Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/282

264 dead dogs and laid them in a row beside the trail. When he had finished he boiled a kettle of fish and sat down upon his pack to wait.

It was nearly three o'clock before he caught sight of the men toiling around the foot of a near-by hillock. The boy raised his hand and the men halted, and sank wearily onto the sled. "Dinner's ready!" he called, "and after dinner you can load on those four dead dogs. It's forty miles from here to Hart River cabin and I'm in a hurry. You fellows ought to make fifteen miles a day. Every fifteen miles I'll cache enough grub to take you to the next cache—and matches, too. I'll stick 'em on a pole in the trail so you can't miss 'em. You know by this time that I mean what I say, and if you don't bring in those four dogs you don't eat when you get to Hart River!"

"W'at ef a storm blows up an' we loose our course?" whined one of the men.

Connie glanced at the sky. "There won't be any storm for the next couple days," he answered. "But if I were you fellows, I'd make good time."

"Our feet's sore," whined another.

"Were you takin' us?" cried a third.

"I ain't taking you anywhere. I'm just telling