, and travel on
till we enter Lesser Slave Lake, down which we journey to its extreme
western end, where Grouard sits on a hill overlooking a bit of the lake
called Buffalo Bay. Without mishaps, we ought to reach Grouard in four
or five days, but no one will cut off our heads if we loiter a bit on
the way.

There are about thirty male passengers on board and seven women. This
half-hour I have been talking to a plausible prolix villain whom it
would be easy to like greatly. He is going to make three million
dollars from his oil-wells on the Mackenzie River. He says so himself.
He has been down north for several years and walks like one who has
been used to the spring of a snowshoe beneath his foot. His clothes
have the odour of the forest--that is to say of leaf mould, poplar
smoke and spruce resin. He went to England two years ago to persuade
Grandfather Bull to invest in oil and asphaltum, but was not as
successful as he could desire. "I figure," he says, "it will take
another century to convince Grandfather, and by that time the fourth
generation of America 'Coal-oil Johnnies' will have squandered the
dividends on actresses and aeroplanes. Pouf! these Americans have no
idea the world belongs to the Lord."

It was well I agreed with him so civilly, for he said, "If you wish to
invest in some oil-stocks, Madam--and no doubt you will after what I
have told you--I will see to it that you get in on the ground-floor and
no questions asked."

Now I did not like to inquire of him what is meant by the ground-floor,
lest he should think me the veriest ignoramus, but I am persuaded it
means something most excellent, for I have frequently heard promoters
mention it to people like me, who have not much money to buy with.

This man originally hailed from New Zealand, but he tells me that
country is no good; it is too far from Fort McMurray. At Fort McMurray
life is one round of pleasurable anticipation and all the day seems
morning. Who can tell at what moment a gusher may shoot into the
clouds and blot out the sun itself? Then it's gorged with gold we
should all be--those of us on the ground-floor--and are millionaires,
with hundreds of universities and public libraries to give away. What
would be the use of having oil and hiding it under bushels of rocks,
we'd like to know.

At this point the purser explains that the steep ascent to our right is
called Bald Hill. It can be seen from a long distance, and is one