While they were waiting for dinner they arranged for the loan of canoe telling the storekeeper that they were going up the Allagash. By the time dinner was ready they had their supplies all ready for the carry to the West Branch about five miles north through thick woods.
“Jack, if you and Rex will take the stuff Kernertok and I’ll tote the canoe,” Bob suggested as they were ready for the start.
“All right. But I hope Rex won’t get discouraged on the first lap,” Jack laughed.
“We’ve seen the kind of stuff he’s made of before,” Bob replied. “But we’ll take it a bit easy at first.”
Carrying forty pounds or perhaps a trifle more does not sound very hard but unless one is used to it the load gets pretty heavy by the time a couple of miles have been passed and the weight seems to increase, as Jack put it, by the cube of the distance.
Rex was tired before they had covered half the distance but, as Bob had inferred, he was game and would not ask them to stop on his account. But he was very glad when, after they had covered three miles, the Indian lowered his end of the canoe to the ground saying,
“We rest um. White boy heap tired.”
Rex did not deny the accusation as he threw himself on the ground.
“How many hundred pounds of stuff have we got here?” he asked.
“I’ll bet it feels like at least three,” Jack laughed. “But after you get your second wind it won’t seem so hard.”