 The challenge of the Yukon. The North King, swiftest and strongest of Eskimo 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. Sergeant Preston and the Great Dog King had stopped for the night at Mark Willoughby's small cabin. Although it was close to the time when spring would come to the North country, winter still held the land in an icy grasp that would be broken only when the Chinook wind swept across it to free lakes and rivers and the snowbound earth. With the wind whipping about the snug building, the warmth and comfort indoors were welcomed to the Mount A and he leaned back, tilting his chair as he looked about him. You know, Mart, a man could just stand in the doorway of this cabin and he'd know immediately the place had a woman right next to him. Yeah, that's true. Well, I'll have you know I just put up with Julie's fripplies to please a girl. The same thing they say, having drapes on the windows and everything. You object, huh? Much good to do me if I did. That girl does pretty much what she wants to. Besides, she finds the time to spoil her older dad. What's that you're telling, Dad? He's just telling me what a good housekeeper you are, Julie. Oh, he is, is he? Well, he puts up an awful fuss, Sergeant. But I say that if you're going to live in this wilderness, you might as well make a home out of it. You've done a fine job. Go on, praise her. Praise her and flatter her, man. Don't you know she's hot enough to get along with anyway? Once her head's turned with a blitter, flatter me? He's like that all the time, Sergeant. But don't let him fool you. He really likes having the cabin fixed this way. And it's glad I am that the Sergeant's staying here tonight instead of with that old horse traded down the trail a bit. Bishop? Yeah, Bishop. Any man who's swear by horses instead of dogs in a country like this ain't fit to associate with me. Now, wait a minute, Mart. Simon's a pretty good chap. Hey! Now, if in my estimation he ain't an unreasonable stubborn curse, can't talk shancy and do no well. How a man figures to keep a pack of horses and refuses to have anything to do with dogs, clearly it's beyond me. Oh, sir, you're talking to a dog lover, Sergeant. You and me have a lot in common. But then be sure... Honestly, Sergeant, if this isn't the silliest sort of feud I ever heard of, they keep at it all the time when they're talking, which isn't even half of the time. Jim and his father are both very nice. Well, that'll be enough out of you, girl. I'll have no daughter of mine sticking up for them that don't love understand or appreciate dogs. And you call Simon Bishop unreasonable. It seems to me, Mart, there's a lot to be said for both of you. A lot of men keep horses up here and find them very useful. Yeah, well, I ain't one of them. I can't say every soul horse was worth a hair took to feed them. That's my last word on it. Two grown men refusing to talk to each other practically, because one loves horses and the other loves dogs. It couldn't happen anywhere but in the Yukon. Oh, you're right there. In a country as lonely as this is, small things have a tendency to be more irritating. You know, I've known men to live together in a cabin where they've been cut off from the rest of the world entirely. And invariably, before many months have passed, they've ceased speaking to each other. Oh, it's a terrible thing. Nothing terrible about it. Plain is a new, so vicious face. He's wrong, but he's too stubborn to admit it. Horses might be all right in that bluegrass country he comes from back in the United States, but every animal has its element. And horses just wasn't made for the Yukon. And a man that says they are is plain stupid. Oh, now, who do you suppose that could be? I'll see what it is, Charles. Can't imagine who'd be coming this time of night. Move it. Speak of the devil. Now, don't go getting any full notions in that head of yours, Willoughby. Me and Jim hired the sergeant with Stan at your cabin. We dropped over to ask him to stop by at our place tomorrow for a few minutes. That's all right. Well, you can... Your money's well coming out of the cold for a minute and telling yourself, I guess. I ain't delivering any messages for years. How are you, Simon? Hello there, Jim. Hello, Sergeant. Will, will you sit down for a few minutes? No, sir. I mean, ma'am. We didn't come over here looking for no hospitality. Oh, well, Sergeant, you'll be hitting the trail tomorrow morning? Yes, that's right. Well, if you got the time, me and Jim would like to have you stop by for a few minutes. Seeing as how you kinda got off on the wrong track staying here, of course, you come to it before you come to our place. So I can't say I's a blame you much. Well, look here, Simon. Bishop, as long as you're in my house, I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head. It's folks you're to welcome in this house and them that ain't dead. And you don't have to get so high and mighty with me. You fish-dryin' kennelkeeper. We ain't staying. And we won't miss you men when you leave. Just a minute, Ma'am. I think... We're leaving, Sergeant. But like I said, me and Jim will be looking for you tomorrow. Good night, Mr. Bishop. Good night, Jim. I'll see you in the morning, Simon. Well, Sergeant, I thought you was a man of more choosy company. Dad, you certainly didn't make them feel very welcome. Why should I? You heard what they called me, didn't you? Kennelkeeper. I'll show that blacksmith who's right and mark my words, I will. Of course, he's in the Yukon. If you was the right thinkin' daughter, you would've asked him to stay. Well, I guess I'll turn in. I hate to see two men as fine as you and Simon Bishop feuding over a difference of opinion. Martin, some day you might both need each other's help. Not much I'll ever need his help. I'll put some oil in this other lamp for you, Sergeant. And what do you think of the Bishop's, Julie? The younger one, especially. The younger... Oh, you mean Jim. Well, I... I don't think that... I thought so. You thought what, Sergeant? When Jim walked in here, he had eyes for only one person in this room. You're not so difficult to read yourself. Well... I don't know. Let's hope it all works out for the best. This morning, Sergeant Preston left the small cabin, intending to stop for a short time at Simon Bishop's cabin, and then continue on into the country of the Yukon Indians. Meanwhile, life went on as usual for Mark Willoughby. He left his cabin early in the morning and worked almost till darkness, looking for the gold that had led thousands to the North Country. Well, it is mighty nice of you to stop for a minute, yeah? Well, I was on my way to the cabin. I thought I would stop in to see Julie. Yeah. Yeah. She is a very beautiful girl, Mr. Willoughby. I think that young Jim Bishop thinks the same thing. And the young man, you do not like him, huh? Like him! I ain't got time for neither one of them pieces. Neither does my daughter for that matter. Look at that! You chose a wise spot this morning. Wise! Why, it's the best. Here, let me get some more of that dead, Dad. Oh, my God, and this place is full of it! I'm rich! Where did Julie hear us about it? Several hours later, Mark Willoughby was back at the cabin, excitedly getting ready for a trip to Seahorse City. So I took one look at it, and I said to myself, this is it. We are rich, Julie, and me. Dad! Hey, I hand me my mac and horror with you, Julie. Pierre Bouchard was with you at the creek. Yes, he was. Well, he came by here not 15 minutes before you got home, and he was heading towards town. Didn't to a town? Why, he said he was going to stop by at the cabin to see you. Well, he didn't. And what's more, I watched him. He didn't take the turn in the trail to head out to his place. I tell you, he was going to see Horse City, Dad, and I don't like it. I don't like to think you're right. But then you can't trust nobody. Come on, Julie girl, we ain't waiting any time. As Mark Willoughby and his daughter Julie approached Blackstone Creek, the old prospector slowed the dogs. Farther up the creek, countless hundreds of men worked along the banks, seeking in the rich soil the gold that had been there for centuries. Below them, there was a widening in the creek where the silt and their sluicing operations had overflowed the whole creek bed, making a flat of quicksand about a quarter of a mile wide. That particular part of the country had been dotted with prospect holes, 12 to 14 feet deep, and the silt had covered everything so that it was impossible to know whether the apparently flat mud was a quarter of an inch deep or the depth of the deepest hole. Very easy there, you huskies. Oh, Dad, this is treacherous. You better get out of the sled. Be careful, Dad. Yeah. I'll try using this pole here. Going along like a blind man, trying to see where it's safe to step. The dog! The dog's in a whole sled. They'll go under. Oh, Dad, stay away from me. Come find it. I gotta do something. I can't stand here and watch my own team be swallowed up like there was nothing. Oh, we've got to get help. Dad, look! Somebody's coming. I sure hope they get here in time. Yeah, it's time, Bishop. Hey, Sergeant! Okay, hold me a little bit more. All right, all right, all right, all right. It's a couple of miles. It's my team. I'll lose them. My team in the gold. It's under the tarp on the sled. The whole business, it's just... Sign! Bring your horse over here. Hurry! Acting quickly, the policeman fastened a rope to the sled that was trapped in the quicksand. The floundering dogs barking helplessly in the clutches of the mud that sucked at them. All right, sign. Get him moving. Get him! Bluegrass! Come on, sign! His work glued to the sled and dog team that were slowly pulled from the muddy and oozing death trap. As Mark watched, the realization gradually came to him that if it had not been for Sign's horse, his dogs in which he had such pride would have been swallowed up in the treacherous mud hole. And when he saw that this strong and willing horse had finally pulled his dog team to safety, he also realized that Sign's pride in his horses was not unfounded. Though at the moment he said nothing about it, he determined to make amends for his heretofore unreasonable actions toward the man whose horse had saved the dogs he loved. Yeah, they're all right. The dogs are all right. Well, I sure they're all right, old Edgy. They've probably swallowed a powerful lot of mud. Oh, by golly, I sure am glad you came a lot. You've been stupid. I nearly forgot. Sergeant, how about taking us into town? I gotta get to City before that pier Bouchard beats me to the recorder's office. Short time later, outside the claim recorder's office in Seahorse City, Mark Willoughby stood with a proud but somewhat cheapy's expression on his face. Yeah, that horse of yours did a bloody nice job of putting my dogs out of that hole. You know what I mean? It'd be dead now if it wasn't for him, Sign. Yes. And Sergeant Preston's dog sure burned the wind getting into town in time to beat Bouchard. Good animals, dog. Well, I can't sure that man lets eat hands on that. And see, I'll buy a round of drinks to the pull this horse every day. That's one bluegrass. Julie, I wonder if there's a minister in town. I don't know, Jim. Why? Well, while your father and mine are on speaking terms, we might as well take advantage of it. This way, they'll both be at the wedding. Oh, I see. A very good idea, Jim Bishop. Will I be your goer? And you two better see that King and I get an invitation to the wedding. Yes, fellow. I think everything here is going to be all right for quite a while. These copyrighted dramas originate in the studios of WXYZ Detroit. And all characters, names, places, and incidents used are fictitious. They're sent to you each week at the same time. This is Jack McCarthy speaking.