Dave was wheeler or sled dog, pulling in front of him was Buck, then came
Sol-leks; the rest of the team was strung out ahead, single file, to the
leader, which position was filled by Spitz.
Buck had been purposely placed between Dave and Sol-leks so that he might
receive instruction. Apt scholar that he was, they were equally apt teachers,
never allowing him to linger long in error, and enforcing their teaching with
their sharp teeth. Dave was fair and very wise. He never nipped Buck without
cause, and he never failed to nip him when he stood in need of it. As
Francois's whip backed him up, Buck found it to be cheaper to mend his ways
than to retaliate. Once, during a brief halt, when he got tangled in the
traces and delayed the start, both Dave and Sol-leks flew at him and
administered a sound trouncing. The resulting tangle was even worse, but Buck
took good care to keep the traces clear thereafter; and ere the day was done,
so well had he mastered his work, his mates about ceased nagging him.
Francois's whip snapped less frequently, and Perrault even honored Buck by
lifting up his feet and carefully examining them.
It was a hard day's run, up the canon, through Sheep Camp, past the Scales and
the timber line, across glaciers and snowdrifts hundreds of feet deep, and
over the great Chilkoot Divide, which stands between the salt water and the
fresh and guards forbiddingly the sad and lonely North. They made good time
down the chain of lakes which fills the craters of extinct volcanoes, and late
that night pulled into the huge camp at the head of Lake Bennett, where
thousands of goldseekers were building boats against the breakup of the ice in
the spring. Buck made his hole in the snow and slept the sleep of the
exhausted just, but all too early was routed out in the cold darkness and
harnessed with his mates to the sled.
That day they made forty miles, the trail being packed; but the next day, and
for many days to follow, they broke their own trail, worked harder, and made
poorer time. As a rule, Perrault travelled ahead of the team, packing the snow
with webbed shoes to make it easier for them. Francois, guiding the sled at
the gee-pole, sometimes exchanged places with him but not often. Perrault was
in a hurry, and he prided himself on his knowledge of ice, which knowledge was
indispensable, for the fall ice was very thin, and where there was swift
water, there was no ice at all.