第18章 THE TOIL OF TRACE AND TRAIL(2)

But Mercedes interfered, crying, "Oh, Hal, you mustn't," as she caught hold of the whip and wrenched it from him."The poor dears! Now you must promise you won't be harsh with them for the rest of the trip, or I won't go a step.""Precious lot you know about dogs," her brother sneered, "and I wish you'd leave me alone.They're lazy, I tell you, and you've got to whip them to get anything out of them.That's their way.You ask anyone.Ask one of those men."Mercedes looked at them imploringly, untold repugnances at sight of pain written in her pretty face.

"They're weak as water, if you want to know," came the reply from one of the men."Plum tuckered out, that's what's the matter.They need a rest.""Rest be blanked," said Hal, with his beardless lips; and Mercedes said, "Oh!" in pain and sorrow at the oath.

But she was a clannish creature, and rushed at once to the defense of her brother."Never mind that man," she said pointedly."You're driving our dogs and you do what you think best with them."Again Hal's whip fell upon the dogs.They threw themselves against the breastbands, dug their feet into the packed snow, got down low to it, and put forth all their strength.The sled held as though it were an anchor.

After two efforts, they stood still, panting.The whip was whistling savagely, when once more Mercedes interfered.She dropped on her knees before Buck, with tears in her eyes, and put her arms around his neck.

"You poor, poor dears," she cried sympathetically, "why don't you pull hard? Then you wouldn't be whipped." Buck did not like her, but he was feeling too miserable to resist her, taking it as a part of the day's miserable work.

One of the onlookers, who had been clenching his teeth to suppress hot speech, now spoke up:

"It's not that I care a whoop what becomes of you, but for the dogs'

sakes I just want to tell you, you can help them a mighty lot by breaking out that sled.The runners are froze fast.Throw your weight against the gee-pole, right and left, and break it out."A third time the attempt was made, but this time, following the advice, Hal broke out the runners which had been frozen to the snow.The overloaded and unwieldy sled forged ahead, Buck and his mates struggling frantically under the rain of blows.A hundred yards ahead the path turned and sloped steeply into the main street.It would have required an experienced man to keep the top-heavy sled upright, and Hal was not such a man.As they swung on the turn the sled went over, spilling half its load through the loose lashings.The dogs never stopped.The lightened sled bounded on its side behind them.They were angry because of the ill treatment they had received and the unjust load.Buck was raging.He broke into a run, the team following his lead.Hal cried, "Whoa! Whoa!" But they gave no heed.

He tripped and was pulled off his feet.The capsized sled ground over him, and the dogs dashed on up the street, adding to the gaiety of Skaguay as they scattered the remainder of the outfit along its chief thoroughfare.

Kind-hearted citizens caught the dogs and gathered up the scattered belongings.Also, they gave advice.Half the load and twice the dogs, if they ever expected to reach Dawson, was what was said.Hal and his sister and brother-in-law listened unwillingly, pitched tent, and overhauled the outfit.Canned goods were turned out that made men laugh, for canned goods on the Long Trail is a thing to dream about."Blankets for a hotel," quoth one of the men who laughed and helped."Half as many is too much; get rid of them.Throw away that tent, and all those dishes--who's going to wash them, anyway? Good Lord, do you think you're traveling on a Pullman?"And so it went, the inexorable elimination of the superfluous.Mercedes cried when her clothes-bags were dumped on the ground and article after article was thrown out.She cried in general, and she cried in particular over each discarded thing.She clasped hands about knees, rocking back and forth broken-heartedly.She averred she would not go an inch, not for a dozen Charleses.She appealed to everybody and to everything, finally wiping her eyes and proceeding to cast out even articles of apparel that were imperative necessaries.And in her zeal, when she had finished with her own, she attacked the belongings of her men and went through them like a tornado.

This accomplished, the outfit, though cut in half, was still a formidable bulk.Charles and Hal went out in the evening and bought six Outside dogs.

They, added to the six of the original team, and Teek and Koona, the huskies obtained at the Rink Rapids on the record trip, brought the team up to fourteen.But the Outside dogs, though practically broken in since their landing, did not amount to much.Three were short-haired pointers, one was a Newfoundland, and the other two were mongrels of indeterminate breed.

They did not seem to know anything, these newcomers.Buck and his comrades looked upon them with disgust, and though he speedily taught them their places and what not to do, he could not teach them what to do.They did not take kindly to trace and trail.With the exception of the two mongrels, they were bewildered and spirit-broken by the strange savage environment in which they found themselves and by the ill treatment they had received.

The two mongrels were without spirit at all; bones were the only things breakable about them.