Back at Nolan the men of the Koyukuk had a hard time to dissuade Lou Gordon from accompanying the men who took Dalzene’s trail. Beside herself with grief and rage, the girl vowed she would trail the thief to the ends of the earth, and would shoot him if necessary to recover the great dog that was the pride of her heart. Better council prevailed, however, and she consented to let the men take the trail, with the proviso that in case they should return without the dog, or evidence that he was dead, she herself would strike straight for the Yukon and would never return until she had found Skookum. It was with a heavy heart that two days later, she and her father, whose knee had recovered sufficiently to stand the trail, loaded their sled with provisions, and with the malamute, Kog, in the lead traces, headed back for Myrtle. “Ye’re a fine lass, my daughter, to be givin’ the old man the half of ye’re winnin’s,” said Gordon, when they were once more back in their own cabin on Myrtle, as he added the contents of a gold sack to his precious “b’iler” fund, “The way it is now, the dump won’t have to show nothin’ big to have enough to set that b’iler on the claim. An’ then, lass, ye’ll see! I’ll show ’em! I’ll begin takin’ out the dust so fast I’ll have ’em all back on Myrtle! Why, lass, it stands to reason now, don’t it, that wi’ cuttin’ wood takin’ more’n half the time fer wood thawin’, if ye’d use a b’iler an’ do ye’re thawin’ wi’ steam----” “Yes, yes, dad. I know. We’ve been all over the whole thing thousands of times before. But, oh, if Skookum were only here! I hope they catch that horrible Dalzene! I hope they kill him!” “Tush, tush! Lass, who be ye to be pratin’ of killin’! ‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.’ ’Tis the word of the Gude Book, itself. Have patience, lass, an’ I make no doubt, Enright an’ Rim Rock, an’ Johnny Atline will find ye’re dog for ye. But, if they don’t, ye can break in another leader.” “Another leader!” cried the girl, “Just as if leaders like Skookum grew on trees. I tell you there never was a leader like Skookum, and there never will be! Why, do you know what I was going to do? I was going to Nome and enter my team in the Alaska Sweepstakes this spring!” “Nome! Ye were thinkin’ of goin’ to Nome! An’ run the Alaska Sweepstakes! What talk is this? Why, lass, the teams that run the Sweepstakes is worth thousands of dollars. Some of them is owned by millionaires, an’ what chance would ye’re dogs have against the likes of them?”