Page:McClure's Magazine v9 n3 to v10 no2.djvu/232

958 there no thieves? Not one. No cut-throats? None. Gamblers?

"Plenty. Everybody gambles, especially in the long winter nights."

"Don't they cheat?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"The saloon-keepers won't have it."

"How can they prevent it? Are there no professional gamblers in the camps?"

"Yes, but they put up a straight game. And there are men, too, who have been pretty bad before; I have heard that some of them were ex-convicts and fellows who had run away to escape prison and hanging. But none of them try anything on in there. "

{{c|{{x-smaller|{{asc|AN OUTFIT IN CAMP ON A PORTAGE.}}}}

"But why don't they?"

"I don't know; but they don't."

"What are they afraid of? Has any one ever been punished?"

"Not that I remember."

"Well, why don't thieves steal on the Klondike?"

"I guess it's because they dasent."

Though quietly spoken, this vague answer came with an expression of face—just a quick flash of light—and a slight shift-