ed collided with
sled, and dog-team fastened upon dog-team with bristling manes and
screaming fangs. The narrow creek was glutted with the struggling mass.
Lashes and butts of dog-whips were distributed impartially among men and
brutes. And to make it of greater moment, each participant had a bunch
of comrades intent on breaking him out of jam. But one by one, and by
sheer strength, the sleds crept out and shot from sight in the darkness
of the overhanging banks.

Jack Harrington had anticipated this crush and waited by his sled until
it untangled. Louis Savoy, aware of his rival's greater wisdom in the
matter of dog-driving, had followed his lead and also waited. The rout
had passed beyond earshot when they took the trail, and it was not till
they had travelled the ten miles or so down to Bonanza that they came
upon it, speeding along in single file, but well bunched. There was
little noise, and less chance of one passing another at that stage. The
sleds, from runner to runner, measured sixteen inches, the trail
eighteen; but the trail, packed down fully a foot by the traffic, was
like a gutter. On either side spread the blanket of soft snow crystals.
If a man turned into this in an endeavor to pass, his dogs would wallow
perforce to their bellies and slow down to a snail's pace. So the men
lay close to their leaping sleds and waited. No alteration in position
occurred down the fifteen miles of Bonanza and Klondike to Dawson, where
the Yukon was encountered. Here the first relays waited. But here,
intent to kill their first teams, if necessary, Harrington and Savoy had
had their fresh teams placed a couple of miles beyond those of the
others. In the confusion of changing sleds they passed full half the
bunch. Perhaps thirty men were still leading them when they shot on to
the broad breast of the Yukon. Here was the tug. When the river froze
in the fall, a mile of open water had been left between two mighty jams.
This had but recently crusted, the current being swift, and now it was as
level, hard, and slippery as a dance floor. The instant they struck this
glare ice Harrington came to his knees, holding precariously on with one
hand, his whip singing fiercely among his dogs and fearsome abjurations
hurtling about their ears. The teams spread out on the smooth surface,
each straining to the uttermost. But few men in the North could lift
their dogs as did Jack Harrington. At once he began to pull ahead