Furthermore, there were to be no “sooners.”  Not until the stroke of midnight of Friday night was the claim open for relocation, and not until the stroke of midnight could a man plant a stake.  This was the ruling of the Gold Commissioner at Dawson, and Captain Consadine had sent up a squad of mounted police to enforce it.  Discussion had arisen about the difference between sun-time and police-time, but Consadine had sent forth his fiat that police-time went, and, further, that it was the watch of Lieutenant Pollock that went.

The Mono trail ran along the level creek-bed, and, less than two feet in width, was like a groove, walled on either side by the snowfall of months.  The problem of how forty-odd sleds and three hundred dogs were to start in so narrow a course was in everybody’s mind.

“Huh!” said Shorty.  “It’s goin’ to be the gosh-dangdest mix-up that ever was.  I can’t see no way out, Smoke, except main strength an’ sweat an’ to plow through.  If the whole creek was glare-ice they ain’t room for a dozen teams abreast.  I got a hunch right now they’s goin’ to be a heap of scrappin’ before they get strung out.  An’ if any of it comes our way, you got to let me do the punchin’.”

Smoke squared his shoulders and laughed non-committally.

“No, you don’t!” his partner cried in alarm.  “No matter what happens, you don’t dast hit.  You can’t handle dogs a hundred miles with a busted knuckle, an’ that’s what’ll happen if you land on somebody’s jaw.”

Smoke nodded his head.  “You’re right, Shorty.  I couldn’t risk the chance.”

“An’ just remember,” Shorty went on, “that I got to do all the shovin’ for them first ten miles, an’ you got to take it easy as you can.  I’ll sure jerk you through to the Yukon.  After that it’s up to you an’ the dogs.  Say—­what d’ye think Schroeder’s scheme is?  He’s got his first team a quarter of a mile down the creek, an’ he’ll know it by a green lantern.  But we got him skinned.  Me for the red flare every time.”

The day had been clear and cold, but a blanket of cloud formed across the face of the sky, and the night came on warm and dark, with the hint of snow impending.  The thermometer registered fifteen below zero, and in the Klondike winter fifteen below is esteemed very warm.

At a few minutes before midnight, leaving Shorty with the dogs five hundred yards down the creek, Smoke joined the racers on Number Three.  There were forty-five of them waiting the start for the thousand thousand dollars Cyrus Johnson had left lying in the frozen gravel.  Each man carried six stakes and a heavy wooden mallet, and was clad in a smock-like parka of heavy cotton drill.

Lieutenant Pollock, in a big bearskin coat, looked at his watch by the light of a fire.  It lacked a minute of midnight.  “Make ready,” he said, as he raised a revolver in his right hand and watched the second hand tick arutenant Pollock, in a big bearskin coat, looked at his watch by the light of a fire.  It lacked a minute of midnight.  “Make ready,” he said, as he raised a revolver in his right hand and watched the second hand tick around.