"Why aren't you taking out that eighty thousand yourself?" asked Mac bluntly.
"Got more 'n one man can handle," answered the General. "Reckon we've earned a holiday."
Dillon backed him up.
"Then it isn't shortage in provisions that takes you outside," said the Boy.
"Not much."
"Plenty of food at Rampart City; that's the name o' the town where the Little Minóok meets the Yukon."
"Food at gold-craze prices, I suppose."
"No. Just about the same they quote you in Seattle."
"How is that possible when it's been carried four thousand miles?"
"Because the A. C. and N. A. T. and T. boats got frozen in this side of Dawson. They know by the time they get there in June a lot of stuff will have come in by the short route through the lakes, and the town will be overstocked. So there's flour and bacon to burn when you get up as far as Minóok. It's only along the Lower River there's any real scarcity."