Heart So Hungry Read Online Free PDF

in every word of Laddie’s conversation with Cabot. Mina now and then looked toGeorge to see how the exchange was striking him. For her part, she did not appreciate the critical tone of Cabot’s observations.
    “You’ve weighed everything, of course?” Cabot asked.
    “It comes to approximately five hundred pounds.”
    Cabot cocked an eyebrow. “And three men add what, another four hundred fifty?”
    Hubbard laughed good-naturedly and slapped Cabot on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll all fit in quite nicely. I’ve checked and rechecked a dozen times.”
    Mina could have vouched for that, had anybody asked. She had listened to the litany so many times, had checked the items off on Laddie’s list so frequently that she knew every item in the outfit: One miner’s tent, six and a half feet by seven, six pounds. Five blankets, seventeen pounds. Two six-by-seven-foot tarps, three pack straps, two waterproof bags each containing forty pounds of flour. Twelve smaller waterproof bags containing sugar, chocolate, notebooks and other supplies. Kodaks plus thirty rolls of 120-exposure film packed in tin cans. Four thirty-five-pound sacks of flour, thirty pounds of bacon, twenty pounds of lard, thirty pounds of sugar, fourteen pounds of salt, four pounds of dried apples, ten pounds of rice, twenty pounds of erbswurst, ten pounds each of pea-flour and tea, five of coffee, six of chocolate, ten of hardtack and ten more of tea.
    “Where are your firearms?” Cabot asked.
    “In our cabins. Wallace and I each have a lightweight .45–70 rifle.”
    “For the caribou.”
    “Precisely.”
    “Good choice there. What else?”
    “A pistol each for partridges and such.”
    “That’s it?” Cabot asked.
    “Wholly sufficient, I should think.”
    “No shotgun?”
    “Too heavy.”
    “You won’t bring down many geese or ducks with a rifle.”
    “Merely enough to feed us,” Hubbard said, and he gave a wink to George.
    George waited for Cabot to ask his opinion on the matter, even formulated what he thought was a tactful response:
Being as how I don’t have Mr. Hubbard’s skill with a rifle
, he would answer,
a shotgun wouldn’t be a bad thing to have
.
    But of course Cabot would never turn to a half-breed for corroboration. “Even a small-bore shotgun would be preferable to none,” he said.
    “The ammunition alone would tip the scales. My aim is to travel as lightly as possible.”
    “But at the expense of practicality?” Cabot shook his head. “Even if I had to carry reduced-shot charges, I wouldn’t think of going into the bush without a shotgun.”
    “Reduced-shot? You know, I hadn’t considered that.” But Hubbard continued to smile, unperturbed by Cabot’s criticism.
    Mina studied George’s frown and wondered if it was an indication of uncertainty. It was true that Laddie had never solicited George’s expertise in outfitting the party; nor had he sought advice from any of the more experienced personnel at
Outing
. But why should he? This was Laddie’s expedition from beginning to end. Surely he knew what he was doing.
    “Where is your gill net?” Cabot asked.
    “I plan to pick one up at the North West River Post. The locals will know better than I what size fish we’ll be taking.”
    Cabot offered a nod of approval. But Mina’s relief was short-lived. “You’ve written ahead to order it, of course.”
    “I’ve been too busy with other details. But what kind of post would it be that has no gill nets available?”
    At this Cabot lifted his gaze to the sky. Was that barely audible grunt a suppressed sigh of exasperation? Mina wondered. How dare he criticize, if only by implication, her husband’s choices? Laddiehad been planning the trip for months! He knew everything there was to know about it.
    Yet even as Mina’s face flushed with anger over Cabot’s impertinence, her stomach fluttered with anxiety. The sickness of dread was as strong as it had ever been. Had her stomach not been so empty she