the sound. No one would be hearing their struggle tonight. A sole pup walked back out onto the porch. He marched down the lane, grinning in pride. He was only half done.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

“This is an outrage!”

“We won’t stand for this!”

“Please settle down… I ask for your patience… QUIET!” Doc shouted.

The mob before him immediately hushed. Doc gave a stern and intense look at each one of the faces, but very few softened their glares towards him. The entire room and every body in it was dead silent, save for the fire that crackled and spat as it devoured more fuel greedily.

“Good, now that I have your attention, I will proceed by taking your questions in a polite and orderly fashion.”

A paw shot into the air, and the St. Bernard nodded to the dog.

“First and foremost… Why? Why keep this hidden from us?”

Doc cleared his throat uneasily and tried to remember everything he had planned to say. “This was all for a very good reason. I didn’t want to cause a huge panic, for fear of what might happen.”

Boo’s and shouts of disapproval reverberated from every corner of the boiler room but the St. Bernard stood steadfast.

“Well it looks like you put a band-aid on a broken leg! Smart move Doc!”

“Hey! Oh brilliant one! Waddya of done if more of us were knocked off!? Lied ‘bout them too!?”

Doc chose to endure these catcalls for a few moments more before he rose a paw and the assembly fell silent once more.

“Next question,” he managed to say without any emotion.

“My turn. So, leader, you mentioned your fear. And what was that fear?”

“The fear was exactly this. That you would all immediately jump to conclusions, blame others, mistrust your closest allies, and destroy the integrity that we have tried so hard to maintain.”

The volume instantly rose to a roar as more frustration and fear took hold in the minds of the crowd.

“If you had told us sooner, than you wouldn’t have had to worry about this! We could’ve prepared for this!”

“So yer plan was to let us find out via dem gossips, eh? Were ya too afraid to tell us yerself? … Or maybe this was some kinda scheme!”

“What’re you talking about?”

“I’m sayin’ that what if he is using this thing here to try an’ better hisself? Ya know, start some terror an’ save us from near disaster an’ make hisself like a hero!”

All conversation shut down as every ear heard this accusation and within an instant, the room began to buzz again but in a near inaudible intensity. Doc tried to pick up the conversations, but they had all mingled into one blur of noise. And right when it seemed like it would erupt once more, silence gripped the room once more. One dog stepped forward towards the St. Bernard. He spoke solemnly, but this is what had been decided.

“Doc, all of us are going to talk about this for the next few days while we decide on our next course of action. Some of us feel very let down by your decision making.”

“I understand fully,” Doc said as he sat down.

He watched them file out of the boiler room in a swarm, muttering still thriving. He caught a glimpse of a dog kicking the stacked barrels and watched them quiver. He knew that they would eventually collapse upon themselves, just like his plan of action had crumbled and fallen apart.

Chapter Seven:

Snow flew high into the air as the sled team skidded into White Mountain. Mr. Simpson saw the postmaster walk out of the post office with a large sack of mail in his grip, but the musher put his hand up to stop him.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t take that yet. We have to find a lost teammate of ours… I hate to be a bother, but would you mind if we spent the night or so, just long enough to search.”

The postmaster’s white mustache twitched as he thought for a moment. He opened his hands and spread out his arms, dropping the hefty bag of mail.

“Sure thing young fell-AR!” he suddenly shouted as the sack fell like a brick onto his foot.

He began hopping around on one foot as he grabbed the other with both hands. Mr. Simpson rushed over to him, stabilizing him before he had the chance to fall.

“Are you alright?”

The old man winked at him, “You bet. You can’ take out an ol’ geezer like me that easily!” he chuckled as he bounced towards the door of his office, “Just need ta get in here. The Mrs. had a kit just in case I did this again.”

“How many times have you done this exactly?”

“Ha ha! Let’s just say I lost count!” he laughed merrily before coughing. The postmaster looked behind him briefly before speaking again. “If ya guys wanna stay, then I can’ argue. Go take ‘em to the barn, I’m old enough to take care of myself.”

“If you say so.”

Mr. Simpson walked down the rows of dogs and uncoupled each one. He led them down the street towards the barn they had last stayed in and motioned them inside.

“We can start looking for Star as soon as I make sure that old man’s doing okay. Alright?”

When he received no indication of their understanding, he simply smiled and proceeded to shut the heavy barn doors. As soon as Mr. Simpson’s footsteps faded away, Kaltag sauntered up to Balto.

“So, how are we gonna look for our little runaway?”

“Well, I planned on splitting into two teams. One look around the northern part of town, and the other team does the opposite.”

“Sounds good. But I don’t know about you guys, but I want this search and rescue started,” Kaltag said.

Kaltag looked around and grinned at what he saw. He padded to the far corner of the barn and saw an opening that was mostly hidden by planks of wood. He pushed them out of the way and then started out.

“You guys coming or what!?” he called back to them.

The rest of the sled dogs bounded after him in great haste, save for Lilith who hesitated for a few moments before she cautiously followed them. She found herself biting her tongue as they were separated into teams and began to scour their selected area. This was going to be a long day for her.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

“Nome calling Nenana STOP Do you copy STOP”

There was a pause, and then the sound of wires being switched around before the tapping and the voice started again.

“Nome calling Fairbanks STOP Do you copy STOP”

Mr. Kode was given the same response he had received multiple times, nothing. He sighed heavily and patted his dog with a heavy hand. Morris yawned and clicked his chops before lazily opening his eyes. The little dog’s ears began to pulse with the telegraph as Mr. Kode contacted White Mountain. He didn’t have to ask the same question since he had been asking whether they were able to receive any replies just minutes ago. He put the latter question through once more and the reply was not surprising. They couldn’t reach anyone else either.

“Are your lines secure STOP Ours are in tact STOP”

“As are ours STOP No visible problems STOP Sending team to check farther down STOP”

“Please respond with results STOP”

The telegraph machine went silent once more and Mr. Kode took off his hat and ran it across his forehead. He stared up from his chair and saw a dusty red leash hanging from a nail on his wall. His face lit up and a smile stretched across it as he looked down at Morris. He lifted himself up from the chair and ignored a set of popping noises as he shuffled to the leash, grabbed it up, and walked back to Morris. He knelt down and attached the leash to his dog.

“C’mon Morris. We can inspect our wires and still have some fun, can’t we?”

He saw Morris start to wag his tail as he stretched and then followed Mr. Kode out into the street.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

There was a gentle rapping on the door before a bright red and white husky entered, behind her entered another husky of a similar persuasion.

“I’m telling you Denali, they aren’t here,” said Saba.

“Then where could they be? If we haven’t seen them in town, and they aren’t here, where else could they hide? Besides, they would have told someone,” Denali replied.

Denali walked over to the red and green rug and took a deep inhale and frowned. He carefully examined the surrounding area, but found nothing to suggest his theory.

“Well, here’s a problem. There’s more than just grandpa’s and grandma’s scent here. But I don’t see any evidence of a struggle, no real disturbances either, and this new scent seems to be all around the house. Curious. Maybe they planned to leave, but where and why? One can‘t be sure from this little evidence.”

Saba stood there gawking at him in awe. “Wow. Tell me again why you aren’t on the force?” she blurted out.

Denali looked back at her smugly “Well me dear Watson, I’ve deduced that those on the force do not appreciate my talent.”

“Who knew that you could have a sense of humor?” Saba giggled.

Denali returned to his straight-faced gaze, “Don’t you worry, it was an accident and shan’t happen again.”

“And here I was getting my hopes up.”

“You should definitely be more careful with your hopes then… But now you’ve gone and made me lose my train of