arrived from the International Boundary, and had caused a halt, an
eddy, in the stream of gold-seekers which flowed inland toward the
Chilkoot Pass. A human tide was setting northward from the States,
a tide which swelled and quickened daily as the news of George
Carmack's discovery spread across the world, but at Healy &
Wilson's log-store, where the notice above referred to had been
posted, the stream slowed. A crowd of new-comers from the barges
and steamers in the roadstead had assembled there, and now gave
voice to hoarse indignation and bitter resentment. Late arrivals
from Skagway, farther down the coast, brought word of similar
scenes at that point and a similar feeling of dismay; they
reported a similar increase in the general excitement, too. There,
as here, a tent city was springing up, the wooded hills were
awakening to echoes of unaccustomed life, a thrill and a stir were
running through the wilderness and the odor of spruce fires was
growing heavier with every ship that came.

Pierce Phillips emerged from the trading-post and, drawn by the
force of gravitation, joined the largest and the most excited
group of Argonauts. He was still somewhat dazed by his perusal of
that Police edict; the blow to his hopes was still too stunning,
his disappointment was still too keen, to permit of clear thought.

"A ton of provisions and a thousand dollars!" he repeated,
blankly. Why, that was absurd, out of all possible reason! It
would bar the way to fully half this rushing army; it would turn
men back at the very threshold of the golden North. Nevertheless,
there stood the notice in black and white, a clear and unequivocal
warning from the Canadian authorities, evidently designed to
forestall famine on the foodless Yukon. From the loud arguments