jurisdiction of the Force over the whole Dominion, East as well as West,
accompanied by the word "Canadian" in their title instead of "North
West," the time seems opportune for a real-life record of what these men
throughout the years have meant to Canada. Such a record should cause
every Royal Canadian Mounted Police recruit to realize that he has to be
worthy of the tradition built up by the achievements of nearly half a
century through valorous men, many of whom have now passed over the
Great Divide. It will deepen in all men of sincerity a respect for
authority in a restless age. And it will bring into the light facts
hitherto unrevealed that will fill all men with pride in their country.

I know that the men of the Mounted Police have been averse to saying
anything about themselves. They have the usual British characteristic of
reticence intensified. But though I have been brigaded with them on
active service, I have not been a member of the corps, and hence do not
feel bound by their policy of silence. Let the plain truth, which is
always stranger than fiction, be told about these gallant riders as an
inspiration to young Canadians and to men of the blood everywhere. With
this purpose in view I am now keeping the resolution made that night in
the North, as I am in this book extending and telling to a larger
audience the story then unfolded to an individual. My humble hope is
that the larger audience may be equally interested.

THE WIDE WESTLAND

In the year of Grace 1920, we, in the West, celebrated with enthusiasm
the birthday anniversary of the Hudson's Bay Company, which has attained
to the ripe old age of 250 years. Yet the eye of this ancient
organization is not dimmed by time, nor does its power show signs of
impairment. As it is around this old and honourable commercial and
colonizing concern that the early history of Western Canada principally
revolves, a few paragraphs on this subject seem to be necessary as we
begin our story. We must have proper historical setting for the entrance
of our famous police force on the stage of Western Canadian history.

About the end of the first decade of the seventeenth century, Henry
Hudson, the intrepid navigator who was looking for a North-West Passage
by water through the North-American Continent to the Western Sea,
discovered the great Bay which bears his name to this day. Marooned by a
mutinous crew, he paid for the discovery with his life, after the manner
of