Show DIV ro VL h I 1 VEE R SYNOPSIS warren lovett thirty three junior partner ot in the powerful wellington parkes lovett incorporated mines of chicago which engages in questionable transactions plans to make a secret coup in the canadian canan die n arctic where a few years before a rich but inaccessibly mining held field has been discovered on resurrection river which alch flows into dynamite baa patricia high spirited and beautiful daughter of crusty old jasper wellington who Is engaged to warren decides to accompany him over her fathers objections he agrees to take her they go by plane pat meets polton a french canadian prospector CHAPTER I 1 continued oh I 1 got wan or two claim stake down back in dere he gestured up resurrection river but I 1 don care a whole pile bout pr prospecting A feller wit a string of claim hes got to work on em so much dat stead of heem having dern dem stake down dey got heem stake down and me I 1 don lak dat what do you do then oh I 1 hunt wolf trap roam patricia offered him a cigarette lit one herself to his great astonishment ish ment and sat down on a mossy rock tor for a chat with this fellow he was so buoyant so kind and sunny hearted that she liked him instantly naive as a child in some ways he was sensitive and intelligent in many others and she found him to be a mine of information about dynamite bay the main prospecting field he told her lay up resurrection beginning at those sawtooth hills and extending northeast into the barrens the bay was a sort of cen central aral point where the men came to get supplies recuperate and have a bit of human association 1 I thought be a lot of excitement here and several thousand men and all that pat patricia ricia i remarked disappointedly but I 1 dont see any boom at all there never had been any rush informed the city country was far away the arctic winter was something that no tenderfoot could face and expenses were sky high all food supplies and equipment had to be brought in by plane at a ton for freightage alone in the entire field there were only prospectors thirty or forty of them were from the cities but the great majority were northern men trappers free traders ex mounties bounties Mo unties are there really any rich mineral lodes up that river she asked point blank or is this place just a big rumor shook his head I 1 don know what you mean to say youve been around here off and on for three years and dont know that 1 I don and I 1 don vink tink any of dese utter men know for dead certain he went on to explain that the formations back in those rolling hills and barrens were all hard rock not placer stuff hard rock took expensive trenching drenching tren ching diamond drilling and big scale assay work before a true valuation could be made A few rich pockets had been found true enough but none of the pick and dynamite prospectors knew whether the deposits had any worthwhile size to them competent geologists could make fair estimates but the men had nothing except prospectors faith to go by patricia was amazed actually the men there know whether the field was rich or not nobody seemed to know except warren he knew all right but he was keeping the secret locked within himself why had he come here what was his business here to find out the facts dear about this place that just sound convincing on the surface his arctic trip seemed to indicate that the field really did have something to it otherwise he would not have come at all but she could not be sure even on that point with a certain shame she remembered occasions in the past when wellington parkes lovett had interested the gullible public in a worthless field and then got out from under at huge profit t to t themselves em selves after had left her she lit a second cigarette and gazed thoughtfully up resurrection at those blue hills just then the mystery hanging over the field seemed of little importance to her she was too stirred and gripped by the elemental wildness of the country A queer formidable land even the air in spite of the bright sun had a strange sharp bite to it which she had never experienced under any other sky again that uneasiness and misgiving crept over her and she felt afraid CHAPTER 11 late that afternoon bored by half a day of adling around camp patricia ordelee three of the chi himi half breeds to pitch her a hammock and mosquito canopy at the woods edge and she made herself comfortable there with a book to pass the dull hours she hated idleness like the plague yet bleness dl eness seemed the thing that she had the most of in her life wherever she went at home abroad idleness dogged her and now it had followed her even to the remote north she had expected to plunge in and by william byron mowery 0 william byron brewery service help warren with his work whatever it was but he had politely refused to let her help him or to tell her a single word about his b business business I 1 there on resurrection it wounded patricia very d deeply to discover that warren was holding out on her he and she had been together almost a solid week on the long trip yet she knew no more about his secret mission than she had known in chicago she had tried earnestly to break down that sense ot of strangeness between them but so far she had miserably failed she cared little about his mission itself she only wanted him to be open and warm and honest with her but she did want that dreadfully and his evasive silence hurt instead of reading she lay in the hammock in a reverie mood staring up at the applegreen apple green arctic sky down at chicago she had thought about resurrection river and now on resurrection she was thinking about chicago brooding about it and her life there toward six she slid out of the hammock and wandered down to the bank of resurrection to find st jacques and have him take her on a little slumming expedition it if you can spare a couple of hours she said id like for you to take me across the river ill pay you for the trouble of course wy you dont need pay me nut ing M ees pat I 1 take you over dere as a frien just jus lak if some tam I 1 come to checca Chee cago 9 0 you take me round as a frien set a nearby near by canoe to water handed her in and with a heave and a cheery alfonsi Allon sl si he sent the craft dancing out upon resurrection ur it was a perfect summer day lazily warm and golden butterflies flitted flirted past the canoe an and d over the region a legion of dragon flies were snatching up mosquitoes in their trapdoor jaws although late evening by clock time the sun stood as high in the sky as at noon in chicago patricia knew rationally that she was in the land of the midnight sun and that there would be no sunset for several weeks but night had always been so infallible an event that she quite believe it going to arrive the canoe approached the north shore shor P up the lake beach yards was a cluster of large 0 cabins the wireless station la land nd office mounted polie police buildings and hudson bay store skirled shirled the canoe deftly ashore grounded it handed patricia out and they walked up the bank heavens what a hodgepodge patricia thought as she glanced down through the camp the whole place was a disorganized confusion of tents smoldering fires men canoes and chained up dog teams in comparison with the two ontario rushes which she had seen this camp looked gone to seed no paths unsightly refuse everywhere no organization no esprit de corps and the men moving about here and there seemed halfhearted half hearted discouraged over the whole place hung an air of poverty and defeat she asked am I 1 just imagining things or are these men in the dumps youre dead right pat dese feller dey are on de dumps you see dey been here at dynamite bay debbe two debbe four year and all dat tarn tam dey been have have to scrape along on beetle or no money cause dey have no chance to trap or trade dayre real men dwyre tough as you never saw but dayre just jus about ready to give op why dont they take time off and make some money and get back on their feet again they dare take time oil off explained A man had to do 15 days work a year on each claim he held or it would revert to the crown since most of the prospectors owned ten or more claims it took constant labor and the hardest kind of sacrifice merely to hang hand on to at the first tent they approached a tall rawboned prospector was tossing whitefish to his team of huskies he was in an undershirt and clumsily patched trousers his hair was unkempt his face heavily how you do sam greeted pat dis is sam honeywell sam dis is wellington honeywell awkwardly bowed to patricia and mumbled pleased to meet you maam lacking pole ons huge social ease he was red faced with embarrassment presently site she and went on down through the camp kept introducing her to man after man till finally she had to make him stop all of them were painfully embarrassed all stared at her breeches and cigarette all were respectful ful in their rough frontier way the truth of Po leons words dayre tough as you never saw came forcibly home to her for all their discouragement and raggedy clothes here fiere were men real men the pick of the north all the weaklings wea klings had been weeded out it was at the east side of the camp that the incident of bill fornier came crashing into her slumming expedition like a thunderbolt she and had stopped to watch a group of men whom lupe the leader of warrens six metis had recruited from among the prospectors actors they were rolling drums of airplane gas on onto to a skiff patricia soon noticed that tha t one of the men a stocky miner was in bad trouble of some sort he kept wiping the perspiration out of his eyes and occasionally a fierce gust of pain swept across his bulldog face all at once as he started to push a drum up the skids he caved in in completely and sank down in a heap on the sand sprang in rolled oft off the drum which had fallen back on the mans legs and slipped an arm under his head steady bill he soothed as the mans eyes flickered open every tings fine dandy dose drum dey too much for you to grassle wr assle lemme take you back to your tent you wont no such thing the man refused weakly 1 I can stick it soon as this spell kicks over ill cut the mustard okay I 1 got to non non BUD if you just jus got to have dat money ill take your place for de res of dis job still shaking his head the man slowly pulled himself together got up trudged to the lake edge soused doused water over his tousled hair then came back to the gang and doggedly set to work again the matter with that fellow I 1 0 w patricia demanded as I 1 eon rejoined her Is he drunk Sacre bleu he poor bill is a terrible man pat its inside of heem gerel here 0 41 J r I 1 N i pleased to meet you maam poleo rubbed his stomach he can get well levair in tree tire or four monts he got to die but but patricia stammered a man chos as sick as that my lord no person should work when hes so sick that he keels overl but bill got to work wedder he able or non told her in a few words he explained For formers plight formerly a free trader over norman way bill had been stricken with cancer two years ago knowing that his days were numbered he had left home and come across to dynamite bay in hopes that lie he could make a good strike and so not leave his wife and two little girls penniless he had staked five fine dandy silver claims said but now he was going to lose them for he was flat broke and his assessment for that year was not completed he was trying to scrape up a few dollars for grub money so that he could go back to his claims and work off the assessment on at least one or two of them that was why he had hired out to lupe chi CH himi that afternoon with wide eyes patricia stared down at the at bill fornier struggling with a drum of gas here was a man looking death in the face forced to do heavy labor with the pangs of death inside of him getting up from a faint joking about it going back to work again when he could barely stumble around it seemed a bit ghastly she had never biever known that such a thing existed in the world she suddenly hated the whole camp wished she never had seen it she cried whirling away take me back across the river but then she stopped slopped in her tracks she could go back to her hammock and book but she would carry with her the picture of a sick man pushing a drum of gas onto a skiff she could flee could shut her eyes but that picture would still haunt her she faltered glanced again at bill fornier i an impulse shot into her mind in that moment without her mowing knowing she was stepping into a trap was thrusting her foot into the snare invisible the cruel ba bische of Po leons song go down there I 1 she command ed go down and stop that fellow make mahe him quit wor working kingl she gave the bewildered a shove go bring him up here to met me I 1 want to talk to him CHAPTER III in the dining tent around eleven that evening warren remarked over their wine and cigarettes lupe told me that you gave a sum of money t this hi s afternoon patricia to one of these prospectors across the river it if I 1 may s say ay so indiscriminate charity like that is never wise good heavens that indiscriminate char charity ityl hes in an aw fly bad hole warren but arien anen you give money outright to an individual dear you break down his initiative initiative be dam damn edt patricia burst out with a touch ot of anger in two or three months bill former mer will be dead and what good will this initiative do him then besides anybody work when he can barely stand up hes got all the initiative he needs warren saw that she was angry and he retreated tactfully your act was very kindhearted kind hearted de dear ar ill admit but my point is that a very large number of those men over there are in difficulties and it if start to take that whole camp under your wing dont be silly I 1 dont wan want t to ever see that crazy camp again As a matter of fact im thinking of going back home in a few days she expected warren to object strongly but to her surprise he did not object at all A few moments later as he held a match to her cigarette she asked abruptly warren why did you bring so much money along with you on this trip what money down there in the tent why my its a regular pirates treasure I 1 looked into that chest and saw whole stacks ot of big yellow banknotes bank notes and piles of gold pa pieces aces youve got at least in that trunk warren arren hid a frown of vexation how did you find out about this 1 I was looking around in their t tent e n t a and n d B battu t t C h i w au g h i m i t tried r i e d t to 0 k keep e e p m me e aa away w ua y f from r 0 m t that h a t c chest h e s t and that made me curious to know what was in it so I 1 ordered him to let me see warren flicked the ashes from his cigarette and deliberated a moment about this money I 1 can very easily i dont patricia stopped him 1 I can tell by the tone of your voice that youre going to lie why patricial patricia he remonstrated that a very nice word ayou think maybe not but also its not very nice of you to be so evasive with me evasive about what your business here at dynamite bayl bay she shot back youve got some big scheme up your sleeve and you wont tell me one truthful word about it ive told you the truth dear if you dont believe me I 1 presume theres no use in my repeating it it there certainly patricia agreed and they dropped that subject too presently warren remarked eyeing patricia narrowly 1 I found out just this afternoon that theres a former acquaintance of yours here at this place patricia looked up in surprise of mine who you remember tarlton dont you craig tarlton patricia started violently here at dynamite bay craig tarlton yes lt aware of warrens eyes upon her patricia fought to hide her confusion she was ashamed of the telltale flush which had leaped to her cheeks but her emotions were in such a whirl that she could not help herself craig |