craft could attempt. On
the other side, and the wider, skilled boatmen had a chance of safely
conducting light craft through the many perils. Here it was necessary
that both boats should be unloaded and the entire outfit be portaged to
the far end of the island.

But travel on the river was so important that those concerned in it had,
many years before, constructed a crude wooden tramway which, repaired by
every newcomer, was available for use in transporting the heavy freight.

Permanent camp was made at the head of the island when this arduous task
began. It had taken four days to load the boats and seven days were spent
on the island in getting the cargoes of the two boats to the far end. The
sixth day fell on a Sunday, when no Indian does any labor. On the
afternoon of the next day Moosetooth and La Biche made their spectacular
races down the Rapids. Not a boy of the party that did not entreat
Colonel Howell to let him go with the first boat, but in his refusal
their patron was adamant. The only man to accompany each boat as it
started on its flight was an experienced member of the crew who sat on
the bow with a canoe practically in his lap. He was ready to launch this
any moment to rescue the steersman, but both attempts were engineered by
the veteran river men with no other bad results than the shipping of a
great deal of water.

Paul posted himself opposite the most dangerous point and made pictures
of the tossing boats and their bareheaded pilots as long as they were in
sight.

Then came the laborious task of reloading the boats, but under Colonel
Howell's direct attention, this operation now took far less than four
days. Within ten hours' travel from the foot of the Rapids, the boats
rounded a bend at three o'clock the next afternoon and came in sight of a
lone cabin on the bare and rocky shore of the river.

"Look in the trees behind it," exclaimed Colonel Howell.

Like a gallows, almost concealed behind a fringe of poplar trees, stood
the familiar lines of an oil derrick.

"I'm sorry they haven't got a flag out," remarked Colonel Howell, "but
that's the place. All there is of Fort McMurray is just beyond."

CHAPTER X

PAUL AWAKENS TO THE SITUATION

At first Colonel Howell's camp appeared to be deserted, but as the boats
made in toward the shore and the crew began shouting, two men appeared
from the cabin. These were Ewen and Miller--Chandler was not in sight.

The new log cabin with its