“Just the same, I was going to try. My team is worth thousands of dollars, too. I could have won their Sweepstakes! But it’s no use to think of it, now. With Skookum gone, they’re no better than a lot of outfits. Skookum was the dog that made the whole team. With Skookum in the lead every dog in the team was worth three times as much as he is with any other leader. Why, dad, those dogs could just fly! I never let them do their best--even when I made the fifty miles in seven hours and forty minutes, I let them take their time. They were the best team in the world!” Old Man Gordon smiled: “There, there, lass. Ye’ve worked wi’ them dogs so much ye’ve got the one idea in ye’re head. Ye should not let ye’re thoughts run to one idea. Ye should take a broad view of things----” “One idea!” cried the girl, “Why, dad, can’t you see that you are the one who has let one idea creep in and absorb your whole life? You can’t think or talk about anything but your old boiler.” “But that’s different. It’s a money makin’ scheme--a business proposition.” “And, so is the Alaska Sweepstakes a business proposition! Don’t you know that the prize for that race runs anywhere from three to ten thousand dollars? And not only that, but think of the money it would mean to me in the price of the puppies I could sell! Why, dad, if I could win that race, you could order your boiler without waiting to clean up your dump--could have it delivered at Bettles on the first steamboat this summer.” “Ye don’t tell me! Are ye sure there’s so much money put up on a dog race? An’ if we’d win it, would ye let me have the thousand dollars I’m still lackin’ fer the b’iler?” “Why, of course I would, dad! But, it’s no use to think about it, now. Skookum’s gone. And without Skookum, we couldn’t possibly win.” “Take heart, lass,” encouraged the old man, “The boys’ll find him. An’ when is this big race comin’ off?” “In April, about the tenth or twelfth. But it’s about six hundred miles to Nome. They’ve got to find Skookum and get back here by the middle of February. Because if we go I want to start by the eighteenth. I’ve figured it all out. If we start the eighteenth of February we can make Nome by the first of April, and that will give me time to take the dogs over the course and rest them up for the big race.” “But, lass, forty days for six hundred miles is allowin’ a lot of time. We could make it in a month.” “Yes, we could make it. But I want to take it easy. If we allow forty days, we only have to average fifteen miles a day. That won’t crowd the dogs nor wear them out. It will just keep them in fine condition.” “Do ye know the way? Is there any trail?”