The Professor arranged the wages with Anvik, calling upon the store-keeper to witness the bargain and put it in writing. The Professor then directed the boys to take the new guide out and begin his instruction in the ways of the Pony Rider Boys. The Professor remained to purchase necessary stores and supplies, consulting the proprietor as to what would be needed on the journey. The advice of the store-keeper was helpful in aiding the Professor to take only such equipment and supplies as would be absolutely necessary.
Anvik went to the Indian village to bring his pony, the boys in the meantime starting off to pick a camp site.
“One thing, boys, we mustn’t play tricks on Anvik,” reminded Tad. “I have an idea that he hasn’t much of a sense of humor. He might lose his temper and run away and leave us after we were deep in the interior of the country.”
132“Do you know, I don’t believe he is an Indian at all,” asserted Ned Rector.
“Neither an Indian nor a white man,” suggested Stacy wisely.
“I think he is an Esquimo,” spoke up Walter.
“What’s the odds? We don’t care what his race is so long as he answers our purpose,” declared Butler.
“He says he is an I-Knew-It, and I believe him,” said Stacy Brown with emphasis.
“An Innuit, you mean,” corrected Tad.
“That’s it, an I-Knew-It, and that’s what I did–”