“Well, listen, then. Watch with our ears. Can you hear me when I whisper?”
“Oh, yes.”
“But they will not come back, I’m sure.”
“So much the better for them; but I hope that the miserable, treacherous hounds will meet their reward. So they attacked you just in the same way?”
“Not till I told them I would not stay; and I was sorry afterwards, feeling that perhaps I had insulted them by my suspicions. Of course, I did not know their character then.”
“No. Well, we know it now. It is a specimen, I suppose, of the scum we shall find yonder.”
“I am afraid so.”
“You are going after gold, of course?”
“Who would be here if he were not?”
“Exactly. I hope the game is going to be worth the candle. Suppose we two stick together. You won’t try to choke me the first time you see me nodding off to sleep for the sake of my sledge and stores?”