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THE CAPTAIN OF THE ‘Star Of India’ fortunately loved dogs. However, the clincher was Captain Moore was also a drinking buddy of her new friend, David Mc Greger, the Pinkerton man.
Their departure was delayed, and Marie spent half the day and part of the night in a saloon with the Captain and his crew supporting David’s story about his boxing match held at her Klondike tent bar.
Her mind drifted to the past, remembering sitting alone in a deck chair writing in Soup’s Journal now hers, aboard the Steamship, SS Alaska, sailing from Nome to San Francisco. The return trip was less crowded, no mining equipment, dog sleds, or cattle, and would be gold diggers. She felt grateful for the peace after what she had been through. She had written about the events leading up to the death of her friend Soupy. Marie underlined the name Mallory before she continuing writing.
I met him once in the tent saloon—a rough and tumble Australian, but he had an incredible singing voice. After being introduced as Soupy’s new partner, Mallory accompanied me on several songs that night. I learned, later, that he came from a theatrical family. His father and two brothers were touring America with their traveling vaudeville show before they came down with gold fever. Daryl, the bartender, and Kate guessed he was in his early twenties and asked where his family was camping?
He quietly told us they were all killed during the Chilkoot Pass avalanche; He was one of the lucky ones they dug out alive.
Mallory said the Stampeders were warned not to use the trail until conditions were better. He argued with his father to heed the warnings, especially when the Chilkoot packers refused to go up.
His words fell on deaf. His father was consumed with golden dreams.
I remember how softly Mallory spoke while telling us how it started rumbling late Saturday night when they approached the steepest part of the climb. On Sunday morning, his father told Mallory and his younger brothers that they were going back down with the others to Sheep Camp to wait it out.
His decision came too late. The massive avalanche overtook them, burying hundreds in its wake; in some places, the snow was over fifty feet deep.
Afterward, Mallory worked for days, digging out bodies with other miners that came to help.
That’s when he met Soupy, who searched by his side trying to find his family, but the danger of another avalanche finally halted their work.
They brought the bodies down to tents at Sheep Camp for identification. He never found his father or two brothers after searching the temporary morgues.
Soupy later said, inviting the kid to help prospect for gold was probably a mistake. The boy became undisciplined and was spending his share gambling and carousing all night with the crib whores.