At this cruel threat even Mr. Baxter, hardened as he was by privation in his early mining days, could not repress a start. For of all the deaths that could be devised, that of starving in the Arctic region is probably the worst. In that terribly cold climate much food is necessary to keep up bodily warmth, and once the temperature of the blood gets too low, the end comes by freezing. So, in reality, Callack was threatening to freeze and starve his captives to death unless they revealed the hiding place of the gold.
But after his first exhibition of emotion Mr. Baxter recovered his composure. He did not believe Callack would dare do as he said he would.
"I thought I'd make you think twice," said the scoundrel, as he noted the slight change that came over Mr. Baxter's face. "Now will you tell me?"
"No!"
The word came as an exclamation.
"Then you'll starve."
"Will we?" asked Mr. Baxter. "You can't scare me, Callack. A man who is cowardly enough to strike an unarmed person isn't brave enough to do as you say you'll do. You'll be afraid to do it, for, though we're a good way from civilization, the law will get you some day. I'm not afraid. These boys are not afraid. You'll never get the gold if we have to tell you where it is, and you can make the most of that. Now don't ask me again, for if you do I'll not answer you. I don't like to talk to such a scoundrel as you are."
These words of defiance stung Jacob Callack to fury. He raged up and down in front of the captives, and at times it seemed as if he would attack them. But the fearless attitude of Mr. Baxter, and the calm bearing of the boys, who took a lesson from their older companion, was too much for the coward.
"All right!" he exclaimed. "We'll see how you'll talk after you've been twenty-four hours without anything to eat. We'll see how you'll like it to feel the cold making you stiff. You need not think I'll ask you again where the gold is. I'll find it myself, and punish you at the same time. You might better have thought twice, Simon Baxter, before you defied me. You don't know me!"
"Yes, I do. I know you for a coward, and a man who would not stop at the worst of crimes to accomplish his ends. But I'm not afraid of you. Help is on the way to us, and before twenty-four hours have passed you may be begging me for mercy."