Adventure Magazine Cover, April 3, 1918 — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

32 The marks of sleeplessness and inner conflict showed upon Carlisle, pallor of skin under his bronze, dark circles around his eyes, a weariness in the gray eyes them- selves, but he nodded with his grim smile. “Tt’s war,” he announced, ‘“‘perhaps in all its bitter phases but a trade war first of all. It starts today, this morning, on the minute, and I’ve work cut out for each of you to do.” A-murmur of approbation stirred the group. It was what they hungered for, action, strategy, blows, no doubt, in the end. Carlisle took a map from his pocket and spread it open on the counter. “Look,” he urged, pointing, ‘‘get the sit- uation fixed in your minds! Richelieu’s post was the first post on Sturgeon Lake. Tom and Joe Frobisher built it in 1772, and it was built in defiance of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s charter. “That it has passed, since the amalga- mation of the Montreal traders as the North- west Company, into Richelieu’s hands does not alter that fact. It’s trading where the Hudson’s Bay Company alone has the right totrade. Sam Hearne came up the Church- ill in 1774 and masked it with this post, Fort Cumberland, but competition hasn’t killed it—yet. “Then, years after, Wayne buffaloed his way in—a second poacher. Now, men, this Cumberland District is the district of the West. Who holds the Cumberland District holds the Saskatchewan, and who holds the Saskatchewan holds the West. You understand me?” “Oui,” nodded Drummond emphatically, speaking for them all, “dey understand dat all right.” “So did our sleeping overlords on James Bay when they woke up,” Carlisle went on. “That’s why they sent Hearne up here. That’s why they hurried other men in to build other forts, a perfect network of them from Hudson’s Bay to the Rockies, from Athabasca Lake to the headwaters of the Missouri. “Those forts will hold the West only if Cumberland House holds Sturgeon Lake. Because, you see, the Saskatchewan is the great highway from the Rockies, and Stur- geon Lake commands the water lanes to it on the east, the west and the north. There’s the point. It’s the connection of the North- ern lakes and rivers here with the Church- Adventure ill River that gives this place its strategic importance.”’ “Losh, yes, Factor,” spoke Garry, “and what wass it you would be asking us to do?” “T’ll tell you ina moment. I just want to emphasize the danger. You know the strength of the Northwesters, and I can tell you in all confidence that the Government of Canada is pitted through and through with Northwest adherents. Where they are not actually shareholders in the com- pany, they are in close relationship with shareholders. ‘“‘The Hudson’s Bay Company is powerful in the Government ranks in England, but it is the Northwest Company which wields that power here. If we lose our grip, the Hudson’s Bay Company may as well sur- render its charter.” “The teevil!’”’ exclaimed Lea, astounded, while all the men, suddenly smitten by the magnitude of their undertaking, exchanged glances of wonder. “Into the hands of the Northwesters it will go,” Carlisle declared. ‘And, without our opposition in the field, they will not be long in swallowing up the Free-Traders.”’ ‘Yer don’t mean to s’y, Factor, that the Northwesters ‘ll stand supreme, do ye?” burst out Jarvis, the Cockney clerk. “Blimey if the men that’s fought under the H. B. C. flag so long could stand that, ye know. And, s’elp me, wot is the territory of our charter? Ayn’t it all the ground drained by the rivers wot run into Hudson’s B’ye” “Ves,” smiled the Factor, “but that ter- ritory is tremendously big and vague, and its boundaries have never been properly defined. J have private information that the Northwesters will soon send an expedi- tion over the Rockies to the Pacific. The headwaters of the Saskatchewan are by no means the limits of their ambitions, and besides, the Free-Trade movement is to be feared as much as the Northwest advance. “You know yourselves that Wayne has independent traders planted all over the West in his different posts. If both the Hudson’s Bay and Northwest Companies go down in adeath-grapple the Free-Traders will step in and gather all the spoils of the West. Three strong companies are reach- ing out for it, and I tell you in all serious- ness, men, that two of those companies have to be smashed before another Sum- mer.”’ GOmiiGcsdoo S (C@