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Page 67
"Five hunderd!" shouted Jean, with his broad, cheery grin. "By gar! tha'
Jan hee's worth ten hunderd of any man's money for team-leadin'. Yes,
_sir_; an' you can say I said so. I don't care where the nex' come from;
tha' Jan, hee's masterpiece."
Jake readily admitted, when, over their pipes that night, he and Jean
came to review the day's run, that the team had worked better this day
than on any previous day in the past month.
"With double load, an' one dog short," Jean reminded him.
"That's so," said Jake. "I guess that moose-meat's put good heart into
them."
"Ah! moose-meat, hee's all right; good tack, for sure," said Jean. "But
tha's not moose-meat mushed them dogs on so fast an' trim to-day. No,
_sir_. Tha's Jan--bes' dog-musher in 'Merica to-day, now I'm tellin'
you. He don' got Beel to upset things to-day, and, by gar! you see how
he make them other dogs mush. You don't need no wheep, don't need no
musher, so's you got Jan a-leadin', now I'm tellin' you."
Jan imbued each of the other dogs with a portion of his own
inexhaustible pride in the team's perfect working. Ready to start in the
morning he would stand in the lead, pawing eagerly at the snow, his head
turning swiftly from side to side as he looked round to make sure his
followers were in order, and in his anxiety to catch the first breath of
the command to "Mush on there!"
And when the word came, with what a will those seven dogs bowed to their
work! How furiously their hard pads scrabbled at the trail, to overcome
the first inertia of the laden sled, before it gained the gliding
momentum which they would never allow it to lose for an instant until
the order came to halt! If any dog put one ounce less than the pressure
he was capable of exerting into his breast-band, Jan knew it that
instant, more surely than the watching man behind; and would let out a
sharp, low-sounding bark. And very well each dog in the team knew what
that bark meant. They feared it more than Jean's thong. For Jan had
taught them to know that this bark gave warning of a shrewder blow to
come than any whip could give; and a blow from which there would be no
possible escape. Men-folk might sometimes forget a promised cuff. Jan
was never known to forget a promised bite; and if twelve hours should
elapse between promise and payment, so much the worse for the payee; for
Jan had a system of his own for the reckoning of compound interest, the
efficacy of which, at one time or another, each dog in the team had
tested, and found deadly.
Yes, in the fortnight that followed the shooting of the moose and the
disappearance of Bill the sled-team driven by Jean and Jake was perhaps
the finest and the most efficient in all that white world of
hard-bitten, hard-trained, hard-working men and dogs. And, by that
token, there was no happier team living, and none in better condition.
There are not many teams, of course, whose members eat moose-flesh every
day. But quite apart from the substantial addition to their dietary
which Jean's lucky moose-shot brought, his sled-team was superbly fit
and efficient, because it was perfectly led and perfectly disciplined.
And then came all the strange confusion of the noisy mining town and the
end of this particular phase of Jan's life.
XXXI
THE COST OF INCOMPETENCE
Jan's private impressions of the northern mining town were, first, that
it was the most horrible place he had ever seen; second, that it was
perhaps the most interesting place he had ever seen; and, third and
lastly, that it was a very good place to get away from, and that he
would be pleased to exchange its complex interests for the clean,
arduous stress and strain of the trail.
Jan spent less than a week in the town; but into that week was packed
perhaps rather more than the allowance of new impressions and excitement
of one sort and another that go to make up the record of her first
season in town for the average human d�butante. The cynic might protest
that many a modern d�butante is as certainly put up for sale to the
highest bidder of the town season as Jan was. Well, at least the thing
is a good deal more carefully wrapped up and veiled, and a great deal
more time is given to it.
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