d so high
did they bid, that dogs brought stiffer prices than ever before in the
annals of the country. And, as it chanced, this scramble for dogs turned
the public eye still more searchingly upon Joy Molineau. Not only was
she the cause of it all, but she possessed the finest sled-dog from
Chilkoot to Bering Sea. As wheel or leader, Wolf Fang had no equal. The
man whose sled he led down the last stretch was bound to win. There
could be no doubt of it. But the community had an innate sense of the
fitness of things, and not once was Joy vexed by overtures for his use.
And the factions drew consolation from the fact that if one man did not
profit by him, neither should the other.

However, since man, in the individual or in the aggregate, has been so
fashioned that he goes through life blissfully obtuse to the deeper
subtleties of his womankind, so the men of Forty Mile failed to divine
the inner deviltry of Joy Molineau. They confessed, afterward, that they
had failed to appreciate this dark-eyed daughter of the aurora, whose
father had traded furs in the country before ever they dreamed of
invading it, and who had herself first opened eyes on the scintillant
northern lights. Nay, accident of birth had not rendered her less the
woman, nor had it limited her woman's understanding of men. They knew
she played with them, but they did not know the wisdom of her play, its
deepness and its deftness. They failed to see more than the exposed
card, so that to the very last Forty Mile was in a state of pleasant
obfuscation, and it was not until she cast her final trump that it came
to reckon up the score.

Early in the week the camp turned out to start Jack Harrington and Louis
Savoy on their way. They had taken a shrewd margin of time, for it was
their wish to arrive at Olaf Nelson's claim some days previous to the
expiration of its immunity, that they might rest themselves, and their
dogs be fresh for the first relay. On the way up they found the men of
Dawson already stationing spare dog teams along the trail, and it was
manifest that little expense had been spared in view of the millions at
stake.

A couple of days after the departure of their champions, Forty Mile began
sending up their relays,--first to the seventy-five station, then to the
fifty, and last to the twenty-five. The teams for the last stretch were
magnificent, and so equally matched that the camp discussed their
relative merits for a full hour a