However, despite the natural backwardness of the natives to speak about themselves, Bobby, by careful questioning, managed to find out something about these people who had befriended them.
The two male Eskimos were father and son and the woman of the wide, good-natured grin, was none other than the wife and mother of the household.
It was the older Eskimo who had spoken to Bobby the night before and promised to take them to see the guide Mooloo. The younger native seemed even more taciturn and uncommunicative than his father; so quiet was he, in fact, that the boys often forgot that he was around.
The name of the older man, as near as they could get it, was Kapje, but they never found out what the other two members of the family were called.
Breakfast over, Kapje became communicative to the point of saying that although the snowstorm had not developed into the blizzard he had expected, it was still snowing so heavily that it would be unwise to try to find the guide Mooloo that day.
“To-morrow,” he said heavily. “Maybe next day. No can tell. Snow, she stop—we go!”
And despite all their arguing and pleading, the boys could not move him a step from that resolution.
“Might as well try to move that five-foot snow wall outside,” Billy had muttered to Bobby in an aside, and Bobby had nodded understanding.
Although he was sensible enough to believe that Kapje knew his business, the delay was hard to bear. If he had had only himself to consider it is probable he would have decided to take his chance in the storm, but they could do nothing without the Eskimo’s help.
Of course, they might seek out some of the other natives, but they would probably think the same as Kapje about starting out in a threatened blizzard. And, anyway, Bobby knew that he and the other boys owed more than they could ever hope to pay to the Eskimo and his son and he did not want to anger them.