I asked him how many dogs he had. He told me, and said he had a good sledge, too, and could get us to East Cape in five days, if we were to start at once.
I had with me forty-five dollars which Mr. Hadley had lent me when I left Wrangell Island. Naturally I wanted to keep this sum intact as long as possible. To get to East Cape in five days, however, would justify me in parting with my money.
“How much you pay me?” the man asked again.
“Forty dollars,” I replied, for the trip seemed to me well worth that. It was a mistake; I should have said twenty. Forty was so large a sum that the native soon made clear that he doubted my having so much money. He was a trader, for reindeer skins and fox skins, and he knew, or thought he knew, how a bargain should be made.
“All right,” he said. “You show me money.”
“No,” I replied.
“Maybe you no have money,” he ventured.
“I have the money,” I answered.
In his anxiety to see that I should not suffer in the Chukch’s estimation, Kataktovick now started to explain to him about the money and I had to stop him.
“You bring me East Cape me give you forty dollars.”