In point of endurance it was acknowledged that he could kill the hardiest of them.

Furthermore, he was accounted a nervy man, a square man, and a white man.
In all lands where life is a hazard lightly played with and lightly flung aside, men turn, almost automatically, to gambling for diversion and relaxation.

In the Yukon men gambled their lives for gold, and those that won gold from the ground gambled for it with one another.
Nor was Elam Harnish an exception.

He was a man's man primarily, and the instinct in him to play the game of life was strong.

Environment had determined what form that game should take.