On the Edge of the Arctic Part 7

Greatly relieved, Norman and Roy fell to work on the elaborate a.s.sortment and in a short time had but little more left in the heap than one man could carry.

"What's this?" asked Roy, as they reached a soft leather roll about the size of a big pillow, carefully strapped.

"It's my blankets," explained Paul, opening the flap and exhibiting two soft fleecy articles. "They're from London."

"Well," exclaimed Norman positively, "you give them to your sister for her picnics. Then you go down to-morrow morning and get a four-point Hudson's Bay blanket, fourteen feet long, pay your twelve dollars for it, get a strap to hang it on your back, and I reckon you'll have about all you need."

A little later, when Paul's father and Colonel Howell visited the room and Paul good-naturedly explained what his friends had done, Mr. Zept laughed.

"I told you all that," he exclaimed, "but I guess it was like the advice of most fathers. These young men know what they're doing. Hill," he said, turning to his guest, "I guess you haven't made any mistake in signing up these kids. There's a lot they may have to find out about the wilderness, but it looks to me as if they weren't going to have very much to unlearn."

The next morning was a long one. The baggage car secured by Colonel Howell for the aeroplane crates was soon loaded. Then nothing remained to be done except, as Colonel Howell put it, "to line up my Injuns."

Moosetooth and La Biche were yet in camp at the Stampede Grounds. The boys, including Count Zept, accompanied Colonel Howell to the Grounds about noon. Here the oil prospector was able to change his program somewhat, and much to his gratification.

Colonel Howell knew that his old steersmen were accompanied by quite a group of relatives but he did not know the exact extent of the Martin and La Biche families. They were all in charge of a man from Athabasca Landing, who was of course under contract to return the Indians to that place. Colonel Howell had thought it would be necessary to look after the immediate relatives of Moosetooth and La Biche, but when he found that the women and children belonging to these men would just as soon return to the North with their friends, he was able to arrange that the two old river men might precede the main party and accompany him alone.

The Indian makes very little ceremony of his farewells to the members of their families and after Colonel Howell had talked a few moments with them the dark-skinned boatmen announced themselves ready. The matter of luncheon seemed to worry neither Moosetooth nor La Biche. Each man had an old flour bag, into which he indiscriminately dumped a few bannock, some indistinguishable articles of clothing, and relighting their pipes, were ready to start for Fort McMurray.

It was the first ride either Indian had ever had in an automobile, but the quick run back to the city seemed to make no impression upon them.

Leaving the taciturn Crees in the baggage car, well supplied with sandwiches, fruit, and a half dozen bottles of ginger ale, the others once more headed for the Zept home. In two hours the expedition would be off.

CHAPTER VI

THE EXPEDITION STRIKES A SNAG IN EDMONTON

At three o'clock the fast express pulled out of the big depot at Calgary on its way to Edmonton, then the northern limit of railroad transportation on the American Continent. A part of the train was the sealed baggage car carrying the airship. In the day coach, with their bags in their laps, and still stolid of face, sat Moosetooth Martin and old La Biche. For the moment their pipes reposed in their vest pockets. Each was eating an orange. Far in the rear of the train, Colonel Howell's little expedition was making itself comfortable in a stateroom. Somewhat to the surprise of the younger members of the party, Mr. Zept had joined them.

The corners of the stateroom and the near-by vestibule of the car were crammed with the personal belongings of those headed for Fort McMurray.

Even in the excitement of leaving and the farewells to the members of their families and friends, neither Norman nor Roy failed to notice that the young Count's face again bore the flush that did not come from exertion. Mr. Zept's face also bore the look that the boys had come to know, the expression that they could not fail to connect with the indiscretions of his son.

If Colonel Howell saw these things, nothing about him indicated it.

Having divested himself of his coat, he put himself at once in charge of the party, and was full of animation.

Within a few moments young Zept left the stateroom, without protest from his father, and the two boys partly lost themselves in a close view of the country through which they were pa.s.sing.

"Things are changing very fast in this region," explained Mr. Zept, motioning to the irregular hill-dotted country, in which patches of vegetation alternated with semi-arid wastes. "See how irrigation is bringing the green into this land. Ten years ago, for fifty miles north of Calgary, we called this The Plains. It's all changing. It's all going to be farms, before long. You'll be surprised, however," he continued, addressing the boys. "Long before night we'll run out of this onto the green prairies. Long before we get to Edmonton, we'll be in some of the best farming land in the world. And it goes on and on, more or less," he added with a faint smile, "a good deal farther than we know anything about--maybe as far as Fort McMurray," he concluded.

"There isn't any reason why Fort McMurray can't be a Calgary some day,"

replied Colonel Howell; "that is, when the railroads start towards Hudson's Bay."

"You'll have to have some land too," suggested Mr. Zept. "If you just had a few good prairies and some gra.s.s lying loose around up there, that'd help."

"How do you know we haven't?" answered the colonel.

"I don't," exclaimed Mr. Zept. "If you have, just send me word. We might start a few horse ranches up there."

As the train sped on and all had adjusted themselves to the limits of their little room, after a time Mr. Zept spoke again: "I wish I had the time to go up there with you," he began, "but of course, that's impossible. I'm going to see you away from Edmonton in good shape. By the way," he remarked, "I've been wondering just how you're going to find things up there, after a year's absence. You say you left three men there. What are they doing?"

"Well," answered Colonel Howell, "they're all on the pay roll. One of 'em's an Englishman from Edmonton, and two of 'em I brought from the gas fields of Kansas. The Kansas men have worked for me for several years."

"Must have had a pretty easy job, with nothing to do but punish your provisions all winter," suggested Mr. Zept.

"Don't you think it," exclaimed his friend. "They had plenty of work cut out for them. In the first place they had to build a cabin, and they had the tools to make a decent one--tar paper for a roof too. I don't care for bark shacks. Then I'm taking a boiler and engine up this time and we can probably use a lot of firewood when we get to drilling. They can put in a lot of time cutting dry cordwood."

"They doing any prospecting?" asked the ranchman.

"They couldn't do much except look for signs," answered Colonel Howell.

"And, of course, if they have any extra time, the Kansas men have been in the business long enough to know how to do that. They might save me a lot of work when I get up there, if they're on the job," concluded Colonel Howell.

"A good deal like grub-staking a man, isn't it?" asked Mr. Zept.

"Not much," retorted the oil man with decision. "They're all on my pay roll and they're all working for me. There isn't any halves business in what they find, if they find anything. It all belongs to yours truly--or will, when I prove up on my claim."

"What are the names of the men?" asked Roy with sudden curiosity.

"The Edmonton man I don't know very well," answered Colonel Howell. "He is a kind of a long range Englishman and I think his name is Chandler.

The other men are Malcolm Ewen and Donald Miller. Ewen and Miller are good boys, and I know they'll give me a square deal, whether Chandler sticks or not."

In spite of the general conversation, Norman fancied that Mr. Zept's annoyance did not grow less, and it was not hard to conclude that this was due to Paul's absence. Finally both Norman and Roy excused themselves to visit the observation car. They really wanted to find Paul. He was not in the rear car, which fact the young men learned after describing their companion to the colored porter, who smiled significantly when he announced that Paul had left the car some time before.

The young men then went through the train and at last found the Count in jovial companionship with Moosetooth and La Biche. It was plain that both the Indians had been drinking, but there was no liquor now in sight, and the three were enjoying their pipes and their cigarettes. The Count had discovered that the Indians knew more French than English, and he was in high conversation with them. The boy himself was even more jovial when he greeted Norman and Roy with hearty slaps on the back.

For some moments the visitors attempted to join in the conversation between the Indians and Paul, but the conditions were such that the young aviators soon lost interest and they invited young Zept to return to the stateroom for a game of cards.

"Not now," protested the Count, dropping into a seat opposite the Indians again. "My friends here are great Frenchmen. They have been telling me about the Barren Lands. Besides," and he frowned a little, "I didn't know the governor was coming. I don't think I ought to see him just now. He ain't much for this sort of thing."

"What sort of thing?" asked Norman somewhat brusquely.

"You know," answered the Count. "I was just telling the boys good-bye.

I'll be all right in a little while, and then I'll come back."

"You aren't fooling anyone," broke in the quick-tongued Roy, "and I think Colonel Howell wants to see you."

Count Zept's laugh ended and he at once arose and followed the young men back to the stateroom. His reappearance seemed to ease his father's mind, and when the three young men and Colonel Howell began a game of auction the incident seemed almost forgotten.

At six o'clock, the superintendent of the dining car came to announce to Colonel Howell that his special table was ready, and the party went in to dinner.

When this elaborate meal was concluded, an hour and a half later, the warm afternoon had cooled and the train was well into the fertile farm land that distinguishes the great agricultural regions south of Edmonton.

Somewhat after ten o'clock, the long daylight not yet at an end, the journey came to a close in the city of Strathcona. They had reached the Saskatchewan River. Loading their baggage into two taxicabs, they made a quick trip across the river to Edmonton and the King Edward Hotel.

It was with a feeling of happiness that Norman and Roy found themselves on what is now almost the frontier of civilization. Their joy did not lie in the fact that hereabouts might be found traces of the old life, but that they were at last well on their way toward their great adventure.

Rooms were at once secured and Mr. Zept and Paul immediately retired.