A half-hour later the woman, Kate, answered a gentle knock on the door. Lou Gordon recognized the voice of the Stranger asking in low tones how she fared. A mighty rage surged up within her and summoning all her strength, she raised herself to her elbow and addressed him in faltering tones: “Your scheme didn’t work! It almost did--but not quite. I see it all, now! When you and Dalzene found out I wouldn’t let you drive and lose the race for me, you tried to poison me, after taking care that poor old dad was out of the way! But you failed! I’ll drive that race tomorrow--and I’ll win! All your scheming won’t stop me! You’ve made it harder--that’s all!” and with a sob, she fell exhausted onto her pillow. Beyond the door MacShane listened to the accusations in horror. As the faltering voice stilled, he was about to answer, but with fingers to her lips, Kate motioned for silence. “She’s kind of out of her head,” she whispered, and without a word, MacShane made his way to the street, and with bowed head, hunted up the doctor, and later the dog keeper, with whom he held long discourse. CHAPTER XXIII “I DRIVE THOSE DOGS!” In the early days of the lower Yukon, the name of Bill Ames had been a name to conjure with. Dog train freighter in winter, and poling boat freighter in summer, he had been no small factor in the development of the country. Then came the misstep that plunged him into water with the temperature at fifty below zero, a misadventure that cost him a foot and took him forever off the trail. For years thereafter he worked at various jobs along the river, until the big stampede found him a passenger on one of the first boats that landed at Nome. There, as upon the Yukon, he worked at odd jobs until his knowledge of dogs attracted the attention of the proprietor of Nome’s principal hotel, who engaged him to look after the dog teams of his guests. Unlike most of the old timers on the Yukon, Bill Ames had married a white woman, and with her he lived in a log house that formed one side of the dog corral at the rear of the hotel.