So it wasn't until the following July (1897), when steamships from Alaska docked in San Francisco and Seattle–disgorging 68 ragged miners carrying more than 2 tons of gold in suitcases, boxes, blankets and coffee cans–that the outside world caught the Klondike fever.
In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", the meaning that is conveyed by the words "then all is darkness and silence!" is that Farquhar has been hanged.
