CHAPTER VI

DAYS OF TRIUMPH


One afternoon, in the beginning of the mush-snow, a long team of
rakish Malemutes, driven by an Athabasca French-Canadian, raced wildly
into the clearing about the post. A series of yells, and the wild
cracking of a thirty-foot caribou-gut whip, announced that the big
change was at hand--that the wilderness was awakening, and life was
drawing near.

The entire post rushed out to meet the new-comer--men and dogs, the
little black-and-tan children, and even Williams' fat and lethargic
wife. For a few moments there was a scene of wild disorder, of
fighting Malemutes buried under a rush of angry huskies, while men
shouted, and the yelling Frenchman leaped about and cut his caribou-
gut in vicious slashes over the wolfish horde around his heavily laden
sledge.

Partial order being restored, Mukee and Per-ee took charge of the
snarling Malemutes, and, surrounded by Williams' men, the trapper
stalked to the company's office. He was Jean de Gravois, the most
important man in the Fond du Lac country, for whose good-will the
company paid a small bonus. That he had made a record catch even the
children knew by the size of the packs on his sledge and by the
swagger in his walk.

Gravois was usually one of the last to appear at the annual gathering
of the wilderness fur-gatherers. He was a big man in reputation, as he