nt empire, unfathomably lonely.

Ghosts! They are all around me. The darkness teems with them, Garry, my
brother, among them. Then they all fade and give way to one face....

_Berna, I love you always. Out of the night I cry to you, Berna, the cry
of a broken heart. Is it your little, pitiful ghost that comes down to
me? Oh, I am waiting, waiting! Here will I wait, Berna, till we meet
once more. For meet we will, beyond the mists, beyond the dreaming, at
last, dear love, at last._

CONTENTS

BOOK I
The Road to Anywhere 1

BOOK II
The Trail 49

BOOK III
The Camp 169

BOOK IV
The Vortex 321

ILLUSTRATIONS

We were in a caldron of fire. The roar of doom was
in our ears (p. 143) Frontispiece

FACING
PAGE

"No," she said firmly, "you can't see the girl" 116

Then, as I hung half in, half out of the window,
he clutched me by the throat 316

"Garry," I said, "this is--this is Berna" 476

This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain:
"Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane.
Strong for the red rage of battle; sane, for I harry them sore;
Send me men girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core;
Swift as the panther in triumph, fierce as the bear in defeat,
Sired of a bulldog parent, steeled in the furnace heat.
Send me the best of your breeding, lend me your chosen ones;
Them will I take to my bosom, them will I call my sons;
Them will I gild with my treasure, them will I glut with my meat;
But the others--the misfits, the failures--I trample under my feet."

--"Songs of a Sourdough."

BOOK I

THE ROAD TO ANYWHERE

Can you recall, dear comrade, when we tramped God's land together,
And we sang the old, old Earth-Song, for our youth was very sweet;
When we drank and fought and lusted, as we mocked at tie and tether,
Along the road to Anywhere, the wide world at our feet.

Along the road to Anywhere, when each day had its story;
When time was yet our vassal, and life's jest was still unstale;
When peace unfathomed filled our hearts as, bathed in amber glory,
Along the road to Anywhere we watched the sun