Part 11 (1/2)
”Thirty dollars a day.”
”Thirty dollars a day!” exclaimed Fred.
”Yes, and if you don't want it say so,” snapped the clerk. ”There are plenty that do.”
”Oh, we'll take it,” said Mr. Baxter quickly. ”That's cheap, according to some prices they're asking,” he added. ”When ordinary meals are five dollars each, the cost of living soon runs up.”
”But if our expenses are going to be so high, how can we stand it until we discover the----” began Jerry.
”Hus.h.!.+” interrupted Mr. Baxter. ”Don't say a word about what we're after. There are too many rascals in this locality. I'll manage about the expenses.”
”But meals at five dollars each!”
”Don't worry. We'll not pay that long. The prices are high because there is a big crowd just in off the steamer, and the dealers want to make hay while the sun s.h.i.+nes. Things will go down in a day or so, when the miners begin to travel into the interior.”
”But won't it cost a lot to buy our provisions at that rate?”
”It would if we had to buy them, but I brought them along with me. We will have to buy very little. The princ.i.p.al things we will need are dogs, sledges and guides for a certain distance. We will stay here a day or so until I can arrange about them, and then we will start for the interior.”
Mr. Baxter had signed his own name and those of the two boys on the hotel register, and had taken them into a comparatively quiet corner to impart this information.
”Now, Jerry,” he said, ”if you and Fred will go help Johnson get our stuff up here to our room, I'll go see if I can hire some guides and sledges. Pile the stuff right in our room. That's the only place it will be safe. We'll have to rough it for a night or so, but we can stand it, I guess. My, but it's getting cold out,” he added as he glanced from the window at a thermometer hanging on the side of the hotel.
”How much?” asked Fred.
”Twenty-two degrees below zero.”
”Twenty-two below!”
”That's nothing. Wait until it goes to forty and fifty below. Then the mercury in the ordinary thermometer freezes solid, and only spirit gauges are of any use. Then you'll feel the cold. There is no wind, fortunately, or you'd notice it even in here, with the big stove going.”
They had taken off their fur garments while in the warm hotel, but, as Fred and Jerry had to go out to see about their goods, they donned them again.
It was getting dark, for, though it was early, the winter season had begun, when the sun would s.h.i.+ne but for a little time each day, and farther north not at all for six long months.
”I should say it was cold!” exclaimed Fred when he and Jerry were outside. The keen air cut his face like a knife, and he was thankful for the thick fur garments, the heavy fleece-lined boots, and the big mittens he wore. Burying his face down below the collar of his coat, an example which Jerry followed, Fred started back to the steamer dock, while Mr. Baxter went off to see about getting guides and sledges.
The boys found Johnson still on guard, but the colored man was racing up and down to get warm, and whipping his long arms about his body to keep up the circulation.
”What's the matter?” asked Jerry with a laugh.
”Matter, Ma.s.sa Jerry? Why, it feel laik somebody done gone an' stick a icicle down mah back, that's what it do, fo' suah! It suttinly am terrible cold.”
”Well, you'll soon be warm,” spoke Fred. ”We're going to take the things to a hotel.”
”A real hotel, where dey has real things t' eat, Ma.s.sa Fred?”
”Yes, real things to eat. They charge five dollars a meal.”
”Five dollars a meal! Den I reckon dis c.o.o.n'll git a small po'tion ob dessert fo' his share,” and the colored man laughed so heartily that he felt no necessity of whipping his arms about.
”Well, come on, let's see if we can't hire a small truck and wheel our stuff up,” suggested Jerry. They were able to, but they had to pay a good price for the little vehicle, which they got from one of the men on the dock. Indeed, it seemed that you had almost to pay the weight of anything in gold in Alaska, as there were so many who wanted the same article.