Page:A Wild-Goose Chase - Balmer - 1915.djvu/197

Rh We've either got to live off this land or move to land we can live on."

"Live off the land?" Geoff repeated, looking up over the snow-streaked black rocks. If the caribou hunt had seemed to him fruitless yesterday when it was suggested to provide a delicacy for the party, now such a hunt as a necessity was dismaying. "I don't believe even an Eskimo can live here."

"Then we have to find where they are living and live like them—get our clothing as well as food from animals."

By unspoken consent Koehler had assumed command of the party after McNeal was disabled. The skipper was conscious continuously now and quite clear in his head but entirely unable to move himself. When he was brought into the hut built from the wreckage of the ship the operation was agony. Koehler would not commit himself as to how long it must be before McNeal might be about. Brunton kept on his feet and did his best to work, but it was plain that he would be of little use for a long time; and Michaelis used only one arm. But as these injured men went about