Of course I told her I was just as fond of her as ever, but she wouldn’t have it that way. She asked me again how much money it would take, and I had to tell her that the magic was no good for things like that.
That seemed to kind of stun her, and she began to mope and pine. She went back into her room and puttered around some. I didn’t have the heart to follow her and see what she was up to. When she came out she had on her old loose dress and her moccasins. Over her head was the same shawl she wore when she came out of the Klondyke.
“Give me my medicine stones,” she said to me. “I want all of them!”
She seemed to feel so sore, I went out and drew two thousand dollars in twenties and brought ’em to her in two sacks. She didn’t need to tell me what was up. She was going back to her own country and her own people. She was singing the song of the tribe—“Death on the White Trail”—when I came in. I was going to stay in ’Frisco. That was what Kate wanted, and what Kate wants she gets, every time, if I have the say-so.
It happened there was a steamer going next morning, and Kate didn’t leave her room nor speak to me till it was time to go down to the dock. I got her ticket and paid the purser to take good care of her. Even at the last we didn’t do much talking—what was the use? We both understood, and her people don’t waste words.
When the boat started she stood on the upper deck looking at me. Then, all of a sudden, she opened her two sacks of coin and began to throw the money by handfuls into the Bay, scattering it in shower after shower of gold till it was all gone.
Well, sir, the Yukon’s the place after all. I’ve blown in most all of my four hundred thousand, and what have I got for it? Kate will wait for me, the same way she waited for Flora Donovan. I’ve got one little claim I hung on to when I sold out the rest, and I’ve got the fever again. As soon as I’ve had my fun out, and that won’t be long, I’ll make for the snow country.
And some day, when Kate comes in from the fishing, she’ll crawl into her hut and find me there, smoking by the fire.