"We may not be very han'some to the naked eye, and we may not wear our handk'chiefs in our shirt cuffs, but there ain't no widders and orphans doin' our washin', and a man can walk away from his house, stay a month, and find it there when he comes back." "Those days are past," said Stark, who had joined in the discussion.
"There's too many new people coming in for all of them to be honest." "They'd better be," said Lee, aggressively.

"We ain't got no room for stealers.

Why, I had a hand in makin' the by-laws of this camp myself, 'long with John Gale, and they stip'lates that any person caught robbin' a cache is to be publicly whipped in front of the tradin'-post, then, if it's winter time, he's to be turned loose on the ice barefooted, or, if it's summer, he's to be set adrift on a log with his shirt off." "Either one would mean certain death," said a stranger.

"Frost in winter, mosquitoes in summer!" "That's all right," another bystander declared.

"A man's life depends on his grub up here, and I'd be in favor of enforcing that punishment to the letter if we caught any one thieving." "All the same, I take no chances," said Stark.