5
More hard work
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.
They were not ill; they just needed a long, long rest. But at Skagway there were mountains of letters waiting to go north, so the men had to buy new, strong dogs. The old ones, now useless for work, were sold.
Two American men, called Hal and Charles, bought Buck and his team, together with the harness. Charles was 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 to the north, and its hard and dangerous life.
They took the dogs back to their untidy camp, where a woman was waiting. This was Mercedes - Charles's wife and Hal's sister.
Buck watched the men take down the tent and load all their luggage on the sledge. They didn't know how to do it sensibly, and every time they put something on the sledge, v Mercedes moved it. Often they had to take things off the sledge and start again.
Three men came up and watched, laughing.
'You've got a heavy load on that sledge,' said one of them. 'Why don't you leave the tent here in Skagway?'
'How could we live without a tent?' asked Mercedes, throwing up her hands in the air. 'It's spring now. You won't have any more cold weather.'
'I must have a tent,' she answered, and helped Charles and Hal with the last few boxes. 'Do you think that load will stay on?' asked another man.
'Why shouldn't it?' asked Charles.
'Well, it's a bit heavy on top. Do you think your dogs will be able to pull that?'
'Of course they will,' said Hal. The sledge was now ready to go. 'Come on, dogs, pull!' he
shouted.
The dogs pulled as hard as they could, but the sledge did not move. 'The lazy animals!' shouted Hal, picking up his whip.