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P.S. Should you choose to take me on as your equal partner, could you please advise me as to what I should bring to make my time in the Yukon Territory more enjoyable?
He shook his head in disbelief. "Well I'll be ..."
"What is it?" came the miners' chorus.
He smiled for the first time in weeks. Why not? He could afford to be sociable. This Mr. Devon O'Shea had answered his prayers. In another few months he'd be left alone again. He wouldn't have to worry about running the post, and he could photograph wildlife to his heart's content. And he'd never, never find himself trapped in a room with chattering miners again.
He closed his eyes. It was almost enough to make one believe in God.
"What is it?" Midas demanded.
"It's a reply to my advertisement."
"What advertisement?"
"When you fools first started straggling into my valley, I ran advertisements in about ten big-city papers seeking a partner in the post."
"Why'd ya do a damn fool thing like that?" Midas cut in. "You're mean as a wet cat. Ain't nobody in the world you could work with."
6
Chapter One
Her
7
8
Oh my God.
Guide for Alaska and Yukon Gold Seekers?"
Guide
Guide
10
II
here?"
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13
carry it off. It spiraled end-over-end like a dancing black bubble and landed in the brown river. With a silent curse she curled her fingers around the icy steel of the bike's handlebars and yanked hard.
The mud fought back. Rain hammered her face, pooling and clogging in her eyes and running in cold streaks down her cheeks. She licked the wet rivulets from her lips and swiped them from her eyes.
Sucking in a big breath, she pulled with all her strength. "Come . . . on." The words came out in two bursts of chattering teeth.
The bicycle popped free. She hauled it onto the canvas and lay it on its side, pushing slowly to her feet.
Panting, shaking with cold, she peeled the mud-blackened gloves from her hands and crammed them into her handbag. Staring at her treasured racycle, its bright red frame mottled with clumps and streaks of mud, she felt tears threaten.
/> She squeezed her eyes shut. No. She had to remain calm. Crying wouldn't help. Besides, it was only mud. What was mud to a Two-Speed, Changeable-Geared Racycle? A little water and the bicycle would be as good as new. One had to keep things in perspective.
