Adventure, August 1917 — page 148: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

J sae 4 _— SP Wa James B. _-2 Flendryx Author of ‘The Big Flash” HEN John Enger struck pay dirt on a small tributary of White River, the inevitable stampede followed, and men flocked by the hundreds into the Klotassin country. A new gold trail took its toll of lives, while back on the Yukon, steamboat men raved, coal-mines closed down, trading companies ran their stores short-handed, and bosses and superintendents of the big dredge companies raged impotently, or stalked gloomily about the deserted build- ings and idle dredges. For in the gold country men will toil at their work, contented with their jobs and satisfied with their wage, and then, sud- denly, comes the whispered news of a strike on some far distant creek or river. Men drop their tools and crowd about the bearer of the tale. Dull eyes gleam. Jaws clamp tight. And questions are followed by an- swers, jerked out in quick, tense sentences. The crowd breaks up into small excited groups. Hurried partnerships are formed. An insistent, clamoring mob, fighting and gouging for place, crowds the paymaster’s window. Trail-packs are thrown together in a frenzy of haste and the meat-eaters are off on the trail of gold. Such was the White River stampede. And the valley of the little creek, upon the head-waters of which John Enger struck gold, was transformed in a day to a valley of tents and of camp-fires, a valley whose sands bristled with the stakes of the greed- crazed miners. And on the heels of the big stampede, in the interest of law and order, came big Ser- geant Jim McGovern, Corporal Blaine, and ‘fRookie’”’ Adair—B Division’s very newest recruit—the ‘‘mere boy” who is loved by the bearded men of the big country. For they remember how, when the Sally West heeled over on her side and settled to the bottom of the river, the ‘‘kid”’ refused to climb aboard a convenient piece of wreck- age, but remained to lash the unconscious form of his father, the Sally West’s engi- neer, to a section of superstructure. And they knew that because the meager flat could not bear the weight of two, the boy struck out for shore and was picked up hours later more dead than alive. Old Man Adair was pulled from the river, ten miles farther down, dead. The kid then went down to Dawson where he sought out the Assistant Commis- sioner of the Mounted. Because the assis- tant commissioner had known Old Man Adair, and had heard the story of the wreck of the Sally West, he used his discre- tion, waived the “age twenty-two” clause, and enrolled the boy in the service. THREE months later, the White River stampede’ broke, and Rookie Adair was detailed into the Klotassin. The officers had been many days upon the trail. Upon their arrival at the big camp they proceeded to make snug for the Winter. For the White River stampede was a Fall stampede. The creeks and rivers were 146 cComiclaook CO 5}