feet, "that that dog _is_ teachin' you more 'n you knowed."

"I 'low, dad," replied the breathless Jimmie, "that he teached me
nothin' more than I forgot."

"I wouldn't forget again," said Jim.

Jimmie did not deign to reply.

CHAPTER II

_In Which Jimmie Grimm is Warned Not to Fall Down, and
Tog, Confirmed in Bad Ways, Raids Ghost Tickle, Commits
Murder, Runs With the Wolves, Plots the Death of Jimmie
Grimm and Reaches the End of His Rope_

Jimmie Grimm's father broke Tog to the traces before the winter was
over. A wretched time the perverse beast had of it. Labrador dogs are
not pampered idlers; in winter they must work or starve--as must men,
the year round. But Tog had no will for work, acknowledged no master
save the cruel, writhing whip; and the whip was therefore forever
flecking his ears or curling about his flanks. Moreover, he was a sad
shirk. Thus he made more trouble for himself. When his team-mates
discovered the failing--and this was immediately--they pitilessly
worried his hind legs. Altogether, in his half-grown days, Tog led a
yelping, bleeding life of it; whereby he got no more than his
desserts.

Through the summer he lived by theft when thievery was practicable;
at other times he went fishing for himself with an ill will. Meantime,
he developed strength and craft, both in extraordinary degree. There
was not a more successful criminal in the pack, nor was there a more
despicable bully. When the first snow fell, Tog was master at
Buccaneer Cove, and had already begun to raid the neighbouring
settlement at Ghost Tickle. Twice he was known to have adventured
there. After the first raid, he licked his wounds in retirement for
two weeks; after the second, which was made by night, they found a
dead dog at Ghost Tickle.

Thereafter, Tog entered Ghost Tickle by daylight, and with his teeth
made good his right to come and go at will. It was this that left him
open to suspicion when the Ghost Tickle tragedy occurred. Whether or
not Tog was concerned in that affair, nobody knows. They say at Ghost
Tickle that he plotted the murder and led the pack; but the opinion is
based merely upon the fact that he was familiar with the paths and
lurking places of the Tickle--and, possibly, upon the fact of his
immediate and significant disappearance from the haunts of men.

News came from Ghost Tickle that Jonathan Wall had come late from the
ice with a seal. Weary with the long tramp, he