Show resurrection E S M U M R IN ZM almor E C T I 1 ai el ka PM in 13 M V AT LR em CHAPTER I 1 in the fall of 1929 a rumor drifted out of the far north out to edmonton that a tremendously rich mining field had been discovered di sc in arctic mackenzie dynamite bay the place was called newspapers throughout canada and the states printed sensational stories about this discovery but at that particular time black thursday had just spread its pall over both nations and in the general panic nobody paid attention to rumors about a far off el dorado all during the four stricken years that followed dynamite bay stories kept trickling out to civilization rumors rumor s about staggering finds of silver dilver copper platinum and radium except for a few experts with inside ineide knowledge no one knew whether dynamite bay was a genuinely rich field or merely another wild alarm such as the canadian mining frontier so often sounds one party which did have authentic data about dynamite bay was the powerful wellington parkes lovett incorporated mines with headquarters in chicago and branch houses in new york winnipeg toronto they were not an actual mining company wellington parkes lovett in their thirty odd years they had bad never mined a ton of ore purely an investment house they bought and sold mineral properties manipulated stock issues rigged the market and formed holding companies that brought streams of gold flowing in to them from the small corporations that did the real work it was warren lovett junior partner in the firm who first had seen the unique opportunity that dynamite bay offered old jasper wellington founder and head of the house was getting slow to grasp new situations russell parkes who had gone in for diplomacy and had been minister at an european capital for several years was out of touch with things and living in new york and so it was lovett young and alert and brainy who had planned the whole venture and had set the stage for his company to make a thunderous coup in the canadian arctic one july morning patricia wellington old jaspers eldest daughter unexpectedly appeared at the la salle street headquarters of the firm fim the previous midnight while on the family yacht up near mackinac she had made a sudden bold decision and in her impetuous way she had whipped back to chicago by plane to carry out her idea still in yacht togs jacket linen dress white sandals she swept imperiously sly down the corridor of the office and into the inner suite whatever else you might think of patricia wellington there was no denying that she was lovely medium tall gloriously athletic of body she had a dash and fire that had whirled her to national championships in swimming and tennis her eyes were dark and flashing she had thick black hair parted in the middle and her face was as starkly beautiful as an egyptian profile at the desk of the telephone secretary patricia asked wheres WK eres mr lovett in mr Welling tons office please the girl replied but having an important conference and they gave instructions that no one oh yes said patricia and with that she started for the door of her fathers room the phone girl and the other three secretaries sent a battery of hostile looks after her flitting from pleasure to pleasure with two continents for a playground and nothing to do except find new diversions with a kick to them she seemed to have had all the splendid things of life handed to her on a golden platter now as the climax to her good fortune she was going to marry mr lovett who in a few years more would have complete control of the company in his capable hands those were the envious thoughts that followed patricia into her fathers office but the truth within patriciaa Patri cias own heart was vastly otherwise providence w which h I 1 c it seemed to have been so lavishly kind to the girl had in reality starved her tangled her life all into a snarl and plunged her into chaos A vitally alive girl she had nothing in her gilded world into which she could throw herself heart and soul an idealist she had nothing to idealize bitterly dissatisfied she had run a gamut of madcap adventures in a frantic search for something to quench this deep nameless thirst at a rosewood rose table in her fathers office warren lovett and jasper wellington an iron featured old fl of sixty were studying a big white map the bang of the door caused both men to look up where the devil did you come from old wellington demanded and dont you see were busy her fathers tone warned patricia that he was having a crabbed morning and that she had better broach her wish carefully in a good many respects he was a tyrannical old roman with her and her sister frances and their mother and he could say nol no like a person driving a rivet lovett got up courteously and by william byron mowery a 0 NN william marti byron byrol mowery service came across the big room only thirty three nine years older than patricia he was a quiet pokerfaced poker faced man handsome in a way well groomed in a gray business suit outwardly he had nothing remarkable about him nothing except perhaps his poker face to explain w why by it was that he who had come to wellington parkes twelve years ago as an obscure assistant atto attorney was now a partner and a millionaire lio climbing swiftly on to complete mastery of the powerful house in patriciaa Patri cias affection for warren there was little romance and no passion S on A succession of hectic love a affairs had made her cynical about the love relationship in general but she did like warren a great deal and considered him the most able man she had ever met coming from nowhere a poor boy from a wisconsin iron mining li hamlet amlet he had risen to the top through sheer ability steady and even tempered he would wear far better in the long run she told herself than any other man in her wide acquaintance what brought you back so suddenly dear warren queried No nothing pothiner thiner went wrong up lake I 1 hope no nothing patricia answered she stood on tiptoe tip toe and kissed him in order to whisper hurriedly warren I 1 want to do something that dad may object to and if he does help me out wont you it if I 1 possibly can warren returned in his cautious way they walked on over to the table As patricia had guessed the big map was a chart of that arctic mining field which she had heard so much about on it she saw a large area of marine blue marked great desolation lake from an eastern arm of great desolation a river called resurrection wound northeast into a huge blank region marked barrens resurrection river the name had fascinated patricia ever since she had heard it what sort of country was that polar land up there at the top of the world basking under the midnight sun and those unknown barrens what mysteries and adventures were lurking on their silvery rivers and musk ox prairies she looked up from the map dai 1 I hear that youre going to lead an expedition to dynamite bay warren yes dear im starting early next week raoul decarie head of our geology staff has a plane party waiting for me at winnipeg when are you coming back she asked 1 I cant say definitely but likely within two months he touched the engagement ring on her finger and smiled 1 I must be back in chicago by the eighth of october dearest it was this very matter this eighth of october which patricia herself was thinking about and which had made her decide to go along with warren on his arctic trip her engagement to warren lovett was almost the only stable and solid thing in her chaotic situation and a truly fine married life was almost the only ideal left to her with their wedding so near at hand she desperately wanted to overcome the feeling that warren and she were strangers she felt confident that two months of intimate association would draw him and her very close to each oth other er and that all her secret doubts about their marriage would be stilled old wellington said roughly to her see here if youre winding up to say youre going along with warren for a little arctic picnic you might as well not say it that country is no place for a woman warren has business to attend to on this trip and he cant be bothered you run along and let us get back to our work his order made patricia angry you run along he was always like that always treating her like a child or an inconsequential person As he treated her mother and frances it seemed to her that a great m many any men in her world had that same attitude toward their womenfolk sometimes she wondered whether warren too was going to regard her as a social pet instead of a mate and a life partner but dad she swallowed her anger and wounded pride 1 I wont be a bother to warren ill keep out of the way honest 1 I say no but dad while they argued it back and forth warren stood aside listening to them and thinking swiftly until that moment he had not thought about patriciaa Patri cias going along but now that she had suggested it he wanted her to go because he loved her sincerely because his love for her was almost the only honest thing in his pokerfaced poker faced life he grasped eagerly at this prospect of having her with him for those two months but his chief motive in in wanting to take h her er was entirely cold blooded it if patricia was in the far north for the next eight weeks week practically till the day of their wedding she would have no chance to fly oft on some whatnot that might delay their marriage or even spike it altogether keeping out of the argument he waited until old jasper had thundered his final noll nol and patricia had burst into angry tears As she 2 k 1 71 7 1 I say no turned away he stepped up and took her arm and at the door he bade quietly let me handle this patricia you run over to the treetop tree top club and wait there till I 1 phone you dont worry in ten days from now you and ill be camped on resurrection stirring out of a long deep sleep patricia reached up as her habit was to touch the button that would bring her maid into the room her hand encountered canvas a canvas wall opening puzzled eyes she looked up and found herself staring at the ridgepole of a tent for a minute she lay quiet with her sleepy thoughts drifting back across the ion long journey north chicago winnipeg edmonton then the lengthy flights hundreds of 01 miles at each hop across the atha basca slave and mackenzie countries to the arctic then the swing eastward toward the north magnetic pole and at last their goal at dynamite day bay the north so far had keenly disappointed her no snowy mountains no romantic rivers with whitewater white water portages por no wild indians no halfbreed half breed boatmen singing while they worked at the dismal frontier posts where the planes stopped for gas the indians had seemed slouchy and tame the half breeds sullen the white men uncouth and the country itself unspeakably dreary waterlogged water logged by marshy lakes slow rivers and slimy green muskeg the immense three rivers region seemed to her just one huge dismal swamp a thou sand miles of stagnant green ooze that was neither land nor wa water ter at the other side of the tent her english maid was noiselessly unpacking baggage patricia sat up euyn ellyn is there ank any break breakfast fas t a around ro und this place or does a person have to go 90 out and shoot a cari bou breakfast I 1 is s ready for miss in the dining tent ill have it here in rr my ay iy tent get one of those ha half breeds to help you bring it when ellyn was gone patricia slid out of bed in her pajamas found a pair of slippers and stepped over to the flap deorr door anxious to see what dynamite bay looked like at the arrival a of her party eight hours ago she had been so dog tired t that hat she had crawl crawled ed into her blankets without a glance at anything her tent faced the blue loping waves of great desolation where arctic gu gulls 11 s w were e r c wheeling and mewing in the golden sunshine along the land wash to her left stood the glistening white tents of her party and in the shallows the five big red airplanes rode at anchor to her right a good sized river swift and turbulent flowed into the bay half a dozen dirty brown tents were scattered along its near bank but the main prospectors camp lay a cross across on the north shore with a start patricia realized that this blue beautiful stream was resurrection ur river whose name had caught her fancy in far off chicago As patriciaa Patri cias eyes followed resurrection ur river far away into the northeast till it lost itself in that jumble of wild hills a ii little we shiver went through her a shiver of misgiving and fright a wordless d desire e to flee back to the familiar country of cities and warm comforts fresh and clear because it was a fir first st impression the tone of that arctic land came starkly home to her in spite of its balmy air and mellow sunshine she knew that it was a harsh land severe and pure as its icy blue waters a forbidding country that tolerated only those who were courageous and anci strong of heart somewhere a man was singing in bush french patricia listened followed the words of the old voy agdur song oh etite loiselet Oi selet in the strong woods your foot is caught in the snare invisible in the cruel ba bische you will nutter flutter you will struggle and die oh little one looking around patricia spotted the singer at one of the tents over new near the river bank sitting on a box labeled DYNAMITE he be was plucking away at an old guitar and singing endlessly it suddenly occurred to patricia that it was this mans singing which had awakened her a little while ago before she was ready to wake up if he sang like that every morning when his tent was so close hullo over there she called the noise broke off the man arose looked around saw her you call me hein nobody but you come over here the man came carrying his guitar tenderly beneath his arm As he drew near patricia saw by his features that though tie lie was no metis halfbreed half breed he did have a tinge of indian blood in him A stalwart big fellow thirty years old he was strong and powerful as a bull moose but he trod with the light ii step ste 1 of a cree woods runner What ll you take for that thing she demanded pointing at the cheap battered guitar for dis gee tar you mean my goodness go oness I 1 not sell her nev air she fine dandy gee tar and me ive carry her round wit me all over de nort from labrador nas carpee to alaska porcupine but I 1 tel lyou wat ill len lea her to you denever we never you wan to play her patricia laughed and her anger fled you dont get the point but no matter she eyed the big fellow up and down with amused curiosity 1 I say who are you anyway me im what napoleon auguste cesar de la salle st jacques good gracious its a wonder you arent stoop shouldered what are you a prospector TO DE BE CONTINUED |