Ted asked, "Can you handle the stoves and everything?"
"Oh, yes! Oh, indeed yes! But perhaps you will tell us where we have the best chance of encountering bears?"
"I'll do better than that. I'll show you."
"That's good of you. Would you care to start at daylight?"
"I'll be here."
"We'll be ready."
On arriving at the camp a half hour before daylight the next morning, Ted saw that it was not burned down and that his young guests had made no obvious blunders. Rather, with breakfast eaten and the dishes stacked away, they seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves. But, even though they knew what to do around a camp, the fact remained that none of them had ever hunted big game.
Ted exchanged greetings and looked out of the window. Renting hunting camps might be a nice way to earn a living, but there must be easier ones! The very fact that he'd rented his camp to them implied an obligation. Six hunters who knew exactly what to do had little enough chance of getting a bear. These youngsters had one in a thousand. But if there was any way to do it, Ted still had to offer them their money's worth and he considered himself responsible for them. Sending them into the Mahela alone probably, and at the least, meant that they would get lost.
"Ready?" he asked.