Quick to realize their superiority, the girl concentrated on the two native breeds of dogs, the malamutes and the huskies. And the pride of her stud was a great upstanding brute of a dog called Skookum, whose mother a pure strain husky, she had mated with an old, but magnificently muscled husky she had bought cheap in Nolan, because his temper had soured with age until his owner feared to handle him. Later she shot him when in a fume of wolfish ferocity he ran amuck and killed two of his own pups. Upon Skookum, the sole survivor of the litter, the girl lavished a world of affection, and a wealth of patient training. For, from the first she had seen in the tawny, amber eyed puppy the making of a great dog, inheriting as he had the superb physical build of his father, and it is true, his father’s wolfish temper, but blended with it the staunch loyalty and sagacity of his mother who was a famous trail dog on the Koyukuk. The fame of Lou Gordon as a breeder of dogs had traveled the length of the river. She drove a ten dog team now, five malamutes and five huskies, and each dog in the team had been carefully selected from the pick of her kennels. Of this team Skookum was the leader, and few indeed were the trail tricks his mistress had not taught him. On the narrow trails of the Koyukuk the tandem rig was used almost exclusively, and following the leader came the other four huskies, and behind them the five malamutes. Thus, the longer geared huskies broke trail for the shorter legged malamutes which in turn compensated by bearing the brunt of the pull. As, among all her dogs, Skookum was the girl’s favorite, so was he her constant companion, he alone being allowed to run at large. Although not an inherent fighter like the malamute, the husky breed develops now and then a wonderful fighter. Skookum was such a dog, his longer legs and heavier body giving him a decided advantage over any malamute, and added to this physical advantage was the sagacious cunning of his generalship. Before he was two years old he had fought his way to the leadership of the team, displacing old Kamik, a crafty and incorrigible fighter, and an equally incorrigible thief. Lou Gordon knew dogs. She had picked Skookum for a leader from tiniest puppyhood, and to that end she bent all her energy upon his training. She talked to him as she would have talked to a human companion, and it was her fancy that he understood every word she spoke. While in no sense a demonstrative dog, Skookum had nothing of the supreme indifference of the malamute. His smouldering yellow eyes followed her every movement, and by little signs and quirks of expression, he gave evidence of understanding. A raised eyebrow, a single wag of the tail, a pricking of the mobile ears, and on rare occasions, a lick of the long red tongue upon her face or hand, told the girl as plainly as words what was passing in the great brute’s mind.