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Show nil "After I arrive in San Francisco," I said, "I'd like to toss a few nuggets from the top-floor window of the Palace Hotel." "We'll throw nuggets out of every hotel in the town," Caribou said. I think he was grinning under all his bushy whiskers. "How can we trust him?" Tip whispered when he was up the hill chopping firewood. "We may slave all winter in his mine shafts while he eats our grub. And one morning next spring we may wake up and find him gone with all the gold." "I'm getting quite good at judging character," I said, though I had to admit the applesauce dump had influenced me. "It comes with experience. I think he is all right. A little peculiar, but all right." The truth was, we had no other choice. Caribou cooked a stew for us that first night-from our supplies: tinned corn beef, dehydrated carrots, potatoes, and onions. With dumplings on top. And hot chocolate. It was better than anything Tip and I had mixed together. He served us first. Then, timorously, he pulled out a small 3creen, placed it over a bowl, and began straining his vegetables. "I have a problem," he mumbled. "No teeth. On account of the scurvy." I glanced at Tip, and she nodded. "We have a problem, too." I cleared my throat for courage. "One of us is a girl." |
