t fifty below, before they were
permitted to pull out. At the last moment Joy Molineau dashed in among
them on her sled. She drew Lon McFane, who had charge of Harrington's
team, to one side, and hardly had the first words left her lips when it
was noticed that his lower jaw dropped with a celerity and emphasis
suggestive of great things. He unhitched Wolf Fang from her sled, put
him at the head of Harrington's team, and mushed the string of animals
into the Yukon trail.

"Poor Louis Savoy!" men said; but Joy Molineau flashed her black eyes
defiantly and drove back to her father's cabin.

* * * * *

Midnight drew near on Olaf Nelson's claim. A few hundred fur-clad men
had preferred sixty below and the jumping, to the inducements of warm
cabins and comfortable bunks. Several score of them had their notices
prepared for posting and their dogs at hand. A bunch of Captain
Constantine's mounted police had been ordered on duty that fair play
might rule. The command had gone forth that no man should place a stake
till the last second of the day had ticked itself into the past. In the
northland such commands are equal to Jehovah's in the matter of potency;
the dum-dum as rapid and effective as the thunderbolt. It was clear and
cold. The aurora borealis painted palpitating color revels on the sky.
Rosy waves of cold brilliancy swept across the zenith, while great
coruscating bars of greenish white blotted out the stars, or a Titan's
hand reared mighty arches above the Pole. And at this mighty display the
wolf-dogs howled as had their ancestors of old time.

A bearskin-coated policeman stepped prominently to the fore, watch in
hand. Men hurried among the dogs, rousing them to their feet, untangling
their traces, straightening them out. The entries came to the mark,
firmly gripping stakes and notices. They had gone over the boundaries of
the claim so often that they could now have done it blindfolded. The
policeman raised his hand. Casting off their superfluous furs and
blankets, and with a final cinching of belts, they came to attention.

"Time!"

Sixty pairs of hands unmitted; as many pairs of moccasins gripped hard
upon the snow.

"Go!"

They shot across the wide expanse, round the four sides, sticking notices
at every corner, and down the middle where the two centre stakes were to
be planted. Then they sprang for the sleds on the frozen bed of the
creek. An anarchy of sound and motion broke out. Sl