241
Cabin of Rev. Fathers Le Roux and Rouvier 241
R.N.W.M. Police Barracks, Churchill, Hudson Bay 256
Police with Dogs and Equipment on Split Lake, N.W.T. 257
Inspector Fitzgerald 272
Supt. Charles Constantine 272
Inspector La Nauze 273

CHAPTER I

A GREAT TRADITION

A few years ago I was away north of Edmonton on the trail of Alexander
Mackenzie, fur trader and explorer, who a century and a quarter before
had made the amazing journey from the prairies over the mountains to the
Pacific Coast. We looked with something like awe and wonder at the site
of the old fort near the famous Peace River Crossing, from which, after
wintering there in 1792, he had started out on that unprecedented
expedition, and we followed up the majestic Peace to Fort Dunvegan, past
whose present location Mackenzie had gone his adventurous way. And
during our trip we came across a little frontier encampment building
itself into a primitive wooden town in view of the advent of a railway
that was heading that way. It was a characteristic outfit with lax ideas
in regard to laws which touched upon personal desires as to gambling,
strong drink, Sunday trading and the rest. These men were out to make
money as their type has been on most of the frontiers of civilization,
and the unwary traveller or the lonely settler who ventured unduly was
promptly fleeced of his possessions and turned out amidst a good deal of
revelry in the hours of night. And then one day there rode into that
shack-town a young athlete in a uniform of scarlet and gold, the
rough-rider hat, the tunic of red, the wide gold stripe to the top of
the riding boots and the shining spurs. He rode in alone from the
nearest post some 60 miles away and, when he dismounted, threw off the
heavy saddle and picketed his horse, a sudden air of orderliness
settled on the locality. The young man, going around with that
characteristic cavalry swing, issued a few warnings, tacked up a notice
or two and then saddling his rested steed rode away at a canter over the
plain. But the air of orderliness remained in that region after the
horseman had disappeared over the horizon just as if he were still
present. This was puzzling to a newcomer who was along, and he asked me
what manner of man this young rider was t