Hunting for Gold, Or, Adventures in Klondyke (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIX THE END There is not much more to tell that would interest you. We lived and worked at Ravenwood Creek until the Yukon River had thawed and traffic was once again resumed. Then, putting on men that we could trust, and ensuring their fidelity by giving them shares in the mines, we took our passage out and steamed down to Vancouver with our gold dust. My word All the crowd that perished in the Klondyke district that winter made little or no decrease on the number of the inhabitants. Thousands were rushing in to fill the gaps, just as hopefully and heedlessly as the thousands who were at rest under the swampy soil. Napoleon never wanted an army; no matter how many hundred thousands were slaughtered in his service, his numbers kept up. The Gold Fiend is equally successful in getting.recruits, and almost as expeditious as Napoleon was in polishing them off. We had drawn the lucky numbers, however, and had to begin cares of another description, namely, to tackle and keep at bay the beggingletter writers who beset and harass the lives of the monicd. Paul and Winifred were married in New York, and Harold was chosen best man. Then, after we had enjoyed ourselves for a while there, we trooped across to Paris, where all good Americans go when they have made their piles; and after that drifted back once more to dear old England. We united business with our pleasures as we went along, and turned over a great deal more money company promoting than we had ever done in gold digging. I have long ago given up counting my income. I put it down at a certain figure for the benefit of the income-tax people, because they must have figures to keep their clerks counting; but, until now, I didn't know, any more than Cecil Rhodes knows himself how much he makes, or th...