"Why-a great bank of fog," said Mr. Hampton, after gazing intently. "How strange. Fog in Winter. I don"t understand."
"An" ye all think that"s fog, hey?" asked Long Jim, turning to the others.
Nodding heads answered.
"Well, it ain"t," he said. "That"s the vapor from hot springs."
"Hot springs?" Mr. Hampton sounded frankly incredulous.
"Wait"ll you see for yourself," said Long Jim, tolerantly. "I wouldn"t believe it, neither, when I first saw it. I thought it was fog, too. But bein" as how heavy fog in the Winter were strange, I went to investigate. An" I found paradise."
Then, under Mr. Hampton"s skillful questioning, Long Jim told his story.
He declared he had lived in this region now these two years, and that since first arriving he had seen n.o.body except themselves. Drawn by the seeming fog to investigate, he had come upon an almost tropical valley through which ran not only one but several rivers of water forever at the boiling point. These rivers, moreover, he said, were fed by hundreds of hot springs, which bubbled out of the ground in all directions. It was the steam from these which, condensing as it rose above the valley and struck the cold Winter air, had formed the fog which first attracted his attention.
"Once I were in South America," said Long Jim. "Down clost to the Equator. Well, I"m tellin" you, it were that hot all last Summer right in that valley. As for right now, ye"ll find it mighty pleasant an"
warm, an" when snow falls it"s only rain by the time it pa.s.ses through the heat hangin" over that valley all the time."
"Hurray," cried Frank, exuberantly. "Let"s go. No snow fellows. Get that? I"ve had all the snow I need for one season, anyway, and I guess I can get along without any more for some time to come."
Mr. Hampton smiled, but, disregarding Frank"s jubilation, proceeded with his questioning. And Long Jim, delighted with an audience to which he could talk all he pleased, after having been without companions for several years, continued unfolding new wonders.
This valley, he declared, was about 200 miles long and 40 miles wide.
They were now near its upper end, to which point Long Jim had made his way by slow travel and exploration during the two years since his arrival at the southern end.
Game?
At the question, Long Jim grew even more eloquent.
He declared that, due to the heat generated by the hot springs and the boiling rivers, the fertility of the soil was amazing. The vegetation, in fact, achieved a jungle growth. Wild rose bushes grew tall as trees, with stems as thick as a man"s forearm and so dense that it was impossible to force a way through them. Willows grew to the size of big trees, with branches so thick it was possible to walk along them.
"An" birches," added Long Jim, "git to be hunderds o" feet tall, so tall, in fact, they can"t hold themselves up but bend over an" touch the ground.
"Likely you think I"m out o" my head. Oh, I kin see it in your eyes. But I"m tellin" you the G.o.d"s truth, men." And Long Jim spoke with such honest sincerity, they were compelled to believe him. "In sich a place,"
he continued, "it ain"t likely there wouldn"t be no game. Why, the animals there is thick as flees on a ol" hound.
"Mountain sheep, goats, caribou, moose, bear, deer, wolves, foxes, oh, every wild animal o" the whole North kin be found there-down in that valley an" in the mountains enclosin" of it. An" I tell you the truth,"
he concluded, his voice sinking for effect, "the moose git so fat they"re almost square an" they"re so darn tame ye can almost touch "em."
As Long Jim"s speech came to a halt, Mr. Hampton turned and stared across the brightening landscape to the distant bank of vapor. Soon the short days would end entirely, and the perpetual night of the Arctic would arrive. Only a miracle could save them from perishing, all unprepared to face further travel as they were. Could it be possible that miracle had occurred, and that this trapper was telling the truth?
Jack looked at his father, and sensed what was pa.s.sing through the older man"s mind. Truth to tell, some such thoughts were in his own. He went up to him and laid a hand across his shoulders.
"Come on, Dad," he said. "I believe Long Jim is telling the truth. And we better make the effort to get to this valley. He may be exaggerating a little, but certainly it looks like a promised land."
"That"s right, Jack," said his father, shaking off his reverie, and his alert self once more. "We"ll have a hard enough struggle getting there, what with having to cross this waste of new-fallen snow without snowshoes or sleds. Well, let"s see what can be done."
Eventually, the party got into motion. The canoes were cached, where they could be recovered in the Summer. There was little likelihood anybody else would pa.s.s that way, to appropriate them. Equipment was made into packs shouldered by everybody except Art and Bob. These two were to carry Thorwaldsson on a stretcher, improvised out of poles cut on the river bank, and blankets.
Fortunately, the crest of the valley to which Long Jim was guiding them was distant not more than five or six miles. Even at that, however, the going was tremendously difficult because of the ma.s.s of new-fallen snow.
Had it not been for Long Jim to break the way on his snowshoes, moreover, it is doubtful whether they could have made it, heavy laden as they were. But Long Jim worked patiently backward and forward, breaking down the snow, and packing it a second and even a third time with his webs.
"How come you were out here, ol" timer?" asked Art once, as Long Jim paused, and he caught up with him.
"Well, I git lonesome a leetle," said Long Jim. "I was prospectin"
around in the mountains rimmin" the valley yestiddy, an" I saw you across the snow. Jest leetle specks you were, but agin the snow I thought you were humans. I couldn"t hardly believe my eyes, but I come along investigatin". An" then when night come on, you lit your fires, an"--"
"Sure was lucky for us, Long Jim, if you ain"t a-lyin"," said Art.
Long Jim stiffened, and for a moment was prepared to stand on his dignity but then he smiled in a jolly way that sent crinkly wrinkles all around his blue eyes.
"Don"t blame ye for that, Artie," he said. "Sounds like I were crazy, don"t it? But jest wait till you see."
CHAPTER XXV.-VOICES FROM THE WILDERNESS.
But Long Jim had not falsified. The valley proved, indeed, to be more even than he described, for as the world now knows important mineral deposits were discovered, including gold, silver, copper, coal, iron and oil. But of the development going on to bring not only this marvelous region but the vast oil region beyond the Coppermine into the world"s resources naught need be said now. Suffice it to say that such development is under way, for Mr. Hampton had the ear of the great financiers, and was able to bring it about; and also that Farrell and Long Jim are receiving handsome incomes from their shares in the various projects.
Here the party settled down, constructed huts, and prepared to await the coming of Spring when the snow should disappear from the vast wilderness separating them from the northern edge of the civilized lands and the ice in the rivers be unlocked.
One of the first things done by the boys was to erect their radio plant, and they succeeded without much difficulty in opening communication with the little Fort of the Northwest Mounted Police on the farthest rim of the settled country. MacDonald and d.i.c.k, with their prisoners, had arrived only a day or two before communication was opened, and the two parties exchanged the stories of their adventures by radio.
To Long Jim the radio was as great a source of wonder as Long Jim"s valley was to the boys. He could never get over marveling at it, and every time that it was brought into use, Long Jim, if he were in the vicinity, was on hand, sitting in rapt and open-mouthed astonishment while the boys operated the instruments.
Much time was spent in exploring this wonderful valley, at the resources of which Mr. Hampton could never express sufficient astonishment.
"It is a freak of nature, of course, boys," he explained on one occasion.
"How wonderful that it should have remained undiscovered for so long,"
said Jack.
"Not so marvelous," said his father. "Few, indeed, are the people who ever have penetrated any distance into all this vast wilderness of northern Canada. It was supposed, and still is generally supposed, to be bleak and uninhabitable. You know from experience that the contrary is the case. It is delightful country in Summer, and man is so const.i.tuted that, if properly clothed and housed, he can stand any severity of Winter. Some day, I predict, all this vast wilderness through which we have been making our way will be settled. That day is far off, of course, but it is coming. The growth of world population will force the conquest of the sub-Arctic."
The one thing making their stay in this valley of marvels unpleasant was the constant rainfall. For in the Arctic storm succeeds storm, sweeping down from the North Pole in never-ending succession. And these storms which they knew were burying the land beyond the valley under a pall of ice and snow poured torrents of water on them. The peaks of the mountain ranges r.i.m.m.i.n.g the valley were buried under snow, gleaming wan in the occasional moonlight between the storms, for by now the long night had come. But on them no snow fell, for as Long Jim had foretold the snow as it pa.s.sed through the temperate air created by the eternally hot rivers and springs was transformed into rain.
Two events of importance marked their stay. One was the escape of their prisoners, together with some rifles which they succeeded in stealing.
Pursuit in the darkness, and through the jungle-like reaches of the forest was almost hopeless and was quickly abandoned. Nor, although vigilant watch was kept to prevent surprise, did they ever see sign of the half-breeds again.
"It"s a big valley," said Mr. Hampton, "and I doubt whether they will attempt to attack us. Rather, they will keep out of our way. They are poorly armed and inferior in numbers, since we have all come together.
Their escape, I imagine, was incited by a fear of what awaited them if we succeeded in getting them back to civilization and the courts. Well,"
he said, with a sigh, "I regret, of course, the loss of witnesses to substantiate the charges of deviltry which I shall surely bring against Grimm. Nevertheless, I am glad to be rid of them."
It was a sentiment in which all concurred.
The other event referred to was the opening by means of relayed messages via the Mounted Post and Edmonton of communication by radio with Mr.
Temple in faraway New York. When word reached Bob"s father that the Hampton party was safe and sound and wintering in the wilderness, he quit work for the day, despite the fact that a big business deal was clamoring for his attention, and sped by motor down to his Long Island home.