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Show 21 trick, those two weeks dragged by pretty much the same until the dance-hall girls got on at Juneau, Alaska, toward the end of our journey. When the steamer pulled up to the towering mountain of Juneau, the men yelled savagely, "If one more person gets on this old tub, we'll sink for sure!" But when they saw the four lovely young ladies stepping up the gangplank, they began cheering. That pleased the ladies, and they lifted their long tailored skirts and kicked a cancan right there on the gangplank. Hidden under those long skirts were multi-colored ruffles and black lace stockings with silver-spangled garters. Two old prospectors and a skinny boy also came aboard, although they were hardly noticed because of the dancing girls. When the boy was standing alone, I asked if he would like to go see the horses. He must have been seasick because he turned and fled. The following day as Captain Hillis piloted the Guardian up the narrowing Lynn Canal, he said to me, "Do you know about Skagway, James?" All I knew about Skagway was that it was the outfitting place at the foot of the Coast Mountains that we had to cross to reach the Klondike goldfields. "It's the windiest place on earth," the captain said. |
