OCR Text |
Show 26 them for eating, and all the others are on the White Pass." I found my way to White Pass by following a trail of rubble along the Skagway River to the mountains. I saw no stampeders going into the canyon, but several were straggling out. As they passed they mumbled, "You won't make it, so don't try," A beefy man stood at a rickety plank bridge collecting toll. "The trail is closed until freeze-up," he yelled. "Mud avalanches, bogholes. Too many boulders and dead horses in the way. After freeze-up you can walk right over 'em." "I'm just looking for my horse," I said. Still, he insisted on a fifty-cent toll, both ways, as did two other toll collectors in the first five miles. After that, the canyon was a crater of mud, completely impassable. I returned to town, discouraged and completely exhausted from the hike. Though Captain Hillis had suggested I stay at Mrs. Pullen's boarding house, I was too tired to look for it. I went into the first tent I saw advertising cots for fifty cents. Just as I was dozing off I saw a strange sight, although nothing seemed completely abnormal any more. About a dozen con men, scattered throughout the tent, rose from their cots and began fleecing the other sleeping men. They emptied leather pokes and pockets. They pulled off boots-those that would come off-and took the paper money hidden there. And also the boots. All the while the weary prospectors slept in oblivion, |