Gerald Breckenridge

“ Once more, paddles were plied, and the two canoes cut diagonally across the waters of the lake towards the island. As they approached, Farnum raised his voice in a hail. A moment later an answering shout came back. Then a figure stepped from the trees to the little stretch of sand upon which the kayak was drawn up and stood, watching their approach, hand shading eyes against the glare of the sun, head bare.
“Great Godfrey’s ghost,” exclaimed Farnum in a low voice, turning his head slightly to address Mr. Hampton, “it’s a policeman.” ”

“ Jack’s face was pale, his lips set. Frank was trembling with excitement and fear—not for himself, if the truth must be told, for the plucky lad was not thinking of himself, but for his chum, who was holding off the main attack alone.
“Steady, Frank,” whispered Jack. “Bob’s life depends on us. This is no time for false compunctions. You’ll have to shoot to kill.” ”

“ As the powerful little schooner forged ahead, there was not a bend the rounding of which did not afford a surprise. Sometimes it would be caribou or reindeer, probably an escape from some Eskimo herd, which would be surprised standing in the water, and breaking for the timber on the bank at their approach. Again brown bear would be seen on the bank, or beaver swimming strongly across the stream. ”

“ Several of the latter had been creased by rifle bullets and one shot through a leg, but all could wield paddles.
And so the long trip out of the wilderness began, with the half-breeds in three canoes, deprived of arms and closely watched by their captors in the four canoes bringing up the rear. With reasonable care, it was felt, the prisoners could be controlled until they should near civilization. Without weapons they would be in a hopeless plight in the wilderness, unable to defend themselves against wild animals, unable to provide food for themselves. ”

“ Jack’s eyes were bright. Frank looked at him questioningly.
“Not——”
“Yes,” said Jack. “It was Lupo himself. Art wounded him in the chest. He died before we could do anything for him. But Dad got some information from him first.”
He looked at his father. Mr. Hampton’s face was both grim and sad.
“Yes, Frank,” he said. “We learned who set these men on us, and who plotted against Thorwaldsson. But let us not discuss it now. It’s bad business all the way through.” ”

“ Hampton shook his head.
“That’s not the only puzzling thing,” he said. “The disappearance from the MacKenzie of Thorwaldsson’s ship, the death of the aviator, the lack of message on his body, the swallowing up of Thorwaldsson and his party, Thorwaldsson’s failure to send any radio messages—all these need explaining.
“We must face the fact,” he continued, “that some disaster of a totally unexpected nature has befallen Thorwaldsson’s expedition. And I mean by that a disaster of man’s agency. They were prepared for practically all eventualities in their grapple with nature. ”

“ What if they were beset by oncoming Winter before they could make their way to the outside? What if they were attacked by hostile Indians? What obscure fate had met the Thorwaldsson expedition, traces of which they sought?
Into the mind of each thronged such thoughts, as 24 they stood in unwonted silence. Then Mr. Hampton called to them.
“No time for day-dreaming. Each man to his job.”
With him Tom Farnum had brought two trusted men. They hailed from Nome, but were old-timers who had been up and down Alaska for many years. ”

“ He, barricaded behind the canoes, had held off the rest of the attackers until the final rush and Bob’s timely arrival.
As the days passed by, with the twilight deepening into short nights, Art and Farnum both grew increasingly anxious to be on their way for the outside. They knew their North, and they realized that the time remaining to them before Winter set in was narrowing down to a perilously small edge.
“We’ll have a mighty hard job of it, Mr. Hampton,” Farnum pleaded. “What with wounded on our hands, and prisoners to guard, it looks almost hopeless as it is for us to get out. ”

“ There was silence for a minute or two, then MacDonald spoke.
“We can certainly travel faster without your outfit to hold us back,” he said, “especially if Lupo tries to run away. For then we could gain on him at the portages, by traveling light. Look here, Mr. Hampton, this island is easily defended. We’ve been going to the shore to keep watch on the mainland against surprise. But just a little ways through the trees is a little rise, a knoll, from which you can see the waters all around the island. One man alone could keep guard here.” ”

“ His big dream was that this tube, when used as an amplifier in conjunction with an alternator, would make trans-atlantic telephonic communication as common as cabling or wireless telegraphing.
“If I only had one of my 20-kilowatt tubes now,” he mourned, “we would be able to talk not only with Mr. MacDonald’s Post but with Dawson or even Nome.”
“Well, Jack,” said Frank, “it’s too bad. Just the same, let’s get busy. For, with our 50-watt oscillator tube set we will be able to communicate by telegraph up to 500 miles. And, as the Post is only 400 miles away, we can reach it easily.” ”

“ One more adventure, and that a serious one, was to befall the boys as a final taste of life in the wilderness. One day towards the end of Winter, when the sky cleared after several days of tremendous rain, the three boys who had been cooped up in their quarters and had worn out even the amusement of listening to the Edmonton radio concerts or communicating with the Post of the Mounted, announced they were going hunting. ”

“ Frank’s inexperienced eye could not have told the composition of the herd, but Art, when they had first caught sight of the reindeer from the hilltop, had pointed out the majority were cows, and the bucks numbered only a handful. If any buck had a masculine curiosity to discover what this strange white-skinned animal that looked so like and yet so unlike a man was, he did not get the chance to gratify it. ”

“ Frank thought his end had come, but as he struck the ground his hands closed on the coveted rifle, and he scrabbled to regain his feet, flinging the rifle to his shoulder as he did so.
His fall had been seen. One of the wolves turned aside from the outskirts of the pack, where he was not getting his share of the gruesome feast, and sprang for him. The next moment, as a shot rang out from behind Frank, the wolf dropped quivering at his feet.
“Steady, Frank,” cried Art’s voice. “Give ’em all you’ve got.” ”

“ It was Frank who asked the question, and he sat on a heap of luggage on the beach at Nome, with Jack and Bob beside him looking alternately at the mountain beyond the Alaskan outpost and at Mr. Hampton deep in conversation with a short sturdy figure of a man, clad in khaki breeches, high leather boots and a flannel shirt, a short distance away. The figure was that of Tom Farnum, scout of the independent oil interests at Nome. ”

“ Hampton, what will we do with all our outfit?” he asked. “And with our radio transmitter, especially? Shall we dismount it? Must we take all our outfit along?”
“It would be too bad to dismount the radio, after 85 our trouble in getting it erected,” said Mr. Hampton. “And to take all our outfit with us would be to hamper our movements. On the other hand, we can’t very well leave everything here, for some of Lupo’s men might slip away from the main body, in fact, they may already have done so, and they would put us in a terrible plight if they raided the camp, in our absence.” ”

“ With Art leading the way, the party began its upward climb. For some time they toiled upward until presently they reached a level unaffected by the more temperate air of the valley floor, and where, as a consequence, snow covered the rocks. Across a bare shoulder of rock from which the wind had swept all but a trace of snow they made their way and then plunged into a thick woods beyond.
Frank, who was in the rear, laid down his rifle and bent over to adjust the clumsy lacing of a thick shoe pack of the kind they had made for themselves from the skins of slain animals. ”

“ It means either men struggling through incalculable hardships to win their way to the North Pole, to the top of the world, or else fighting against all the mighty forces of Nature in a grim, ice-locked land to wrest a stream of golden wealth from the bosom of the Earth. ”

“ Just as Bob reached the edge of the bank, the attackers mustered up courage for a rush, and with wild shouts swept forward. It looked dark, indeed, for the lone defender of the upturned canoes. Bob looked back to see how close were his companions, but they were not yet in sight. His dash had carried him farther than he had believed to be the case.
It had taken only a glance to show Bob which way the land lay. The lone defender was the survivor of Thorwaldsson’s party, if the explorer’s party it was, of which Bob had little doubt. He was a white man. ”

“ Hampton continued. “He says that if we go out to search for wounded, we are likely to be shot for our pains.”
“Oh, surely not by a wounded man whom you were going to help,” protested Jack.
“You don’t know them,” said Farnum.
“Well, just the same,” said Jack, “I think Dad is 166 right. It would be shameful for us to go away without investigating.”
“I’d feel like a murderer,” said Bob. “Shooting ’em down in a fight is one thing. It was their lives or ours. But leaving a wounded man to die in the wilderness is something entirely different.” ”

“ He had been tossed from Bob’s shoulders, as a strong man would toss a sack of meal. Frank and Jack leaped aside, and the man struck the ground, rolled over and over and then lay still, crumpled up against the trunk of a spruce.
Recovering from their surprise, Jack and Frank leaped forward. But their intervention was unnecessary. Standing like a young Colossus, legs apart, with a man wreathed about each, Bob bent down. One big hand seized each by the neck. Then the two heads were bumped together once, twice. The half-breeds collapsed. ”

“ Hampton and Farnum decided to retrace their own trail back to the island in the lake where MacDonald had been encountered, and thence follow his course to the Fort of the Northwest Mounted Police.
Day after day they pushed ahead, the nights ever growing longer and colder, with frost on the ground in the mornings. The honking of the wild geese overhead, as they made their way south, also was a warning that the mantle of Winter soon would settle down. ”

“ How to explain the obtaining of that knowledge I do not know, But, perhaps, some traitor in Anderson’s employ, somebody high in his confidence, got some word of it. Perhaps, Thorwaldsson in an unguarded moment, let some bit of information fall. Oil, you know, is a vital necessity of the world. Discovery of a vast new field would make great fortunes.
“Whoever heard of it, heard of Farrell’s discovery, would realize that the only way to come upon it would be to follow the Thorwaldsson expedition, dog its steps and, at the psychological moment, strike. ”

“ The canoe containing the boys was close alongside, as the older men had let their paddles swing idly to enable Bob and Jack to catch up with them.
“Why can’t it be taken out now, Dad?” asked Jack.
“Because,” explained Mr. Hampton, “the only method would be by ship through the Arctic, and even in the short Summer that is a passage often blocked by ice. No, development of the copper resources of this wilderness, as well as of the oil we hope to find, will have to wait on the building of a railroad.” ”

“ They were young, with life ahead of them, and they wanted to see the world. In fact they 143 had seen a good deal of it already, as those who have followed them through their various adventures, know. Of this they spoke as they made their way back to camp, where they discovered Farnum ready to turn in, and merely awaiting their return before doing so. Since their first encounter with Lupo, and their discovery that they were not alone in the wilderness, a watch was always kept, and Farnum had combatted sleepiness in order to keep guard until their return. ”

“ Frank said. “I see you get my idea.”
He turned his gaze toward Farnum, farthest from the center, but who had overheard the conversation.
“You see, Mr. Farnum,” he said, “when the reindeer come dashing down, Lupo’s men will have to run for it to get out of the way. A stampeding herd isn’t anything to monkey with, I expect. Then you’ll have your chance. But the reindeer won’t dash in among these few close-set trees, so you’ll be safe. No, sir; as I figure it, they’ll just head right on past here and try to get through the hills beyond.” ”

“ And it isn’t every day that you can travel. For this isn’t a land of tame Winter as you boys know it. Out of the north comes storms succeeding storm, pitiless in severity. Even the creatures of the wild cannot stand it, in many cases, and drift to the south.”
“But how about the Eskimo?” asked Jack. “This is their country, isn’t it? How do they stand it?”
“Sometimes they don’t,” said Farnum. “When the hunting is poor and famine stalks through the Eskimo village, only the hardiest survive.”
“Where do they live, anyway?” struck in Frank. “Why aren’t they around here? ”

“ Yet there is the bare possibility that out there in the grass may be one or more badly wounded men, fellows whom we shot at one time or another, who were too hard hit to escape. If there are any such, we can’t go off and leave them there to die. I wouldn’t treat a dog like that.”
“They’re not dogs,” muttered Farnum, bitterly. “They’re wolves.” ”