tart from Nome in clear weather, "with a moon in her second quarter," and
that stop at the deserted mine, when his dogs--powerful huskies, part
wolf, since they were bred in the Seward Peninsula--"were nearly done
for." Long and inevitable periods of dark there had been; perils of white
blizzard, of black frost. They had run familiarly the whole gamut of
hardship and danger he himself must have faced single-handed; and while
full measure was accorded Weatherbee, the greater tribute passed silently,
unsought, to the man who had traveled so far and so fast to rescue him.

"It ought to have been me," exclaimed Lucky Banks at last in his high
treble. "I was just down in the Iditarod country, less than three hundred
miles. I ought to have run up once in awhile to see how he was getting
along. But I never thought of Dave's needing help himself, and nobody told
me he was around. I'd ought to have kept track of him, though; it was up
to me. But go on, Hollis; go on. I bet you made up that day you lost at
the mine. My, yes, I bet you broke the record hitting that fifty-mile
camp."

Tisdale nodded, and for an instant the humor played lightly at the corners
of his eyes. "It took me just seven hours with an up-grade the last twenty
miles. You see, I had Weatherbee to break trail. He rested a night at the
camp and lost about three hours more, while they hunted a missing husky to
make up his team. Still he pushed out with nearly eighteen hours start and
four fresh dogs, with Tyee pulling a strong lead; while I wasn't able to
replace even one of mine that had gone lame. I had to leave him there, and
before I reached the summit of Rainy Pass, I was carrying his mate on my
sled. But I had a sun then,--the days were lengthening fast into May,--and
by cutting my stops short I managed to hold my own to the divide. After
that I gained. Finally, one morning, I came to a rough place where his
outfit had upset, and I saw his dogs were giving him trouble. There were
blood stains all around on the snow. It looked like the pack had broken
open, and the huskies had tried to get at the dried salmon. Tyee must have
fought them off until Weatherbee was able to master them. At the end of
the next day I reached a miners' cabin where he had spent the night, and
the man who had helped him unhitch told me he had had to remind him to
feed his dogs. He had seemed all right, only dead tired; but he had gone
to bed early and, neglecting to leave a call, had sl