case, was good for her also. Invariably the lady accepted without
dispute, and invariably the man failed to note her glance at the
bartender, or the silent substitution by that capable person of
ginger-ale for whiskey or of plain water for gin. In turn, the
mixers collected one dollar from each man, flipping to the girl a
metal percentage-check which she added to her store. In the
curtained boxes overhead, men bought bottles with foil about the
corks, and then subterfuge on the lady's part was idle, but, on
the other hand, she was able to pocket for each bottle a check
redeemable at five dollars.

A stranger, straight from the East, would have remarked first upon
the good music, next upon the good looks of the women, and then
upon the shabby clothes of the men--for some of them were in
"mukluk," others in sweaters with huge initials and winged
emblems, and all were collarless.

Outside in the main gambling-room there were but few women. Men
crowded in dense masses about the faro lay-out, the wheel, craps,
the Klondike game, pangingi, and the card-tables. They talked of
business, of home, of women, bought and sold mines, and bartered
all things from hams to honor. The groomed and clean, the unkempt
and filthy jostled shoulder to shoulder, equally affected by the
license of the goldfields and the exhilaration of the New. The
mystery of the North had touched them all. The glad, bright wine
of adventure filled their veins, and they spoke mightily of things
they had resolved to do, or recounted with simple diffidence the
strange stories of their accomplishment.

The "Bronco Kid," familiar from Atlin to Nome as the best "bank"