urn
loose and do something without a thought of how much there is in it. And
when we do that, Cultus George, watch out. What we want to know now is:
Are you going to take out that team?"

Cultus George debated with himself. He was no coward. Perhaps this was
the extent of their bluff, and if he gave in now he was a fool. And
while he debated, Smoke suffered from secret worry lest this stubborn
aborigine would persist in being hanged.

"How much?" said Cultus George.

Smoke started to raise his hand for the signal.

"Me go," Cultus George said very quickly, before the rope could tighten.

"An' when that rescue expedition found me," Shorty told it in the Annie
Mine, "that ornery Cultus George was the first in, beatin' Smoke's sled
by three hours, an' don't you forget it, Smoke comes in second at that.
Just the same, it was about time, when I heard Cultus George a-yellin'
at his dogs from the top of the divide, for those blamed Siwashes had
ate my moccasins, my mitts, the leather lacin's, my knife-sheath, an'
some of 'em was beginnin' to look mighty hungry at me--me bein' better
nourished, you see.

"An' Smoke? He was near dead. He hustled around a while, helpin' to
start a meal for them two hundred sufferin' Siwashes; an' then he fell
asleep, settin' on his haunches, thinkin' he was feedin' snow into a
thawin'-pail. I fixed him my bed, an' dang me if I didn't have to help
him into it, he was that give out. Sure I win the toothpicks. Didn't
them dogs just naturally need the six salmon Smoke fed 'em at the
noonin'?"

IX. THE MISTAKE OF CREATION

"Whoa!" Smoke yelled at the dogs, throwing his weight back on the
gee-pole to bring the sled to a halt.

"What's eatin' you now?" Shorty complained. "They ain't no water under
that footing."

"No; but look at that trail cutting out to the right," Smoke answered.
"I thought nobody was wintering in this section."

The dogs, on the moment they stopped, dropped in the snow and began
biting out the particles of ice from between their toes. This ice had
been water five minutes before. The animals had broken through a skein
of ice, snow-powdered, which had hidden the spring water that oozed
out of the bank and pooled on top of the three-foot winter crust of
Nordbeska River.

"First I heard of anybody up the Nordbeska," Shorty said, staring at the
all but obliterated track covered by two feet of snow, that left the
bed of the river at right angles and entered the mou