“Golly, it’s snowing!” exclaimed Jim. “Say, we’ve got to hurry!”
The snow was falling thick and fast by the time the deer was dressed. Bending to the force of the wind, the boys called to their dogs and started for the sledge.
And then they realized that they had made a fatal blunder. All intent upon dressing the deer they had forgotten to knot the dogs’ thongs together, the animals had been eating their fill of the offal from the deer, and instinctively knowing a storm was approaching, they were running nervously about, sniffing the air and whining.
At Tom’s call, two of the dogs, old huskies who had been long trained to obedience, came trotting to him, but the others kept their distance.
“Come on, we’ll have to get them,” cried Jim, as the boys knotted the thongs of the two together. “Gosh, we were boobs not to have fastened them!”
But as soon as the boys started towards the dogs, the animals turned, dashed away with tails between their legs and growled savagely.
“Confound them!” cried Tom, and yelling a command in Eskimo he made a rush at the nearest dog.
With a sharp bark, and baring his teeth, the creature leaped away and then, lifting his head in air, he uttered a long wolflike howl and galloped off over the hill with the pack at his heels.
The boys looked at each other with real fear upon their features.