"Well, he don't dare do much with 'em up here. 'Tain't popular."
"What ain't?"
"Butts's little game. But Lord! he is good at it." Butts had been introduced as a stalking-horse, but there was no doubt about Si's admiration of his "handiness." "Butts is wasted up here," he sighed. "There's some chance for a murderer in Alaska, but a thief's a goner."
"Oh, well; you were sayin' that gold o' yours came from—"
"Poor old Butts! Bright feller, too."
"How far off is your—"
"I tell you, sir, Butts is brains to his boots. Course you know Jack McQuestion?"
"No, but I'd like to hear a little about your—"
"Y' don' know Jack McQuestion? Well, sir, Jack's the biggest man in the Yukon. Why, he built Fort Reliance six miles below the mouth of the Klondyke in '73; he discovered gold on the Stewart in '85, and established a post there. Everybody knows Jack McQuestion; an"—quickly, as he saw he was about to be interrupted—"you heard about that swell watch we all clubbed together and give him? No? Well, sir, there ain't an eleganter watch in the world. Is there?"
"Guess not," said the bartender.