I said I wouldn't if ary dog turned up missin', an' I won't." "It's darn good coffee," Henry said enticingly.
But Bill was stubborn, and he ate a dry breakfast washed down with mumbled curses at One Ear for the trick he had played.
"I'll tie 'em up out of reach of each other to-night," Bill said, as they took the trail.
They had travelled little more than a hundred yards, when Henry, who was in front, bent down and picked up something with which his snowshoe had collided.

It was dark, and he could not see it, but he recognised it by the touch.

He flung it back, so that it struck the sled and bounced along until it fetched up on Bill's snowshoes.
"Mebbe you'll need that in your business," Henry said.
Bill uttered an exclamation.

It was all that was left of Spanker--the stick with which he had been tied.
"They ate 'm hide an' all," Bill announced.

"The stick's as clean as a whistle.