"The thing appears almost incredible," he said.
"It isn't," said his companion. "I know what the Alaska Commercial old-timer told me quite a while ago. It's going leagues ahead of Caribou. They'll be going up in their thousands in a month or two. Now, you sit still a minute, and listen to me. This is a thing I believe in, and I'll tell you what I know."
He spoke for ten minutes with dark eyes snapping, and Jimmy's blood tingled as he listened. Jordan's faith, the all-daring optimism of the Pacific Slope of which many men have died in the wilderness, was infectious, and something in Jimmy's nature responded. He had fought with bitter gales and frothing seas, and it seemed to him that the struggle with ice and frost, rock and snow, could not be harder. He was also, though he had not quite realized it until that moment, one of those who are born to play their part in the forefront of the battle between man and nature--and nature is not beneficent, but very grim and terrible until she is subdued, as everybody who has seen that strife knows.
Then Jimmy stood up and slowly straightened himself, with a quiet smile.
"You'll have to get a new skipper for the _Shasta_--I'm going north," he said.
Jordan gazed at him a moment in amazement, and then laughed in a fashion which suggested that comprehension had dawned on him.
"Sit down again," he said. "I begin to understand how it is with you. Still, you can't afford to do the thing you want to. It quite often happens that way."
"I fancy that what I can't afford is to remain on board the _Shasta_," said Jimmy dryly.
"Sit down," said Jordan; "we'll talk out this thing. Now, why do you want to go up there?"
Jimmy did as he was bidden, though there was a significant gleam in his eyes. "Well," he said, "perhaps it's your due that I should tell you. For one thing, because I feel that I must. I'm not sure you'll understand me, but I feel it's what I was made for. There are half-frozen swamps to be crossed, leagues of forest, cañons, melting snow to be floundered through. That kind of thing gets hold of some of us. I feel I have to go. Secondly, there seems to be gold up there. I want the money."
Jordan noisily thrust back his chair, and then took up a pen and, apparently without recognizing what he was doing, snapped it across.