Hostage by Chris Ryan

Author:Chris Ryan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 2004-06-03T04:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

‘There they are,’ said Amaruk the next morning. ‘Sixteen dogs. Two teams.’

Amber, Hex, Li and Paulo looked out over the crisp, new snow. The blizzard had subsided during the night and the day was bright and clear, but they could see no sign of the dogs.

‘Where?’ demanded Amber.

Amaruk gave a high, clear whistle and suddenly sixteen dogs exploded out of the ground. They had all been curled up under a blanket of snow, with their paws and noses tucked neatly under their tails, but now they were ready for action, running in circles on the end of their tether ropes and yipping excitedly.

‘First team here,’ said Amaruk, pointing to the first row of dogs. ‘Second team behind them. You’ll be driving the first team, Amber. The second team’s still learning how to do it right so I’ll take them. We’ll give them a quick run before they have breakfast. Give you a chance to get used to mushing before we set off for the mine.’

Amber hurried along beside Amaruk with a broad grin on her face. She was looking forward to this. When Amaruk had explained that they would have to take two sleds as each one carried a maximum of three people, including the driver, she had instantly volunteered to be the second driver.

Amaruk pulled the covering from his two sleds and began yanking one of them back and forth to break the runners out of the ice.

‘I can see why we need two sleds,’ said Paulo, grabbing the other sled and copying Amaruk’s technique. ‘They are not very big.’

The sleds were lightweight baskets made out of lashed hickory. They were attached to long runners made of tough polyethylene plastic which had been polished until it was as smooth as glass. At the rear of the sled, the frame rose up into a curved handlebar. Behind the handlebar, a pair of rubber footprints were set into a plate where the driver, known as the musher, stood.

The dogs grew even more frenzied as Amaruk and Paulo pushed the sleds across the snow towards them.

‘Are they friendly?’ asked Hex, watching the dogs warily.

‘Most of them,’ said Amaruk, picking a tangle of harnesses from the sled. ‘Come on, I’ll introduce you as we harness them up.’

Amaruk selected a long length of nylon rope just over a centimetre in diameter. ‘This is called the gangline,’ he said as he attached the rope to the front of the sled, then laid the length of it out along the snow. ‘It’s the main line. You attach all your dogs to the gangline in staggered pairs, using these.’

He held up eight short lengths of rope, each half a centimetre in diameter. ‘These are the tuglines and they clip on to the dog’s harness. See?’ Amaruk picked up a harness and showed them the metal ring on the padded straps. ‘The dog’s front legs go through these side loops here and the straps transfer the strain of pulling to the dog’s chest and shoulders. That’s partly why a team of eight can pull a weight of three hundred kilos without even breaking into a sweat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.