“It was because for years Congress imposed a prohibitive tax on railways through this wilderness, a tax only just now removed, that innumerable freighters, day after day, have crawled into town unnoticed, with feet cut and bruised and bleeding, and with no one to herald their suffering to a sympathetic world.  It’s because their labors were not spectacular, and the dogs were too obscure to attract more than a passing pity—­never national interest, or interference.”

“But they assert, if I may go on,” ventured the Big Man with an assumption of fear, “that the condition of the dogs, at the finish of these four hundred and eight mile races, is deplorable.”

“They’re tired; naturally very tired; though the necessity of fairly forcing their steps through the crushing, cheering, frantic mob often gives them an effect of utter exhaustion that belies their actual condition.

“You know how often we have gone down to the Kennel within an hour or so after their arrival, and have found them comfortably resting and showing little, if any, signs of the ordeal.  Many and many a prospector’s team is in far worse condition after a severe winter’s trip, made just for ordinary business purposes, while all of the Kennel Club’s rules for racing are aimed against cruelty.

“Why, you know that the very first one says you must bring back every dog with which you started, dead or alive, and—­”

The Big Man laughed heartily.  “Dare I mention that the ‘Dead or Alive’ rule is the one that seems to have caused the most unfavorable comment Outside.

“They seem to think it has rather a desperate ‘win at any hazard’ sound that needs toning down a bit.”

“It means,” remarked the Woman severely, “that even if a dog becomes lame or useless, and a detriment to the rest, he must not be abandoned, but brought back just the same.  And as a team is only as strong as its weakest member, surely they can realize that it is a matter of policy, even if not prompted by his love for them, for every driver to keep his dogs in the best possible condition—­that he may not be forced to carry one that is disabled upon his sled.  That would seriously handicap any team.”

“Of course, my dear, all will admit, even Congress, that this is no country for weaklings—­men or dogs—­and that is no contest for those who cannot brave the elements and survive the dangers of a desperately hard trail.

“And I will maintain, freely, that no athletes in the Olympic Games of Greece, nor college men in training for the field, are more carefully and considerately treated than are the dogs in the All Alaska Sweepstakes.  But, you see, these Outsiders don’t know that.”