into place, each as his name was called, standing quietly until all
were in position, and the traces were snapped to the tow-line; and then,
as the signal was given, to dart ahead with the ease and precision of
machinery started by electricity. Pete's sled was piled high with
freight and luggage, and astride of this was the Big Man, also in furs.

It was a cloudless day in January--a marvelous combination of white and
blue. Snowy plains rose almost imperceptibly into softly curved hills,
and ended in rugged mountains that were outlined in sharp, silvery
peaks against the dazzling sky.

The air was crisp and keen, the jingle of the sled-bells merry, and
Baldy even forgot, in the very joy of living, and in the nearness of
Ben, that Jemima was his team-mate.

[Illustration: THE AIR WAS CRISP AND
KEEN]

They could faintly hear Pete's voice giving strange directions to his
dogs; for Pete was Captain of a coasting schooner in summer, and
freighted with a dog team in winter, and used the same terms in both
occupations. He steered his ship "Gee" and "Haw," admonished his dogs
"not to get tangled up in their riggin'," and cautioned them against
"runnin' afoul of other craft." Of course no well raised dog could be
expected to know that his harness was "riggin'," nor that a sled could
possibly come under the head of "craft "; and he would be quite at a
loss to grasp Pete's meaning generally. But as Pete's team never obeyed
anyway, except by the exercise of sheer bodily force, it made but small
difference how he spoke to them.

On they came, "passenger" and "cargo" safely aboard, some distance
behind the Racers, who passed before long the famous Paystreak Diggings,
which had yielded their many millions, and were soon beyond the groups
of miners' cabins on the Third Beach Line.

It was a very different Baldy--this Baldy of Nome--from the one who had
so often in the days gone by traveled the Golconda Trail with his
friend, the boy. The days when he was hungry and foot-sore and
heart-sick, and now--Baldy straightened up proudly, and nearly pulled
Jemima off her feet in his desire to render good service for favors
received. While Ben's eyes sparkled as he glanced at the dog in his
responsible position of right wheeler in the Allan and Darling Team of
Racers.

There the way led up a gentle slope, then down to the bed of Nome River,
where they kept on the ice for several miles. It was here that Jemima's
unfitness for work with e