 the challenge of the Yukon. The Wonder Dog King, swiftest and strongest of Estimal lead dogs, blazes the trail through storm and snow for Sergeant Preston, as he meets the challenge of the Yukon. Sergeant Preston was typical of the small band of Northwest mounted police who preserved law and order in the new Northwest country where the greed for wealth and power led to frequent violence and bloodshed. But in spite of the odds against them, Sergeant Preston and his Wonder Dog King met that challenge and justice ruled triumphant. It was early spring in the North country, the rivers were frozen and the snow covered the ground, but the days were lengthening. Sergeant Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police was making a patrol from the Selkirk to Whitehorst. About five miles out of town, he stopped his dog team as he recognized the prospector. Hello! Hello, Sergeant Preston! Hello there, Bill! Hello, Sergeant Preston! How are you? Fine, thanks. Anything new around here? No. I'm just on the way over to see Pete Tracy and Little Jones. They ain't seen them for over a week. Well, I'll go with you. Maybe people give us some supper. I sure they will. Come on along. Untang! Untang, you hushies! How's Pete getting along? This time, his wife dying the way she did is pretty hard on him. His claims sure are paying off, though. He's taking lots of gold out of it. Must be hard for that little girl it is, John. It's downright pitiful the way, the way she's tried to take her mother's place. Poor kid ain't bigger in a minute and she's even tried to cook and keep the house clean. Are they rough on a nature, Roland? Well, there isn't much Pete can do. He had to get the gold out of his claim and he hasn't a relative in the world to send John to. Poor kid. Well, if Pete figures he's got enough now or will have at the end of the summer, leave the Yukon and take John back to civilization. Glad to hear it. Well, here's the cabin hooking. Hurry up! Okay. Door's open, huh? Guess I have to go on out and not shut it tight. I better get in there and poke out the fire before they get back. Nobody here. They probably are. Bill, look. My gosh. Pete. He's dead. Shot through the head. Yeah. Well, I wonder where John is. In here. Is that number, Sharpen? Bill, did Pete have any enemies? Not that I know of. Wait a minute. Sharpen, look. Here's why they killed him. Bobby, found out where his gold was hidden. See that blue sport pulled up out of the floor? Yes. That's where he kept it. He showed it to me once. He had between $15,000 and $20,000 worth of gold hidden there. Oh, why didn't he put it in the bank? I told him to, but it's far out of town. And he thought it was safe. Well, it's gone. Well, why wouldn't they kill John, too? Where do you think it's... It's easy for some people to kill a man. When it comes to murdering a defenseless little girl, even a hardened criminal will hesitate. But... Come on, Bill. There must be some tracks around here somewhere. Here, King. Come here, Bill. Look, Preston. Here's some tracks leading north. Yes. Tracks of two men. And here's some smaller ones. They must be John's. Snow's all disturbed. And her tracks don't go no further. She probably wouldn't go with them. They clipped her up. I'm following this trail right away. Is it all right if I go with you, Preston? Pete was a good friend of mine. All right, Bill. I may need you in case we find John. If we abandon her somewhere, you'll have to bring her back. We'll put Pete's body in his bunk and bury him when we get back. Darkness had fallen, but Sergeant Preston and Bill kept on. King, Preston's huge lead dog, led them on the trail of the murderers when it was too dark to see the tracks in the snow. It was past dawn when they came to Lake La Barre. Oh, King. Hi, I'll see you. Here's the lake. Suppose they tried to cross it? No, it's too dangerous this time of year. I wish it were lighter. John's just breaking. He can't see very far. Hey, Sergeant. Huh? Look out there on the lake. Can you see somebody? What? Yeah, I can barely see them. Preston, they've gone to the ice. All the fools they should never have tried to cross. Come on, Bill. Jones with them. We'll leave the dogs here. A quick netball. It's too late. They're half a mile away. We'll have to try. Here, King. Hurry, Bill. Careful, Bill. This ice is treacherous. That's no use. There's a hole we went through. Not a sign of any of them. Oh, little Jones. Oh, if it went through her, I'd say good riddance. Dirty rats taking a child across here this time of year. Well, nothing we can do. Come on, King. We may as well go back. The bright spring sunshine dazzled the eyes of little John. The memory of a night of terror and horrid laughter, and she gazed with puzzled wonder in the face of a little old man who was bending over her anxiously. His gray hair hung to his shoulders from under his cap and a long white beard hit the lower part of his face, but his eyes were a lively blue. Joan found she was wrapped in blankets and a big fire was burning beside her. The little old man spoke in a quiet voice. Now, don't you get scared, honey. There's nothing going to hurt you. Try drinking this warm tea. Yeah, that's the girl. Sure was lucky I come along. Neither froze clean through. You found it? I sure did. You lost? Those men. They were taking me away. I ran away from them in the middle of the night while they were sleeping. Men were taking you away? Where's your home? Home? They killed my dad. I saw them shoot him. No, no, no. Don't talk about it. You can tell me nothing. This ain't no, honey. Yeah, just try drinking some more of this tea. There, that's it, honey. Now, what's your name? It's Joan. Joan Tracy. What do you want? Well, I'm just dead. You can call me Uncle Jed, if you want to. Uncle Jed. Yeah, and as soon as you feel a mind stronger, I'm going to take you to my house and feed you. Now, take just a little more of this tea. Thank you. I bet you never saw the kind of a house I live in. It's way back in the side of a mountain. The most beautiful cave you ever did see. You live in a cave? Yeah, and you're going to be the first human being besides me ever to see it. Spring had passed and summer was well on the way in the Yukon. Streams gurgled down the mountains from the snow-capped peaks to the rich green valleys below. Sergeant Preston, on horseback with his dog King running free beside him, was cutting cross country over the slopes toward Whitehorse. King stopped to drink from a small stream toward the base of a hill, and Preston stopped his horse for a moment to rest. Oh, oh, there. That's the rest of the world. What's wrong, King? Where are you? What is that? Oh, what's wrong with it? Find something, fellow? Well, what's this? I swear they're lying beside the stream. It hasn't been here very long, either. Well, that's funny. No one lives with them 15 miles a day. I wonder if you can trace her, King? Come on, let's try it. All right, fellow, find her. Leaving his horse, Preston followed King as the dog let him downstream through the pickets. The mounting pause suddenly, softly called King to his side as the clear laughter of a child rang out from a clump of trees ahead. 15, behind me, fellow. Beaver whose unguided slap is there on the water? Well, that's the thing, you said go to the restroom to get out of sight. I'm sorry, Uncle King. I just couldn't help laughing. He looked just like a funny little old grandfathers sitting here. Yes, yes, yes, you're right. And if he had a white beard, he'd look just like me. Oh, no. You don't look like a beaver with a beard. Well, you want to stay here when they come back and finish building the dam or are you tired? You've been shipping one place a long time. Oh, I could stay here all day and watch them. Oh, they gnaw those trees down with their teeth and made them fall just right as in plastered up the teeth with their tails. Why, it's the most wonderful thing I ever saw. Man can learn a lot from animals. Beavers know as much about engineering as humans and they don't have to go to school to learn. Well, Joni, we'd better get there. Come on. It's John. John. Who is it? John. It's really you. It was Sergeant Franklin and King. Where did you come from? Well, it's John. I thought you were... How'd you get here? Uncle Jack saw me. It was... It was when... Now, remember, John. You promised me you'd never talk about it again. I'll tell the side just all about it. I'm Jen Haskins, Sergeant. How do you do, then? We've been watching some beavers build a dam. Uncle Jen knows all about wild animals and they know him and aren't even afraid of him. Could we take him up to our cave and show him the baby fox, Uncle Jack? Why, sure, sure. Maybe he'll stay and have supper with us. How about it, Sergeant? Well, yes, I'm going to. I left my horse back then. Oh, Sergeant, I can't wait to show you everything. It's... Oh, it's just like fairy land. The Bright Moon bathed the mountain slope in silver, as Preston sat before the large, comfortable cave that was Uncle Jed's home. A deep silence had settled over the Northland, broken only by the occasional howl of the coyotes. Are you inside, Preston? Yes, I am. I used to be afraid, but then Uncle Jed told me they look up at that beautiful moon and they just have to throw back their heads and sing. Oh, well, I guess that's right. Look how the moon makes my beads shine. Your beads? Uh-huh. Uncle Jed made them for me. Aren't they pretty? What? What a gold nugget. Tony, I think it's your bedtime, honey. You can talk to Sergeant Preston again in the morning. All right, Uncle Jed. Sergeant Preston, tomorrow morning you can help me see the big bat, that bear and her cubs. She brings them here every day. I'll see you in the morning, John. Good night. Good night. Good night, Uncle Jed. Good night. Good night, honey. She's the happiest child I've ever seen, Jed. When did you find her? The second I found her early one morning. You know what happened to her father? Yes, and I thought John was drowned. The men who killed her father went through the ice on Lake Labarge. I didn't know that. If you want to escape from them, the first time they made camp, she was lost when I found her wandering in the hills. Poor child. The shock must have been terrific. Yeah, she was in bad shape all right. It took a month to get her back to normal. I suppose I should have brought her back, Sergeant, but she said she didn't have nobody. It's been so nice having her. I guess I didn't realize before I was so lonely. She hasn't done anybody, Jed. Of course. I know she can't stay up here with me through the winter. And I ain't got too many summers left to go, but I'm going to miss her. Why do you live like this, Jed? Those nuggets who gave John, where'd you got them? I got plenty of them. And there's lots more where they come from. Years ago, I decided I didn't like the world of men. Here, I've had the peace I want, away from murder and greed. But I can't have John. She'll need school. Now, Jed, stop worrying. I'm not going to take her away from you. This has been the best thing that could have happened to her. Sergeant Preston, you mean it, aren't you? You can adopt her legally, Jed. Of course, you'll have to send her away to school in the winter. But summers. She can come back up here in the summers. A few summers I have left. You know, Jed, I think that those summers will teach John more than she'd ever learned in school. Sergeant Preston, I don't know how to take... Well, King's doing it for him. He looked up at the moon and I was joining him. He's so happy he just had to throw back his head and say, Stop Your Riding Dramas originate in the studios of WXYZ, Detroit, and all characters, names, places and incidents used are fictitious. Larry McCann speaking, this is the Michigan Radio Network.