ke I'm late."

"Oh, there's plenty of ground open. You've got as good a chance as the
balance of us."

"Any grub in camp?"

"Nope. Ophir was struck too late in the fall."

McGill laughed. "I didn't think there would be; but that's nothing new."

"Didn't you bring none?"

"Nary a pound. There's women and children at the Circle, and there
wasn't more than enough for them, so I pulled out."

"There's plenty below," Hopper assured him.

"How far?"

"We don't know yet. There's a boat-load of 'chekakos' bound for Dawson
somewhere between here and Cochrane's Landing. They'll be froze in now,
and tenderfeet always has grub. Soon's we get some more snow we'll do
some freightin'."

Before he retired that night McGill had bought a town lot, and a week
later there was a cabin on it, for he was a man who knew how to work.
Then, during the interval between the close of navigation and the
opening of winter travel he looked over the country and staked some
claims. He did not locate at random, but used a discrimination based
upon ten years' experience in the arctics, and when cold weather set in
he felt satisfied with his work. Men with half his holdings reckoned
their fortunes at extravagant figures; transfers of unproved properties
for handsome terms were common; millions were made daily, on paper.

Soon after the winter had settled, two strangers "mushed" in from
down-river. For ten days they had pulled their own sled through the
first dry, trackless snow of the season, and they were well spent, but
they brought news that the steamboat was in winter quarters a hundred
and fifty miles below. They assured McGill, moreover, that there was
plenty of food aboard, so, a day later, he set off on their back trail
with his dog-team. By now the melancholy autumn was gone, the air was
frozen clean of every taint, the frost made men's blood gallop through
their veins. It changed McGill into a boy again. His lungs ached from
the throbbing power within them, his loping stride was as smooth as that
of a timber-wolf, his loud, deep laughter caused the dogs to yelp in
answer.

When he finally burst out of the silence and into the midst of the
gold-seekers with tidings of the new camp only a hundred and fifty miles
away they shook off their lethargy and awoke to a great excitement. He
told all he honestly knew about Ophir, and with nimble fancies they
added two words of their own to every one of his. They stopped work upon
their winter