Dick was conscious of a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“What is it, doctor?” he finally managed to articulate.
“Your team of malemutes is gone, and——”
“Oh, you must be mistaken,” interrupted Dick. “They’re here somewhere.”
“And the mail sledge is gone too, including all that quantity of vaccine.”
Sandy threw up his hands in a gesture of hopeless surrender.
“Is that all?” he groaned.
“No,” answered the physician more calmly, “the Indian with the mounted police boots is gone too.”
Dick gave way to his feeling of despair. He put his head in his hands and rocked back and forth.
“I knew it! I knew it!” he moaned. “I knew all the time that I ought not trust that—that miserable thief. I hesitated when his services were offered to me. I’m a fool. Why did I take him?”