“Oh, come now, Miss. I know all about dogs. Anyone’ll tell you that. It ain’t no use gettin’ sore at me.” He stepped a little closer. “Mebbe--it might be such a thing, we could kind of work up a deal, an’ go pardners. I make plenty money. Why, I lose fifteen thousan’ on that dog race today, an’ you don’t hear me kickin’, do you? What’s fifteen thousan’, when they’s plenty more where that come from? What d’you say? What’s on Myrtle? She’s worked out an’ dead. Throw in with me an’ we’ll go where we kin have some fun--down on the Yukon, or over to Nome, that’s where the bright lights is.” As the words poured from the man’s lips he gained confidence. The ingratiating tone gave place to something of the gruff bluster that had become habitual with him. His eyes, quick to note the physical beauty of the girl, lighted as he talked, with a bestial gleam of lust. The girl’s eyes had returned to her book. Dalzene waited for her to speak. She turned a page. “Well, what d’you say?” His voice had regained its accustomed rasp. “If yer a-goin’ with me, we got to be mushin’. You think it over while I drag my pack out of my room. I’m hittin’ the trail right now.” The man disappeared abruptly through a door and a few moments later reappeared, dragging a bulging pack sack and a bed roll. Before the outer door he released his burden and straightened. “Goin’?” he rasped. The girl’s eyes were still upon the open page. It was as though she had not heard. Only for an instant the man stood silent, and in that instant a mighty rage surged up within him. He took one swift step forward and fixed her with blazing eyes: “Yer just like the others! Won’t have nothin’ to do with Jake Dalzene! Well, the time’ll come when you will talk to him--an’ talk pretty! Yer safe enough up here where yer friends is. But you ain’t seen the last of me yet! You can’t rob me out of no fifteen thousan’ an’ git away with it. Time’ll come when you’ll learn that Jake Dalzene don’t never fergit!” Without looking up, Lou Gordon turned another page, and muttering to himself, Dalzene jerked the outer door open and dragged his belongings onto the hard-packed snow. Passing around to the rear of the roadhouse where his dogs were chained to their allotted kennels he paused suddenly. All about him the snow was lighted by the reflection of a brilliant wavering aurora, and as he looked the sacking over the door of one of the kennels was thrust aside, and Skookum stepped out onto the snow and walking to the end of his chain, eyed the motionless man in silence. Dalzene’s eyes glittered as they took in the lines of the superb brute; the rangy legs, the long powerful body, and the mighty shoulders. Fascinated he stepped closer, staring into the yellow eyes that glowed like live coals. Cautiously his mittened hand reached out as if to caress the broad head, and instantly it was jerked back as the great silent brute crouched with bared teeth.