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Show 28 and s t i l l stay a l i v e ." The other pass which Mrs. Pullen referred to was the Chilkoot Pass at Dyea, three miles to the northwest of Skagway. Both passes had been secret Indian t r a i l s over the Coast Mountains from antiquity. Until the gold stampede. "Now," Mrs. Pullen continued as she came i n t o the dining room with a p l a t t e r of pancakes, "I don't suppose any of you brought your own horses. Stampeders with pack animals go White Pass," she said, "until the animals drop dead. I t ' s already called 'Dead Horse T r a i l . ' Indian packers or men packing t h e i r own supplies go Chilkoot. I ' d suggest, for the g i r l s anyway, to go Chilkoot." The dancing g i r l s called themselves the "Flower G i r l s , " and t h e i r names were Pansy, Violet, Petunia, and Daisy. They were on t h e i r way to the Klondike to sing and dance for the prospectors. "Now you know," Mrs. Pullen said, "that you can't enter Canada without a y e a r ' s supply of food, almost a ton of goods. The North West Mounted Police just won't l e t you. And they are all over the Canadian side of the passes. First thing you know, t h e y ' l l be a t the top of the passes with machine guns lined up on the snowdrifts. No one slips past a Mountie. Not even Soapy Smith's con men. They've t r i e d . They c a n ' t do i t ." "What about the con men?" Daisy asked. "Con men a l l over Skagway and both t r a i l s , and Soapy Smith's t h e i r leader. His real name i s Jefferson Randolph Smith, but he's |
