More gold was over there than had ever been dreamed of in Alaska; even the mountains and rivers were unnamed; and he was going if he lived another year or two--going to find his fortune or his end in the Stanovoi Mountains and among the Chukchi tribes.

Twice he had tried it since his old comrade had died, and twice he had been driven out.

The next time he would know how to go about it, and he invited Alan to go with him.
There was a thrill in this talk of a land so near, scarcely a night ride across the neck of Bering Sea, and yet as proscribed as the sacred plains of Tibet.

It stirred old desires in Alan's blood, for he knew that of all frontiers the Siberian would be the last and the greatest, and that not only men, but nations, would play their part in the breaking of it.

He saw the red gleam of firelight in Olaf's eyes.
"And if we don't go in first from _this side_, Alan, the yellow fellows will come out some day from _that,"_ rumbled the old sour-dough, striking his pipe in the hollow of his hand.