Page:Silversheene (1924).djvu/113

 southland dogs if he could when Gene was not looking.

Finally the real work for the team began and they were all glad, although it was desperately hard work. Work that taxed their endurance to the utmost and often found them footsore and lame at the end of the day's run. But in the morning each dog was sure to be ready, eager and trembling to have his harness again put on.

Gene had a contract to carry the mail and some light express between two Yukon towns five hundrd miles apart. He also made out a load with tea, coffee, and tobacco, for several trading posts along the way. As the price of transportation for these articles was several times the original cost in the States, the business was good. They started each morning at about seven, and kept up the steady pace for eight or ten hours, only stopping at noon to rest while Gene ate his lunch, and the dogs looked on with hungry eyes and dripping jaws.