The following morning, Toby led Loki right over to Luna's house, catching Luna just as she was coming to visit them. "Would you mind watching Loki? I have to go talk to Pete."

"How about we all go?" Luna suggested.

Toby shook his head. "No, this is something I have to do myself. It was my responsibility to look out for Loki, and Pete took him right out from under my nose. Literally."

Luna nodded. "All right. Come inside, Loki. They'll never think to look for you here."

"You mean they actually think?" asked Loki.

Toby shook his head in mild amusement and walked away. "Take care," Luna called after him.

Loki looked up at Luna. "You know, he sounded just like my dad when he said that stuff about me being his responsibility."

Luna's ears perked up with interest. "You don't say…"

"Hey, if it isn't the mutt," taunted Pete. "What're you doing here, squirt?"

"Listen," said Toby. "I want to settle this matter between you and Loki."

Pete raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"The wolf cub you and your friends were picking on. The one you framed for breaking into the butcher's shop. The one you almost got killed."

"What's it to you? We were teaching him a lesson," said one of the dogs.

"Quiet, Bruiser," snapped Pete. Turning his attention to Toby he said, "The runt was trespassing in dog territory. Wolves stay out of Nome. That's the rule."

"There's no rule about that. Besides, Balto is half-wolf and he has more right to be in this town than all of you put together," Toby pointed out.

The gang seemed to get quite a kick out of that one. "That old has-been?" Pete snorted. "He's yesterday's news."

Toby bared his teeth. Nobody talked about his hero that way. But he didn't have time to argue. "If you want to pick on wolves, you'll have to deal with me first."

Pete snickered. "All right. You're on." He gathered himself up for an attack.

"Not a fight," said Toby. "A race. One week from today. Just you and me."

"You hear that, boys?" Pete sneered. "The washed-up sled dog wannabe wants to race!"

Toby growled. "At least I got that far. You barely finished the trial run."

Surprisingly, Pete didn't seem to lose one ounce of his arrogant self-assuredness. "So what happens when you lose?"

"If I lose," Toby offered, "you still have to lay off the kid, but you can make me your slave for a week."

"Two weeks."

"One week, or I'll tell every dog in town that you were beating up a little kid. And by every dog, I mean all the girls."

Toby could see he had Pete over a barrel with that one. After a long pause Pete half-snarled, "All right. You keep quiet and it's one week, including tackle-dummy duty. But one word, and it's three."

Toby resisted the urge to point out who the real dummies were. "Deal."

Later, Toby was back at Luna's house telling her and Loki about the deal he made with Pete. Naturally, Luna didn't like one bit of it. "You did what?!" demanded Luna.

"I challenged Pete to a race."

"You did that for me?" asked Loki.

"Toby, you'll never make it," Luna cut in before Toby could reply.

"Sure I will. His dad may have been a sled dog, but Pete can't run worth beans."

"That's not what I'm talking about. You know as well as I do that Pete will do anything and everything to win a race."

Toby fell silent, realizing that he had completely overlooked that problem.

"Knowing him," Luna continued, "he and his gang will do anything they can think of to get across that line first. Even if it means making sure you don't cross at all."

"Oh, come on. Bad as he is, Pete's not low enough to kill me. Even if he were, he wouldn't have the guts."

"I agree, but what about his gang?"

Toby considered. "Well, yeah, but he'd stop them, right?"

"Are you willing to bet your life on it?" asked Luna. "Because by the sound of it, you already have."

Toby nodded. "I guess I see your point, but what can I do now?"

Luna stared at the ceiling. "Go over the deal again. Tell us all the details."

So Toby repeated his story, with Luna and Loki paying close attention to every word. "You say you promised to keep quiet about what they did to me, right?" asked Loki.

Toby nodded. "Yeah, that was part of the deal."

"Alright, I think I know the answer." Loki beckoned Luna down and whispered his plan in her ear. She giggled and agreed that it sounded perfect.

"Well, what is it?" asked Toby. Luna whispered Loki's scheme in his ear, and a grin spread across his face. "Hm…"