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Conversation languished while they waited the issue. 'An old-timer; cares for his dogs and then himself, whispered Malemute Kid to Prince as they listened to the snapping jaws and the wolfish snarls and yelps of pain which proclaimed to their practiced ears that the stranger was beating back their dogs while he fed his own.
They cringed and cried under the blows, but refused to scatter till the last wretched bit had disappeared bones, hide, hair, everything. Malemute Kid went about his work, listening to Mason, who was back in Tennessee, delivering tangled discourses and wild exhortations to his brethren of other days.
Malemute Kid had caught Belden's eye, and he, scenting the wind, replied evasively, 'A right peart while back. 'Come, my man; speak up, the policeman admonished. 'Yeh seem to want him right smart. Hez he ben gittin' cantankerous down Dawson way?
It was a tragic moment, a pitiful incident of the trail a dying dog, two comrades in anger. Ruth glanced solicitously from man to man. But Malemute Kid restrained himself, though there was a world of reproach in his eyes, and, bending over the dog, cut the traces. No word was spoken.
Nor did the Indian girl faint or raise her voice in idle wailing, as might many of her white sisters. At his order, she threw her weight on the end of a quickly extemporized handspike, easing the pressure and listening to her husband's groans, while Malemute Kid attacked the tree with his ax.
Time and again the 'Greek Dancer' was thought to have been discovered, but each discovery brought panic to the betting ring and a frantic registering of new wagers by those who wished to hedge. Malemute Kid took an interest in the hunt, his advent being hailed uproariously by the revelers, who knew him to a man.
'A debt to pay five pounds of gold-grub stake Mal e mute Kid I y The exhausted head dropped upon the table; nor could Malemute Kid rouse it again. 'It's Ulysses, he said quietly, tossing the bag of dust on the table. 'Guess it's all day with Axel Gunderson and the woman. Come on, let's get him between the blankets.
It was as Greek to Ruth, but the Kid understood and felt felt as only one can feel who has been shut out for years from all that civilization means. Morning brought consciousness to the stricken man, and Malemute Kid bent closer to catch his whispers. 'You remember when we foregathered on the Tanana, four years come next ice run? I didn't care so much for her then.
And as he also knew her to be as sensible as she was pretty, it was no task to ask of her a certain small favor. On his return, Madeline withdrew for a moment to the inner room. When she reappeared Prince was startled. 'By Jove! he gasped. 'Who'd a' thought it! The little witch! Why my sister 'Is an English girl, interrupted Malemute Kid, 'with an English foot.
They had seen life, and done deeds, and lived romances; but they did not know it. And they were very much at home. Two of them were sprawled upon Malemute Kid's bunk, singing chansons which their French forebears sang in the days when first they entered the Northwest land and mated with its Indian women.
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