 The challenge of the Yukon. On King! On New Huskies! The Wonder Dog King, swiftest and strongest of Eskimoly 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 Monty 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. Near a small cabin about five miles outside of the town of Selkirk, two men were busy with picking shovel, digging a grave. Hey, gosh, Jake, ain't this deep enough? No, we better dig deeper. I don't know why we had to get stuck with this job. Miss Charlie would have died in summer. Well, made enough off in plain poker to make up for doing this. I can't see why he stayed out here. Just about enough off this claim to keep him and his wife. They both liked it here. And Charlie was always sure he'd strike a big vein of gold around this place. Yeah, nothing like hoping. Hey, Jake, look at this piece of ground I just dug up. Where? What do you mean? This way. Look at this. Mac, that looks like pay dirt. Looks like it. It is. There's a rich vein of gold running right through this grave. I had to think poor Charlie had to die to find it. He didn't find it. We did. But Mac, it's his land and a blast to Sarah now. It will if her fool's enough to tell her about it. What do you mean? We ain't saying nothing about this. We'll cover this loose dirt with spruce branches until we bury Charlie. Yeah. His wife ought to sell this place cheap. She ain't got any use for it. I'll make her know of her. We'll be rich, Mac. Jake, Mac. There she is now. Yes, Sarah. I got some hot tea ready for you. We'll be right in. Do you think we could say something about buying the place now? No harm in sounding her out. Come on. We can finish here later. You better let me do most the talking, Jake. I'll take it easy like that suits me. Sit down at the table, boys. Tea's all ready. Thanks, Sarah. It's your place of view without your trouble. To do what you're doing. Here's your tea. It'd be good for your cold, Mac. Charlie sure looks peaceful lying there. Yes, it doesn't be, though. Oh, but it near breaks my heart to watch Chief, their dog of his. Look at him. Didn't even move when he come in. He's been lying there beside that coffin all morning. He's sure a beautiful dog, ain't he? He loved Charlie, so they was always together. Are you going to keep him? Keep Chief? Well, I should say I am. Well, he's almost like having part of Charlie. I thought maybe you'd be going back to the States, Sarah. You mean leave here? Well, yeah. Now, uh, Jake and I are kind of interested in buying a claim. We'd be glad to take this one off your hands. No, no, I ain't leaving. You see, Charlie left the claim to me and our grandson, Jim. Jim's coming up here to work it. Oh. Charlie wrote him long before he died. And Jim will be up here in a couple of weeks. I'm going down to Whitehorse to meet him. It'll be a good idea for you to get away for a while. Sir, don't you think it'd be a better idea for you to sell out? This is rough country here. There's no place for one. But it's a beautiful country, and I love it. Oh, I want to stay right here and be buried beside Charlie under the spruce tree near the creek. No, even though maybe it don't mean a fine living, I'm staying here. It was two days after Charles' funeral, and Sergeant Paston of the Northwest Monty Police dropped in to see Sarah, with him was his lead dog, King. Quiet, boy. Well, I brought these papers from town for you, Sarah. Everything's in order. The claim is yours and your grandson's. Thank you, sir. Now I can leave for Whitehorse tomorrow without worrying. There's just one more favor I want to ask of you. Well, I'll be glad to help you with anything, Sarah. It's Chief, Charlie's dog. I don't know what to do about him. Yes, I noticed him lying on Charlie's grave. He won't leave that grave. Stays there all the time, night and day. I have to take food out to him, and he hardly eats a thing. He's grieving, boy, far. I was going to take him to Whitehorse with me, but I know he won't come and get Simmons. Doing enough just taking me without having to worry about getting Chief to come with us, if you don't want to. Well, I'll watch out for him, Sarah. I have to make a quick trip north of here, and I'll be back in three or four days. He'll be all right here for that time. I'll eat food for him. I'll go over to my cabin for a few days and let him run with my team for a while. Oh, Sergeant, that'll be fine. I think after my grandson's here, Chief will be all right. Well, let him stay here until I get back. Then you won't have to worry about it. I'll give him lots of attention. He'll get over this. Well, King, guess we better start. Oh, I won't be seeing you for a couple of weeks, Sergeant. Thanks for all you've done. Oh, that's all right, Sarah. You have a good trip, and don't worry. Don't you think we're taking too much of a chance coming out here in daylight, Mac? Oh, Charlie's place is way off the trail. Nobody ever comes this way. We've got to work in daylight. If we want to work fast, Sarah'll be going two weeks. We've got to get enough gold out of there, but then they'll just arrest our lives. What do we do if someone sees us? We'll just say we're seeing that Charlie's grave is all right. We've got to hurry up the branches. First, we've got to bury him somewhere else. Yeah, here we are. Hey, look, Sarah didn't take that dog with her. He's lying on the grave. Well, for the... Yeah, well, he won't bother. He won't bother, huh? Look at him snarling. He won't even let us take a branch of spruce off it. Get over there, you curve! Yeah. He'll get off and take a leg off one of us. Yeah. We're going to have to shoot him. Yeah, I guess we'd better. Seems a shame, though. He's a valuable dog. Say, Jake, that man we met in the bar last night, what's his name? Well, Peters. The one who's going north. He said he'd pay 250 for a good sled dog. One of his died. Yeah, but we couldn't... I bet we could get more on that for chief. There ain't many trained sled dogs like him. Look. You go to town and see the Speeders. Bring him out here in his way north. Do you think you can handle chief? Of course I can handle him. He never seen a dog that couldn't handle. I'll rope him and muzzle him. Once Peters gets him in harness, he can control him. Wouldn't it be easier to shoot him? The time it takes to do all that while we... Listen, Jake, we're going to need some ready gear to get this stuff out of here. We can't use the gold we take from here. People start asking questions. Yeah. We don't know just how much they'll be. Go ahead now before Peters gets away. And I'll have this group waiting. Two days later, sergeant Preston was on his way back to Selkirk. The late Don was just breaking when he saw a man beside the trail up ahead. Okay. Good morning. Oh, hello. Monty, eh? Yes, I'm sergeant Preston. You were just breaking camp? Yes. I'm on my way north. I've just had some bad luck. Anything I can do to help? I just lost one of the best sled dogs I've ever had. I bought him two days ago in Selkirk. He chewed himself loose last night and run away. Don't see how I can get along without him. I'm carrying a heavy load. Maybe we can find him. I've been having bad luck with my dogs anyway. Yesterday, that big gray one over there cut his foot. I guess I'll just have to wait until it's healed before I go on. What kind of dog did you buy in Selkirk? He was a big white Siberian, a beauty. I paid $275 for him. He was right in his prime. One of the strongest dogs I ever had. Who sold him to you? Maybe he went back to his master. Bought him from two men I didn't ask their names. I heard one call the other Jake. The dog's name was Chief. Chief. And you say he was a white Siberian? Yeah, that's kind of a common name for a sled dog. I guess upon everybody, he's had a dog named Chief. Well, everybody has a Siberian like the Chief thinking of. Yeah, he didn't want to come with me. They had him roped and muzzled. After I got him into harness, he was all right. Well, I'm afraid the men who sold you that dog had no right to do it. If it's a dog I'm thinking of, it didn't belong to them. You mean they stole him? What, they sold him to me right in front of their own cabin about five miles to Selkirk? Oh, they did. Well, if you weren't in too much of a hurry to get north, Peters, we'll find the dog you lost. Well, they can't leave now without a strong enough dog team, but how are you going to get... My dog will trail him. Let your lame dog run free, and I'll let you have one of mine going back. If the dog's the one I think he is, you'll get your money back if you can identify the men who sold him to you. They sold me a stolen dog. I'd like to get my hands on him. I'll give you this dog for your sled. Uh, where was Chief Tide last night? Right here, right to this tree. Here, King. These tracks, boy. Find Chief. Darkness had fallen, but a bright moon lighted the trail. Sergeant Preston and Peters followed King as he trailed the dog Chief. It was close to midnight when they entered the clearing beside Sarah's cabin. The dog I thought it was all right, Peters. He had it right back to his master's grave. You see him anywhere, Preston? Well, I thought he'd be over there. That's where Charlie's buried near that spruce tree. Well, that sounds as if King found him. Come on. What is it, King? Do you find him? There he is, lying right over there near that clump of trees. Yes. Hello, Chief. What are you doing here, boy? Are you sure that isn't where they buried his owner? He doesn't seem to want to leave that spot. Oh, that's odd. The ground here seems to have been disturbed. Have you a lantern on your sled, Peters? Yes, I'll get it. I'm going to have a look at Charlie's grave. Hey, King, come along. You found Chief, boy. Good work. Here's where Charlie was buried. Here's the lantern. They've got the grave covered with spruce branches. Hey, that just cobbles a big hole. There's nothing buried there. The coffin's been moved. Now, why do you suppose anyone would... shine the lantern down here, would you, Peters? Somebody's been digging that out. Look how wide they made it. Looks as though somebody found a pocket of gold in Charlie's grave. I wonder they wanted to get rid of Chief. You mean they knew about the gold and wanted to move the body? That's how it looks. Well, Peters, we have work to do. We'll take these dog deems back over the hill out of sight and cover our tracks. We'll wait in the cabin until daylight, and I think we'll find our grave robbers. The pale light of dawn was streaking the eastern sky. I hope we get as much gold out today as we did yesterday, Mac. That vein is even bigger than we thought it was. We'll get enough out of there before Sarah comes back to make us mindy rich men. She'll never know the difference. I'll get these branches off here. Say, look, over where we buried Charlie. Ain't that Chief? Say, that is Chief. He must have got away and come home. He's found out where we buried Charlie. Look, he's laying on the spot. We should have shot him. I knew it. Well, it ain't too late. I'll take care of that now. You get down this whole start digging. I'll take care of that dog. Don't look where you are, Mac. Watch him, King. Put that gun before my dog gets worried about it. Preston, where did you... All right, Jake, I'm out of that grave. These are the men that saw him in the dog, Sergeant. I don't know what he's talking about. Oh, yes, you do. We trailed Chief back here when he ran away from Peters, and my dog doesn't make mistakes. Well, we thought Sarah wouldn't want him. We were going to give her the money. Yeah, yeah, that's what we were going to do. Well, they can give me the money instead. And that's not all you're going to give back. You're going to return every speck of gold that you dug out of Charlie's grave. Why, you... He's got a gun shot! Go away! Take him off! Help! All right, Jake, get up. He had that gun hidden. I never saw anything move faster than that dog. I don't want you to watch for that. All right, Mac, get over here beside Jake. You're both under arrest. I'm handcuffing you. Sergeant Preston, if you'd consider selling that doggy all the time... Don't even name a price, Peters. No money could buy a king. Good boy. These copyrighted dramas originate from studios of WXY Z Detroit, and all characters, names, places, and incidents used are fictitious. They are sent to you each week at the same time and reach you from our transcription studios. View holders speaking. This is the Michigan Radio Network.