He and Donald had dug a shaft on Donald’s claim and found gold at thirty feet. They began collecting nuggets in bean cans in their cabin and stared at them in fascination and disbelief in the evenings.
“It’s hard to believe these are ours and that after clean-up in the spring we will have heaps of gold.” Donald held up a nugget. It glittered in the light of the candle.
“It’s too bad that fortune is so fickle along the creeks,” Sam said. “Many of the miners made money by selling their claims instead of prospecting on them. Claims have been changing hands fast.”
There was George Richard, who trudged for twenty-one days along the Yukon River from Circle City. He and his partner bought a half interest in Three Below Discovery on Bonanza, which they sold for twenty-thousand-dollars. They used that money to buy an interest in Four Below Discovery and sold it for thirty thousand dollars.
And Jack McQuesten, who had finally left Circle City, the town he had started, bought a claim that yielded him ten thousand dollars. The two men he had come with purchased a half-interest in another claim and sold it for twenty thousand dollars. This they used to buy an interest in a third claim and sold half of that for thirty thousand.
Sam had heard that the most prolific buyer of all was fellow Nova Scotian, Alex McDonald. He was determined to own as many claims or partial claims as he could and have other men do the dirty work for him. He bought his first claim for a bag of groceries and he let two men work it for half the take. When they brought out thirty-three thousand dollars worth of gold in a few weeks McDonald used his share to buy more property and he kept doing that until even he wasn’t sure how much he owned.
These men showed that there certainly were quicker, easier, and cleaner ways to make a fortune than descending a shaft into a dark hole. But Sam knew of other buyers who actually worked the claims they bought and took out thousands of dollars more than what they had paid for them.
There was a timid knock at the door. Donald grinned at Sam. “Your little friend is here.”
“Come in,” Sam hollered.
The door swung open and Gregory came in. He looked from Sam to Donald, his eyes devoid of their usual mischievous spark.
“What’s wrong?” Sam asked, thinking something had happened to his father, or worse, his mother.
“I found the crazy man,” Gregory said softly.
“What?” Sam jumped up. “Where? How is he?”
“He’s lying under a pile of snow like you told me to do if I got lost. But the snow didn’t keep him warm. He’s really cold and I think he’s dead.”
Sam sank back onto his chair. He felt like he had been kicked in the stomach. He looked at Donald and saw that his face had gone pale. In spite of the time that had gone by and their own fears, they had still hoped Gordon would come walking back to the claim or that one day they would find him huddled beside his stove in the tent. Neither of them had wanted to admit there was little chance of that actually happening. They had been setting his share of the nuggets aside for the day he returned. Until proven otherwise, they had kept up the faith that he was still alive.
“Where?” Donald asked, his voice stricken.
“I’ll show you.”
Sam and Donald put on their winter wear and followed Gregory. He led them down the creek to where it joined the Eldorado and then into the bush. They’d walked for about half an hour when Gregory stopped and pointed to a mound in the snow. They could see one boot-clad foot sticking out.
Tears ran down Sam’s face as he and Donald dropped to their knees and quickly brushed away the snow. They found Gordon’s face. His eyes were closed and he looked at peace.
“Oh, Gordon.” Sam wiped away his tears.
“How did you find him?” Donald asked Gregory.
“Every time I’ve been going exploring I’ve been watching for him. I saw this pile of snow and started digging. When I found his foot I came to get you.”
Sam stood and put his arm around Gregory. “Thank you.”
“What are we going to do now?” Donald asked.
“We’ll thaw a place on his claim and have a funeral for him.”
Chapter Seventeen
It was another surprisingly warm morning when Pearl and Emma woke up.
“It’s only the beginning of April,” Emma said, as they dressed. “I know it’s officially spring by the calendar but isn’t it too early for spring here in the north?”
“According to the stories we’ve heard,” Pearl said. “So let’s go out and enjoy it while we can after breakfast.”
When she and Emma opened the door to step outside they found that the heavy clouds of the previous evening had brought a thaw instead of snow. A gray coloured haze had replaced the normally cloudless, blue skies.
“After months of frosty, cold weather, it feels strange to be out in this warmth,” Pearl said.
“Yes, yet when you look at the temperature, it’s not much warmer than a cold day in Nova Scotia.”
“We’ve become acclimatized to this winter weather.” Pearl laughed. “I never thought that would happen.”
They walked through the snow that no longer crunched beneath their boots. Instead of being hard, like it had been for months it had turned soft and mushy. They slipped occasionally as they toured the developing town. Newcomers had opened businesses in their tents. There were three bakeries, a laundress, and two ladies of the evening whose tents were a distance away from all the others. Some of the men had dog teams and hauled goods from one settlement to another. Others worked in the sawmill or logged trees for cutting. And then there were the construction workers who built houses and buildings.
Dawson had been growing slowly but steadily all winter. There were about fifteen hundred residents now living in the town.
Down at the river Pearl and Emma stopped when they saw ghostly figures pulling sleds emerge from the haze. People had been straggling in twos and threes into Dawson from Circle City for the past two months. Some of the richer ones came with dog teams. The poorer ones dragged all their goods on sleds behind them for weeks.
Two of these hunched over newcomers looked familiar.
“Hattie Wills?” Pearl wasn’t sure if she was seeing right. “Clara Foley?”
The women barely had the energy to raise their heads. “Pearl and Emma Owens?” Hattie’s voice sounded tired. Both she and Clara stopped and dropped the ropes from around their stooped shoulders.
“Yes, it’s us,” Pearl exclaimed. They ran over and hugged the women. “You must be cold. Come into the store and warm up.”
“I don’t know if I can go any further,” Clara said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Let me help you,” Emma said. She picked up the rope from Clara’s sled and pulled it as Clara staggered beside her.
Pearl took Hattie’s arm and assisted her up the slight bank to the store. “I’ll come back for your sled once you are comfortable.”
Inside the warehouse, Pearl and Emma guided the women to the stove and set them on the chairs in front of it. Pearl introduced them to Joseph while Emma made the usual tea and sandwiches.
Pearl went out to bring Hattie’s sled up to the building. She couldn’t believe how heavy it was and that Hattie had dragged it all the way from Circle City. She went back inside.
“You arrived just in time,” Joseph was telling the two women. “Spring thaw is almost upon us.”
“Yes, we waited until we thought the weather would be warmer for travelling. There were a few soft spots in the ice as we came.”
Pearl was happy to hear that Hattie’s voice was stronger.
“I hope there aren’t too many more people on their way.”
“We’re one of the last groups,” Clara said. “Circle City is just about deserted, much like Fortymile was when we passed it.”
“Are you going to set up a business here?” Joseph asked.
“Yes,” Hattie nodded. “Plus, I want to get a claim.”
“I don’t know if there is muc
h land left to stake.”
“Well, I intend to go looking once I’ve set my laundry up.”
“Like I’ve been telling others, I have lots for sale in this town. If you can’t afford to buy one now, find yourself a spot to set up. If you want to buy it later we can work a deal, but if I sell it before then, you will have to move.”
“Sounds fine with us.” Hattie stood. “We’ll set up our tents on one lot for now.”
“There’s an empty one near ours.” Pearl admired the woman’s stamina. She was all ready to get to work now that she had eaten and rested a bit.
“And we can help you,” Emma added.
“Thank you,” Hattie said. “It would be nice to have at least one tent up for the night.”
Pearl and Emma each grabbed hold of a rope and pulled the sleds alongside the women to the lot near their cabin. It took some time but, with all four women working together, they got both tents erected. They blended in very well with the hundreds of other white canvas tents in the town site.
“As long as we have our beds set up the rest can wait until tomorrow,” Hattie said when Pearl asked her about carrying everything into the tents.
“How are you going to heat your tents?” Emma asked.
“We had to leave our stoves,” Clara said. “We’ll have to purchase two here.”
“Yes, I had to choose between my stove and my washing supplies,” Hattie said. “I figured I could buy another stove here.”
“And I brought all my bolts of cloth, my thread, and my sewing machine,” Clara added. “Sewing machines are harder to come by than stoves here in the north.”
“Come have supper with us,” Pearl offered. “It won’t be much.”
“I am hungry,” Hattie said.
“Me, too,” Clara chimed.
The women walked over to Pearl and Emma’s cabin where they ate beans and bread.
“I am so glad you came.” Emma blushed a little. “I’m getting married soon and I need a wedding dress.”
“Well, congratulations!” Hattie said heartily.
“To anyone we know?” Clara asked.
“Donald Miller. He came here with my brother, Sam.”
“Right.” Clara nodded. “I remember them. There were three men, weren’t there?”
Emma glanced at Pearl. “Yes, another man named Gordon Baker. He died this past winter.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?
“He went a little strange and wandered away from camp. He froze to death. My brother and Donald had a funeral for him in February.”
The women nodded in sympathy.
“When I’ve got my business set up, you can come and take a look at the cloth I have for your wedding dress,” Clara said.
“Oh, thank you.” Emma’s face lit up. “I was afraid I would have to wear one of my old dresses to get married in.”
“Have you set a date yet?” Hattie asked.
Emma shook her head. “We’ve sent a letter to an Anglican minister, Reverend R. J. Bowen, who travels throughout the Fortymile area asking him if he would perform our wedding ceremony. So far we haven’t received word back from him.”
“Give it time,” Clara said. “Mail travels slow in the north.”
“We have a back-up plan.” Emma smiled. “If all else fails, we will have the first sternwheeler’s captain perform a ceremony here and then we’ll have another one in the church at home.”
“So you will be leaving here?” Hattie asked.
“Yes. Donald wants to see his family. It has been six years.”
It saddened Pearl that her cousin would be leaving. They had become very close in the past months and had shared many good times.
Clara and Hattie stood to leave.
“Do you want to spend the night with us?” Pearl asked. “It will be warmer.”
“We’ve been on the river for weeks without a stove,” Hattie said. “To save time and keep warm we only set up one tent. We can share for one more night.”
“It’s going to be nice having two more friends in town,” Pearl said, after the women left for their tents. “Hopefully, the days stay warm until they are organized.”
Unfortunately, the next morning turned cold again. The sun shone brightly; the air was crisp and invigorating. The snow that had been slushy for two days turned into treacherously slippery ice. Pearl and Emma tread carefully as they delivered their bread and pies, before walking over to see how Hattie and Clara were faring.
The women had already moved things into their homes. Two men came over carrying a stove. They set it down inside Hattie’s tent and went back for the second one.
With both stoves pipes installed and fires lit Hattie and Clara placed their business signs in front of their tents.
“There,” Hattie said, with a smile. “Now I feel like I’m home.”
* * *
Sam welcomed the warming weather. The sun climbed higher in the sky and the rays got stronger each day. It was the last week of April. The snow kept melting and rains speeded the process. A trickle of water had started running over the soft ice of the creek. Like every other miner along the creeks, he and Donald waited for the ice to break so they could start the cleanup of their dumps. They dug their sluice box out of the remaining snow and checked it over. It had survived the winter.
“We should have a bigger one,” Donald said. “That way we can run more dirt through and work longer before having to check the riffles.”
“Okay, let’s add onto this one.”
They had lumber left over from the previous fall and they built on another length then added the wood for riffles. The riffles were important because they mimicked the action of nature, creating crevices much like in the streambeds for the heavier gold to drop through.
A few days later, even though snow was still heaped in the bush, the ice on the creek broke and they heard the gurgle of water as it rushed along the creek bed.
Their claim was on a slight hill and they set the box in the creek so that the water ran over it. They shoveled the dirt and gravel from the dump into the box. The force of the water swept the gravel and dirt away. After an hour, they lifted the piece of wood holding the riffles and looked at the gold.
They stared at each other in amazement. They tilted the piece of wood and ran water along the edge of the riffles washing the gold into a pail. It covered the bottom.
That was all they needed to get back to work.
For the next couple of weeks they spent every day running muck from their dumps through the sluice until they had tins of gold under their bunk bed, under the table, piled in a corner.
“I’ve decided to leave tomorrow for Dawson,” Donald said one day. “The ice will be breaking up on the Yukon River soon and I want to be with Emma when she sees it for the first time.”
Sam smiled. Like Christmas, the breakup of the river in May was cause for the miners to get together. The two of them had been discussing cleanup versus breakup for the past few days. Both still found it hard to believe the amount of gold they were finding and were working long hours to retrieve. But Donald’s thoughts were also on Emma. He’d taken a few days off since Christmas to go visit her so they could discuss their wedding but that wasn’t enough to satisfy his desire to be with her all the time.
“I’ve been waiting for you to make up your mind,” Sam said. “I’m coming, too.” He didn’t add that he also wanted to see if Joseph had heeded his word about Pearl.
The next morning Sam strapped their tent to his back and Donald carried their axe and some gold to purchase food for the days they would be there, and they began their journey out.
They waved to the Carmacks when they went by and said hello to other miners who were also on their way. When they reached the joining of the Bonanza and Eldorado creeks they met up with the Berrys and the Drurys.
Sam greeted the Berrys and managed to mumble a hello to the Drurys. He stayed as far away from Isabel as he could because of the feelings he had for her, and f
rom Henry because of the guilt he felt.
It was a bad time of year to be travelling. The creeks were running free but there was still soft, spongy ice on the Klondike River. They couldn’t walk on it because of the danger of falling through, so they kept to the muddy land as much as possible, sometimes walking in the water showing along the shore.
“Can I walk on the ice here?” Gregory asked.
“No,” Henry said. “The ice isn’t safe anywhere along here. It’s melting and will soon be water again.”
“Can I swim in it when it’s water?”
“Yes, if mommy and I are with you.”
Sam admired the man. Gregory had been asking questions since they’d met, mainly about the ice and why they couldn’t walk on it any more.
“Why can’t I swim alone?”
“Because if you get hurt no one will be there to help you.”
“Can I swim if Mr. and Mrs. Berry are with me?” Gregory asked.
“Yes, you can swim if we are with you.” Ethel laughed.
“Can I swim if Sam is with me?”
Henry sighed. “As long as someone who knows they have to watch you is with you, then you can swim.”
Gregory looked at Donald.
“Yes, I will watch you swim,” Donald said.
Sam grinned as Gregory nodded. He had everyone covered.
* * *
Pearl and Emma liked that they could spend more time outdoors. There was no wind, the snow had almost gone, and the temperature got warmer every day. The daylight arrived earlier and lasted later. Even the young grass had started growing in the meadow.
Emma usually spent some of her day at Clara’s tent discussing her wedding dress, so Pearl worked on an article about the first wedding in the new town of Dawson, wrote in her diary, and sketched the new buildings being built. She occasionally visited with Hattie but, like Clara, she was busy with her business.
Romancing the Klondike Page 19