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Nine •————————————• The Long Journey Home The vessel that finally arrived was the SS Portland, an aging twelve-­ year-­ old steamship that had helped kick off the gold rush only a few weeks before. Although news of the Klondike strike had been trickling out of the Yukon since about February, it took the arrival of the two now-­ famous treasure ships—the Excelsior in San Francisco on July 15 and the Portland two days later in Seattle—to jump-­ start the last major gold rush of the nineteenth century. Now, less than a month later, the Portland was completing her first trip back to the Yukon, crammed from bow to stern with gold seekers. Since St. Michael had no docks, the crew spent the next four days unloading the vessel’s passengers and their cargo into smaller boats that could reach the shore. The excited would-­ be prospectors were first off, streaming down the gangplanks and onto Alaskan soil, each one trying to book passage on the handful of small steamers heading back upriver to Dawson City. But after the Portland was unloaded, the southbound travelers still had to wait several more days, as the water was extremely rough and no boat could venture out to the ship. Finally, on August 16, the little Hamilton, a river steamer that had just been launched, ferried Perrin, Novak, and the other passengers onto the Portland, which began its long voyage back to Seattle.1 The trip was uneventful, with the ship stopping to refuel at Dutch Harbor. A wild rumor about supposed Chinese pirates lurking just offshore had prompted a Coast Guard cutter to escort the Portland The Long Journey Home 95 down the Canadian coast, safeguarding the steamer and her gold cargo.2 After a few more days, the Portland reached Port Townsend, Washington , and Perrin was able to send a telegram to Gus Thiel announcing the arrest of Novak. An alert Associated Press reporter saw the message and broke the story, which was picked up by dozens of newspapers throughout the country. With typical understatement, Perrin ’s diary mentions nothing about the scene at Seattle, where the dock was crammed with hundreds of people clamoring to go to the Yukon. The phlegmatic detective seemed oblivious to the bedlam that was now his nearly constant companion. While reporters, relatives of the prospectors on board, and a large crowd surged toward the Portland, Perrin and Novak slipped through the mass of people and holed up in the Seattle Hotel for a few hours until the detective could purchase train tickets to Iowa. Later that same day, Perrin , Novak, and D. L. Clouse boarded the Northern Pacific Railway train with a destination of St. Paul, Minnesota, where they arrived at about 4:40 pm on Wednesday, September 1. They had several hours between trains, so Perrin and Clouse brought Novak to the Thiel offices, killing time by chatting with other detectives. Then they returned to the station and headed down the “Albert Lea Route,” the final leg of the trip that had begun in Dawson City about five weeks earlier.3 Their now-­ famous prisoner was initially panic-­ stricken, convinced that he would be dragged from the train and lynched. Perrin assured him that this would not happen, but as the train clattered through the Iowa towns, drawing closer and closer to Vinton, Novak was still worried. He peeked out through the blinds and saw clusters of people watching the train pass, each one trying to catch a glimpse of the alleged Walford murderer. “The Kodak fiends,” as one paper called them, were out in force, as photography had become more popular with the invention of more compact (even pocket-­ sized) cam- 96 h a r d s h i p s eras and commercial film developing. Some even were sold as “detective cameras”4 and were meant to be used discreetly. Once again, photography was playing its own small but important part in the many twists of the Novak case, bookending the beginning and end of the chase. In February, the Thiel detectives had covered the route across Iowa and Nebraska, armed with a photograph of Novak; Perrin had carried one with him as he traveled from Juneau to Dawson City; Ogilvie had taken photos to document the prisoner ’s arrest and appearance both with and without a beard; and now Novak was afraid that if he wouldn’t be hung on the spot when he stepped back onto Iowa soil, the Hawkeyes...

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