“What are we going to do with all our things, Alex?” asked Rob.
“How do you mean, sir?”
“Why, our tent and the skins and trophies and blankets and everything—we won’t need them on board the boat, will we?”
“No, sir, and the best way will be to leave them here.”
“What! In our tent, with no one to care for them? You know, Moise is going with us, as I understand it.”
“Everything will be perfectly safe right there in the tent, if only you tie the flaps so the dogs can’t get in,” answered Alex. “You see, it’s only white men that steal in this country—the Injuns and breeds won’t do that. Until the Klondike pilgrims came through here we didn’t know what theft was. I can answer for these people here. Everything you leave will be perfectly safe, and, as you say, it will be less bother than to take this stuff along on the boat.”
Rob motioned to his companions, and they stepped aside for a little while.
“What are we going to do about the stuff we’ve got left over, fellows?” asked he. “Of course, we’ve got to get down by wagon as far as Little Slave, and we’ll need grub enough, if Uncle Dick hasn’t got it, to last us two or three days. But we won’t boat, and we’ve got quite a lot of supplies which I think we had better give to Moise—they have to charge pretty good prices for everything they sell at the store up here, and maybe Moise will like this stuff.”
“That suits me,” said John, “and I think it would be a good idea. Give Moise all the meat and such supplies as we don’t need going out.”