Heart of the Yukon

The journey to Dawson City had taken its toll and Joyce Jacobs could feel every mile of it throughout her body. Her weariness made the arrival at her destination all the more relieving. Months after leaving her home in Philadelphia she was standing on the docks of her destination after a perilous journey by sailing ship, then pack horses to Bennett Lake and by boat down the Yukon River. All the other travelers she journeyed with were men looking to make their fortune in the gold fields. Being the only woman, and a stunning beauty, she had to rebuff the unwanted advances of the would-be miners and guides all the way from New York. Fortunately, she had prepared for the long and dangerous trip; preparation that included learning the use of rifle and pistol which came in handy on more than one occasion. After one particular night of unpleasantness, the men stayed clear of her and paid her the respect due a woman who could put a bullet between your eyes at 15 yards.

Dawson City bustled with the activity she expected from a boom town. Men on horseback and on foot slogged through the muddy streets of the "city" both coming and going. Merchant shops selling mining equipment and saloons selling spirits and other amenities populated both sides of the street. The occasional assay office, squeezed between the other buildings, seemed out of place amid the raucous goings on of their neighbors. Midway up the street, Joyce spotted the office of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police along with a reputable looking hotel next door. The letter she had received from Leonard Murphy, ESQ resided in the interior pocket of her coat; the letter that had set her epic travels in motion. She spotted the barrister's shingle hanging at the entrance of what amounted to an alley.