totem-pole of Alaskan fame. This exploit was particularly gratifying to
the three men; for they stood in need of the outfit which it furnished,
and were enabled to make a long-desired trip into the virgin East,
where miners had not yet appeared. It was brought about by a
conversation in the Eldorado Saloon, in which men waxed boastful of
their favorite dogs. Buck, because of his record, was the target for
these men, and Thornton was driven stoutly to defend him. At the end of
half an hour one man stated that his dog could start a sled with five
hundred pounds and walk off with it; a second bragged six hundred for
his dog; and a third, seven hundred.
Pooh! pooh! said John Thornton; Buck can start a thousand pounds.
And break it out? and walk off with it for a hundred yards? demanded
Matthewson, a Bonanza King, he of the seven hundred vaunt.
And break it out, and walk off with it for a hundred yards, John
Thornton said coolly.
Well, Matthewson said, slowly and deliberately, so that all could
hear, I ve got a thousand dollars that says he can t. And there it
is. So saying, he slammed a sack of gold dust of the size of a bologna
sausage down upon the bar.
Nobody spoke. Thornton s bluff, if bluff it was, had been called. He
could feel a flush of warm blood creeping up his face. His tongue had
tricked him. He did not know whether Buck could start a thousand
pounds. Half a ton! The enormousness of it appalled him. He had great
faith in Buck s strength and had often thought him capable of starting
such a load; but never, as now, had he faced the possibility of it, the
eyes of a dozen men fixed upon him, silent and waiting. Further, he had
no thousand dollars; nor had Hans or Pete.
I ve got a sled standing outside now, with twenty fiftypound sacks of
flour on it, Matthewson went on with brutal directness; so don t let
that hinder you.
Thornton did not reply. He did not know what to say. He glanced from
face to face in the absent way of a man who has lost the power of
thought and is seeking somewhere to find the thing that will start it
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