Washington; I shall force attention to our suspended land laws; demand the
rights the United States allows her western territories; I shall ask for
the same concessions that were the making of the Oregon country; and first
and last I shall do all I can to loosen the strangling clutch of
Conservation." He paused, while his hand fell still more heavily on the
table, and the glasses jingled anew. "And, gentlemen, the day of the
floating population is practically over; we have our settled communities,
our cities; we are ready for a legislative body of our own; the time has
come for Home Rule. But the men who make our laws must be familiar with
the country, have allied interests. Gentlemen,"--his voice, dropping its
aggressive tone, took a honeyed insistence,--"we want in our first
executive a man who knows us intimately, who has covered our vast
distances, whose vision has broadened; a man big enough to hold the
welfare of all Alaska at heart."

The delegate finished this period with an all-embracing smile and, nodding
gently, leaned back again in his chair. But in the brief silence that
followed, he experienced a kind of shock. Foster, the best known mining
engineer from Prince William Sound to the Tanana, had turned his eyes on
Tisdale; and Banks, Lucky Banks, who had made the rich strike in the
Iditarod wilderness, also looked that way. Then instantly their thought
was telegraphed from face to face. When Feversham allowed his glance to
follow the rest, it struck him as a second shock that Tisdale was the only
one on whom the significance of the moment was lost.

The interval passed. Tisdale stirred, and his glance, coming back from the
door, rested on a dish that had been placed before him. "Japanese
pheasant!" he exclaimed. The mellowness glowed in his face. He lifted his
eyes, and the delegate, meeting that clear, direct gaze, dropped his own
to his plate. "Think of it! Game from the other side of the Pacific. They