Half an hour later, after they'd finished dessert, Josh headed up the road in his pickup, while Tiffany started to walk back with Bullet and the pups. It was a nice evening, and she said she'd take the long way around. He found Mark and Jackie sitting out on their lawn again. "I heard you had a busy afternoon," he said as he got out of the truck.

"Yeah, didn't get a lot of work done," Mark agreed. "I take it Mike told you?"

"Just the basics," Josh said. "Kirsten said they hadn't broken it to Henry yet, and so we couldn't talk about it much."

"All these years," Mark said. "I never thought I'd see it happen. Henry was one of the good kids, and it's always bugged me. Did Mike tell you about the schedule?"

"He said it might not come off till next spring."

"It might have to be sooner," Mark admitted. "We don't want to screw up and lose the chance. We may go as soon as the rains break, without Rod and without Binky, but we've got a lot better chance of finding something if they're with us. But, if we wait too long we'll be getting back into the rains again. There's a chance this could come down over the winter, and, well, if we're gone for the Winter Festival and the races, we're gone."

"Any idea how long it's going to take?"

"No idea," Mark said. "It's a crapshoot. If he's dead, and that's ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent likely, we think we know within a square mile or so where his body ought to be. But a square mile of that jungle is a hell of a big area. There's a couple little villages nearby, and we think that someone there probably knows what happened. That's why we're willing to wait to see about taking Binky."

"Well, I don't know what to say, besides good luck," Josh said.

"We'll just have to wait and see," Mark said. "By the way, during one of the periods when Gil was heating up the phones, I got Binky off to the side for a few minutes."

"Yeah?"

"Well, let's just say that it's not too promising, right now. She reeled off half a dozen places, but they're way the hell and gone out in the woods, and hunting land has taken off like a skyrocket. The only things that fit your bill in fairly close are higher than hell, and, I'd suspect, more than you want to pay."

"Damn," Josh said. "I didn't see much that looked like it would fit when I went through the Record-Herald this morning."

"Did you talk to Dad about it?" Jackie wanted to know.

"Yeah," Josh said. "He wasn't opposed. In fact, he thought my finding a place was a pretty good idea."

"I think so, too," she agreed.

"Look," Mark said. "I know about your deal with Tiffany, where she works on summer training, and you work on winter training, not that it's any big secret. Given a choice, you'd like to be real close to here, wouldn't you?"

"Within a mile or so, I guess," Josh said. "I really hadn't thought that part of it out too far. But, I haven't seen any for sale signs right around here."

"There is one thing that Binky told me about," Mark said. "It'd be a lot of work, but might be what you're looking for."

"What's that?"

"There's a two and a half acre lot that adjoins our place here, on the east," Mark said. "I was a little surprised to find out that it was on sale. I thought about buying it a few years ago, but decided that there wasn't any point in it. It's listed for $4000, and that's a pretty good price. She said it'd been on the market a while, so you might get it if you offered three."

"That's that place with the little old barn, right? Just the other side of the field with the training trails, across the road from Mike, and up a little way?"

"Yeah."

"You're saying build a house, then, right? Mark, I don't have the time for it this summer. Besides, I wouldn't know where to start."

"The more I think about it," Mark said, "The more I think it's a pretty good idea, but I've had more time to think about it than you have."

Josh shook his head, but said, "So what are you thinking?"

"When Jackie and I got this place, it was way beyond living in," Mark said. "It'd been abandoned for years, the windows were out of it, the whole kit and kaboodle. We thought about building a new place, but with this being fieldstone, it was structurally sound, even though it needed a lot of work. We decided that it was worth trying to put some money into it to save it. So, we bought this little old mobile home -- it was really more like a big travel trailer -- parked it here, and lived in it for a couple years while we were working on the place."

"It was more like three years," Jackie said. "Of course, we spent most of our first year together in a tent, or on a shantyboat, and it seemed like it had all the space in the world."

"This sounds like it might have possibilities," Josh admitted.

"It's got more than possibilities," Mark said. "Look, there was a house there when we came here. Not a big house, but this guy from down in Camden, Lyle Borton, bought it and wanted to use it as a summer place. Well, back then, it just had a hand pump and an outhouse, and he didn't think too much about going outside in the mosquitos to take a dump, so he put in a well, a septic tank, and a leach bed. Lyle was there, oh, two or three summers, and then he died. I don't know everything about what happened, but I guess there was some kind of squabble in his family over who got what. Anyway, it sat there empty for two or three years, and then, one morning in the early spring, wetter than hell, we got up, and discovered it had burned to the ground. Officially, it was electrical, or some damn thing, but I always figured it was either for the insurance, or else someone wanted to spite someone. Frankly, I thought it had gone up for tax sale; maybe someone paid a few bucks on it as an investment. Might even be Binky, herself."

"I don't quite follow you," Josh said, shaking his head.

Mark smiled. "Binky may know the real estate listings like a computer, but there are some things she doesn't know. All that happened years before she came here. If she's the one that owns it, probably all she knows is that there's a tumbledown outhouse, a little barn in not much better shape, some old footers, and a small hole in the ground, if she even got back that far. The septic tank and leach bed are probably good; they don't age, anyway, and are good for years. That's five, maybe ten thousand bucks right there. The well is probably good, although the pump might not be. That could be a couple thousand bucks. There's an electric pole line that goes through the back yard, and a transformer already on the pole, so you'd only be out a few hundred bucks for electrical service. Phone, well, we can work something out; I'm the guy you'd want to see on that, anyway. Anyway, if she knew all that stuff were there, that lot would be listed at ten thousand, not four."

"You're saying, I could get an old beater of a mobile home, and be up and running for a few thousand dollars, and take my time about building a house?"

"See, I told you it was a good idea once you thought about it," Mark smiled. "Let's go take a look at it."

The three of them piled into Josh's pickup truck, and drove about a half a mile up the road toward the state road. Just past Mike and Kirsten's place, they stopped, at what Josh had always thought was an old, abandoned woods lane. Mark got out, and removed a couple of wires that stretched across the lane, then got back in the truck.

Josh drove up the lane. It was heavily grown up, and hard to see exactly where it went. "This used to be pretty good gravel," Mark said. "We'd have to cut the brush back, and mow it off to see what's there, but probably a little grading and a couple truckloads of crushed stone, and you'd have a pretty solid driveway."

They drove through the patch of woods, and over the top of a little hill. At the back side, there was an open area, where the barn and decayed outhouse sat. Mark's training field was dimly visible through the trees, a couple hundred yards to the west. Mike's house couldn't be seen at all; the little hill was in the way, but it was less than a quarter mile off. "There's plenty of room for a dog lot," Mark said. "The house used to sit right over there, near that dip in the ground. That was a root cellar, or something. If we hunt around, we should be able to find the footers. We're going to have to do some exploring to find where the sewage line cuts in, but I remember generally where it was from when Lyle put it in."

From there, they went over to check out the barn. It wasn't as bad as it had sounded from Mark's description. "Needs some work," Mark concluded. "It's sound enough, but needs to be tightened up a bit. It'd do for a garage, and to store straw and dog gear in. Probably you could get a couple wagonloads of straw up in the loft."

"You said she wants four thousand for this?" Josh asked.

"I don't know that it's Binky that owns it, for sure," Mark replied. "She has it listed for that. I kind of got the impression that she could be beat down. I'd throw an offer of three at her, and you might get her down five hundred bucks."

"I can pay cash, once I get to the bank," Josh said. "I'm sold."

"Look, it's going to cost some more," Mark said. "There's still going to be the cost of getting the electric in, fixing up the barn, firming up the driveway, putting in pads and service for a mobile home. And, you have to find one. Shouldn't be a problem; there are always cheap ones out there for sale. But, moving them isn't always cheap. You're probably going to have ten grand in this before it's over with, but, I'll tell you this: there's nothing else you can do that's going to be so cheap."

"Like I said, I'm sold," Josh said. "I don't have ten grand in the bank, but pretty close."

"At your age," Jackie counseled, "It'd probably be just as good an idea to take out a mortgage, even a small one, just to get some credit established. Put, say, half down, the balance over five years. I can talk to Frank Matson about it, if you'd like."

Josh glanced at his watch. It was after eight. "It's probably too late to call her at home," he said. "Look, tomorrow, can you call her up and set up an appointment for tomorrow evening?"

"Sure, no problem," Mark said. "Look, I'd better go with you. Binky can be a little, uh, overwhealming, when the subject comes to real estate. But, I think I can work with her. After all, I can cuss in Vietnamese, too."

"Thanks, Mark," Josh said. "I know I'm going to have to ask you for some help on this. You know all this stuff, and I don't. Besides, I'm going to be damn busy this summer."

"Hey," Mark smiled. "I figure it gets a couple dozen dogs out of my back yard."

When they drove back in, Tiffany was out behind Mark's barn, still in her bikini, throwing frisbees for a couple of the older dogs. "Where'd you go?" she asked.

"Out to look at something," Josh told her. There was no point in letting her know about the deal, just yet. It might not come off, after all.

She went back to playing with the dogs, while Josh, Mark, and Jackie sewed up some details. Mark went into the house, and tried to call Binky, but there was no answer. "Probably they're out somewhere," he reported.

"Well, tell you what," Josh said. "Jackie, I'll give you a call when we stop for lunch tomorrow, and you can tell me when and where."

"I'll run down and have a word with Frank, at the bank," she said. "Just to open discussions."

"I'd appreciate it," Josh said. "This working eleven, twelve hour a day stuff is going to make things difficult. Look, I've got to thank you guys, but I'd better be getting a move on."

"We'll see you tomorrow, most likely," Mark said. "You take it easy."

Josh called to Tiffany. "Hey, you want a ride home?"

"Sure," she said. "Let me get these dogs put away."

In a few minutes, Tiffany and Josh were riding down the road. "Josh, we've got to talk," she said. "There were just so many things we couldn't talk about when my folks were there."

"Yeah, it was a little awkward at spots, there," he said. "Tell you what. Let's stop at your place, you get a t-shirt and some jeans on, and ask your folks if I can take you to the Frostee Freeze for a cone or something. That'll give us an hour or so. We can't settle everything tonight, anyway."

A few minutes later, Tiffany was more appropriately dressed for the Frostee Freeze, and the two were heading down the road. "Look, except for the dogs you got from Dennis, I pretty well know what dogs we might as well get rid of," she said.

"Yeah, me too," Josh said. "I'm not quite ready to get rid of any of the dogs I got from Woody, but I figure Jack and Truck will be the first to go when that happens. They'd make a good starter for a team for somebody. Headlight, Stinker and Wolf, good-bye and good riddance. Bullet, but not till the pups are a little older, maybe this fall sometime. That's my dogs. The dogs that are yours, but officially mine, I figure Gustav, and maybe Pepper."

"Yeah, that's how I read it. Out of yours, I'd think maybe Polly, too," she said. "She's getting pretty old."

"Yeah, but she's still pretty fast. She'll do for sprints, but I figure that she's debatable for distance, just because of her foot problems, but maybe if we're careful, it'd be OK. We ought to be able to get another winter out of her, anyway. What do you think about the pups?"

"Boxcar and Sidetrack are keepers, until they prove otherwise," she said. "Bullet's pups are a lot of fun, and they may work out. It's just too early to tell, except for Skosh."

"Yeah, Skosh goes to the first good home we can find," Josh agreed. "If a good offer came along, I might trade a couple pups for an established adult dog, especially one that could be a good wheel dog."

"What does that leave?" she said, running it through her mind. "The five Woody dogs, assuming you keep Jack and Truck this year, and Signal. Of my dogs, Mongo, Pipeline, maybe Pepper, and the three my folks know I own. That's six each, but six good dogs each. That's not enough for Warsaw."

"Add three, maybe four, from Dennis' team," Josh said. "Magic sort of has to be a keeper. Eclipse and Crystal I seem to remember were pretty good, but we need to check them out. The others, well, I don't know enough about them, except I remember Dennis cussing at Clyde more than the rest combined. That gets us to a total of fifteen or sixteen. That gives us somewhere between seven and nine to trade with, not counting the pups. Either way, that gives us enough trade bait to run it up to maybe eighteen good dogs. That's more than adequate for Warsaw, at least for next year."

"I'm with what you said a week or two ago. I'd rather start for Warsaw with seven good dogs, rather than seven good ones and three dinks. But what about the year after that?"

"It is a problem," Josh said. If we have eighteen, assuming everybody starts, that's nine apiece. But, this only solves this year," Josh went on. You've got to figure that Polly, Jack and Truck will be out of it the year after next. Spirit and Crosstie may be iffy. That's three, maybe five, we'll have to replace after next winter, and only two good pups we're pretty sure can replace them."

"It's a problem," Tiffany frowned.

"Yeah, this is going to have to be an annual thing, assuming we stay serious at it," he said. "We may be able to pick up the odd good dog here and there, but I'm not interested in getting any more dogs from the pound, and trying to make good racers out of them."

"Me either," she agreed. "I mean, I'm not going to turn down a pound puppy if someone else has proven it will run."

"What it comes down to is just how serious we're going to be," Josh said. "It really is pretty ridiculous to be putting all this effort into dogs just for the Warsaw Run, and a few sprints. Sprints are just a way to exercise the dogs and drink coffee with friends. I really am more interested in long-distance racing, but it takes more good dogs, too, not that there are that many long distance races around. This new thing in Michigan, maybe. The John Beargrease, over in Minnesota, maybe, but even if we combined your good six and my good six, we'd barely adequate to make a competent run this year, much less finish well. And, there might be others come along. If we want to just go out and screw around, we're not actually sitting too badly. But, I'll tell you what. I ran in the back of the pack this year, and it's not as much fun as being in the front of the pack. There are guys that want to get in the Warsaw run just to have a good exercise, drink coffee, shoot the bull, and say they've done it."

"I agree that long-distance racing is the direction we've got to go," Tiffany said. "That's the direction I want to head. I've got to figure that by the spring of '95, there aren't going to be many of our current dogs that will be first-rate. George, probably. Signal, probably, but both of them getting near the end. Mongo and Pipeline, probably. Boxcar and Sidetrack, probably, if they work out, and three of them are your dogs. I've got to figure on having eighteen to twenty good dogs, just for me."

"Why that many dogs in the spring of '95?"

"You ninny. The first weekend in March is two weeks after my eighteenth birthday, and I want to spend the day on Fourth Avenue in Anchorage. I figure I can be the youngest girl ever to finish the Iditarod."

Josh opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again. It really wasn't the dumbest idea he'd ever heard. Tiffany was well positioned to be able to do it in five years; she was already an accomplished musher, had good experience, and was in a position to get more good experience. It could be done.

"Do your folks know about this dream of yours?" he asked finally, as they pulled into the Frostee Freeze.

"I've told them. They don't believe me. I can see that it's going to take years to build an Iditarod-caliber team, even a team that will just finish. To be competitive, well, that's harder. I'd be happy with a team that could put me in contention for Rookie of the year."

"That's a lot of work, and a lot of money."

"It's a lot of work," she agreed as they got out of the truck and headed inside for cones. "I can't do it all myself, and that's why I asked you to help me with the four dogs that my folks don't know I've got, and why I agreed to work on summer training with you. It's a start. I know it's a lot of money, but there's no point in thinking about that too much until I get older, and have enough dogs to make it possible. And, they've got to be good dogs, at least as good as the best ones we have now, and better, if possible."

"That's five years off. A lot can happen in five years," Josh said.

"This is true," she said. "But, if I'm going to do it in five years, I have to be working toward it now."

"Well, no guarantees," Josh said. "But I suppose it can't hurt to work in that direction. After all, it's sort of the direction I want to go, anyway. But, if we're still working together on this, and it turns real in the spring of '95, you can take any of my dogs you want."

"Well, say we come out with sixteen good dogs, this year," she said. "If we can make up for the dogs we have to retire, and add one or two dogs a year, that ought to be enough. We need generally better dogs than we have now."

"I couldn't agree more," Josh said. That's a good intermediate goal to work towards. Even if we don't figure in the Iditarod, and just figure running the Beargrease for the sake of doing it, we've still got to have better dogs, or the next thing you know, we'll be dorking along in the back of the pack the way I did this year. But, all we can do is take it a year at a time, and do the best we can."

They reached the front of the line, and ordered cones. Josh paid for Tiffany's, as well as his, and they headed back out to the truck. "OK," he said. "Let's leave the future alone for a minute, and plan for next year. Your dad sort of surprised me when he was talking about adding on a couple of dogs, so I guess that means he's thinking about Warsaw after all. First, has he got any dogs worth trading for, and second, what dogs would we want to give him?"

"Hemp is probably the most promising of the lot," Tiffany said, licking at her chocolate cone. "Dad probably wouldn't go for any of your dodo dogs, and I'd hate to saddle him with Gustav. Pepper, maybe. Hemp is a better dog than that, and he's younger. He might even make it for '95. But, I'd like to hang onto Pepper, unless we're going to come up with more good replacements than Hemp. I guess they'll have to come out of Dennis' dogs."

"Which we don't know about," Josh said. "I don't know if your dad wants strictly pound puppies, or whether he wants dogs that will serve for Warsaw, this year. I don't know what the pound puppy status of any of the new dogs are. I guess that's something else I'll have to talk to Dennis about."

One damn thing after another, Josh thought. As if he didn't have enough going on in his life, right now. For a minute, he'd almost forgotten about buying the lot up the road from Mark's. That was going to complicate things even more -- but it would offer some opportunities, too.