“I expect Horse Face Joe come up along with the rest,” he mused as he washed and dried his dishes, “He sure is a doleful bird, but he can make the piano talk. Reminds a fellow of--I don’t know--sort of just lifts him up an’ out of it all. From about the fourth drink on, he’s a wonder. It’s a gift--music like he makes is. When he’s feelin’ right he can just play on an’ on, makin’ it up as he goes, an’ all of it’s better than anything that’s be’n wrote down--somehow it gets right to a man.” He apportioned the dog food into seven separate dishes and carried them out the door, then he returned and lighted his pipe. “Noticed the tea was gettin’ a little low, an’ another hundred of flour wouldn’t hurt. She was two dollars a pound when I come in, chances are she’ll go an ounce to the pound by spring.” Ensued a silence during which MacShane’s pipe went out. “That mitten I burnt the end of ain’t goin’ to last long either. Horse Face would be just about hittin’ his gait by now.” He stepped to the door and glanced toward the mouth of his shaft where the red glow proclaimed that it was time to throw on more wood. Closing the door he put on cap and mittens, but instead of going to the shaft he pulled off his mittens, filled his pipe and sat down. “They’re sayin’ that this is the last big strike,” he mused, “That when this peters out there won’t be any more poor man’s gold--but hell! There’s always another strike. There always has be’n, an’ there always will be.” He jerked the cap from his head and tossed it onto his bunk. “To hell with the fire! I’ll pull in the mornin’. Got to get that tea, an’ flour, an’ another pair of mittens. You can’t trust burnt moosehide.” He fired up the stove and put on another batch of dog food. “I’ll hit the trail early tomorrow, an’ I’ll burn her up!” While the dog food cooked, MacShane sat and stoked the fire and thought. Most men would have passed the time by reading, but not Burr MacShane. He preferred to think, to envision long trails--trails he had mushed alone with his dogs, and trails no man had ever mushed.