Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/254

236 help me inside now an' we'll size up the layout. Mebbe things ain't as bad as they look."

"Not as bad as they look!" cried Connie, his eyes blazing. "With the grub all gone, and the stove smashed, and us with only grub enough for a day or two, and the MacPherson patrol due any time and depending on this cache to take 'em on to Dawson, and you with your foot half cut off!"

Rickey grinned: "Well, that's the first time I ever heard you growl, an' believe me, when you growl you roar, don't you, kid? Come here now an' git in under my arm and h'ist me up off en this sled. You say they didn't take the fish. Well, there's grub, ain't it? They ain't no law ag'in a man eatin' fish jest because it's billed fer the dogs, is they?"

Connie helped Rickey into the cabin and piloted him through the litter of dry fish that covered the floor to a seat on the edge of the bunk. "That stove is sure bunged up consid'able," admitted the Corporal, "but it can be straightened out to hold a fire. It may smoke some, but that ain't going to hurt us none. 'Tain't no fancy cookin' utensil no more, but it'll boil water. And them dried fish