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1That winter, at Dawson, Buck performed another exploit, not so heroic, perhaps, but one that put his name many notches
2higher on the totem-pole of Alaskan fame. This exploit was particularly gratifying to the three men; for they stood in
3need of the outfit which it furnished, and were enabled to make a long-desired trip into the virgin East, where miners
4had not yet appeared. It was brought about by a conversation in the Eldorado Saloon, in which men waxed boastful of
5their favorite dogs. Buck, because of his record, was the target for these men, and Thornton was driven stoutly to
6defend him. At the end of half an hour one man stated that his dog could start a sled with five hundred pounds and walk
7off with it; a second bragged six hundred for his dog; and a third, seven hundred. "Pooh! pooh!" said John Thornton;
8"Buck can start a thousand pounds." "And break it out? and walk off with it for a hundred yards?" demanded Matthewson, a
9Bonanza King, he of the seven hundred vaunt. "And break it out, and walk off with it for a hundred yards," John Thornton
10said coolly. "Well," Matthewson said, slowly and deliberately, so that all could hear, "I've got a thousand dollars that
11says 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
12the bar. Nobody spoke. Thornton's bluff, if bluff it was, had been called. He could feel a flush of warm blood creeping
13up his face. His tongue had tricked him. He did not know whether Buck could start a thousand pounds. Half a ton! The
14enormousness of it appalled him. He had great faith in Buck's strength and had often thought him capable of starting
15such a load; but never, as now, had he faced the possibility of it, the eyes of a dozen men fixed upon him, silent and
16waiting. Further, he had no thousand dollars; nor had Hans or Pete. "I've got a sled standing outside now, with twenty
17fiftypound sacks of flour on it," Matthewson went on with brutal directness; "so don't let that hinder you." Thornton
18did 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
19power of thought and is seeking somewhere to find the thing that will start it going again. The face of Jim O'Brien, a
20Mastodon King and old-time comrade, caught his eyes. It was as a cue to him, seeming to rouse him to do what he would
21never have dreamed of doing. "Can you lend me a thousand?" he asked, almost in a whisper. "Sure," answered O'Brien,
22thumping down a plethoric sack by the side of Matthewson's. "Though it's little faith I'm having, John, that the beast
23can do the trick." The Eldorado emptied its occupants into the street to see the test. The tables were deserted, and the
24dealers and gamekeepers came forth to see the outcome of the wager and to lay odds. Several hundred men, furred and
25mittened, banked around the sled within easy distance. Matthewson's sled, loaded with a thousand pounds of flour, had
26been standing for a couple of hours, and in the intense cold (it was sixty below zero) the runners had frozen fast to
27the hard-packed snow. Men offered odds of two to one that Buck could not budge the sled. A quibble arose concerning the
28phrase "break out." O'Brien contended it was Thornton's privilege to knock the runners loose, leaving Buck to "break it
29out" from a dead standstill. Matthewson insisted that the phrase included breaking the runners from the frozen grip of
30the snow. A majority of the men who had witnessed the making of the bet decided in his favor, whereat the odds went up
31to three to one against Buck. There were no takers. Not a man believed him capable of the feat. Thornton had been
32hurried into the wager, heavy with doubt; and now that he looked at the sled itself, the concrete fact, with the regular
33team of ten dogs curled up in the snow before it, the more impossible the task appeared. Matthewson waxed jubilant.
34"Three to one!" he proclaimed. "I'll lay you another thousand at that figure, Thornton. What d'ye say?" Thornton's doubt
35was strong in his face, but his fighting spirit was aroused--the fighting spirit that soars above odds, fails to
36recognize the impossible, and is deaf to all save the clamor for battle. He called Hans and Pete to him. Their sacks
37were slim, and with his own the three partners could rake together only two hundred dollars. In the ebb of their
38fortunes, this sum was their total capital; yet they laid it unhesitatingly against Matthewson's six hundred. The team
39of ten dogs was unhitched, and Buck, with his own harness, was put into the sled. He had caught the contagion of the
40excitement, and he felt that in some way he must do a great thing for John Thornton. Murmurs of admiration at his
41splendid appearance went up. He was in perfect condition, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, and the one hundred and
42fifty pounds that he weighed were so many pounds of grit and virility. His furry coat shone with the sheen of silk. Down
43the neck and across the shoulders, his mane, in repose as it was, half bristled and seemed to lift with every movement,
44as though excess of vigor made each particular hair alive and active. The great breast and heavy fore legs were no more
45than in proportion with the rest of the body, where the muscles showed in tight rolls underneath the skin. Men felt
46these muscles and proclaimed them hard as iron, and the odds went down to two to one. "Gad, sir! Gad, sir!" stuttered a
47member of the latest dynasty, a king of the Skookum Benches. "I offer you eight hundred for him, sir, before the test,
48sir; eight hundred just as he stands." Thornton shook his head and stepped to Buck's side. "You must stand off from
49him," Matthewson protested. "Free play and plenty of room." The crowd fell silent; only could be heard the voices of the
50gamblers vainly offering two to one. Everybody acknowledged Buck a magnificent animal, but twenty fifty-pound sacks of
51flour bulked too large in their eyes for them to loosen their pouch-strings. Thornton knelt down by Buck's side. He took
52his head in his two hands and rested cheek on cheek. He did not playfully shake him, as was his wont, or murmur soft
53love curses; but he whispered in his ear. "As you love me, Buck. As you love me," was what he whispered. Buck whined
54with suppressed eagerness. The crowd was watching curiously. The affair was growing mysterious. It seemed like a
55conjuration. As Thornton got to his feet, Buck seized his mittened hand between his jaws, pressing in with his teeth and
56releasing slowly, half-reluctantly. It was the answer, in terms, not of speech, but of love. Thornton stepped well back.
57"Now, Buck," he said. Buck tightened the traces, then slacked them for a matter of several inches. It was the way he had
58learned. "Gee!" Thornton's voice rang out, sharp in the tense silence. Buck swung to the right, ending the movement in a
59plunge that took up the slack and with a sudden jerk arrested his one hundred and fifty pounds. The load quivered, and
60from under the runners arose a crisp crackling. "Haw!" Thornton commanded. Buck duplicated the manœuvre, this time to
61the left. The crackling turned into a snapping, the sled pivoting and the runners slipping and grating several inches to
62the side. The sled was broken out. Men were holding their breaths, intensely unconscious of the fact. "Now, MUSH!"
63Thornton's command cracked out like a pistol-shot. Buck threw himself forward, tightening the traces with a jarring
64lunge. His whole body was gathered compactly together in the tremendous effort, the muscles writhing and knotting like
65live things under the silky fur. His great chest was low to the ground, his head forward and down, while his feet were
66flying like mad, the claws scarring the hard-packed snow in parallel grooves. The sled swayed and trembled, half-started
67forward. One of his feet slipped, and one man groaned aloud. Then the sled lurched ahead in what appeared a rapid
68succession of jerks, though it never really came to a dead stop again...half an inch...an inch... two inches... The
69jerks perceptibly diminished; as the sled gained momentum, he caught them up, till it was moving steadily along.
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