grazing grounds.  You don’t know where it is.”

“I’ll take my chances.   I can’t let you put your life on the line too.”

“You and the others will be in more danger without me!” answered Luna.

Toby tilted his head.  “And how’s that?”

If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Luna probably would have been smug.  “Like I said, I’ve got wolf blood in me.  And I’ve spent a fair amount of time visiting my aunt and her pack.  They’ve taught me the Code of the Wolf.”

“The what?”

“The Code of the Wolf.  It’s kind of like a universal set of laws all wolves have to follow.  Take me with you, and I can help you with any packs you come across.”

Toby shook his head.  “I’m sorry,” he said.  “But the answer is still no.”  And he walked back to the sled.

“You are so THICK!” screamed Luna, following him back.  “I’ve already told you I’m coming, and that’s that!”

Toby was nearing the end of his patience.  “Luna, I can’t take you along.  How would it look?”

That caught Luna off guard.  “What?”

“You’re a civilian.  A bystander.  I can’t put you in that kind of danger.  And that’s not even taking into account that you’re my girlfriend.  The moment you left with me, every gossip in Nome would start blabbing it all over the place.”

“Toby, there are bigger things at stake here than our reputations!  I know the area you’ll be heading into, or some of it anyway.  You need me on this trip!”

“Luna, you’re not coming and that’s that.”

“I’ll fight you if I have to, but I’m coming.”

Toby gritted his teeth.  “How did you get to be so darn stubborn?”

“I guess I learned it hanging around with you!”  Several of the sled dogs chuckled

At that moment the chief came out of the station.  “Alright, boys, let’s get going.”

“Yes, let’s,” Luna agreed.

Toby shook his head and looked at the police dogs who would be staying behind.  “Make sure she doesn’t come with us,” he ordered.  “I don’t care if you have to put her under house arrest, but make sure she doesn’t come after us.  And that goes for anyone else who gets any crazy ideas.”

“Toby!” yelled Luna angrily.  She tried to jump onto the sled, but the police dogs seized her by the collar and held her back.

“Luna, this is not a discussion.  You’re staying here, out of harm’s way.”  He turned and jumped onto the sled.  “And don’t worry about us.  We’ll be just fine.”

“Only until I catch up to you!” Luna shot back.

The chief cracked his whip.  “Mush!” he cried.  And the sled pulled away.

Toby spent the remainder of the day alternately resting on the sled or running alongside it.  When they stopped for the night Exile came up to him.  “Don’t you think you were kind of harsh with Luna?”

Toby shook his head.  The same question had been hammering away at his mind all day.  “I had to be.  She can be very stubborn, and I had no time to argue.”  Eager to change the subject, he asked, “How long will it be before we reach the area where he was last seen?”

“About four days’ journey,” said Exile, knowing without asking whom Toby was talking about.  “But right now I’d be more worried about other matters.”

“Like what?”

“I thought you had already smelled it.”  Exile turned his head, pointing into the woods.  “There are wolves nearby.”

‘Wolves,’ thought Toby.  ‘That reminds me…’

“Excuse me, Exile,” he said.  “I have to check on something.”  He sniffed the air, then trotted off in the direction of the wolves.

“Are you crazy?” asked Exile.  “You’re heading right toward them!”

“I know,” said Toby as he disappeared.  He went a long way into the woods, until he could no longer see or hear or smell the rest of the group.  He wasn’t worried about finding his way back; he would follow his own scent.  “Northern Lights pack?” he called.

After a moment two wolves appeared from the trees around him.  They were so silent he never heard them approach, and they appeared out of nowhere as if they were ghosts.  “Who are you,” asked one of them, “that you call our pack by name?”

Toby gulped.  “I’m Toby,” he said.  “And I’ve come with a warning for you and your leader Aleu.”

The wolves seemed surprised.  “How do you know our leader’s name?”

Toby was getting impatient.  “I can’t waste time.  I must deliver my message and return to my friends at once.”

The two wolves held a hushed discussion.  “Very well,” they said at last.  “Come with us.”

Toby followed them to a cave.  “Aleu,” called one of the wolves.  “We have a messenger for you.”

A moment later a brown and gray wolf dog came out of the cave, along with a black and white wolf.  The wolf dog had piercing blue eyes with a determined look in them.  “Who are you?” she asked.

“My name is Toby, and I have come to warn you and your pack.  There is a hunter only four days journey from here who plans to wipe out all the wolves in Alaska.  I was asked to warn you.”

“Who asked you to warn us?” asked Aleu.

“Your niece, Luna.”

Aleu seemed interested in this.  “You know Luna?”

Toby nodded.  “I’ve been her friend since we were pups,” he said.  In case Aleu needed further convincing, he added.  “I also know Balto, your father.”

“If what you say is true, why didn’t Balto come to warn us himself?” asked the other wolf, whom Toby guessed to be Flint, Aleu’s mate.  “Or Luna, for that matter?”

“Balto’s sick right now,” answered Toby.  “And I explicitly ordered Luna not to come for her own safety.  You must be on your guard against the hunter.  He will stop at nothing.”

“How do you know that?” asked Aleu.

“He shot my father,” answered Toby with a snarl.

“Your father?” asked Flint.  “But you’re not part wolf.”

“My father’s a bloodhound,” explained Toby.  “He was trying to track the man down and capture him.”

Aleu turned to Flint.  “I believe him,” she said.  “We’d better move to a safer place.”

Flint nodded.  “Which way was he headed?”

“Last I knew, he was headed west.  He’s already passed here, but he’s a madman, and there’s no telling where he might go.”

“Very well,” said Aleu.  “We’ll head for Nome.  It’s safer there, even with less food.”

Flint nodded.  “Yes, I suppose it would be best to be near your family, especially if your father is sick.”

Aleu smiled gratefully at Toby.  “Thank you.”  She turned to two of the wolves.  “Ruska, Shade, escort Toby back to his team.”

Toby nodded.  “Thank you,” he said as the wolves led him away.  “And by the way, would you please deliver a message to Luna for me when you get there?”

“What message?”

Toby was reluctant to tell Aleu what he had done.  “Tell her I’m sorry about the house arrest.”

Aleu jerked her head back.  “House arrest?”

Toby continued on his way out of the cave.  “She’ll know what it means.”  And with that he left.

Back in Nome, several dogs were gathered in the boiler room discussing the search.  Pete, as usual, was dominating the discussion.

“They’d barely have a shot at catching him even if they didn’t have that runt Toby with them,” he was saying.  “With him as their leader, they don’t stand a chance.”

A Newfoundland scratched himself thoughtfully.  “Well, I don’t know about that.  He is part bloodhound.”

“Ha!” sneered Pete.  “He’s a mutt.  At least his old man is a purebred, even if he is a weakling.  What can a runty mutt like Toby do?”

From the back of the room, a voice said, “More than you’re trying to do.”

All heads turned to the back of the room.  “Balto!” several dogs gasped.

Balto was looking angrily at Pete through slightly glassy eyes.  “I may be sick right now, but I’ve never been sick enough to pick on someone who’s giving it their best shot.”  He looked around at the dogs in the room.  “I hope you’ve got more sense than to listen to Pete.  Toby’s a good dog, and he saved my life once when Steele came back to Nome.”  He focused his attention on Pete.  “So if I were you, I’d watch what I say about him.”  And with that he left, along with most of Pete’s audience.

As the team drew closer to their destination, Toby grew more and more impatient.  His constant shouts of “Hurry up!” and “Pick up the pace!” were annoying, especially when he was shouting from the sled.

Finally Exile yelled over his shoulder, “Hey!  We’re doing the best we can already!  Any faster and we’ll…”

Right at that moment the sled hit a patch of ice and tipped over.  Toby was thrown out of the sled and into a snowdrift.  When he succeeded in crawling out, he saw the other dogs sprawled on the ground, tangled up in their harnesses.  “Come on, guys, let’s get going,” he said.

Exile dragged himself to his feet, sporting a black eye.  “Thanks for asking how we are.”

“Come on,” Toby repeated stubbornly.  “We have to get going.”  He turned to the sled, expecting to see the chief trying to set it upright.  But the chief was not by the sled.  He was lying motionless with his head against a tree.  “Chief!” Toby cried, running over.  He nudged him, trying to get a response.  But there was nothing.

“Is he dead?” asked one of the dogs.

Toby held his face close to the chief’s and felt a slow movement of air.  “He’s alive,” he reported, “But I don’t know how long he’s got.”

“What are we gonna do?” asked one of the dogs.

Toby looked around.  Snow was beginning to fall, and they didn’t have any chance of getting the sled back up.  It seemed like a scene from one of the stories he always used to listen to as a puppy.  The ones where he would imagine himself as