A: The King of Mazy May, by Jack London, is a story about a 14 year-old boy called Walt Masters who lived at the time of the gold rush about 150 years ago. Walt was born at a trading post on the Yukon river in Northern Canada, and when his mother died, he and his father moved up the river and settled by a small creek called Mazy May. They were there to look for gold which had been found in the creeks and rivers of the Klondike region. In those days prospectors could get land for themselves by marking it out with stakes, and then going to the commissioner's office of the nearest big town to register their claim. When that had been done, they were the owners of the land and nobody could take it away from them.

B: Walt's father had registered his claim so their land was safe from claim-jumpers. Claim-jumpers were men who waited until gold had been found in part of a river and then went to the commissioner's office to claim the land for themselves before the person who found the gold had the chance to do it himself. Near Walt's land was another plot that was being worked by an old man called Loren Hall. Hall had found gold on his land and was on his way to Dawson, the town where the commissioner's office was, to claim the land and the gold for himself. Unfortunately, he fell through the ice on a river, freezing his foot. He had stay where he was - about 17 miles from Dawson - for about two weeks while his frozen foot healed.

C: Back on Hall's land near the Mazy May river, some claim-jumpers found gold in the water. If they could get to Dawson before Hall, they could claim the land and the gold for themselves. Walt overheard their plan and decided to warn Hall of the danger. He quickly got the huskies and the sled ready for the long journey through the ice and snow to find Hall. The claim-jumpers saw him leaving and tried to stop him, but Walt was too fast and got away. The men followed him on their sleds and shot at him with their guns. At one point they almost caught him when Walt's lead dog was killed by a bullet, but Walt quickly cut the dog free from the harness and made another dog the leader. This new leading dog was much quicker and cleverer so Walt was now able to get away from his pursuers.

D: At last he made it to where Hall was waiting, and together they travelled on to Dawson where Hall registered his claim for the part of the river in which he had found the gold. After doing so much to help old Loren Hall, Walt was called the King of Mazy May.