On the Edge of the Arctic Part 8

Norman and Roy lingered a while to learn from Colonel Howell the next step.

"The crates will come across the river early to-morrow morning," he explained, "and we'll catch the Tuesday train at eight thirty for Athabasca Landing. We'll be there to-morrow evening. Turn in and get a good night's sleep."

It was no trouble for the boys to do this, and at seven o'clock the next morning they were waiting for their friend and patron in the office. When he appeared he was in company with Mr. Zept and Paul, having apparently just aroused them.

"Well, boys," he began, using his perpetual smile, "we've struck a little snag. But remember the philosophy of the country--what you can't do to-day, do when you can. It's the train!"

"What's the matter?" exclaimed Norman.

"Well," explained Colonel Howell, "you know they're just finishing the railroad and I was told that the trains are running to Athabasca Landing.

They were running a pa.s.senger train about twenty-five miles out, but beyond that there hasn't been anything but a construction train. There's a new Provincial Railway Commission and it decided only the other day that no more pa.s.sengers could be carried. The road hasn't been turned over yet by the contractor and they're afraid to let anyone ride on the construction train. We could get as far as the pa.s.senger train goes and there we'd be stalled. Looks like I'd have to do some hustling."

"You can go in an automobile," suggested young Zept, who apparently had secured some information about the country.

But Colonel Howell shook his head. "There are only two automobiles in that service and they're both stuck somewhere in the mud between here and the Landing. Besides, that wouldn't do us much good. I find that my two carloads of oil machinery are yet in Edmonton and then there's the airship crates."

"Can't we carry it all by wagon?" asked Norman.

"Hardly," responded the colonel. "It'd make a caravan. We might get through in good weather but the trail is impa.s.sable now. We've got to go by train."

"And can't!" commented Roy.

"Not to-day," laughed Colonel Howell, "but the season's young yet.

There'll be another train starting out day after to-morrow. We'll have to turn up something. Meanwhile, let's have breakfast."

This meal over, Norman and Roy accompanied Colonel Howell out into the city. As they well know, Edmonton was the town from which all were forced to take their start into the northern country and, as the colonel had already discovered, they soon confirmed the fact that transportation facilities were in a chaotic condition. A stage was to leave that day, but its pa.s.senger facilities were wholly inadequate, and what there were had been engaged for many days.

The first visit of the investigators was to the offices of the Hudson's Bay Company, that great trading inst.i.tution which is at once the banker and the courier for all travelers in the great Northwest. Although altogether obliging, at the present time the Company was helpless. The agent thought he might arrange for teams, but it would require several days. Then Colonel Howell visited the offices of the railroad contractors, where he ascertained definitely that pa.s.sage on the construction train was out of the question.

"Maybe we'll have to stay here until the mud dries," laughed Colonel Howell.

The two boys almost groaned.

"But something may turn up," continued Colonel Howell, "and I'll be enough to look after things. You boys had better take a run over town. If I don't see you at noon, I'll see you at dinner this evening."

The boys returned to the hotel, found that Mr. Zept and his son had finally gone out with friends, and they put in the rest of the day inspecting the lively young city.

Colonel Howell's acquaintances were not confined to the Northwest--he also had friends in Winnipeg. After leaving the contractors' offices, he went to the Dominion Telegraph Building and sent this message to a business friend in Winnipeg: "Please see the Canada Northern officials and tell them that I am stranded in Edmonton with a party of friends and would like to get to Athabasca Landing."

In two hours, he was called up at the hotel by the general superintendent of that road, located in Edmonton, who said he had just been ordered by the Winnipeg officials to extend every facility to Colonel Howell and his friends in their advance to Athabasca Landing.

"We're running a mixed train to a little village twenty-five miles out from Edmonton," explained the superintendent, "and when it goes again, Wednesday morning, I'll put an extra car on this train. Meet me that morning at eight thirty, at the depot, and I will escort you personally as far as this train goes. Then I'll arrange to have your car attached to the construction train. There has never been a pa.s.senger car in Athabasca Landing. You can have the distinction of finishing your journey in the first pa.s.senger car to touch the great rivers of the Mackenzie Basin."

Colonel Howell proceeded at once to the superintendent's office, expressed his grat.i.tude at the courtesy shown, and arranged that the other cars containing his outfit and the airship should be carried through at the same time.

When the members of the party returned to the hotel late in the afternoon, and received the news of the happy solution of their difficulty, congratulations rained on Colonel Howell. The boys had a new respect for the influence of the man with whom they were casting their fortunes and who had so little to say about himself.

The effect was a little bit different on the Count, who had rather persisted all day in a theory of his own that automobiles were the things to be used. He had canva.s.sed liveries and accosted chauffeurs, but he had made no practical advance in securing help of this kind.

"Our own private car!" was one of Norman's outbursts. "That'll be great."

"And the first one into the North!" added Roy. "That's greater yet. And it gives us another day in Edmonton."

"Which isn't very great," commented the Count. "I've seen all I want to of this place. It's nothing but banks and restaurants. What's Athabasca Landing like, Colonel Howell?" he added a little petulantly.

"Oh, the Landing's nothing but saloons and the river, and beyond it," he added significantly, "there's nothing but the river."

At seven o'clock that evening, Mr. Zept and Colonel Howell with the three boys attended a baseball game, leaving it at nine thirty in full daylight.

"To-morrow is vacation," explained Colonel Howell, as they separated for the night, "and Wednesday at eight thirty we'll board our private car."

CHAPTER VII

A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE TO ATHABASCA LANDING

During their stay in Edmonton, the two Indian rivermen had been living royally in a lodging house near the depot. Early on the morning of the departure, Colonel Howell rounded up his old employees and when the mixed freight and pa.s.senger train backed up to the depot, the party was ready to board it. It was with satisfaction that all saw two Chicago & North Western freight cars, which Colonel Howell identified as those containing his oil outfit, and next to the extra pa.s.senger coach, the special baggage car.

A mist was falling and it was not cheerful. It was time for Mr. Zept to take his leave. For some moments he and Colonel Howell spoke apart and then, without any special word of admonition to his son, he grasped the hand of each boy in turn.

"I hope you'll all be friends," was his general good-bye, "and that you'll all stand by each other. Good-bye. Colonel Howell is my friend and I advise all of you to do just as he tells you. Take care of yourselves,"

and with no further words, the rich ranch owner helped the little party to load its baggage into the express car.

There were many curious people at the depot, among whom, not the least conspicuous, were Moosetooth and La Biche. Men from the frontier and a dapper young mounted policeman all came to speak to the two Indians.

With most of the pa.s.sengers either hanging out of the car windows or jammed together on the platforms--for at the last moment, Colonel Howell had readily given his consent to the superintendent that he might also throw open the special car to the general public, as far at least as Morineville, the end of the pa.s.senger run--the creaking train crawled around a bend, and while the boys and Colonel Howell waved a farewell to Mr. Zept, the journey northward on the new road began.

The privacy of the special car at once disappeared. The unusual jam was due to the impa.s.sable condition of the stage trail. Into the special car there came not only hunters and traders, but many women and children who had prevailed upon the railway officials to help them forward on the last stage of their journey into the river land.

As the pitching train made its way slowly beyond the city limits, Norman, Roy and Paul also found themselves on the platform, ready for the first sight of a new country. They were looking for sterile plains. Instead, they found black land freely dotted with clumps of trees, with walls of wild flowers on each side of the track. Magnificent strawberries almost reddened the ground, while, by the fences, the ripening Saskatoon berry gave the first positive sign of the new vegetation of which they were to see so much.

For three hours the train crept forward, stopping now and then at little stations, and at last reached the considerable settlement of Morineville.

Here, Colonel Howell expected to meet the construction train to which the special car was to be attached, and from this point they were to make the remainder of their journey of seventy-five miles to Athabasca Landing as the sole pa.s.sengers of their car.

But bad news awaited the travelers. The construction train had not arrived but it was expected during the afternoon. The superintendent, taking leave of his guests, left orders that their car should be forwarded on the returning construction train and at noon he left on the pa.s.senger train for Edmonton. Colonel Howell's car was switched onto a spur and then began a wait for news of the construction train.

An affable telegraph operator did what he could to appease the anxious travelers. By telephone he learned that the expected train had not yet made half the journey between Athabasca Landing and Morineville, and in that distance had been off the track four times. On the operator's suggestion, the adventurers made their way to the village for dinner and then returned to their car and spent the afternoon in hearing from time to time that the construction train was off the track again.

"Promises well for a night ride!" suggested Roy.

"It doesn't mean anything," explained Colonel Howell. "They just slap down an iron frog and run on again. Don't get scared about that."

When time for supper arrived, the agent gave it as his judgment that the train couldn't get in before midnight and, in that event, that it certainly would not go back until the next morning. Being a.s.sured by this employee that in case his theory was not correct he would send them word, the party abandoned their car to have supper and sleep in a little French hotel.

The supper was bad and the beds were worse. Norman and Roy longed for their new blankets and the woods, and slept with difficulty. Some time, about the middle of the night, the two boys heard the strident shriek of a locomotive. They at once rushed to Colonel Howell's room, eager to make their way back to the depot, but recalling the operator's promise, the prospector persuaded them to go to bed again and when it was daylight they all awoke to find no train in sight. But the operator was waiting for them and ate breakfast with the party.