white man's grub, consisting principally of salt and smoking
tobacco. Striking south and west on the long traverse to the
junction of the Yukon and Porcupine at Fort Yukon, they had found
gold on this creek and remained over to work the ground.

They hailed the advent of Tarwater with joy, never tired of
listening to his tales of Forty-Nine, and rechristened him Old
Hero. Also, with tea made from spruce needles, with concoctions
brewed from the inner willow bark, and with sour and bitter roots
and bulbs from the ground, they dosed his scurvy out of him, so
that he ceased limping and began to lay on flesh over his bony
framework. Further, they saw no reason at all why he should not
gather a rich treasure of gold from the ground.

"Don't know about all of three hundred thousand," they told him one
morning, at breakfast, ere they departed to their work, "but how'd
a hundred thousand do, Old Hero? That's what we figure a claim is
worth, the ground being badly spotted, and we've already staked
your location notices."

"Well, boys," Old Tarwater answered, "and thanking you kindly, all
I can say is that a hundred thousand will do nicely, and very
nicely, for a starter. Of course, I ain't goin' to stop till I get
the full three hundred thousand. That's what I come into the
country for."

They laughed and applauded his ambition and reckoned they'd have to
hunt a richer creek for him. And Old Hero reckoned that as the
spring came on and he grew spryer, he'd have to get out and do a
little snooping around himself.