releasing slowly, half-reluctantly. It was the answer, in terms, not of
speech, but of love. Thornton stepped well back.
Now, Buck, he said.
Buck tightened the traces, then slacked them for a matter of several
inches. It was the way he had learned.
Gee! Thornton s voice rang out, sharp in the tense silence.
Buck swung to the right, ending the movement in a plunge that took up
the slack and with a sudden jerk arrested his one hundred and fifty
pounds. The load quivered, and from under the runners arose a crisp
crackling.
Haw! Thornton commanded.
Buck duplicated the man uvre, this time to the left. The crackling
turned into a snapping, the sled pivoting and the runners slipping and
grating several inches to the side. The sled was broken out. Men were
holding their breaths, intensely unconscious of the fact.
Now, MUSH!
Thornton s command cracked out like a pistol-shot. Buck threw himself
forward, tightening the traces with a jarring lunge. His whole body was
gathered compactly together in the tremendous effort, the muscles
writhing and knotting like live things under the silky fur. His great
chest was low to the ground, his head forward and down, while his feet
were flying like mad, the claws scarring the hard-packed snow in
parallel grooves. The sled swayed and trembled, half-started forward.
One of his feet slipped, and one man groaned aloud. Then the sled
lurched ahead in what appeared a rapid succession of jerks, though it
never really came to a dead stop again...half an inch...an inch... two
inches... The jerks perceptibly diminished; as the sled gained
momentum, he caught them up, till it was moving steadily along.
Men gasped and began to breathe again, unaware that for a moment they
had ceased to breathe. Thornton was running behind, encouraging Buck
with short, cheery words. The distance had been measured off, and as he
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