The next step, therefore, was to proceed against McKenzie for contempt of court. The time was very short; for communication with that country ceases with the freezing of the sea, the latter part of October, and the distance to the appellate court and return is about seven thousand miles. At the last moment, just before we sailed, Samuel Knight (Yale, '87), who, in behalf of the Wild Goose Company, had been fighting the ring with great aggressiveness and skill, gave me, for his firm in San Francisco, the papers on which to base proceedings for contempt of court and arrest.
The storm and rain continued with unabated fury. It was impossible to get away. All the steamers had either put to sea or sought for shelter the lee of Sledge Island, to the northwest, and the shore was fast becoming a scene of wreckage indescribable. Tugs, lighters, floating piers, and all small craft lay tossed upon the beach. The sea was rising higher all the time, and soon buildings were washed away, and the front and lower part of the town were under water. All machinery which had rested upon the beach was buried in the sand. The entire sand-spit where we had first camped was washed by the surf. Lumber in great piles was strewn all along the water-front, and there were general loot and consequent drunkenness. The saying that the "Bering Sea is the graveyard of the Pacific" seemed verified. Certainly it was the most destructive and long-continued storm within my knowledge.
It was during this waiting period that we quite unexpectedly ran across V—— and R——. They had, it seemed, gone northwest in their boat for about thirty miles and tried the beach, with but little success. Then, having, as they believed, good information as to the rich strike which had been made at Bristol Bay, five or six hundred miles to the south, they had joined a party and gone thither in the small sailing-schooner which now lay high and dry upon the beach. Caught by storms either way, their experiences were of the hair-raising order, and it was only through the great skill and coolness of the captain and the mate that they were there to tell the tale. Bristol Bay had proved to be a fake, so far as gold was concerned. But V—— said that the streams were simply red with salmon, and that they found many walruses dead upon the shore, which probably, wounded by the natives, had come there to die. He brought to us a splendid pair of their ivory tusks, in which I have a special pride. Although he plainly showed the effects of his hardships, his cheerful spirit was unbroken, although the thought of having to return unsuccessful, but with hardly a fair trial, hurt his sense of pride. We told him of the Council City country, and it was suggested that he go back and winter with C——, which proposition was quickly accepted.
We dined once for experiment at the Café de Paris, a very clean and dainty-looking restaurant, quite incongruous with its surroundings. This was frequented by some of the French "counts," German "barons," and persons "representing capital in the East," for all sorts and conditions were to be met at this motley Nome. Really, our general apparel was quite out of place. The proprietor seemed the gentleman. He said that he came from New York, and that his chef was from the Café Martin. When we remarked that we had eaten at the Café Martin, with a French gesture of delight, he exclaimed, "Zen zere ees nussing more to be said!" Most of the things were very good, but we ordered beefsteak, about which we used to talk at Council. That portion of the menu was very well disguised. As an Alaskan friend of mine once remarked on a similar occasion, it was "so tough that you couldn't stick a fork in the gravy."
On September 17 the storm finally abated, and, after an earnest "good-by and good luck" to C——, my brother and I were rowed out to the big ship Tacoma. We left many behind who would have given their eye-teeth to be in our boots. It seemed almost too good to be true that we should be upon that stanch vessel, in good health, and with the near prospect of enjoying the delights of a home-coming. As is frequently the case when one has been counting the days which are to lead up to an anticipated pleasure, a certain apprehension that some mishap might occur to delay departure had been felt by us during these last days in Alaska. The Tacoma, which before the Nome excitement had been engaged in the China trade, was officered by Scotsmen and Englishmen and manned by Chinamen. Big and steady, with roomy decks, she was crowded to the limit of her passenger accommodations. Though the majority of the passengers had been unsuccessful, the fact of going home made all light-hearted and good-natured.
One of the first persons I saw was our Pullman porter friend, who greeted us grinning and deferentially, though we were still in that wholesome atmosphere where all men meet on equal terms and no one is better than the other until he proves it so. He said that he had been lucky in getting hold of a claim, and drew from his pocket a good-sized bottle pretty well filled with gold-dust. I learned further that he would "railroad" during the winter and return in the spring to Nome, having left behind a "good partner" whom he had so tied up that it would be impossible to be defrauded! I was flattered to know that on the occasion of his getting into a "jack-pot" (some trouble) he had hunted Nome after me for legal advice. He had many opportunities to get into "trouble" during the voyage home, as he gambled all the time.
Another acquaintance discovered on the ship was the little German pioneer "Captain Cook." We found him unkempt and disheveled, Rip Van Winkle-like, an object of commiseration, seated where he had been led. The old fellow was a very sick man, with dropsy. Quite friendless, he was unconscious of his surroundings, and looked up in a dazed, hopeless way when spoken to. It seemed as if he might not return alive to that "leetle wife in Kansas City." But later, he was taken out upon the deck and seated in the sun, which did him good; for one day as I passed he recognized me with a bright look, and inquired for my "brudder." It is to be hoped that this old man, who patiently had endured so much, safely reached his home with his gold, and received the welcome he deserved.
With bright, sunny weather after the storm, the Tacoma, not stopping to coal at Dutch Harbor, steamed through Unimak Pass, and, now in the Pacific, headed for Seattle over calm seas. Spending one beautiful day skirting the shore of picturesque Vancouver Island, and passing through the Strait of Juan de Fuca into that incomparable inland body of water, Puget Sound, the Tacoma reached Seattle on September 27, after a voyage of ten days. Thence to San Francisco we journeyed by rail over the majestic route which traverses the base of Mount Shasta.
Immediately upon arriving in San Francisco the papers were delivered to the lawyers. The day following, the Circuit Court of Appeals, with great astonishment, learned in what respect its mandates had been held; and, shortly afterward, two deputy United States marshals were despatched to Nome on one of the last vessels sailing for that port. Thwarting the ring by reaching Nome before the ice had closed communication with the outside world, they duly arrested the receiver and brought him before the court in San Francisco whose orders he had deliberately defied. Knight has since told me of his exciting night escape from Nome in a launch, and of his being picked up at sea by a steamer, as prearranged; for, fearful of the damaging evidence which he had accumulated, the ring did its utmost to keep him from getting away, employing as a means to this end the pretext "contempt of court"!