第22章

Two months after Smoke Bellew and Shorty went after moose for a grubstake, they were back in the Elkhorn saloon at Dawson.The hunting was done, the meat hauled in and sold for two dollars and a half a pound, and between them they possessed three thousand dollars in gold dust and a good team of dogs.They had played in luck.Despite the fact that the gold rush had driven the game a hundred miles or more into the mountains, they had, within half that distance, bagged four moose in a narrow canyon.

The mystery of the strayed animals was no greater than the luck of their killers, for within the day four famished Indian families reporting no game in three days' journey back, camped beside them.Meat was traded for starving dogs, and after a week of feeding, Smoke and Shorty harnessed the animals and began freighting the meat to the eager Dawson market.

The problem of the two men now, was to turn their gold-dust into food.The current price for flour and beans was a dollar and a half a pound, but the difficulty was to find a seller.Dawson was in the throes of famine.Hundreds of men, with money but no food, had been compelled to leave the country.Many had gone down the river on the last water, and many more with barely enough food to last, had walked the six hundred miles over the ice to Dyea.

Smoke met Shorty in the warm saloon, and found the latter jubilant."Life ain't no punkins without whiskey an' sweetenin'," was Shorty'sgreeting, as he pulled lumps of ice from his thawing moustache and flung them rattling on the floor."An' I sure just got eighteen pounds of that same sweetenin'.The geezer only charged three dollars a pound for it.What luck did you have?""I, too, have not been idle," Smoke answered with pride."I bought fifty pounds of flour.And there's a man up on Adam Creek says he'll let me have fifty pounds more to-morrow.""Great! We'll sure live till the river opens.Say, Smoke, them dogs of ourn is the goods.A dog-buyer offered me two hundred apiece for the five of them.I told him nothin' doin'.They sure took on class when they got meat to get outside of; but it goes against the grain feedin' dog- critters on grub that's worth two and a half a pound.Come on an' have a drink.I just got to celebrate them eighteen pounds of sweetenin'."Several minutes later, as he weighed in on the gold-scales for the drinks, he gave a start of recollection.

"I plum forgot that man I was to meet in the Tivoli.He's got some spoiled bacon he'll sell for a dollar an' a half a pound.We can feed it to the dogs an' save a dollar a day on each's board bill.So long.""So long," said Smoke."I'm goin' to the cabin an' turn in."Hardly had Shorty left the place, when a fur-clad man entered through the double storm-doors.His face lighted at sight of Smoke, who recognized him as Breck, the man whose boat he had run through the Box Canyon and White Horse rapids.

"I heard you were in town," Breck said hurriedly, as they shook hands."Been looking for you for half an hour.Come outside, I want to talk with you."Smoke looked regretfully at the roaring, red-hot stove."Won't this do?""No; it's important.Come outside."

As they emerged, Smoke drew off one mitten, lighted a match, and glanced at the thermometer that hung beside the door.He re- mittened his naked hand hastily as if the frost had burnt him.Overhead arched the flaming aurora borealis, while from all Dawson arose the mournful howling of thousands of wolf-dogs.

"What did it say?" Breck asked.

"Sixty below." Kit spat experimentally, and the spittle crackled in the air."And the thermometer is certainly working.It's falling all the time.An hour ago it was only fifty-two.Don't tell me it's a stampede.""It is," Breck whispered back cautiously, casting anxious eyes about in fear of some other listener."You know Squaw Creek?--empties in on the other side the Yukon thirty miles up?""Nothing doing there," was Smoke's judgment."It was prospected years ago.""So were all the other rich creeks.Listen! It's big.Only eight to twenty feet to bedrock.There won't be a claim that don't run to half a million.It's a dead secret.Two or three of my close friends let me in on it.I told my wife right away that I was going to find you before I started.Now, so long.My pack's hidden down the bank.In fact, when they told me, they made me promise not to pull out until Dawson was asleep.You know what it means if you're seen with a stampeding outfit.Get your partner and follow.You ought to stake fourth or fifth claim from Discovery.Don't forget-- Squaw Creek.It's the third after you pass Swede Creek."