Gold-Seeking on the Dalton Trail

an; "I was at Rainy Hollow wh

plied Mr.

of rich strikes about two hu

es

ght to that spot with all possible

id schemes o

aft a

ecrecy which they maintain regarding their destination, they are already known as the Mysterious Thirty-six. I have tried to induce two or three of them to talk, but they declared they knew no more about their plans than I did. Only their leader[39] knows where they are going, and what they ar

em. Besides that, I have cached most of my goods a hundred and forty miles up the trail, and come back empty-h

ly, excitedly. "I should just

cing, I guess," said he, "after a few miles of it. But, Uncle," he added,

consider the French word 'cacher,' would mean goods concealed or covered up; but the idea of concealment is not prominent in the miner's use of[40] the term, and in fact there

beg pardon for interrupting. And now

is pipe, and blew the smoke away in rin

ere, near the summit of Chilkat Pass. I pushed on from that point through a grand mountainous country. Day after day I trudged through snowy valleys and over fro

and somewhat to the west of the main trail, and thought a man could make about ten dollars a day there, working alone; but I have no doubt,[41] from what he told me of the character of the gulch, that operations on a larger scale would pay extremely well, and I resolved to turn aside for a

ke, the point at which we were to turn from the main trail and make a flying trip over to

cry. We both jumped up and ran to the shore, in order to get a clear view up the lake. Half a mile away near the east bank we could see

of the Stik tribe, whose village lies near Dalton's Post. His younger broth

4

standing against a log on the shore while he went out on the ice to fish. While he was cutting a hole, the d

a handkerchief tightly about the wound, and we helped the unfortunate fellow to our camp, where we made him as comfortable as possible. On the following day

two tribes used to be continually at war, for the Chilkats wouldn't let the Stiks come out to the coast without a fight. And though the presen

end of that time, as all went well, I made preparations to continue[43] on the journey, intending to leave provisions enough to last the two brothers until

, and though the roof was gone, the hut afforded fairly good shelter. Into this hut we carried Lucky, after repairing the roof as well as we could, and cutting some firewood, for it was intensely cold. With a good fire blazing in the ce

he brothers. Lucky beckoned me to come closer. When I had done so, Coffee Jack shut the door behind me. I thought fr

You help me. You give me muck-muck. Now me help you. Me find big nug-what you call 'em-nugg

o ask if Lucky's head w

s ago when he found the big nugget. The only month the Indians know is

breaking out any of the rock, and so had nothing by which to prove his statements, but I have every reason to believe him. Now the Kah Sha River is the stream into which Shorty Creek flows, so the discovery must be in

lit beyond repair, and the iron braces broken. The uprights on the other side were badly wrenched and weakened at the same time, and further progress that day was out of the question. We therefore took everything back

back, and the more readily, because I knew it was time you reached here if you were coming. Long Peter's sled we br

ed, "it looks as if we had work ahead, and plenty of

the canvas floor. Then a down quilt was similarly folded and placed upon the rubber blanket.[46] The heavy woolen blankets followed, and finally the other quilt. Into this