on the outfit, three thousand pounds of it, when along comes Sprague
and Stine. They offered eighty cents and ninety, and at a dollar a
pound the Indians jumped the contract and took off their straps.
Sprague and Stine came through, though it cost them three thousand,
and the Oregon bunch is still on the beach. They won't get through
till next year.

"Oh, they are real hummers, your boss and mine, when it comes to
sheddin' the mazuma an' never mindin' other folks' feelin's. What
did they do when they hit Linderman? The carpenters was just
putting in the last licks on a boat they'd contracted to a 'Frisco
bunch for six hundred. Sprague and Stine slipped 'em an even
thousand, and they jumped their contract. It's a good-lookin' boat,
but it's jiggered the other bunch. They've got their outfit right
here, but no boat. And they're stuck for next year.

"Have another cup of coffee, and take it from me that I wouldn't
travel with no such outfit if I didn't want to get to Klondike so
blamed bad. They ain't hearted right. They'd take the crape off
the door of a house in mourning if they needed it in their business.
Did you sign a contract?"

Kit shook his head.

"Then I'm sorry for you, pardner. They ain't no grub in the
country, and they'll drop you cold as soon as they hit Dawson. Men
are going to starve there this winter."

"They agreed--" Kit began.