“Easy! Blow the safe in Welch’s store and go down the river ahead of the breakup. What chances has the marshal with the whole country flooded. I know of a dozen cabins in the lower country where we can hide out. Nobody will know whether we’ve wintered there or just arrived. Nobody knows we’re here! And we won’t show ourselves in the camp.”
Like most prospectors he spoke of any thriving town as a camp. Originally it had been a gold camp. From it a town had grown.
They camped on the outskirts of the community a week later. Excitement was on the increase. It was late April and money was coming from every part of the world. From traders and Eskimos in the North; from trappers, miners and business men throughout Alaska to men of poverty and wealth alike who chanced to be spending their declining years in warmer climates. To some it merely meant thumbing a bill off a large roll; to others it meant a sacrifice. Back of it all was the sporting blood of another day prompting them to take a chance; whispering that they had as good a chance to win as the next fellow. Loudly they might declare they knew they didn’t have a chance, but the faint voice of hope whispered—
“But, maybe you have.”
Con Welch opened up his place of business to find the mailbox crammed with envelopes. One, larger than the other, attracted his attention. He opened it. A small poke of gold dropped into his hand. With it a note which read:
ICE POOL COMMITTEE:
HERE’S ENOUGH PLACER GOLD TO BUY ME TWENTY CHANCES. I’M GUESSING THE ICE GOES OUT AS LISTED ON THE ACCOMPANYING PAPER. I EXPECT TO WIN THIS YEAR, SURE. I’M SENDING THIS UP BY A SIWASH THAT I KNOW IS HONEST. MY ADDRESS IS KLAHOWYA LANDING.
YOURS TRULY,
—MACK LEACH.
“From the lower river country, eh?” Welsh mused. Coming by messenger there was, of course, no date or postmark. “Hang it. I wished that Siwash had showed up in daytime. I’d like to have asked him some questions about the lower river country. Well, Leach, here’s hoping. Twenty chances will give you the edge on a lot of others, but the man with one chance often wins.”