Samuel Alexander White

“ A wild moment and a bitter, brutal moment, a moment to break a man’s spirit under odds and lose him the race.
Yet Sark fought madly back at the three, inflicting much punishment and receiving more, and every successive moment he stood the strain he allowed Bassett to push his dogs up closer and closer upon Casino’s leading outfit. So close he pushed them that the lead-dog got his nose over the tail of the sled and sank his fangs in sweet revenge in Gunboat’s calves. Gunboat had to scramble back and sit upon his calves and turn all his fighting power against the enraged beast. ”

“ The rush was close on their heels because, on account of the lesser distance to travel, men had been more prone to take a chance even in the face of heavier odds upon the midway and lower claims of the creek. The stampede was driving down like a great wedge, thick at the head and petering out to single teams in the far upper reaches of Montana.
It was twenty-odd miles from Bassett’s claim on Montana to the junction of Indian River and the Yukon, and eighteen more to Dawson itself, a continuous run of approxmately forty miles. ”

“ He, with Gunboat Kane on the tail of his sled, held the lead directly in front of Bassett’s outfit. The two remaining teams he waved into position on the partners’ flanks.
Thus were Tom and Eric pocketed as a good horse is pocketed in a race by rival jockeys. Drive fast or drive slow, they could not worm out. The three held them as in a vise, and whether they kept the main trail or deviated through the island channels, whether they forged straight on or corkscrewed about, chose smooth ice or roughed it out among the jams, Casino’s sled with the other two stuck with them. ”

“ Mebbe we kin fight ’em off. Your weight don’t make a smatter of difference to this team. If they kin’t win with you, they sure kin’t win without you. Here, crawl up and drive. The huskies is used to me now. A new voice sometimes works wonders.”
At Sark’s call the MacKenzie Rivers, though ostensibly on their last legs, bucked up and let out another link. Yet Bassett, looking back, saw that Casino’s fresh team now in full stride was rapidly overhauling them. Behind Casino, Tom glimpsed the main body of the stampede, sweeping in solid array, leathering demoniacally for the finish. ”

“ Thar’s no evidence to prove we staked. We’ll be left out in the frost with the cabin door shut and our feet in a waterhole. Fawcett, surely to northern gods, you have some better medicine than that?”
“What does the crowd think about it?” demanded the Commissioner impartially.
“Sark said it,” vociferated the crowd. “We all want to share and share alike. Not a man of us wants to shove anybody else out, and not a man of us wants to be shoved out by anybody else. What’s your other plan?”
“The other plan,” announced Fawcett, with an eloquent sweep of his arm, “is to relocate Montana Creek!” ”

“ Therefore Casino goes foot-loose and free. There can’t be anything done about him. Yet there can be something done about the creek. There are two ways out of the muddle. Here’s one of them:
“A start can be made at the mouth and my true measurements of the base-lines used to give each man a full five-hundred-foot claim. That’ll shift each man in rotation a piece up-creek. It won’t affect Jess Tolume’s claim because the fifteen four-hundred-foot claims below him make just twelve five-hundred-foot ones, and the shift’ll go round him and work on above just the same. ”

“ When trouble came, a running-mate to ward off collisions and help hail the dogs through ticklish spots was a great asset, far more than counterbalancing the handicap of his added weight upon the sledge at times. ”

“ Tom Bassett and Eric Sark, I presume there’s no balk coming from you now?”
“No,” answered Sark promptly, “there isn’t. It puts us under heavy odds. You see Casino’ll concentrate certain of his gang on that promising claim of ours. We’ll be under odds of two or three or four to one, but that doesn’t matter. We don’t want to block the general move for good. We’re dead game sports and we accept those heavy odds. Go on with your relocation.”
“All right, Eric. On we go. To prevent outsiders squeezing in on this the plan’ll have to be carried out at once. ”

“ I’ve seen a little dog feed at the right moment win many a race, and I’m jist goin’ to be adamant and bind on this bundle.”
“All right,” Sark gave in, viciously jerking tight the last strand of the gee-pole’s lashing, “you can have your way. It always takes days and weeks to change your mind, and I’m sure not going to try to do it in a few seconds. Get out onto the creek ice there with your stakes. ”

“ What’s more, on account of the five-hundred-foot length instead of four hundred, there’ll be a lot of men squeezed out at the top with no claims at all. To be sure the over-measured ground of Casino’s gang’ll accommodate some of these, but it won’t accommodate all by a thousand-yard shot.”
“I know it,” nodded Fawcett. “You’ve spotted the drawbacks of that plan. So many’ll lose ground altogether and so many’ll be on strange stakings, farther from the mouth than they were before!”
“And Eric and me’ll lose our claim altogether at that rate of goin’,” Tom Bassett protested. ”

“ All his preparations thus made, he took the team out on the creek ice and anchored it near where the lower center stake of Bassett’s original claim would be driven.
“Aren’t you going to take a chance yourself, Eric?” several men asked. “The creek, except Tolume’s claim, is wide open to every one.”
“No, I’m no game-hog,” replied Sark. “There are a bunch of stakers here now for every claim, and they were here this last trip before I was. I know when it’s good manners to stay out. I’m only running-mate with Bassett. He stakes our old ground.” ”

“ It looks wrong Fawcett. The hull creek looks wrong.”
“Well,” decided the Gold Commissioner, “there’s only one thing to do, and that’s to measure. Most of the boys know me, and they know Captain Constantine also. They’ll not object to us coming officially on to their claims.”
Fawcett produced a steel measuring-tape and, accompanied by Constantine, Sark, Bassett and the crowd of non-stakers who had gathered to await developments, sledded down to Montana’s mouth. ”

“ Unless Casino stakes and records himself, he doesn’t get a foot of ground. Every other man likewise. And I’ll just bar any more dog-teams from leaving this creek before the relocation’s under way.”
“Scrumptious!” cheered Bassett. “You sure are the real goods, Fawcett—the stiff man in the rigid place. All we want is a fair start. Pardner, you go over the harness and stuff, as he says, and see that the outfit’s all sound. I’ll jump into the spruce and cut a new gee-pole. The one on the sledge is cracked.”
Sark gave his whole outfit a thorough inspection. ”

“ But what about these overgrown ones? What happened your rope when it got up as far as Gunboat’s ground, Casino? Begin to stretch?”
“How in blazes do I know?” flared Casino. “The creek was stampeded in the dark of the mornin’, and you know blame well it’s easy to make mistakes in the dark and excitement and all. Don’t you go accusin’ me of under-measurin’ or over-measurin’ either. You ain’t got no grounds for them accusations, and if you persist, Commissioner or no Commissioner, I’ll sure have you up in Dawson for slander and defamation of character.”
“Like thunder you will!” laughed Fawcett. ”

“ It’s not easy to detect the differences with the naked eye, on account of the inequalities of the bank, but the tape betrays the trick. It’s been well done. The longest claims are on the roughest spots. ”

“ The reason of their bein’ in the lead of the bunch of stakers from our claim down to the mouth kin be seen in their manner of stakin’. They concentrated. They disposed of my competition. The competition of the three outsiders wasn’t fierce enough to count. So they jist ambled along in peace, and the six of ’em, unannoyed, staked as a single unanimous spirit. On the other fifteen claims below, things wasn’t unanimous. Thar every man was competin’ aginst every other man, fightin’, holdin’, delayin’ and bein’ delayed and lettin’ Casino and Company steal the lead. ”