Most of the men present were intelligent and disposed to regard the situation with calmness and fortitude. There were a few, however, who grumbled at the words of the Danish scholar, and one of them asked with a half-snarl:
“What do you advise us to do?”
“That’s a question that I propose to put to the Eskimos,” replied Anderson. “We might ask them for food for the women, but we men can live through another day and night without anything to eat if necessary. We’ll follow the example of these fellows, dig a few caves in the ice, and with a very little fire inside we can keep warm. In that way our fuel will last several days.”
“That’s good advice,” said Watson, with a nod of confident approval. “Talk to them in that manner and let them know that we’re not going to do them any harm. Ask them for suggestions, and maybe they’ll be able to offer plans that will help us a lot.”
The professor turned again to the Eskimos and talked with them for several minutes. Then he reported as follows:
“They’re willing to help us all they can. They say they’ll give us one of the dogs if we have to have it, but suggest that we try fishing and see what we each get.”
“How’ll we do that?” asked the half-snarling critic who had spoken before. “We haven’t got any tackle.”
“The Eskimos have a good supply and will let us have several lines and hooks and some dog meat for bait, on condition that we give them some of our catch if we have good luck.”
“That’s reasonable enough,” declared Watson. “Ask them for some tackle and bait and some tools to dig a few caves.”
The professor did as suggested and was given four strong lines with good steel hooks and a short-handled metal tool, best described as a cross between a hoe and a tomahawk. Where it had been manufactured would have been hard to conjecture, unless it was a bit of native “blacksmithing.” The handle was of walrus bone.