Chapter 3 The Klondike

The two brothers who had left been successful, they had gold dust and were coming back to Seattle to place that into the Seattle Assay Office and get their money in the form of a check. When they arrived, they went to the office, placed their gold in the assay office and kept the receipt. They went to Lottie's and had a drink, a bath, and some food.

"Miss Lottie, you are the best cook around!" said Sam, his brother agreed with him. They both held up their glasses and saluted her. She smiled. And went to take care of other customers. Joshua walked into the bar. Usually, in the middle of the day he was working on the mountain with Jason but had left because he and Jason still had not agreed on his going Since he knew Sam and his brother, he decided to talk to them, maybe he could go with them on their next trip.

"Well, hello Jason!" said Dave, Sam's brother. " What's happening?"

"Nothing much, I heard you were successful and found gold!" said Joshua.

"Yeah, we heard that too!" said Sam as he laughed and took a drink.

"How did you do it? How much did it cost? How do you know where to find the gold…!" asked Joshua.

"Hold on, slow down son!" said Dave. "We can answer those questions but not here in public. What is your brother Jason doing? He still running the logging camp?" asked Dave. Joshua nodded yes and then said.

" I tried to talk to him about letting me go prospecting even said I would put my 3rd of the mountain up for this venture. He won't hear of it. He won't even listen to me!" complained Joshua. Sam and Dave finished their meal, paid their bill, and motioned for Joshua to come with them. They went out to the livery stable. There they stashed their equipment.

"Joshua, we knew your daddy, we knew him well. We were the first loggers who were hired, your brother and us all got along together. When we left, we left on good terms. But it was a long time coming. We had to save everything to get our equipment and when we did, we found that we were sold some stuff that we really did not need. There are people out to steal from you. Not only here but out in the Klondike as well!" said Dave. As he checked their equipment.

"Let's go say hi to your brothers, Joshua, and we will tell you more. I get the sense that you might need some clarifying!" Said Sam. They walked out of the livery stable.

Up at the camp Jason was working on a log with his other loggers when he saw Sam and Dave coming up the hill with Joshua. He stopped and asked another logger to finish the log and he went over to greet them.

"Sam, Dave, you aren't coming back to your old jobs now, are you?" said Jason jovially. He saw Joshua but did not say anything to him. They hugged and greeted each other, while Josh stood just to the left of his brother.

"are you going to be here long? " asked Jason.

" A few days, then we have to get back up to the site. You know if you aren't there someone will try to jump your claim. We paid some Mounties to watch our claim for us, but they are Canadian, so we aren't sure they won't jump the claim themselves!" Sam said and laughed. So did Dave and Jason.

"Well, I have more work to finish to day, but I would like to have you over for supper tomorrow, will that work?" asked Jason Sam and Dave looked at each other and said yes.

"Hey, don't you have one more brother about ten or 11?" Asked Sam.

"Yes, Jeremy, he is in school right now, but he will be home later today."

"That is good, got some gifts for you all." Said Dave and then he leaned over and whispered to Jason.

"Forgot the other one is as tall as you? He may not want the gifts we brought but I sense something is going on with him. Feeling his roots or something?" asked Dave

Jason just nodded and looked at Joshua. He had hoped that josh would have given up on this absurd notion of going prospecting. After saying good bye, Jsaon went back to work and Sam and Dave left as well. Joshua was left standing in the middle of the camp, with no one talking to him. He began to wonder if he really should go just because it seemed as if his brother didn't want him there anymore. He decided to go to town and talk to the banker. He wanted to find out about what he could do to put his part of the mountain up for collateral and how much he would need.

"Well, that was a mighty fine meal, Jason!" said Sam as they all sat in the living area of the cabin. Joshua was sitting on the chair at the table and Jeremy was sitting on the rug leaning against the wall 'reading' (actually listening in on the conversation)

"So, what is it like up there in the Klondike" asked Joshua hoping they would say nothing but good things about it.

"Well, it is a hard trail to get up there. We had to take the Chilkoot trail, hired some Indians to help guide us. They charge a lot for guiding. But if you don't know where or how to get somewhere, that is the only way to do it!' said Dave as he took out his pipe and began to smoke. Sam continued:

" The trail is steep, icy, and snowy. We had Gertie and Annie, our pack mules with us and even they had a hard time as well. We had to go back and forth up the golden staircase!" Jeremy perked up and asked:

"What's a golden staircase?

"That my boy is a staircase carved of snow and ice, they say it is about 1,500 steps. Can you imagine a mule going up those steps with a full pack!" Dave asked Jeremy. Jeremy just sat there with his mouth open saying; "1,500 steps!" then he got up and tried to imagine that many steps to climb.

"Anyway, once we got up the first time. I stayed with Annie, while Sam went to get Gertie and some of our equipment. Again, we had to rely on either the Mounties, the US soldiers, or the Indians, because leaving out equipment alone meant that someone could take it without us know and we would be short stuff. A lot of people stole things from people." Said Dave

Both Jason and Joshua looked at each other. Jason thought about Joshua's safety, Joshua began to consider some of the problems that could occur if he did this by himself. They talked long into the night. Jeremy was fast asleep, and Joshua volunteered to put him in bed. Jason said god night to their friends. They did not know if they would see each other again. Jason wished them good luck and safe travels and Sam said:

"I saw it in his eyes," to Jason, " He wants to go but there is an understanding that is slowly waking. He will stay with you. He does not have the 'fever'!" and they left.

The next morning, Joshua was ready to go out and work in his job. At the logging camp.

"What about going prospecting? Jason asked.

"Ah, well, I think I can wait a little later for something like that!" said Joshua. Jeremy was awake and wanted to know why he didn't get to vote.

"Jeremy, it just so happened you did vote. But not in the usual way. Your questions helped me to see something that I was overlooking. And that helped me to make my decision." Said Joshua. Who smiled at Jeremy and his brother, and they went to work and to school. When they were on the way up the mountain, Jason asked Joshua:

"What was it really?"

"What was what? Asked Joshua, then Joshua figured it out and said:

"The bank said not this time!" Joshua told Jason and they both laughed.