thirty days after leaving Dawson City, the team arrived back in Skagway. They were very, very tired. Buck now weighed only fifty kilograms, and the other dogs were also very thin. long rest. But They were not just needed a long, waiting to go at Skagway there were mountains of letters dogs. The old north, so the men had to buy new, strong ones, now useless for work, were sold. Charles, bought Two American men, called Hal and Charles was Buck and his team, together with the harness. forty years old, with light hair and watery blue eyes. Hal was a young man of twenty with a big shiny gun and a big knife in his belt. These things, more than anything, showed how young he was. Both men were clearly new tothe north, and its hard and dangerous life. untidy camp, where a They took the dogs back to their Charles's wife woman was waiting. This was Mercedes and Hal's sister. load all Buck watched the men take down the tent and their luggage on the sledge. They didn't know how to doit sensibly, and every time they put something on the sledge, Mercedes moved it. Often they had to take things off the sledge and start again. Three men came up and watched, laughing.