Donald scooped up some water from the creek with another pail and poured it along the riffles. “Now all we have to do is gather a dump this winter and wait until spring to run it through,” he said watching the gold wash into the pail.
Gordon stayed silent.
Chapter Ten
Pearl carried her sketchpad back to their tent. As she had done for the past few days, Emma was adding more flour and water to her batch of starter.
“How was your walk?” Pearl asked.
“Not much different than my other walks. There certainly isn’t much to see here.”
“Well, if one man I talked with has his way there will be lots to see soon.”
“Oh, and who is this man?” Emma raised her eyebrows. “And how did you meet him?”
Pearl felt herself blush a little. “His name is Joseph Ladue and I saw him wandering around a couple of days ago. He told me this gold strike is going to be a major one. Today, he said he has bought some of the land here so that he can build a town.”
“He sounds like a very ambitious man.”
Pearl nodded. “He brought some lumber today and is going to move his saw mill here soon.”
“Let’s go sit outside while you tell me about him,” Emma said. “He seems to have made an impression on you.”
Once they had settled in the warm sunlight Pearl told Emma of her chat with Joe and what she’d learned of his upbringing and family.
“That’s it?”
“I’ve only talked with him twice,” Pearl said, defensively.
“And you will some more.” Emma grinned.
“Oh, you can count on it.”
Emma’s expression turned dreamy. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we both found husbands here?”
“Whoa. Husbands? Aren’t you rushing things?”
“It’s always good to have a goal.”
“So, you’ve decided to stay the winter with me?”
“I was still wondering about it, but if what this Joseph Ladue says is true, it would be exciting to watch a town grow here. It might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
“And Donald has nothing to do with it?”
“Well….” Emma smiled. “He might.”
Pearl leaned over and gave her a hug. “I’m so glad to hear you’re staying. It would be very lonely without you.”
Suddenly, Emma gave a slight gasp. Pearl sat back and followed Emma’s gaze. She was shocked to see Sam and Donald striding towards them. Donald’s face lit up when he saw Emma, but Sam’s face looked like thunderclouds.
“Donald.” Emma breathed.
In that one word, Pearl heard fondness and pleasure in Emma’s voice. She looked at her cousin. The delight on Emma’s face was unmistakable.
“Emma.” Donald ran up to her and took her hands in his. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Emma said.
“What are you both doing here?” Sam demanded.
Pearl stared at her cousin. “I’m here to work on my articles.”
“And I came with Pearl so she could gather information for her articles.”
“I thought I told you to stay in Fortymile. There’s nothing here for you to write about.”
“You can’t tell us what to do!” Pearl responded to his anger with her own. “And I’ve found plenty to write about.”
“You don’t have to worry about us,” Emma said, quickly. “We’re doing fine.”
“Not for much longer.” Donald had a worried look on his face. “Autumn is coming fast. A tent is no place to be living in during the winter.”
“We’re not the only ones in tents.” Pearl waved her arm towards the few structures around them.
“I don’t care about them,” Sam said, indifferently. “I’m worried about you two.
“Ethel Berry helped us buy all the things we will need,” Emma put in. “She did tell us we would need lots of firewood.” She pointed to the stack by the tent. “We’ve been doing that.”
Sam ran his hand through his dark hair. “You don’t understand how very cold it gets here. You should go back to Fortymile where you have a decent place to live.”
“I think this is the place to be,” Pearl said. “I was talking with Joseph Ladue and he’s building a town here. I’ll get to write about a town rising from the bogs of a moose pasture and draw it in its various stages.”
“Joseph Ladue is all talk,” Sam scoffed. “He’s told me all about the town he sees here. Look around you. Can you picture anyone wanting to live here?”
“We are.” Emma stuck out her chin.
“I’ll help you build a cabin here if you want,” Donald said. “And I’ll come and chop wood for you.”
“Thank you, Donald.” Emma smiled.
Pearl breathed a silent thank you, also. Maybe if Sam saw that they just needed someone to guide them, she and Emma could survive here as well as anyone else. Being a woman was not a hindrance.
“I’ve begun some sourdough starter,” Emma told Donald. “It’s bubbling just like you said it would.”
“Let me see it.”
Emma led Donald into the tent, leaving the flap open.
“Is that our table and chairs?” Sam asked, peering into the tent.
“Yes, we thought you guys didn’t need them.”
Pearl and Sam stood awkwardly.
“You are determined to stay, aren’t you?” Sam said.
Pearl nodded. “Joseph has bought one hundred and sixty acres here and he has already named one of the streets Front Street. He’s moving his saw mill here to cut lumber.”
Sam looked around. “Well, I guess Fortymile was just land like this before the Fortymile gold rush and McQuesten saw the potential for a town.”
“It will be exciting to watch.” Pearl decided to accept this as his apology.
“I’m going to go talk with Joe,” Sam said.
“Do you want to come back here for supper?”
Sam looked towards the tent. “I think Donald will be here for the rest of the day. So, yes, I’ll be back later.”
“Bring Joseph, with you,” Pearl said, then quickly added. “Uh, that is, if he wants to come.”
When Sam left, Pearl went to the tent. Emma looked up and smiled. “Donald is showing me how to make bread using the starter. We’re having it for supper.”
“I asked Sam to invite Joseph.” Pearl went in and grabbed her sketchbook off the table. “I’ll be back soon.”
* * *
Even though it was chilly, Pearl and Emma were up early the next morning. Sam and Donald had had supper with them the night before. Joseph had declined the invitation much to Pearl’s disappointment. The men had spent the night with a friend in his tent and the three of them were coming for breakfast of sourdough bread and bacon.
Emma started the fire while Pearl sliced the bread and set the bacon in the frying pan.
“I didn’t find this any tastier than what we had in Fortymile.” Pearl’s top lip curled at the memory.
“Me either, but the men sure liked it.”
“Well, after five years, they’d have to.”
“If we want bread while we are here we are going to have to learn to like it too,” Emma said. “Because Donald showed me how to keep some of the starter for the next batch.”
“Oh, great.” Pearl groaned.
They heard voices outside. Emma opened the flap. “Breakfast will be ready soon.”
Since there hadn’t been room for everyone in the tent the night before, they had cleared off the table and moved it outside. Rather than bring it back in they’d left it there for breakfast. As they had the night before, the men grabbed some blocks of wood for their seats and left the chairs for the women.
The table and chairs were damp from the heavy dew and the sun did little to dispel the chill in the air. The men were hungry and didn’t seem to notice the cold. After the introductions, during which Pearl and Emma met Paul Gamon, they dug into the bacon, rehydrated potatoes, and bread.
“Oh, this bread is good,” Paul said. “I haven’t had bread for so long.”
Paul was rugged-looking with a round, solemn face, knit brows and dark beard. Pearl guessed him to be about twenty-five years old.
“It’s my first batch.” Emma modestly looked down at her hands. “Donald taught me how.”
“No, I gave her directions,” Donald said. “She’s the one who actually made the starter.”
“It doesn’t matter who made it,” Paul said. “I’ll give you six bits for a loaf.”
“Oh…uh.” Emma was caught off guard. “This is the last of the batch.”
“Aw.”
“But I’ll be making more in a few days,” Emma said, quickly.
“Then save a loaf for me.”
“I will.”
Pearl exchanged surreptitious glances with Emma. They may have found a way to earn some money. They would just have to make sure that after costs seventy-five cents a loaf would be enough.
The men finished eating. Paul thanked the women for breakfast and left. Pearl and Emma walked Sam and Donald to the bank of the Klondike. Sam said his goodbyes and stood waiting for Donald. Pearl smiled when it was obvious that Donald didn’t want to leave Emma.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he told her. “And when I come I’ll chop a large pile of wood for you.”
“That will be nice.”
“And if you decide to go back to Fortymile let me know and I’ll come and help you.”
“I will.” Emma nodded.
“If you need anything send word up the river with anyone who is going there. They will find me.”
“I will,” Emma promised.
He seemed to have run out of instructions. He took two steps away then stopped. “Look after yourself,” he said.
He barely looked at Pearl when he finally said goodbye and followed Sam up the river.
Pearl grinned at Emma. “You may be right about you finding a husband here.”
Emma turned and smiled. “I hope so.”
Back at the tent, they cleaned off the table and washed the dishes. Emma added some water and flour to the sourdough starter. “I wish we had some loaf pans or more pots,” she said.
“We could float down the river to Fortymile and buy some, but I don’t know if we would have the strength to pole our way back here.”
“I certainly wouldn’t want to try it,” Emma laughed. “We’d end up at Circle City.”
* * *
It was the second week in September. The sky was a splendid blue but the air was cool and sharp. The leaves were turning a bright yellow. Birds had flocked and were heading south for the winter.
Pearl guessed the summer, as she knew it, was coming to a close. Donald had come back to help them for a few days. The first day the three of them had set up a large stock of wood near the tent. They thought it would last for a couple of months and Donald had said he would cut more when they ran low.
The second day Donald and Emma had gone on a picnic. Pearl had watched with envy as they walked, hand-in-hand, away from the tent. She wished she could find a man to love and to love her. Donald was leaving today but not before watching the start-up of the sawmill.
Pearl sat on a rock and sketched Joseph Ladue as he did a last minute check of the water level in the steam engine boiler, added more wood to the fire, and oiled and greased the machinery. She admired his sure movements and his practiced eye as he went about the inspection of his sawmill. Joseph had spent a few days in Ogilvie taking his sawmill apart and then he’d floated the pieces down the river by raft and boat. Pearl had come each day to watch him as he reassembled the pieces on the bench away from what would be the town site.
She had hoped that they would be able to have more conversations and that she could learn more about him, but he had been intent on his work and had only nodded at her when she’d spoken to him. She’d kept her distance as she sketched the assembly in its various stages and then the completed mill.
Emma and Donald joined her and the group of men who had gathered to watch the big moment when Joseph would start his sawmill. When the steam had built up enough pressure in the boiler, Joseph blew the whistle and opened the steam control valve to the engine a little. The engine chugged into operation. He let it warm up a few minutes and when the pressure was one hundred and ten pounds, he opened the control valve further and brought the engine up to operating speed.
The steam engine supplied power to its flywheel which turned the belt that ran to another wheel on the sawmill. That wheel powered the belts and pulleys that operated the carriage and the large, round saw blade. When everything was ready, the first log, one of many that had been chopped down by the men in the area, was rolled onto the carriage. Joseph was the sawyer. He pulled the lever and the carriage and log moved towards the rotating blade.
As the blade buzzed and whined its way through the first cut of the log, a cheer went up from the crowd. The sawmill was up and running and they would now have a source of lumber for constructing homes, business buildings, and sluice boxes.
Joseph grinned widely and waved at the men. He scanned the crowd and his eyes settled on Pearl. She was sure the twinkle in his eyes was for her and her heart flipped. She was here for the winter. They had a long time to get to know each other.
Pearl said goodbye to Donald and watched Emma walk with him to the Klondike River. They hugged and then he turned and walked away. Emma stood and waved to him every time he looked back.
“I think there may be wedding bells soon,” Pearl said, softly.
* * *
“It’s time to decide where we are going to dig our shaft,” Sam said one morning after they’d eaten breakfast. The men on the creeks were discussing if they should work their claims to bedrock. Bedrock in the north lay under frozen layers of decayed organic matter, gravel, mud, and water, known as permafrost or sometimes muck. Prospectors burned a shaft down through the permafrost to the bedrock by building a fire on the ground and when that thawed the permafrost, they’d scrape out the muck and then light another fire. It was a long, tedious process.
“What for?” Gordon demanded from where he was lying on his bunk. “We’re not going to find anything.”
Sam decided to ignore him. Gordon spent most of his time brooding on his bunk. A couple of times he had left in the morning without a word and been gone all day. Last week Sam and Donald had begun to worry when Gordon didn’t return by dark. They went to bed and were just about to go looking for him in the morning when he walked into the cabin. Rather than explain where he’d been, he’d just climbed into his bunk and turned his back to the room. Sam and Donald had left him there.
“Too bad we couldn’t use a divining rod to find gold like you can for water,” Donald said ruefully.
“It sure would make it a lot easier.” Sam laughed.
“Our claims are from the hill on that side of the creek to the hill on this side and extend for five hundred feet. How are we going to decide where to start digging?”
Sam shook his head. “I guess we will just have to pick a spot and hope for the best.”
“Then let’s go find that spot.” Donald grinned.
Sam glanced at Gordon, who made no move to get up, then he and Donald went outside. They wandered around the small yard.
“We don’t want to have it too close to the cabin,” Donald said.
“We could start on my claim,” Sam suggested. “That way all the mess stays away from where we live.”
“That’s a good idea.”
Sam opened the cabin door. “We’re going to my claim. You coming?”
Gordon just shook his head.
“Suit yourself.”
Sam’s claim was mainly bush and there was nothing to suggest where they should start digging.
“Any place look good to you?” Sam asked.
Donald looked around. “It will only be luck that determines if we find anything.”
“Then, I guess we will start digging here.” Sam mark
ed an X in the ground.
“Good, there are plenty of trees here for us to use for the fire.”
“Let’s go tell Gordon,” Sam said. “Maybe that will brighten his mood.”
However, when they got back to the cabin, it was empty.
Sam stepped outside again. “Gordon?” he yelled. “Gordon you around?”
There was no answer.
Sam entered and closed the door.
“Do you think he’s left for Fortymile?” Donald asked.
“I don’t know what to think.”
Though it was only mid-September, it was autumn in the north. Frost was on the ground in the morning and the daylight hours were lessening. A few lucky men had found enough gold on their claims to satisfy their needs for the next few months and had gone to Fortymile to catch the last boat for the Outside. They had spent enough years enduring the long, lonely ordeal that was called winter in the north. The rest had no choice but to stay and withstand another seven months of cold. If a man had enough food he could stay on his claim, but many hungry men had already returned to Fortymile believing their claims were worthless.
Gordon no longer spoke of catching the last boat out, but he had also lost what little motivation he’d had to find gold. His delusions had increased as had his hoarding of food. Last week he’d disappeared only to return near dark without a word of explanation.
“But we don’t have time to worry about it,” Sam grinned. “We have work to do.
“Yes,” Donald beamed. “Let’s get a fire going on our X.”
They picked up their axes and headed back the way they had come. They drug out all the dry logs they could find and piled them. Sam used twigs and small branches to get the fire started. When it was going, they began to chop down trees to cut up for future fires. They had a long ways to go down to find gold. When the fire had died down they shovelled the thawed ground aside. It was the first pile of their dump. They lit another fire in the slight hole, then continued to work until dark. They straggled back to their cabin for a late supper.
They opened the door expectantly, ready to tell Gordon what they had accomplished. The cabin was still empty.
Romancing the Klondike Page 11
