and down the carpeted floor. Here and there were men who sat alone. A
few were asleep, which made Alan look at his watch. Then he observed
Mary Standish studying the innumerable bundles of neatly rolled blankets
that lay about. One of them was at her feet. She touched it with
her toe.

"What do they mean?" she asked.

"We are overloaded," he explained. "Alaskan steam-ships have no steerage
passengers as we generally know them. It isn't poverty that rides
steerage when you go north. You can always find a millionaire or two on
the lower deck. When they get sleepy, most of the men you see in there
will unroll blankets and sleep on the floor. Did you ever see an earl?"

He felt it his duty to make explanations now that he had brought her in,
and directed her attention to the third table on their left. Three men
were seated at this table.

"The man facing us, the one with a flabby face and pale mustache, is an
earl--I forget his name," he said. "He doesn't look it, but he is a real
sport. He is going up to shoot Kadiak bears, and sleeps on the floor.
The group beyond them, at the fifth table, are Treadwell mining men,
and that fellow you see slouched against the wall, half asleep, with
whiskers nearly to his waist, is Stampede Smith, an old-time partner of
George Carmack, who discovered gold on Bonanza Creek in Ninety-six. The
thud of Carmack's spade, as it hit first pay, was the 'sound heard round
the world,' Miss Standish. And the gentleman with crumpled whiskers was
the second-best man at Bonanza, excepting Skookum Jim and Taglish
Charlie, two Siwah Indians who were with Carmack when the strike was
made. Also, if you care for the romantic, he was in love with Belinda