"Tom! Tom! Stop!" screamed Dick and Sam in unison. "Come back here!"
"I'm off for gold! Nuggets of gold!" yelled the one who was not right in his mind. "Don't you dare to follow me! Off for gold! Gold! Gold!" And then the sled with its rider passed out of hearing, the dogs doing their best, urged on by the continued cracking of the long whip.
"We must catch him!" said Dick. "Quick! before he gets out of sight over some hill, or around some rocks!"
"He has der pest sled und der pest dogs!" groaned Gus Schmidt. "I said ve must keep an eye on him, yah! Of he busts dot sled somepody got to pay for him!"
"We'll pay, never fear," answered Sam. "But we must catch him! We don't want him to get hurt."
"You come mit me," said the leader of the outfit, motioning to Dick. "It ain't no use for all of us to go after him. De udders da stay right here. Ludvig, you hear?"
"Yah," came from the other German, and he nodded his head.
In a few minutes Gus Schmidt had one of the other dog teams ready for use. He was about to jump on the sled when he paused.
"Besser ve took somedings along," he suggested. "Somedings to eat und to trink, hey? Und some plankets, yah?" and he commenced to haul over the packs.
"Why, do you think the chase will be a long one?" asked Dick, anxiously.