"We could have dropped you off."

"Well, yes, but out here we have to take chances, and it was necessary
for me to do so."

"It was?"

"Yes."

"How so?"

"I need food; I have not struck any game lately. The fact is, I've been
up in the peaks where there is no game. I hope you have a cold snack
here, my friends, and some tobacco, for I have not had a regular tobacco
smoke or chew for over a month."

"We were just about to prepare some coffee and make a meal."

"Good enough; did you say coffee? Well, I have struck Elysium; I haven't
tasted a cup of coffee in a year. You see I was snowbound away up in the
mountains; fortunately I had plenty of dried meat, and I was compelled
to wait until I was thawed out."

Brooks commenced making the coffee, and while doing so the woodsman
asked:

"Are you regular hunters?"

"No."