Well, there'll be a ruckus in the bars tonight if he doesn't get out of Vancouver today."

Skim gathered that Hunter was well known, and not favorably. He must have been one of those adventurers who had spent the summer in the Klondike and then gone home to wait for a suitable time to start work again.

One of those violent types of mixed American and Spanish blood, Hunter was indeed coming back from his native state of Texas. This confused world of gold seekers was exactly the kind of milieu that suited his unscrupulous instincts, his disgusting habits, his brutal passions, and his taste for an unorthodox existence where everything is left to chance. If he arrived in Vancouver on that day with his friend, it was precisely to wait for the Football. But when he learned that the boat would not arrive for thirty-six or forty-eight hours, he went to the Vancouver Hotel where Skim and Raddle had been staying for the past six days.'

They certainly had no reason to rejoice on finding themselves in the company of such a man, and they would be careful to avoid him both in the hotel and during the voyage from Vancouver to Skagway.

When Skim inquired who this Hunter was, he was told, "Oh, everyone in Vancouver knows him, and in Dawson City, too."

"Does he own a claim?"

"Yes, and he works it himself."

"And where is his claim located?"

"On the Fortymile River."

"What number is it?"

«127>,

"Right!" said Skim. "And ours is 129. That horrible Texan is our neighbor!"

The next day, the Football signaled its arrival as it left Queen Charlotte Strait,' and after a twenty-four-hour layover, it put to sea again on the morning of April i7.

THE FOOTBALL WAS A STEAMBOAT of 1200 tons, and if the number of passengers did not exceed the tonnage, it was because the marine inspector had not authorized it to carry any more than that. The waterline, shown by a crossed zero painted on the hull, was already below its normal level. In twenty-four hours the cranes on the dock had put aboard a load of heavy equipment, plus about a hundred head of cattle, horses, and mules; some fifty reindeer; and several hundred dogs for pulling sleds across the icy wastes.'

These dogs, it should be noted, were Saint Bernards and huskies. They were usually bought at markets in Canadian cities where the price was low even after adding the cost of transportation, which was about ten dollars by rail from Montreal to Vancouver and the same again from Vancouver to Skagway.

The Football's passengers were of every nationality: English, Canadian, French, Norwegian, Swedish, German, Australian, North and South American, some alone and some with their families. Those in the cabins could be separated into first and second class, but there was obviously no way to prevent overcrowding on deck. The number of spaces in each cabin had already been increased from two to four. The steerage looked like a long dormitory, with a row of trestles set up on one side and hammocks slung between them. On deck, it was very difficult to move about. Masses of poor people were crowded along the deckhouses and railings, for a place in a cabin cost thirty-five dollars. True, the passengers could still make do as long as they could find shelter from the cold gusts, and since they were in the lee of the islands, there was no risk of heavy seas between Vancouver and Skagway.

Ben Raddle had managed to reserve two places in one of the stern cabins. The third place was occupied by a Norwegian named Boyen, who owned a claim on Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike. He was a calm and mild-mannered man, daring and cautious at the same time, of the Scandinavian race that has produced the Audrecs and the Nansens. He was from Christiania and was returning to Dawson City after spending the winter in his hometown z He was in short not a troublesome traveling companion, only rather uncommunicative, and Summy Skim could only exchange a few pleasantries with him.

Fortunately for the cousins, they did not have to share a cabin with the Texan. Hunter and his friend had reserved a cabin for four, even though there were only two of them. Several passengers who had not been able to find any available space on board vainly pleaded with the two uncouth individuals to let them have the two vacant places. Their efforts were wasted, and their pleas were met with a blunt refusal.

Obviously, to Hunter and his friend (whose name was Malone), money was not a problem. They realized a substantial income from working their claim, but they were big spenders, extravagant gamblers and debauchees, denizens of the bars that tended to increase in number in the shady quarters of Dawson City. Since there was a card room on board the Football, they would very likely spend long hours there. Besides, most of the passengers had no desire to associate with them, and they made no attempt to associate with anyone.

By six o'clock the next morning the Football had left the port of Vancouver and was steering a course up the channel toward the northern tip of the island. From there it would have only a short distance to travel along the North American coast, sheltered most of the way by the Queen Charlotte Islands and Prince of Wales Island.

The stern passengers would hardly ever leave the poop deck, which was reserved for them. The main deck was cluttered with sheds containing the animals-oxen, horses, mules, and reindeer-which could not be allowed to run loose. That was not the case with the pack of dogs, which ran around howling among groups of second-class passengers, young men already scarred by hardship and exhausted women surrounded by sickly children. Their object in coming was not to pan for gold on their own but to find work with the syndicates and compete for wages.

"At last," said Skim, "this is what you wanted, Ben, and this time we're on the way to Eldorado. After all, since we had to make this journey, what I've seen so far and what I'll see later on is certainly very curious.