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And break it out? and walk off with it for a hundred yards? demanded Matthewson, a Bonanza king, he of the seven hundred vaunt. And break it out, and walk off with it for a hundred yards, John Thornton said coolly. Well, Matthewson said, slowly and deliberately, so that all could hear, Ive got a thousand dollars that says he cant. And there it is. So saying, he slammed a sack of gold dust of the size of a bologna sausage down upon the bar. Nobody spoke. Thorntons bluff, if bluff it was, had been called. He could feel a flush of warm blood creeping up his face. His tongue had tricked him. He did not know whether Buck could start a thousand pounds. Half a ton! The enormousness of it appalled him. He had great faith in Bucks strength and had often thought him capable of starting such a load; but never, as now, had he faced the possibility of it, the eyes of a dozen men fixed upon him, silent and waiting. Further, he had no thousand dollars; nor had Hans or Pete. Ive got a sled standing outside now, with twenty fifty-pound sacks of flour on it, Matthewson went on with brutal directness, so dont let that hinder you. Thornton did not reply. He did not know what to say. He glanced from face to face in the absent way of a man who has lost the power of thought and is seeking somewhere to find the thing that will start it going again. The face of Jim OBrien, a Mastodon king and old-time comrade, caught his eyes. It was a cue to him, seeming to rouse him to do what he would never have dreamed of doing. Can you lend me a thousand? he asked, almost in a whisper. Sure, answered OBrien, thumping down a plethoric sack by the side of Matthewsons. Though its little faith Im having, John, that the beast can do the trick. The Eldorado emptied its occupants into the street to see the test. The tables were deserted, and the dealers and game-keepers came forth to see the outcome of the wager and to lay odds. Several hundred men, furred and mittened, banked around the sled within easy distance. Matthewsons sled, loaded with a thousand pounds of flour, had been standing for a couple of hours, and in the intense cold (it was sixty below zero) the runners had frozen fast to the hard-packed snow. Men offered odds of two to one that Buck could not budge the sled. A quibble arose concerning the phrase break out. OBrien contended it was Thorntons privilege to knock the runners loose, leaving Buck to break it out from a dead stand-still. Matthewson insisted that the phrase included breaking the runners from the frozen grip of the snow. A majority of the men who had witnessed the making of the bet decided in his favor, whereat the odds went up to three to one against Buck. There were no takers. Not a man believed him capable of the feat. Thornton had been hurried into the wager, heavy with doubt; and now that he looked at the sled itself, the concrete fact, with the regular team of ten dogs curled up in the snow before it, the more impossible the task appeared. Matthewson waxed jubilant. Three to one! he proclaimed. Ill lay you another thousand at that figure, Thornton. What dye say? Thorntons doubt was strong in his face, but his fighting spirit was arousedthe fighting spirit that soars above odds, fails to recognize the impossible, and is deaf to all save the clamor for battle. He called Hans and Pete to him. Their sacks were slim, and with his own the three partners could rake together only two hundred dollars. In the ebb of their fortunes, this sum was their total capital; yet they laid it unhesitatingly against Matthewsons six hundred. The team of ten dogs was unhitched, and Buck, with his own harness, was put into the sled. He had caught the contagion of the excitement, and he felt that in some way he must do a great thing for John Thornton. Murmurs of admiration at his splendid appearance went up. He was in perfect condition, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, and the one hundred and fifty pounds that he weighed were so |
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