After the man (the writer doesn't give the main character a name) builds a fire to warm himself up, he thinks back to some advice an old-timer gave him at Sulphur Creek. The old-timer had told him that you should dry your feet before running in freezing cold weather because otherwise the dampness would cause your feet to freeze. The man is thank you for that particular advice but laughs when he remembers the same old man telling that he should travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. He thinks that he has just proven that he can save himself and that "those old timers were rather womanish."

As the weather gets colder and the man increasingly struggles to keep himself warm, he starts to think that the old-timer was right. He should have gone with a trail mate. As he is drifting off into the sleep that will kill him, he pictures the old-timer warm and comfortable and smoking a pipe. He knows if he hadn't been so cocky, if he hadn't so arrogant and heeded the old-timer's advice, he would still be on track to see his friends. Now he has to accept that he will freeze to death alone.