“Tell you what,” he said. “Art an’ me’ll stake this claim an’ file on it. But if we ever come back to work her an’ she pays, we’ll declare you in.”
“Not unless you let us help to finance the expedition,” said Jack, turning for confirmation to his comrades. “Isn’t that right, fellows.”
Bob and Frank agreed. Farnum put an end to the discussion.
“Good enough,” he said. “Let it go at that. Now we must buckle into the job. Do you realize we’ve spent more than two hours here, when we should have stopped only a half hour? We’ve got to make this portage and push on. Come on. Everybody to his task.”
CHAPTER V.—A SURPRISE THROUGH THE AIR
Joyously though time flew by for the boys, with Mr. Hampton and Tom Farnum it was a different matter. They were worried, that became increasingly plain. Finally, although Mr. Hampton purposely refrained from saying anything to disturb the boys, Jack took note of his father’s perturbation and questioned him about it.
“Well, Jack,” said his father, “we’ve been weeks on the trail. We can’t proceed much farther, without being compelled to start out. And yet so far we have discovered no further trace of Thorwaldsson’s party. When we entered the MacKenzie, which flows north, we were going to the south. Going up the Hare Indian we struck east. Since getting into the streams, rivers and lakes we have been going east. Shortly we shall strike the Coppermine, Beyond that lies the river of oil, as reported by Farrell.
“So far we have made good time. With luck, we shall be able to reach that territory before having to turn back or, rather, for we shall not retrace our steps, turn south. And we should have struck some other trace of Thorwaldsson’s party long ere this, if we are on the right track. However, you boys need not worry about this, so let’s talk of something else.”
Seeing that his father had sunk into one of his rare periods when he wished to be alone with his meditations and did not welcome intrusion even from Jack, the latter moved away to join his comrades.
“Dad’s plainly worried,” he said. And he explained the circumstances. “Wish I could find some way to make him forget his troubles,” he said.