Terogloona turned to them with a simple: “Suna-go-pezuk-peet?” he asked, “What do you want?”
With many guttural expressions and much waving of hands, the leader explained their wishes.
“He say,” smiled Terogloona, “that in the hills about here are many foxes, black fox, red fox, white, blue and cross fox. He say, that one, want to camp here; want to set traps; want to catch foxes.”
“But what will they eat?” asked Patsy.
Terogloona, having interpreted the question, smiled again at their answer:
“They will eat foxes,” he answered quietly and modestly.
For a moment Patsy looked into their staring, hungry, questioning eyes. They were lying, and she knew it, but remembering a bit of advice of her father’s: “Never quarrel with a hungry person—feed him,” she smiled as she said to Terogloona:
“You tell them that this morning they shall eat breakfast with me; that we will have pancakes and reindeer steak, and tea with plenty of sugar in it.”
“Capseta! Ali-ne-ca! Capseta!” exclaimed one of the strangers who had understood the word sugar and was passing it on in the native word, Capseta, to his companions.
It was a busy morning for Patsy. There seemed no end to the appetites of these half starved natives. Even Terogloona grumbled at the amount they ate, but Patsy silenced him with the words: