the
midnight Fourth of July
Sheba had been full of gayety and life , but her mood was changed . All the way home she was strangely silent . The days grew short . In sporting circles the talk was no longer of the midnight Fourth of July baseball game , but of preparation for the Alaska Sweepstakes , since the shadow of the cold Arctic winter had crept down to the Yukon and touched its waters to stillness . Men , gathered around warm stoves , spoke of the merits of huskies and Siberian wolf-hounds , of the heavy fall of snow in the hills , of the overhauling of outfits and the transportation of supplies to distant camps . The last river boat before the freeze-up had long since gone . A month earlier the same steamer had taken down in a mail sack the preliminary report of Elliot to his department chief .