The Crowell household also included a middle-aged French couple, the Duprés; Henri took care of the livestock and his wife, Marie, did the cooking. Then there was Tagish Charley, who took care of the kennels.
Tagish Charley was a full-blooded Indian. He stood 6′ 4″ tall, weighed 230 pounds and was as lithe as a panther. His hair was the flat black color of charcoal, and his skin was the texture of ancient parchment. Charley could have been any age, from 40 to 400. He spoke English well enough, when he spoke, which was very seldom; and he said what he had to say in as few words as possible.
“Charley is economical with his money and his speech,” Professor Crowell said when he introduced him to his guests. “He’s as stoic as a cigar-store Indian.”
Sandy and Jerry hit it off with Charley from the start. While the geologists went over the last-minute details of their trip in the professor’s study, Charley took the boys out to the kennel at one side of the barn. A dozen husky dogs were frolicking in the snow inside a wire enclosure. As soon as they saw Charley they all rushed over to the gate and piled up in a seething mass of yelping, snarling, twisting fur, leaping up against the chain link fence and falling back on top of each other. It was a wild melee.
“Wow!” Jerry exclaimed. “They look as if they’d eat you alive.”
The Indian grunted. “No hurt. They want to play.”
Jerry looked dubious. “I bet they play rough.”
The Eskimo dogs were handsome animals. In reality they weren’t particularly large; probably they weighed about 75 to 80 pounds and stood 18 inches high at the shoulder; but with their broad chests, thick necks and massive heads they looked enormous. Their great thick coats varied in color from black-and-white to slate-gray, solidly and in combinations of all three. They had powerful wolflike muzzles, sharp ears and slanting eyes.
Tagish Charley opened the gate and motioned the boys to follow him into the pen. The dogs barked and leaped around the Indian, nipping his trousers and mittens playfully. They ignored the boys. There was one exception. Standing off to one side was a big, solid-black husky with a white mask across his eyes and upper muzzle. By far the largest dog of the lot—Sandy estimated his weight to be at least 100 pounds—he seemed to regard the antics of his fellows with regal aloofness. Finally his eyes turned solemnly on the boys and he started toward them.
“Charley!” Jerry yelled, grabbing Sandy’s arm nervously. “He’s charging us.”