Page:Silversheene (1924).djvu/114

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Nor was the team the only part of the outfit that worked, for Gene himself ran the thirty or forty miles with his hand resting lightly on the "gee" pole, or even went ahead and broke track for the team when the going was bad.

Few men in the Yukon were better drivers, or could cover more miles in a day than Gene Gordet. He was six feet two inches in his stockings and weighed one hundred and ninety pounds. His muscles were like whipcords and his nerves like steel. He had wind like a moose and could run for hours behind the sled without fatigue.

His favorite stunt was to come into some snowbound Yukon trading post after a day's run of forty or fifty miles, and after bolting his supper and hot coffee, to join himself with the revellers in some dance hall and then dance all night, and even a part of the next day.

He never pushed his dog team beyond the day's work that he himself was willing to do. He was not a hard master as drivers