towards civilization at once.

"To the others in the field I discredited the possibilities of the region
and set out on foot, with a single Indian as a guide, to make my way to
Athabasca Landing. Here I planned to secure food and proper tools and
machinery to return to Fort McMurray and develop what I believed would be
a sensational sub-arctic oil region."

"I've heard about it," broke in Norman. "You pass Lac la Biche going
there, don't you?"

Colonel Howell nodded and proceeded: "It was impossible to return to
Athabasca Landing by canoe, as the river is too swift. For that reason I
made a thirty-day trip on foot and reached the Landing with the winter
well advanced.

"Here I found I could not get what machinery I needed and I put off my
project until the next season when the ice had gone out of the river. I
returned to the States and in the following July I went back to the
Landing ready to go down the river once more. I took with me, from
Chicago and Edmonton, well-boring machinery and ample provisions for a
year's stay in the wilderness. At Athabasca Landing I found it impossible
to buy proper boats and I lost considerable time in making two large
flatboats patterned after the Hudson's Bay Company's batteaux."

"'Sturgeon heads,'" exclaimed Roy. "I've always wanted to see one of
them."

"That's what they call 'em," exclaimed the colonel. "I guess I don't need
to describe them to you. Well, when they were completed, I loaded my
machinery, quite a batch of lumber, and my flour and pork--I freighted
all of this one hundred miles from Edmonton--and with three workmen, set
out down the river with an Indian crew and a couple of old-time
steersmen."

"Who were they?" broke in Roy, with apparently uncalled-for eagerness.

"The best on the river," answered the colonel. "Old Moosetooth Martin and
Bill La Biche."

"Why, they're here on the ground!" almost shouted Roy.

"Yes," exclaimed Colonel Howell. "Do you know them? I'm on my way back to
the Landing now. They're going with me again."

Roy's mouth was open, as if this was a statement not to be lightly passed
over, but Norman stopped him with an impatient: "Go on, please."

"I'll tell you about them later," the colonel added, as if to appease
Roy. "They're both fine old Indians and I've been with them a good bit
to-day. But even the best of them have their faults. You know, at the
Grand Rapids these flatboats ought to be unloaded. Even then the best
steersman