Baldy of Nome | Page 7

not count greatly in his rigid code. The same distance
covered slowly by freighters in pursuance of their task of earning their
daily living would seem to him far more worthy of respect and
emulation. And so, when the Tolman brothers, who were apt to be
quarrelsome with those "not in their class," showed a coldness toward
Baldy that threatened to break into open hostility at the slightest excuse,
Dubby promptly ranged himself on the side of the newcomer with a
firmness that impressed even Tom, Dick, and Harry with a
determination to be at least discreet if not courteous.
They had learned, with all of the others in the Kennel, to treat with a
studied politeness--even deference--the wonderful old Huskie whose
supremacy as a leader had become a Tradition of the North; and who
was still in fighting trim should cause for trouble arise. He did not rely
alone on his past achievements, which were many and brilliant, but he
maintained a reputation for ever-ready power which is apt to give
immunity from attack.
Dubby's attitude toward the Racers generally was galling in the extreme.

Usually he ignored them completely, turning his back upon them when
they were being harnessed, and apparently oblivious of their very
existence; except as such times when he felt that they needed
suggestions as to their behavior.
There was, in a way, a certain injustice in Dubby's contempt for what
might be called the sporting element of the stable; for, like college
athletes, they were only sports incidentally, and for the greater part of
the year they were as ready and willing to do a hard day's work in
carrying goods to the creeks as were the more commonplace dogs who
had never won distinction on the Trail.
But Dubby was ultra-conservative; and while "Scotty" must have had
some strange human reason for all of these silly dashes with an
absolutely empty sled, in his opinion hauling a boiler up to Hobson
Creek would be a far more efficacious means of exercise, and would be
a practical accomplishment besides. Dubby was of a generation that
knew not racing. Of noted McKenzie River parentage, he came from
Dawson, where he was born, down the Yukon to Nome with "Scotty"
Allan. He had led a team of his brothers and sisters, six in all, the entire
distance of twelve hundred miles, early manifesting that definite
acknowledged mastery over the others that is indispensable in a good
leader. He had realized what it meant to be a Pioneer, had penetrated
with daring men the waste places in search of fame, fortune and
adventure; and had carried the heavy burdens of gold wrested from
rock-ribbed mountain, and bouldered river bed. He had helped to take
the United States Mail to remote and inaccessible districts, and had
sped with the Doctor and Priest to the bedside of the sick or dying in
distant, lonely cabins.
He and his kind have ever shared the toil of the development of that
desolate country that stretches from the ice-bound Arctic to where the
gray and sullen waters of Bering Sea break on a bleak and wind-swept
shore. They figure but little in the forest-crowned Alaska of the South,
with its enchanted isles, emerald green, in the sunlit, silver waves; but
they are an indispensable factor in the very struggle for mere existence
up beyond the chain of rugged Aleutians whose towering volcanoes are

ever enveloped in a sinister shroud of smoke. Up in the eternal snows
of the Alaska of the North, the unknown Alaska--the Alaska of Men
and Dogs.
[Illustration: THE ALASKA OF MEN AND DOGS June 1--The
steamer Corwin at the edge of the ice, five miles from shore]
And so it is not strange that in such a land where the dog has ever
played well his rôle of support to those who have faced its dangers and
conquered its terrors, that his importance should be at last freely
acknowledged, and the fact admitted that only the best possible dogs
should be used for all arduous tasks.
Toward this end the Nome Kennel Club was organized. The object was
not alone the improvement of the breeds used so extensively, but also,
since the first President was a Kentuckian, of equal importance was the
furnishing of a wholesome and characteristic sport for the community.
And Nome, once famed for her eager, reckless treasure-seekers in that
great rush of 1900; famed once for being the "widest open" camp in all
Alaska, now in her days of peace and quiet still claims recognition. Not
only because of the millions taken out annually by her huge dredgers
and hydraulics; not only because she is an important trading station that
supplies whalers and explorers with all necessary equipment for their
voyages in the Arctic; not only