Two teams at intervals of ten minutes had started before them, and there
were three others to follow.
As it was only sixty-five miles to Solomon and back, Allan decided to
try to pass the teams in front, even if he acted as trail-breaker and
pace-maker; for there was no necessity in so short a race for
generalship in the matter of feeding and resting.
Shortly after they left Fort Davis, four miles down the coast, they
could see John Johnson ahead, and still beyond him a rapidly moving dot
which Allan knew to be Fred Ayer with his "Ayeroplanes," as the Woman
had dubbed them; facetiously, but with a certain trepidation. For that
splendid team had been successful in many of the shorter races, and bade
fair to develop into dangerous antagonists in the longer ones.
But the Allan and Darling dogs, urged on constantly by "Scotty," went
forward at an even gait that soon lessened the space between themselves
and the Siberians; when, having passed them, they gained perceptibly
upon the others.
The "Ayeroplanes" seemed almost to float along the surface of the snow,
so light and smooth was their pace, so harmonious their team action.
But as if impelled by a hidden force he had never felt before, Baldy
sturdily forged on and on, till they, too, were left behind. A new
fervor thrilled him as he determined to show that he was more than "just
dog." No understudy on the stage, given an unexpected opportunity, ever
desired more ardently to eclipse the star than did Baldy to fill poor
Kid's place.
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