They ate ravenously the food given them, and afterward the agent brought Harding some warm water and examined his leg.
"Ye'll no walk far for a while, I'm thinking," he commented.

"Rest it on the chair here and sit ye still." Harding was glad to comply; and, lighting their pipes, the men began to talk.

Their host, who told them his name was Robertson, was a rather hard-featured man of middle age.
"I'm all my lone; my clerk's away with the breeds at the Swan Lake," he said.

"Where are ye making for ?" "For the south," Blake answered.

"We came here for shelter, badly tired, and we want to hire a dog team and a half-breed guide, if possible, as soon as my partner's fit to travel.