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    The town looked on in silence as little Willy, carrying Searchlight, walked the last ten feet and across the finish line.

 
    T HE IDEA FOR THIS STORY CAME FROM A R OCKY M OUNTAIN LEGEND THAT WAS TOLD TO ME IN 1974 BY B OB H UDSON OVER A CUP OF COFFEE AT H UDSON’S C AFÉ IN I DAHO F ALLS , I DAHO . A LTHOUGH S TONE F OX AND THE OTHER CHARACTERS ARE PURELY FICTITIOUS AND OF MY CREATION, THE TRAGIC ENDING TO THIS STORY BELONGS TO THE LEGEND AND IS REPORTED TO HAVE ACTUALLY HAPPENED .

Acknowledgments
    I would like to pay credit to Andrew J. Galambos for the many ideas and concepts of his, based on his theory of primary property and the science of volition, that appear in this book.
    I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Martin Tahse, without whom this book would not have been written. I am also grateful to Barbara Fenton, my editor, for her solicitous guidance and contributions; Ken Gardiner, my brother, for inspiring me to become a writer; Sylvia Hirsch, my agent, for encouraging me through the years; and Gloria, my wife, for providing the tranquility every writer dreams of.

About the Author
    JOHN REYNOLDS GARDINER (1944–2006), who described himself as an “author, engineer, inventor, rock-and-roll singer, door-to-door salesman, songwriter, and Santa Claus,” traveled widely throughout his life. Born in California, he lived in Ireland, Germany, Italy, El Salvador, England, and Mexico. He heard the legend that inspired STONE FOX while in Idaho and it became his first published work. His other works include HOW TO LIVE A LIFE THAT’S NOT BORING .
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Credits
    Cover art © 2010 by Wayne McLoughlin
    Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

Copyright
    STONE FOX . Copyright © 1980 by John Reynolds Gardiner. Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Greg Hargreaves. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Gardiner, John Reynolds.
    Stone Fox.
    p.   cm.
    Summary: Little Willy hopes to pay the back taxes on his grandfather’s farm with the purse from a dog sled race he enters.
    ISBN 978-0-06-440132-6
    [1. Sled dog racing—Fiction.] I. Hargreaves, Greg, ill. II. Title.
    PZ7.G174St          2003276681
    [Fic]
    EPub Edition © February 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-200966-1
    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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