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XI . A Thousand Pounds That winter , in Dawson , Buck did something that made his name even more famous . It began in the Eldorado Saloon , where men were boasting about their dogs . Because of Buck’s fame , everybody wanted to prove that their own dog was better , and Thornton defended him firmly . One man said that his dog could start a sled with five hundred pounds on it and walk off with it . A second man said six hundred for his dog , and a third said seven hundred . “ Pooh ! ” said John Thornton . “ Buck can start a thousand pounds . ” “ And break it out , and walk off with it for a hundred yards ? ” asked Matthewson , a rich mine owner , the man who had boasted about seven hundred . “ And break it out , and walk off with it for a hundred yards , ” Thornton said coolly . “ Well , ” Matthewson said slowly , so that everyone could hear , “ I’ve got a thousand dollars that says he can’t . And there it is . ” He threw a heavy bag of gold dust down on the bar . Nobody spoke . Thornton felt the blood rise into his face . His tongue had tricked him . He did not know whether Buck could start a thousand pounds . Half a ton ! And he had no thousand dollars , and neither had Hans or Pete . “ I’ve got a sled standing outside now , with twenty fifty - pound sacks of flour on it , ” Matthewson went on . “ So don’t let that stop you . ” Thornton did not reply . He looked from face to face , like a man who has lost the power to think . Then he saw the face of Jim O’Brien , an old friend who had grown rich from gold . That face gave him an idea that he would never have had otherwise . “ Can you lend me a thousand ? ” he asked , almost in a whisper . “ Sure , ” answered O’Brien , and he put a fat bag down beside the other one . “ But I don’t believe much , John , that the animal can do it . ” Everybody in the Eldorado went out into the street to watch . Several hundred men in furs and gloves stood around the sled . It had been standing outside for a couple of hours , and in the terrible cold , sixty degrees below zero , its runners had frozen to the hard snow . Then there was an argument about the words “ break it out . ” O’Brien said that Thornton could knock the runners loose first . Matthewson said that breaking them free from the snow was part of the bet . Most of the men agreed with Matthewson , and now the odds went up to three to one against Buck . Nobody believed that Buck could do it . Thornton himself was full of doubt . When he looked at the sled , with its usual team of ten dogs lying in the snow in front of it , the task seemed even more impossible .
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