“Yes,” agreed the Yukon Kid, “there’s nothing to it but the excitement of looking and finding nothing. Well, boys, I’ve spent a good time with you, but I’ve got to be going soon. Just step out here and listen.” He led the way out on the ice and motioned for them to be silent. Faintly there came to their ears the soft murmur of running water under their feet. “That’s Father Yukon waking up from his long sleep,” said the Kid, gravely. “It means that I must be on my way or I will not reach St. Michael’s before the ice breaks up. I guess you’ll get there not many days after me for when the ice goes out in the Yukon it goes out in a hurry.”
“Mr. Kid,” said Ike, who had been chosen spokesman for the boys in what was to follow. “Mr. Kid, you have been very good to us and more than once you have saved the life, maybe, of some of us, and so we want to give you a little gift, not to repay you for the good things you have done for us, you understand, but just a little gift to show that we don’t forget them good deeds. We want you to kindly accept Buck and his family. We want to feel that we have left Buck with a good, kind master too. That Buck is a good dog, almost as good as Captain Joe.”
The Kid’s eyes shone with delight at the thought of being possessor of such a glorious team, but he protested earnestly. “I have not done anything to merit such a gift. Maybe I helped you out a mite that first day at Nome, but it wasn’t any trouble to me. Sizes up to me that each of you has done his part nobly and loyally just like links in a chain. You or the most of you, would have pulled through all right even if I hadn’t happened to come across you when I did.” He hastened a second before he went on. “It seems to me if there’s any link that shows up a little larger than the rest, it’s this little chap here,” patting Ike’s shoulder. “He was willing to give himself up to torture that the rest of you might live. I reckon, though, that any one of you would have done the same in his place.”
Alex was twisting and shuffling in embarrassment over this display of sentiment.
“There’s one thing we must do before we leave,” he interrupted. “We must climb that mountain. We haven’t climbed a mountain on this whole trip. I’ll dare the lot of you to climb it clear to the top with me.
Clay looked up at the great mountain wet and slippery from the melting snows of its summit. “None of it in mine,” he said decidedly.
Ike regarded the monster thoughtfully. “I’m a family man,” he declared. “What would become of Abe if he loses his fadder?”
“It’s all right to take risks when one has to,” growled Case, “but it’s blamed foolishness to do so just on a dare.”
“All right, you babies,” jeered Alex. “If you’re ’fraid to come. I’ll climb up alone.”
“I’ll go with you,” shouted the Yukon Kid, “just wait a minute will you?” for Alex was already moving for the mountain’s base. “He won’t get up fifty feet,” he confided to the others. “I will take a rope from the sled here and try to keep him from a nasty fall.”