ail. Nothing that
could be foreseen was neglected. Every stage of the journey to the Unaga
country was measured in his mind, both for time and distance. Only the
elements were perforce omitted from his calculations. This was in the
nature of things. The elemental side of his undertaking was
incalculable.

His way lay due north for a while along the course of the great Caribou
River. This would bring him to the half-breed settlement at the Landing
on the great lakes. It would also take him through the country of the
Hiada Indians. Arrived at Ruge's trading post at the Landing, his horses
and police, half-spring wagons would be left to the trader's care, for
beyond this point their services would be dispensed with.

The second stage of the journey would be by water and portage. In this
neighbourhood, where the wilderness of sparsely travelled country opened
out, he would make for the headwaters of the beautiful Theton River. The
river of a hundred lakes draining a wide tract of wooded country. It was
a trail which was not unfamiliar; for his work not infrequently carried
him into the territory of peaceful Caribou-Eater Indians, who so often
became the victims of the warlike, hot-headed Yellow-Knives.

The river journey he calculated should bring him to Fort Duggan at the
height of summer, and it was without any feeling of enthusiasm that he
contemplated that fly-and-mosquito-ridden country at such a time of
year. But it was necessary, and so he was left without alternative. Fort
Duggan was the deserted ruin of an old-time trading post, it was the
home of the Shaunekuk Indians who were half Eskimo. It was also the
gate of the mystery land of Unaga.

Unaga! The riddle of the wide northern-world. The land from which weird,
incredible stories percolated through to the outside. They were stories
of wealth. They were stories of savage romance. They were stories of the
weird, terrible, and even monstrous. It was a land so unexplored as to
be reputed something little better than a sealed book even to the
intrepid Arctic explorer, who, at so great an expenditure of physical
effort and courage, rarely accomplishes more than the blazing of a trail
which seals up again behind him, and adds his toll to the graveyard
which claims so many of the world's dauntless souls.

Unaga! The land unknown to the white man. And yet--news had come of the
murder of two white men within its secret heart. Therefore the machinery
of white man's law