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Show 105 "We are looking for gold, Tip," I said sternly. "There is nothing more important than gold-flowers, trees, birds-or anything. Remember t h a t ." "Now," I instructed, crawling out of the creek and shaking myself like a husky dog, "we must keep one eye on the h i l l s, looking for Ogilvie, the surveyor. We can't be watching other men's gold in the valley and miss our only chance on the h i l l s ." I had made up my mind to take any fraction-two inches or two f e e t . I had not come North to seek my fortune in a sawmill. I t was almost midnight, yet s t i l l a dusky twilight vhen we reached a small camp called Grand Forks at the junction of Eldorado Creek with the Bonanza. The camp was clustered around a two-story frame hotel called the Grand Forks Hotel, where we splurged on moose steaks and applesauce. We s l e p t , however, in a tent behind the hotel for f i f t y cents a cot. I t d i d n ' t take long for me to find out that the other men in the tent were here for the same purpose we were-to grab a f r a c t i o n . And I resolved that I would grab one f i r s t. Early the next morning they rose quietly-and sneaked out. Tip and I followed. Soon i;e were a l l following an Englishman in a khaki uniform, carrying surveying instruments, x<iho must have dropped from the sky. "He stayed i n the Grand Forks Hotel," Tip said. |