fter them, eliciting only airs of surly indifference and repeated
"Me no sell." It was a bitter disappointment, especially to the Boy. He
liked the looks of that Nigger dog. When, plunged in gloom, he returned
to the group about the Colonel, he found his pardner asking about
"feed." No, the old man hadn't enough fish to spare even a few days'
supply. Would anybody here sell fish? No, he didn't think so. All the
men who had teams were gone to the hills for caribou; there was nobody
to send to the Summer Caches. He held out his hand again for the first
instalment of the "eightee dolla," in kind, that he might put it in his
pipe.

"But dogs are no good to us without something to feed 'em."

The Ingalik looked round as one seeking counsel.

"Get fish tomalla."

"No, sir. To-day's the only day in my calendar. No buy dogs till we get
fish."

When the negotiations fell through the Indian took the failure far more
philosophically than the white men, as was natural. The old fellow
could quite well get on without "eightee dolla"--could even get on
without the tobacco, tea, sugar, and matches represented by that sum,
but the travellers could not without dogs get to Minook. It had been
very well to feel set up because they had done the thing that everybody
said was impossible. It had been a costly victory. Yes, it had come
high. "And, after all, if we don't get dogs we're beaten."

"Oh, beaten be blowed! We'll toddle along somehow."

"Yes, we'll toddle along _if_ we get dogs."

And the Boy knew the Colonel was right.

They inquired about Kaltag.

"I reckon we'd better push ahead while we can," said the Colonel. So
they left the camp that same evening intending to "travel with the
moon." The settlement was barely out of sight when they met a squaw
dragging a sled-load of salmon. Here was luck! "And now we'll go back
and get those two dogs."

As it was late, and trading with the natives, even for a fish, was a
matter of much time and patience, they decided not to hurry the dog
deal. It was bound to take a good part of the evening, at any rate.
Well, another night's resting up was welcome enough.

While the Colonel was re-establishing himself in the best cabin, the
Boy cached the sled and then went prowling about. As he fully intended,
he fell in with the Leader--that "bully Nigger dog." His master not in
sight--nobody but some dirty children and the stranger there to see how
the Red Dog, in a moment of aberration, dare