those among the men who kept a steady
head, whose private records were pure and blameless.

No town of its size has ever broken up more homes. Men in the
intoxication of fast-won wealth in that far-away land gave way to
excesses of every kind. Fathers of families paraded the streets arm in
arm with demi-mondaines. To be seen talking to a loose woman was
unworthy of comment, not to have