Romancing the Klondike

by Donadlson-Yarmey, Joan;

  “Do you think so?” Emma asked, excitement in her voice.

  “Yes. Now let’s go talk to Joe about a lot.”

  Pearl and Emma bundled up in their heavy coats and boots. They walked beside Donald, Emma holding his hand. Their breath immediately vaporized around them in the cold air. The snow crunched under their boots as they walked. The shriek of the saw cutting through the wood increased as they neared the mill. Joseph had built a roof over it to keep the rain and snow off. He was standing under that roof running the carriage when they walked up. Pearl watched him in case he lifted his head and saw them. He didn’t, but a man beside him did and nudged him with his elbow.

  Pearl’s heart flipped at Joseph’s smile. He motioned for them to wait, then stepped aside and let the other man take over the lever. He came up to them.

  “Let’s move farther away from here,” he yelled to be heard over the saw.

  They followed him a distance from the noise and stopped.

  “What can I do for you today?” Joseph asked.

  “It’s getting too cold for these ladies to live in a tent,” Donald explained. “I want to buy a lot and some logs for a cabin.”

  “I can make that happen,” Joseph said. “Do you know which lot you want?”

  “No, we haven’t looked yet.”

  “We don’t need one close to the river,” Pearl said, wanting to get Joseph’s attention. So far he had only talked with Donald.

  “Well, you don’t want to be too far away for carrying water.” Joseph looked at her when he spoke.

  “Oh, right.” Pearl smiled at him, happy that he cared about her welfare. The task of carrying water had worsened in the cold weather since they now had to carry an axe to open the hole in the ice before they could dip their pails.

  “I want to keep Front Street for future businesses,” Joseph said. “But any street further back is fine.”

  They walked to the lots that Joseph Ladue had measured. The streets ran parallel to the river and the avenues were perpendicular. In the street beyond Front Street they picked out a lot a block away from the warehouse and Joseph’s saloon. They went to the warehouse where Donald held out a sack with gold flakes and small nuggets in it. Joseph trickled some onto the gold scale on the counter and measured out fifteen dollars for the lot.

  “I’ll let you know how much for the logs once the cabin has been built,” Joseph said.

  “Fine with me,” Donald agreed. “There seems to be more gold where that came from. And one more thing. I would like to buy a stove to take back with me.”

  Joseph nodded. “How are you moving it?”

  “Paul and his dog team.”

  “We’ll load it when you are ready to leave.” Joseph glanced at the three of them. “I apologize but I must get back to work”

  Pearl felt a prick of disappointment. She’d only managed a few words with him and now he was leaving. They followed him out of the warehouse and watched him walk back to the sawmill.

  “You ladies go back to your tent and warm up.” Donald directed his remark and his eyes to Emma. “I’m staying with Paul and we will start levelling the lot.”

  “Thank you, Donald.” Emma stretched up and kissed him on the cheek.

  Pearl smiled slightly at the way his face reddened.

  “I’d do anything for you, Emma,” Donald stammered.

  “Yes, thank you very much.” Pearl resisted the urge to hug him. He barely knew she was there.

  “What do you think?” Emma asked, as they hurried back to their tent.

  “About the cabin or Donald?”

  “Both.

  “I think it is so wonderful of Donald to build us a cabin.”

  Emma gave Pearl an exasperated look.

  “And I think he’s in love with you.” Pearl smiled.

  “You do?” Emma asked, blushing.

  “Well, he barely spoke to me the whole time we were all together. It was your opinion he asked for about which lot to choose. So it’s not me he’s doing this for. And no man would buy a lot and build a cabin for a woman if he didn’t love her.”

  * * *

  The talk on the creeks the past few weeks was about Louis Rhodes and his Twenty-One Above claim. He had dug his way down through the frozen muck and gravel and on October 3 reached bedrock at only fifteen feet. According to the story, Louis could hold up a candle and see seams of clay and gravel layered with gold. If the story was true then Louis had hit the old creek channel on his first try.

  Sam remembered when Louis had tried to sell his claim for two hundred and fifty dollars and had no takers. He bet there were a lot of men who regretted that now.

  “Louis was lucky to strike bedrock and gold at fifteen feet,” Sam said, as he and Donald drank their morning coffee.

  “Yes,” Donald agreed. “And the problem is none of the rest of us can predict if the bedrock runs through our claims and, if so, where.” He paused, then looked at Sam. “We could give up looking on our claims and go work for Louis. He’s hiring men to take out the gold and he’s paying them every night by letting them scoop up a few pans of dirt from the bottom of his shaft.”

  Sam wrinkled his nose. “I’m not going to make someone else money when I could be sitting on a gold mine myself.” He stood. “And speaking of gold, the permafrost won’t thaw itself.”

  Sam added more wood to the stove to keep what little warmth there was in the cabin while they were gone. Because of the cold, they were now wearing their winter clothes that included dungarees, mining coats with storm collars and heavy linings, and shirts made of heavy woven wools. Sam pocketed a candle and they stepped out into falling snow.

  “Louis found an old creek bed that went through here probably thousands of years ago,” Sam said thoughtfully as they walked on the snow-covered creek ice to their shaft. “Which means this creek could have been rerouted many times over the centuries.”

  They had dug down far enough that they had had to erect their windlass. It consisted of a base of timbers layered around the edge of the hole. Two, four-foot high posts were nailed upright across from each other and braced to the base with pieces of wood. Grooves were cut in the top of the posts and a log was laid in the grooves. A handle was attached to one end of the log and a rope was wrapped around the log. A pail hung from the rope.

  Donald dropped some kindling and wood down the shaft while Sam lowered the pail. Sam sat on the edge of the hole. He grabbed hold of the rope and descended using his hands. At the bottom, he pulled the candle from his pocket and lit it.

  “I don’t suppose any gold showed up overnight,” Donald called down.

  Sam held the candle up to the frozen permafrost. “Nope. There’s nothing but the usual gravel and mud down here.”

  He piled the kindling and wood and started them on fire. When it was going, he pulled himself up hand over hand and Donald turned the handle to bring up the pail. They now had to wait until the fire burned down and the shaft cleared of smoke.

  “Do you think we should try working at night like other prospectors do?” Donald asked as they walked over to see Gordon.

  Sam shook his head. “I think it is too dangerous to work in the half-dark of the moon on the snow or the full dark when there are clouds. We wouldn’t have the light from the hole opening to use until we get the candle lit at the bottom. I don’t think finding gold is worth getting injured or killed over.”

  “Gordon, it’s Sam and Donald,” Sam called, when they reached Gordon’s tent.

  When there was no answer, he tried again. They raised the flap. The tent was empty and the stove that Donald had brought back for him was cold. Even though Gordon had taken an axe with him, he seldom chopped wood for his stove. Every few days, Sam and Donald brought over some of their drier wood and piled it by the tent.

  “I’m going to start a fire for him,” Donald said.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Gregory!” a loud voice startled Sam and Donald, then Henry Drury burst into the cabin. His face was pale
and his eyes large with fear. He looked around and his face registered disappointment. “He’s not here.”

  “What’s wrong?” Sam asked.

  “I can’t find Gregory and I thought he might have come to see you.”

  Sam’s heart sank. “We haven’t seen him.”

  Henry groaned. “The little bugger has no fear. He just takes off whenever he feels like it sometimes without letting us know. We’ve told him many times about the dangers of hurting himself and us not knowing where to look for him.”

  “We’ll come help,” Sam said. He and Donald grabbed their coats, hats, and mitts.

  They hurried outside and were greeted by Clarence Berry. It was almost dark but the snow helped lighten the evening. A slicing wind made the cold even sharper. The thought of his little friend being out in this weather chilled Sam more than the cold weather itself.

  “Maybe he’s at Harold and Bert’s place.” Sam knew that Gregory liked to visit them after leaving his cabin.

  “Let’s try it.” Henry hurried up the creek, the rest of the men following him through the snow.

  When they reached Gordon’s claim Sam broke off and headed through the bush to where Gordon had the tent. He didn’t expect that Gregory would have gone there, but it needed to be checked. The tent was dark. Sam didn’t even call out. He opened the flap and looked in. It was empty. Where was Gordon? Should they be searching for him, too? He looked at the footprints in the snow but there were too many of them to know which ones were the most recent.

  Sam hurried to Bert and Harold’s cabin. They had joined the other men and there were now six of them in the search party.

  “Anything?” Donald asked him.

  “The tent is empty.”

  Donald sighed. “Now what do we do?”

  “I think we have to continue looking for Gregory. And we’ll keep an eye open for Gordon.”

  Donald nodded.

  “Do you have any idea where else he might have gone?” Sam asked Henry.

  Henry started to shake his head, then stopped. “Yesterday he wanted to see what Joseph Ladue’s new town looked like. I told him it was too far and we didn’t have a dog team to pull us.”

  “Do you think he could be going there now?” Sam hoped not. It was a long way in this cold.

  Henry’s shoulders slumped. “He could be. Once he gets something in his head he keeps at it until he has done it.”

  Sam knew that. He had seen it in Gregory’s ability to pester him until Sam had relented and let him cut some wood with the axe, or feed some wood into the stove, things that Sam thought were too hazardous for a child.

  “I’m not a child,” Gregory would pout. “I’ll be eleven in five months.”

  “My, god, he’ll freeze,” Henry cried.

  “Not if we find him first,” Clarence said. “Let’s go see if we can locate his tracks.”

  The six men hurried to where the Eldorado joined Bonanza Creek. They looked in the snow for evidence of Gregory’s footsteps. Now that the creeks were frozen, they were used as a thoroughfare. Men walked from claim to claim to visit or headed down to the Klondike River and Ladue’s town. Those men who had dogs hooked them up to sleds and sped up and down the ice.

  “There they are.” Henry pointed to small prints in the snow near the edge of the bush. However, they soon disappeared as they veered onto the tramped down snow on the ice.

  The men fanned out across the creek. They were looking for anything, a lost mitten, a huddled form, a kid walking.

  “Gregory!” Henry called. He had tears in his eyes. “Gregory, where are you?”

  “Hey, Gregory!” Sam tried. “I need you to help me chop wood.”

  They trekked along, peering into the bush, stopping when they heard a noise.

  “He’s a bit young to be so headstrong.” Henry sounded as if he was trying to explain why his son would have left home. “We’ve always had a hard time getting Gregory to listen to his elders.”

  Sam knew that sometimes, in Gregory’s case, it was almost impossible for an elder to make him pay attention. Especially when Gregory would get an innocent, almost angelic look on his face that melted his heart. Maybe, if I hadn’t given in to him so many times, he wouldn’t be so set on doing whatever he wanted, Sam thought.

  “Watch for a hump in the snow,” Sam said to the others. “One day when he was visiting me I told him that if he ever got lost in the winter to cover himself with snow because it works as insulation.” He hoped that Gregory would remember that.

  They stopped at each cabin and waited while Henry checked to see if Gregory was inside. Sam went with him and looked over his shoulder hoping to see Gordon in one of them. Two more miners joined them.

  “He’ll be frozen by the time we find him.” Henry was getting more frantic with each step. “Why didn’t I take him there to satisfy his curiosity? Why didn’t I think that he would try it on his own?”

  “What if he hasn’t gone there?” Donald asked. “What if he was just exploring around your cabin?”

  “Isabel and I checked all over our claim and Clarence’s because he goes there, also.”

  “He was at our place yesterday, but not today,” Clarence said.

  Sam’s fear was matching Henry’s. It was getting colder and darker. They had to find Gregory, and Gordon, soon.

  Then they heard yelling around a bend ahead of them. Henry started running with Sam right behind. They rounded the curve and saw a man with his hand on Gregory’s arm. Gregory was trying to get away.

  “I don’t think your parents want you to be out at night,” the man said.

  “Gregory!” Henry yelled, anger and relief in his voice. He ran up and threw his arms around his son.

  The man stood back. “I saw him walking by and he looked cold so I invited him in to warm up. I thought if I kept him long enough someone would come looking for him. But he was bound and determined to continue. You guys made it just in time.”

  Henry hugged his son, barely able to speak. Sam felt tears prickling in his eyes as he felt his own relief.

  “Thank you.” Henry reached out and shook the man’s hand, keeping one protective arm on Gregory’s shoulders. “Thank you, thank you.”

  The man nodded.

  Sam also shook the man’s hand.

  “He’s a good boy,” the man said, as if trying to soften the fact that Gregory had taken off without permission. “We had a nice chat.”

  After Henry thanked them for their help, the men dispersed to their separate cabins. Sam and Donald went to Gordon’s tent. It was still empty.

  “What do we do?” Donald asked.

  Sam shrugged. “It’s not the first time he’s spent the night outside. It’s his choice and there is nothing we can do about it.”

  “But it hasn’t been this cold before. And I’m not so sure how much of it is his choice and how much is whatever is driving his mind right now.”

  “It’s too dark, even with the snow, to go looking for him now. We could walk right past him in the bush and not see him, especially if he doesn’t want us to find him.”

  “I’ll check on him early in the morning,” Donald stated.

  They trudged back to their cabin.

  “When Emma and I have children, I’m going to make sure they listen and understand dangers,” Donald said when they were warming themselves back at their cabin. “I don’t ever want to lose a child, like Henry did tonight.”

  Sam smiled to himself, as he dried the water from the thawed icicles that had formed on his beard. Donald was constantly talking about how much he loved Emma and his plans for their future, a future he wasn’t even sure was going to happen.

  “Have you asked her to marry you, yet?” Sam asked, knowing the answer.

  Donald shook his head.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I have nothing to offer her.” Donald looked crestfallen.

  “Well, you will as soon as we start hauling out our gold in pails.”

  Donald bright
ened. “Yes, if only that does happen.”

  Both men were relieved the next morning when Gordon yelled at them to go away when they went to the tent.

  * * *

  Pearl added more wood to the stove to bring the heat in the cabin back up. On bread and pie making days they had to lower the fire so as not to burn the loaves and it would get cool inside. Both she and Emma were so happy to be in the cabin and so thankful to Donald for making it possible. It was crude and windowless with a dirt floor but it was bigger than the tent, and they liked having the extra room. The layout was much the same except that they had blocked off the far end with a blanket for a bedroom and they had bunk beds to sleep on.

  They had been in the cabin for a month now and were again making some money through selling their baking. Seven loaves and four pies were cooling on the table and the fermenting starter for the next batch of bread was in a tin hanging above the stove. They had grown accustomed to the taste and now used it to make flapjacks for their breakfast and biscuits to go with their meals.

  Pearl and Emma dressed in their heavy coats, wore mittens, and wrapped scarves around their heads. Before making their deliveries they had to haul water. Pearl grabbed the two pails while Emma picked up the ice chisel and axe. When they stepped out the door, Pearl noticed a man clearing off one of the lots on the next block with a shovel. Must have bought it from Joseph, she thought as she hurried along with Emma through the snow to the frozen river. They walked out on the ice to the community water hole. Someone had been there just before them because there was only a film of frozen water on top.

  Emma jabbed at the ice with the head of the axe. Pearl filled the pails and went back to the cabin. Soon after they had moved into the cabin they’d bought a water-keg from the warehouse and set it close to the stove. It took the two pails to fill the keg and Pearl went back to refill them. They returned to the cabin with glowing cheeks and Pearl placed the pails beside the keg. This gave them enough water for a few days unless they decided to wash clothes or have a quick bath.