some one of these days.
You-all just wait till the big strike up river. Then you and me'll
take the roof off and sit in a game that'll be full man's size. Is it
a go?"

They shook hands.

"Of course he'll make it," Kearns whispered in Bettles' ear. "And
there's five hundred Daylight's back in sixty days," he added aloud.

Billy Rawlins closed with the wager, and Bettles hugged Kearns
ecstatically.

"By Yupiter, I ban take that bet," Olaf Henderson said, dragging
Daylight away from Bettles and Kearns.

"Winner pays!" Daylight shouted, closing the wager.

"And I'm sure going to win, and sixty days is a long time between
drinks, so I pay now. Name your brand, you hoochinoos! Name your
brand!"

Bettles, a glass of whiskey in hand, climbed back on his chair, and
swaying back and forth, sang the one song he knew:--

"O, it's Henry Ward Beecher
And Sunday-school teachers
All sing of the sassafras-root;
But you bet all the same,
If it had its right name
It's the juice of the forbidden fruit."

The crowd roared out the chorus:--

"But you bet all the same
If it had its right name
It's the juice of the forbidden fruit."

Somebody opened the outer door. A vague gray light filtered in.

"Burning daylight, burning daylight," some one called warningly.

Daylight paused for nothing, heading for the door and pulling down his
ear-flaps. Kama stood outside by the sled, a long, narrow affair,
sixteen inches wide and seven and a half feet in length, its slatted
bottom raised six inches above the steel-shod runners. On it, lashed
with thongs of moose-hide, were the light canvas bags that contained
the mail, and the food and gear for dogs and men. In front of it, in a
single line, lay curled five frost-rimed dogs. They were huskies,
matched in size and color, all unusually large and all gray. From
their cruel jaws to their bushy tails they were as like as peas in
their likeness to timber-wolves. Wolves they were, domesticated, it
was true, but wolves in appearance and in all their characteristics.
On top the sled load, thrust under the lashings and ready for immediate
use, were two pairs of snowshoes.

Bettles pointed to a robe of Arctic hare skins, the end of which showed
in the mouth of a bag.

"That's his bed," he said. "Six pounds of rabbit skins. Warmest thing
he ever slept under, but I'm damned if it could keep me warm, and I can
go some myself. Daylight's a hell-fire fur