Anyway, I got out of the hospital in fairly good shape, only to find that the Mayor of Nome has "requested" that I pay him a visit.

So I popped into his office. He was sitting at a big roll-top desk, and he had a mustache that give him an uncanny resembalance to a walrus. I cleared my throat and a door in the back of the room opened. A man walked in, and kicked the Mayor out of the chair. The Mayor when waddling off and the man said, "Sorry. Being this close to the Bering Sea we have continual problems with walruses." He stuck out his hand. "I'm the Mayor of this thriving metropolis."

I shook it and took the cup of coffee he offered.

"So," he continued, "you're the guy who brought the serum."

"Yes," I replied shyly, "I am."

"Have much trouble getting here?"

"No, not really. I lost my team, though."

"Too bad about that. But I do have a question."

"Yes sir?"

"We've got a mighty fine hospital here. All the kids have to get DPT shots before they can start schoool. We've got airline service to Anchorage and from there to some of the finest medical facilities in the world. There hasn't been a case of diptheria in the whole state in years. We're glad to you came, but my question is: why?"

I was completely nonplussed. My whole journey had been for naught? There were no children suffering? No epidemic?

"I...I read in a newspaper that an epidemic of diptheria threatened Nome," I replied.

"Ah, what was the date of that paper?" asked the Mayor.

"Well," I said, "it wasn't a recent one. At least, I don't think that it was."

The Mayor laughed. "Thanks for the effort," he said, "but the diptheria threat was in 1905. Probably before you were born."

"Oh," was all I could say.

The next day the ASFOSD (American Society for the Furtheranace Of Sled Dogs) flew me out to the Pribilofs to look for my dogs. They were there, and had no intention of coming back with us. They had found that there were TWO trees in the Pribilofs, and were obviously wondering how to cross the sea and see the other one.

And so, forsaken by my dogs, my journey ended, I flew back home. And, except for the six months I spent alone in the Yukon after the plane crashed, it was uneventful.