ave some trouble getting through the ice, though."

"We'll risk that--if only they will take us on board."

The party was made as comfortable as possible at Boyer's, sharing
various bunks in a cabin that chanced to be deserted. Dick settled up
with Gus Schmidt, stating he would not go on to Dawson if he could
secure passage on the steamer.

At last the vessel came in, and after the general hubub was over Dick
inquired about accommodations.

"Pretty full, but I think we can stow you away somewhere," said the
purser.

"I don't care what sort of accommodations we have, so long as my
brother gets a stateroom," went on Dick. "He isn't very well."

"Bring your baggage aboard, and I'll fix you up somehow, later on."

The boys went aboard the steamer and there bid farewell to Jack Wumble.
They had left some things at Dawson, and these they turned over, on a
written order, to the old miner, telling him to do as he pleased with
them.

"Good-bye to ye!" cried Wumble, on parting. "An' good luck," he added,
and shook hands all around.

After the rough experiences in the wilds of Alaska, the boys felt quite
at home on the big steamer. The purser managed to find a large
stateroom for them, containing three berths. And, what was even
better, he introduced Dick and Sam to a doctor who chanced to be on
board. The physician was a man of experience, who lived in San
Francisco, and he readily agreed to take Tom under his care and do all
he could for the sufferer.

"I think all he needs is rest--absolute rest," said the doctor, after
an examination. "He ought not to go to college again--at least, not
for a year or two."

"It's hard to keep him quiet, Doctor--he has always been such a lively
fellow--the liveliest boy in our family," said Dick.

"Well, then, let him travel. Anything to keep his mind from his books
and from himself."

The voyage down the mighty Yukon to Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean
was a long and tedious one to Dick and Sam. For several days the
steamer had a hard time of it, crushing her way through the ice, which
was rapidly forming. In a few days more navigation would be completely
closed, so far as that portion of our globe was concerned.

"We got out just in time," said Dick to Sam, when the Yukon was at last
left behind and they saw ahead of them the blue waters of Bering Sea.

The trip on the ocean seemed to do Tom a world of good. Daily he grew
stronger, until he could walk on deck. Th