"...thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee."
Merchant of Venice, Act III. sc. ii.
Arnold's position was not one to be envied. For a flagrant misdemeanour he had been dismissed from Messrs. Quinion's London establishment, where he had been employed for many years. But with a display of energy, for the possession of which few had given him credit, he at once commenced business on his own account as an agent.
The letter which came to hand from his cousin Jack Barton, told of their adventures in Montreal, their narrow escape from death at Manitoba, and their determination for the present to make their stay there, being under the necessity, through want of means, to abandon for a time their journey to the Klondyke.
Coming, as this letter did, at a time when his mind was so much exercised by events at home and his uncertain prospects for the future, it is not surprising if it revived thoughts, and imparted some life and vigour to aspirations and secretly cherished desires for a participation in some of those visions of wealth which from day to day the papers were revealing as amongst the things possible to men of energy and resource.
So much has been said and written, of late, as to the enormous riches of such regions as the Kootney, Cariboo, and the Klondyke, that, without disparaging in the least other regions of the Dominion, it is not surprising to find the eyes of thousands turned wistfully in their direction.
It was only a few days prior to the receipt of his cousin's letter that he had read in one of the papers a statement made by an ex-Mayor of Ottawa, to the effect "that the new Yukon goldfields were the richest the world has ever seen."
True, that which followed was calculated somewhat to damp the ardent enthusiast.
It was not pleasant to be told that "hundreds of the people who are now going there will be starved and frozen to death."
Some, however, would win success, and why not he?
What if he were to join his two cousins already on the way, help them to complete their arrested journey, and, by making one common cause, unite their forces, and perhaps succeed in winning a success eclipsing the dreams of the most avaricious!