Klondike Nuggets | Page 6

privation
and toil; and adventurers, ready to go anywhere for the sake of
adventure itself. In truth, it was a motley assemblage, which to the boys
was like a continually shifting panorama of hope, ambition, honesty,
dishonor, pluck, and human enterprise and daring, that was ever present
throughout the thousand miles of salt water that stretches from Seattle
to Juneau.
Juneau, the metropolis of Alaska, was founded in 1880, and named in
honor of Joseph Juneau, the discoverer of gold on Douglas Island, two
miles distant. There is located the Treadwell quartz-mill, the largest in
the world. The city nestles at the base of a precipitous mountain,
thirty-three hundred feet high, has several thousand inhabitants, with its
wooden houses regularly laid out, good wharves, water works, electric
lights, banks, hotels, newspapers, schools, and churches.
"Here's where we get our outfit," said Jeff, as they hurried over the
plank to the landing. "But where can Tim be?"

He paused abruptly as soon as he was clear of the crowd, and looked
around for the one who was the cause of his coming to this
out-of-the-way corner of the world. He was still gazing when a man,
dressed much the same as himself, but short, stockily built, and with
the reddest hair and whiskers the boys had ever seen, his round face
aglow with pleasure stepped hastily forward from the group of
spectators and extended his hand.
"Ah, Jiff, it does me good to see your handsome silf; and how have ye
been, and how do ye expect to continue to be?"
Tim McCabe was an Irishman who, when overtaken by misfortune in
San Francisco, found Jeff Graham the good Samaritan, and he could
never show sufficient gratitude therefor. It was only one of the many
kindly deeds the old miner was always performing, but he did not meet
in every case with such honest thankfulness.
Jeff clasped his hand warmly, and then looked at the smiling boys, to
whom he introduced his friend, and who shook their hands. He eyed
them closely, and, with the quizzical expression natural to many of his
people, said:
"And these are the laddies ye wrote me about? Ye said they were likely
broths of boys; but, Jiff, ye didn't do them justice--they desarved
more."
"Tim is always full of blarney," explained Jeff, who, it was evident,
was fond of the merry Irishman; "so you mustn't mind him and his
ways."
Roswell and Frank were attracted by Jeff's friend. He was one of those
persons who, despite their homeliness of face and feature, win us by
their genial nature and honest, outspoken ways. No one ever saw a finer
set of big, white teeth, nor a broader smile, which scarcely ever was
absent from the Irishman's countenance. He shook hands with each lad
in turn, giving a warm pressure and expressing his pleasure at meeting
them. "I'm glad to greet ye, me friends," he said, as the whole party
moved out of the way of the hurrying, bustling swarm who were

rushing back and forth, each intent on his own business; "not only on
your own account, but on account of me friend Jiff."
"I do not quite understand you," said Roswell with a smile.
"Well, you see, I've met Jiff before, and formed a rather fair opinion of
him; but whin a gintleman like mesilf is engaged on some important
business, them as are to be favored with me confidence must have their
credentials."
"And you accept our presence with him as proof that he is what he
should be?"
Tim gravely inclined his head.
"Do ye think I would admit Jiff as a partner if it was otherwise? Not I."
"But," interposed Frank, "how is it with us? You never saw us before."
"One look at them faces is enough," was the prompt reply; "ye carry a
certificate wid ye that no one can dispoot."
"And I should like to know," said Jeff, with assumed indignation, "what
credential you have to present to us, young man."
"Mine is the same as the young gintlemen," answered Tim, removing
his thick fur cap and displaying his whole wealth of fiery red hair;
"obsarve me countenance."
His face became grave for the first time, while all the rest laughed.
"I'm satisfied and hungry," said Jeff; "take us where we can get
something to eat."
"I knew by that token that I had forgot something, and it's me breakfast
and dinner. In honor of yer coming, I've engaged the best quarters at
the leading hotel. Come wid me."
It was but a short distance up the street to a frame hotel, which was

kept by a corpulent German who had been in the country for a couple
of years. The men registered, during which Tim remarked to the
landlord, who seemed