together with the legend
of good and bad luck supposed to accompany its possession. The
spectators of the trial buzzed like a swarm of angry hornets.

In a few minutes the jury ended their conference and resumed their
places. Then, as order was restored, the foreman, standing up, announced
that they were unanimous in finding the prisoner guilty on all three of
the charges preferred against him, and recommended that he be so
punished as to afford a warning to others of his kind who might be
contemplating a visit to the Yukon diggings.

"Hang him!" cried some one in the crowd.

"Shoot him!" shouted another.

"Drive him out of camp, and set him adrift like he done to Jalap
Coombs," suggested a third.

"Silence!" roared Judge Platt Riley, standing in his place and gazing
sternly about him. "You forget, gentlemen, that this is a court of law,
and though, maybe, it isn't run with all the frills of some, it's bound
to be respected. Likewise, it proposes to pronounce its own decisions.
In regard to the prisoner now awaiting sentence, he has been proved by
the testimony of reputable witnesses, and by his own admissions, to be a
liar, a traitor, a dog-stealer, which in this country is the same as a
boss-thief in the States, and a robber of his travelling companion under
circumstances that make him at the same time come pretty near to being a
murderer. For such as he hanging would be none too severe. But we have
never yet hanged a man in Forty Mile, and we don't want to begin, if we
can help it. The prisoner has expressed a desire to learn something of
our methods of working these diggings, and we promised to teach him. He
has also remarked that moss-stripping was a job well suited to convicts.
So be it. Prisoner at the bar, stand up and receive your sentence."

When the wretched man, who had fancied himself in a country where he
could commit any crime without fear of punishment, had been assisted to
his feet by Marshal Bettens and a volunteer deputy, the Judge said:

"By a fair trial, according to Yukon law, you are convicted of crimes
such as this community does not allow to go unpunished. On account of
them you are hereby sentenced to strip moss from the several claims of
this camp during every working hour of every working day from now until
such time as the first steamer reaches here from the lower river and is
ready to return. Then you will be allowed to work your way on her to St.
Michaels, where may the Agent have m