'And what are you going to do about it?' Weatherbee added
belligerently.

'Majority rule! Majority rule!' clamored the rest of the party.

'I know the expedition is liable to fall through if you don't
come,' Sloper replied sweetly; 'but I guess, if we try real hard,
we can manage to do without you.

What do you say, boys?' The sentiment was cheered to the echo.

'But I say, you know,' Cuthfert ventured apprehensively; 'what's
a chap like me to do?'

'Ain't you coming with us.' 'No--o.' 'Then do as you damn well
please. We won't have nothing to say.' 'Kind o' calkilate yuh
might settle it with that canoodlin' pardner of yourn,' suggested
a heavy-going Westerner from the Dakotas, at the same time
pointing out Weatherbee. 'He'll be shore to ask yuh what yur
a-goin' to do when it comes to cookin' an' gatherin' the wood.'
'Then we'll consider it all arranged,' concluded Sloper.

'We'll pull out tomorrow, if we camp within five miles--just to
get everything in running order and remember if we've forgotten
anything.' The sleds groaned by on their steel-shod runners, and
the dogs strained low in the harnesses in which they were born to
die.

Jacques Baptiste paused by the side of Sloper to get a last