After a conference with the old guide, Colonel Snow made him an offer to join Swiftwater in the Fairbanks region, and operate with him on such claims as he should secure, and the old man prepared to return to his occupation as a miner, by the first fall stage from Valdez.
Having secured an official permit to take the caribou’s head out of the territory through the influence of Colonel Snow, the whole party embarked next day on the homeward bound steamer, which leaving Seward, and stopping at Valdez and Cordova, took the “outside passage,” for their trip, giving the Scouts for the first time a full taste of the Pacific Ocean. They proved good sailors in this instance, however, and in a few days stepped ashore in Seattle in their “Ain Countree.”
As they crept into their berths in the Great Northern’s Transcontinental Limited that night, eastward bound, Jack said:
“Rand, what do you suppose became of Dublin, Rae and Monkey? They seem to have missed us lately.”
“You’ve heard, Jack, of a bad penny, haven’t you? Well, they’re three bad pence. Look out.”
(THE END.)