ast the great falls of the Rassini, beyond which no white man had gone.
They hid the canoe in the bushes and placed beneath it the iron stove
and half their supply of food. Then they plunged into the brush,
eastward. Bennie had never known such grueling work and heartbreaking
fatigue; and the clouds of flies pursued them venomously and with
unrelenting persistence. At first they had to cut their way through
acres of brush, and then the land rose and they saw before them miles of
swamp and barren land dotted with dwarf trees and lichen-grown rocks.
Here it was easier and they made better time; but the professor's legs
ached and his rifle wore a red bruise on his shoulder. And then after
five days of torment they came upon the Iron Rail. It ran in almost a
direct line from northwest to southwest, with hardly a waver, straight
over the barrens and through the forests of scrub, with a five-foot
clearing upon either side. At intervals it was elevated to a height of
eight or ten inches upon insulated iron braces. Both Marc and Edouard
stared at in wonder, while Bennie made them a little speech.

It was, he said, a thing called a "monorail," made by a man who
possessed strange secrets concerning the earth and the properties of
matter. That man lived over the Height of Land toward Ungava. He was a
good man and would not harm other good men. But he was a great
magician--if you believed in magic. On the rail undoubtedly he ran
something called a gyroscopic engine, and carried his stores and
machinery into the wilderness. The Nascopees were not such fools after
all, for here was the something they feared to cross--the iron serpent
that bit and killed. Let them watch while he made it bite. He allowed
his rifle to fall against the rail, and instantly a shower of blue
sparks flashed from it as the current leaped into the earth.

Bennie counted out twenty-five golden eagles and handed them to Edouard.
If they followed the rail to its source he would, he promised, on their
return to civilization give them as much again. Without more ado the
Indians lifted their packs and swung off to the northwest along the line
of the rail. The stock of Prof. Bennie Hooker had risen in their
estimation. On they ploughed across the barrens, through swamps, over
the quaking muskeg, into the patches of scrub growth where the short
branches slapped their faces, but always they kept in sight of the rail.

* * * * *

The ex