e
high-handed, as though everything was allowable in a race, regardless of
other people's rights; but they really don't happen often. This time I
tore one of my water boots on a stump going through the trees by
Council. At a near-by cabin I tried to buy a pair of mukluks a native
woman had on, as I saw they were about the size I needed. She refused to
sell, though I offered her three times their value. There was no time to
argue, nor persuade, so finally in desperation her Eskimo husband and I
took them off her feet, though she kicked vigorously. It saved the day
for me, but it seemed a bit ungallant."

"It served her right for not being as good a sport as most of the
Eskimos. And anyway, every one on Seward Peninsula, of any nationality,
is supposed to know that whatever a driver or his dogs need, in the All
Alaska Sweepstakes, should be his without a dissenting voice or a
rebellious foot."

"Moose Jones used to say," quoted Ben rather timidly, "that most
Malamutes are stubborn. Was the leader you spoke of, Mukluk, stubborn
too, in the race you won with him?"

"Yes, he was stubborn, all right. Do you recall," turning to the Woman,
"the night I made him go 'round one corner for half an hour because he
refused to take the order the first time, and I was afraid of that
trait in him. It did not take long, however, to show him that I could
spend just as much time making him obey as he could spend defying me.
There's no use in whipping a dog like that. And with all his obstinacy,
he was, next to old Dubby, more capable of keeping a trail in a storm
than any dog I've ever handled. He had pads[2] of leather, and sinews of
steel. He was surely shy on beauty, though."

[Footnote 2: Feet.]

"Of course," her voice dropping to almost a whisper, "I would not admit
this anywhere but right here, in the privacy of the Kennel, and I
wouldn't say it here if the dogs could understand; but when it comes to
actual good looks, 'Scotty,'" the Woman confessed, "we are really not in
it with Bobby Brown's big, imposing Loping Malamutes, or Captain
Crimin's cunning little Siberians, with their pointed noses, prick ears,
and fluffy tails curled up over their backs like plumes."

"Yes, they do make a most attractive team," admitted Allan justly; "and
they're mighty good dogs too. But somehow they seem to lack the pride
and responsiveness that I find in those with bird-dog ancestry. Of
course each man prefers his own type, the one he has deli