“Yes.”
“And all alone, too?”
The traveller nodded, and held his half-numbed hands in the warm glow, as he furtively glanced round at his companions, whose aspect was by no means reassuring.
“Well,” continued the last speaker, “I dunno what Yankee Leggat thinks, and I dunno what Joey Bredge has got to say, but what I says is this. You’re a-going to do what’s about as silly a thing as a young man can do.”
“Why?”
“Why?” said the man fiercely; “because you’re going to try and do what no chap can do all alone. You’ve got a good kit and some money, I s’pose; but you don’t think you’re going to get to the gold stuff, do you?”
“Of course I do.”
The man showed his yellow teeth in an unpleasant grin, and winked at his companions.
“And all alone, eh? ’Tain’t to be done, lad. You’ll be stuck up before you yet half-way there by Injuns, or some o’ they Yankee shacks yonder, stripped o’ everything you’ve got, and set adrift, eh, Joey?”
The man addressed nodded and grunted.