'Where is Freda?' the Old-Timers questioned, while the che-cha-quas were equally energetic in asking who Freda was. The buzzed with her name.  
It was on everybody's lips. Grizzled 'sour-dough boys,' day-laborers at the mines but proud of their degree, either patronized the spruce-looking tenderfeet and lied eloquently—the 'sour-dough boys' being created to toy with truth—or gave them looks of indignation because of their ignorance. Perhaps forty kings of the Upper and Lower Countries were on the floor, each deeming himself hot on the trail and sturdily backing his with the yellow dust of the realm. An assistant was sent to the man at the scales, upon whom had fallen the burden of weighing up the sacks, while several of the gamblers, with the rules of chance at their finger-ends, made up books on the field and favorites.
 
Which was Freda? Time and again the 'Greek Dancer' was thought to have been discovered, but each discovery brought panic to the betting ring and a registering of new by those who wished to hedge. Malemute Kid took an interest in the hunt, his being hailed uproariously by the revelers, who knew him to a man. The Kid had a good eye for the trick of a step, and ear for the lilt of a voice, and his private choice was a marvelous creature who as the ' Borealis.' But the Greek dancer was too subtle for even his . The majority of the gold-hunters seemed to have centered their verdict on the 'Russian Princess,' who was the most in the room, and hence could be no other than Freda Moloof.
 
During a quadrille a roar of satisfaction went up. She was discovered. At previous balls, in the figure, 'all hands round,' Freda had displayed an inimitable step and variation peculiarly her own. As the figure was called, the 'Russian Princess' gave the unique rhythm to limb and body. A chorus of I-told-you-so's shook the squared roof-beams, when lo! it was noticed that 'Aurora Borealis' and another masque, the 'Spirit of the Pole,' were performing the same trick equally well. And when two twin 'Sun-Dogs' and a 'Frost Queen' followed suit, a second assistant was dispatched to the aid of the man at the scales.
 
Bettles came off trail in the midst of the excitement, upon them in a hurricane of frost. His rimed brows turned to as he whirled about; his mustache, still frozen, seemed with diamonds and turned the light in varicolored rays; while the flying feet slipped on the of ice which from his moccasins and German socks. A Northland dance is quite an informal affair, the men of the and trails having lost whatever fastidiousness they might have at one time ; and only in the high official circles are conventions at all observed. Here, caste carried no significance. Millionaires and , dog-drivers and mounted policemen joined hands with 'ladies in the center,' and swept around the circle performing most . in their pleasure, and rough, they displayed no rudeness, but rather a crude more genuine than the most polished courtesy.
 
In his quest for the 'Greek Dancer,' Cal Galbraith managed to get into the same set with the 'Russian Princess,' toward whom popular suspicion had turned.
 
But by the time he had guided her through one dance, he was willing not only to stake his millions that she was not Freda, but that he had had his arm about her waist before. When or where he could not tell, but the puzzling sense of familiarity so upon him that he turned his attention to the discovery of her identity. Malemute Kid might have aided him instead of occasionally taking the Princess for a few turns and talking earnestly to her in low tones. But it was Harrington who paid the 'Russian Princess' the most assiduous court. Once he drew Cal Galbraith aside and hazarded wild guesses as to who she was, and explained to him that he was going in to win. ............