A trade was easily effected and early in the morning Andrew pulled out with Skookum on his toboggan, and with orders to wait some eight or ten miles down river until Dalzene came up with him. Dalzene lost no time in transferring his load to the toboggan, and when Andrew pulled back up river with the sled, the hooch-runner pulled two dogs out of his team and toggling them, threw them onto the sled for, although it was a serious tax on the strength of the remaining dogs, he would leave the sign of a five dog team, whereas his pursuers knew that he was driving seven. This accomplished he struck into the hills with the toboggan, after following the windings of the creek some three miles, swung into a spruce thicket and made camp. That at least one dog outfit would start on his trail as soon as the men of Nolan discovered the loss of the girl’s lead dog, Dalzene had no doubt, and he calculated with remarkable accuracy that the pursuers would not pass the point where his trail swung from the river before noon of the following day. Therefore he went about the preparation of his camp deliberately. He even pitched his small A tent, cut boughs for a bed, and set up his stove. Come what may, he knew that this camp must be of several days’ duration. His dogs needed a thorough rest, for no man could afford to take chances in the wind-swept, almost treeless stretch of country between the South Fork of the Koyukuk and the head of Dall River, with played-out dogs. Having fed his team, Dalzene turned his attention to Skookum, and after locating the dog’s collar ring with his fingers, he carefully worked back the edge of the blanket and snapped on a strong chain. This done, he dragged the dog to a nearby tree to which he affixed the chain and unwound the babiche line. The moment the last turn of the line loosened, the great dog struggled to his feet, threw off the blanket and with a low growl of fury tried to leap at Dalzene’s throat. But weak from hunger and thirst, and with the muscles of his legs cramped and stiffened and lamed by upwards of forty hours in the tightly bound blanket, his effort was but a pitiful lunge that landed him head foremost in the snow at the man’s feet. For Dalzene had taken no chances, and stood just beyond reach of the chain.