whispered to a dog next to him.

 

“Some dog went out into the middle and started talking,” the dog said. “It’s one of the Nome dogs. Now some other dogs are starting to talk, too.”

 

Josh pushed his way through the crowd of dogs until he had a clear view of whoever was addressing them. When he saw who it was, he gasped.

 

-----

 

All of the sled teams got exactly eighteen hours of rest after they arrived in Anchorage. After their break, they departed again, back on their way to Nome. This meant that each team departed exactly eighteen hours after they arrived. The first place team had arrived a few hours earlier than Dingo’s team, and all of the dogs were anxious.

 

“Great, now four teams have huge head starts on us,” one of the Nome dogs complained. “Everyone started at the same time on the first leg of the race, and we came in fifth. How can we even hope to win now?”

 

“Look at the bright side,” Sam said. “At least we’re not starting in eighth!”

 

The Nome dog scoffed and turned around. Sam rolled his eyes. “I don’t get it,” he whispered to Dingo. “They’re still treating me like that. It’s really starting to get on my nerves. They don’t listen to a word I say!”

 

“They’ll come around…” Dingo said, apparently thinking about something else. “Eventually…”

 

Sam raised his eyebrow and wondered if Dingo was really listening to him or not. But he just shrugged it off and waited for the time of their departure.

 

Sam was happy to be back in his hometown. Since the teams had arrived he had seen many of his friends that had stayed behind when Dingo led a bunch of Anchorage street dogs (including Sam) to Nome. He felt much more comfortable and at home there than he did at Nome, but he didn’t want to tell Dingo that. After all, Dingo was the only Nome dog that had befriended him. Sam couldn’t just tell Dingo that he wanted to quit and stay in Anchorage instead of completing the race. He didn’t want to disappoint his new friend.

 

The next few hours seemed to be the longest of their lives for Dingo and the rest of his team. They grew more and more anxious as each of the four teams ahead of them left. Finally, when all of them were about to reach the end of their ropes, the announcer called their team up to the line where all the teams were to start from.

 

Dingo sighed in relief as he led his team to the line. Their rest was over. Now it was back to the race, and he wouldn’t have to worry about all the things he usually worried about because he would be too busy concentrating on leading his team back to Nome.

 

Dingo was excited at the thought of getting back to Nome. He had only been gone for a few days, but he was still anxious about how Saba and his friends were handling the situation with the two groups of dogs that couldn’t get along. All that he could hope for was that his team would make it to Nome safely and without any disasters and that the situation in Nome would be better than it was when he had left.

 

Dingo would soon realize that he had hoped for too much…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 10

 

As the rest of the huge crowd of dogs were still too surprised to move, Josh ran off after the dog who had addressed the crowd. He noticed that the dog was heading in the same direction that Saba had charged off in earlier.

 

Josh himself was extremely surprised when he saw Kodi in the middle of the huge group of dogs, yelling at them just like his sister had a few seconds before. Kodi was really one of the last people Josh would have expected to do something like that. But he had…and shocked the entire canine population of Nome while doing it.

 

“Hey, Kodi, wait for me!” Josh called out.

 

The husky turned around and looked at him. “Hey,” he said. “I’m sorry I’ve been so stupid about this whole thing. You and Dingo and Saba and all the others were right. Can you forgive me?”

 

“It’s okay,” Josh said. “What you did back there took a lot of courage. I’m proud of you. And I’m sure Saba will be, too.” He paused. “I’m guessing that you’re trying to find Saba now?”

 

Kodi nodded. “You want to come with me?”

 

“Sure,” Josh said. “I want to talk with her, too. I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she finds out that you talked to that whole crowd of dogs like that…”

 

Kodi smiled. “Things are starting to look up,” he said. “Now all we need to make today completely perfect is Dingo leading his team into the town to victory.”

 

“That’s not going to happen today,” Josh replied. “I’ve heard some news about it from the humans in town, and they say that the teams just started leaving from Anchorage today.”

 

“Oh…” said Kodi, deep in thought. “I wonder where the team is now…”

 

-----

 

It had been snowing ever since the Nome team left Anchorage, and Dingo was getting worried. There was more snow falling every minute, and if it kept increasing at this rate, they wouldn’t be able to see where they were going within an hour. ‘I guess I just have to keep pressing on as hard as possible while I still can,’ Dingo thought to himself, quickening his pace.

 

The rest of the team seemed anxious because of the snowstorm, but they trusted their leader and kept following him at top speed. They even followed him when the snow got so thick that it was impossible to see anything, as Dingo predicted it would. The dogs couldn’t even see each other in the storm.

 

Suddenly there was a yelp. Dingo felt a tug on the rope with which he was connected to the other dogs and the sled. He followed the rope to where the yelp had come from. Finally he reached a cliff. He almost walked right off the edge, but he caught himself before he fell. “Is anyone down there?” he called out.

 

“Right here,” responded a voice. Dingo recognized it as Sam’s voice. Dingo was expecting whoever had fallen off the edge to be at the bottom of the cliff, but Sam’s voice seemed close. Dingo put out a paw and waved it around to see if he could reach Sam. He was able to touch the dog’s head.

 

“Is that you, Dingo?” Sam called out. “I felt something touch me!”

 

“Yes, that was me,” Dingo called back, trying to sound as calm as possible. “Now just stay calm and don’t move. If you stay still you should be able to stay where you are and not fall down further.

 

“Okay…” said Sam. He felt the rope that was holding him was about to snap. “Hurry!”

 

Dingo got a hold of the rope with his teeth and pulled with all of his strength. Sam didn’t seem to be a heavy dog, but Dingo couldn’t get the rope to move. “Matt, I need some help here,” he called out. “Sam’s in trouble!”

 

Matteo quickly came to Dingo’s side and together they tried to haul Sam to safety. But even with the two of them working together, they still had no luck. Dingo called out to the rest of the team. “Guys, help us!”

 

“Do what?” one of the Nome dogs responded. “Help that Sam dog? Why should we? He’s not one of us!”

 

Dingo’s jaw dropped. “What is wrong with you?” he practically screamed. “There’s a dog in trouble here and if you don’t help us save him he’ll die!”

 

“So? Who cares if that little runt dies?”

 

Dingo felt his anger boiling up inside. “Do you people have brains at all?! Who cares if he’s not from Nome? He’s going to die if you don’t help! He’d help you if you were in danger like this!”

 

Dingo sat and waited for a few seconds. Suddenly he felt the body of one of the Nome dogs brush up against him. One by one the other dogs came and lined up along the rope. Then they all grabbed it with their teeth and pulled. With all seven dogs pulling on the rope, they were finally able to get Sam to safety. 

Dingo embraced his friend. “Are you okay?” he asked.

 

“Yeah,” Sam said. He smiled warmly at Dingo. “Thanks.” He looked around at the other dogs. “I want to thank you guys, too.”

 

“I’m sorry about how we acted,” one of the Nome dogs said. “It really was pretty dumb of us to not accept you.”

 

“It’s okay,” Sam said. Then he looked around. “Hey, the snow is clearing up!”

 

Sure enough, the snow had gotten thinner. Now the dogs could see each other and anything that was a few feet away from them. None of the dogs had realized this until Sam pointed it out.

 

After a few minutes of listening to the other dogs talk to each other, Dingo sneaked off to see what the musher was doing. A minute or two later Sam noticed he was gone and followed

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