ิbut the village huskies, sent away by the men once were coming back toward the more, sled dogs. Billee suddenly jumped through the circle of huskies and ran away across the ice. The other sled- dogs followed, but as Buck got ready to jump, he suddenly saw Spitz running toward him. He knew that if he went down now, the village huskies would tear him to Buck strong when Spitz came him, and then he ran across the ice after the other sled dogs.
Later, the nine sled dogs came together in a forest across the lake. The village huskies had not followed them, but the team was badly hurt. One of Billee's ears was cut to pieces, and he cried all night. Joe had lost an eye, and Dolly, who Perrault had brought into the team at Dyea, had a badly hurt leg. All of them were covered in bites and cuts.
The next morning, the sled dogs walked slowly back to camp, where they found Perrault and Francois looking angrily at their things. The huskies had eaten half their food, and had bitten through the harnesses and Francois' whip. Francois looked down at his poor dogs.
"Oh, my friends," he said quietly. "I hope the bites from those wild huskies don't turn you into mad dogs. What do you think, Perrault?"
Perrault shook his head. Dawson was still more than six hundred kilometers away, and they could not make such a long journey with sick, mad dogs. For two hours, the men worked to fix the harnesses. Then the team left. They were on the hardest part of the trail, and the dogs we all badly hurt. The journey was going to be very difficult
They went along the Thirty Mile River. The water was wild, and the river was only covered in ice in the quiet places. The river was nearly fifty kilometers long, and the team was on it for six terrible days Again and again, Perrault, walking at the front, fell through the ice. He held a long stick which he put across the ice to stop him from falling under the water.