At his words the boys looked at each other in dismay. Delay was what they wanted least. Up to that moment they had not thought of the storm as possibly delaying their treasure hunt for days, perhaps indefinitely.
And, then, there was the thought of those at home who had no means of knowing what had become of their boys. If they could not get word south very soon their people would be forced to give them up as lost.
This consideration kept them silent and thoughtful until the Eskimos rose sluggishly to their feet and began moving about the place as though they were preparing to leave.
This brought home to the boys the fact that they also had no place to spend the night and they also got to their feet, looking rather questioningly and dubiously at the natives.
It was the woman who came to their rescue with her friendly wide-mouthed grin.
“You no go out in blizzard,” she said, with a wave of her pudgy hand toward the out-of-doors. “You die. You stay here in igloo—safe, warm, eh?”
“But you? How about you?” stammered Bobby. “Where will you go?”
The woman shrugged her fat shoulders as she wrapped herself in a heavy fur coat and pulled a seal hood down over her ears so that only her eyes and nose and mouth were visible.
“You no worry ’bout us,” she said comfortably. “We all right. We got other igloo—two or three. We no die in snow.”
And with another friendly grin she turned and left the snow house, followed by the two men, who merely grunted their good-byes.