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Seaforth stared out into the glittering night, and groaned, for he knew what happened to wounded men unsheltered from the frost. His voice was low and harsh as he asked, "Then what is to be done?" Okanagan replaced the canvas before he answered quietly, "There's the canon." "Yes," said Seaforth. "Still, no man has ever gone down it." "No.
Men flung certainty to the winds and trekked recklessly to California, to Oregon, to the hinterland of the country round Colville and Okanagan. Yet nothing occurred to cause any excitement in Victoria. There was a short-lived flurry over the discovery in Queen Charlotte Islands of a nugget valued at six hundred dollars and a vein of gold-bearing quartz.
A trip to the Okanagan is like one sweet dream to the inhabitants of the dry belt a dream that is broken only once by a dreadful nightmare the mosquito conquest at Sicamous; but you forgive and forget this the moment after you awake. The mosquitoes at Sicamous are as great a menace to that town as the Germans are to Europe.
Okanagan rose up with a little grim laugh. "Thorns," he said. "There's a condemned big one in my thumb." Seaforth stared at him with a vague suspicion that the hardships of the forced march they had made had left their mark upon his comrade, though he had never noticed any signs of mental weakness in the big axeman before.
"I am kind of tired," he said. "There's a good deal to be done to-morrow." There was no sign of the missing horse next day, and Alton's face was grave when he returned to camp at noon. Tom of Okanagan arrived an hour or two later, and shook his head when Seaforth glanced at him inquiringly. "Rock again. Right down to the river," he said.
"Horton's sending in at sun up." "Yes," said Alton dryly. "I want my message on the wires some hours before his, but nobody need know of it beyond you and me." Okanagan nodded, and in another five minutes Alton looked into the room where Horton was still writing.
Okanagan said nothing, but stooped again, and Seaforth tightening his grasp of the contracting fingers, heard the sound of uneven breathing through the thud of snow upon the tent. He was by this time a little more master of himself, and looked steadily down on the white face with the grimly-set lips.
The party are going to visit the most interesting districts of our country, including both the famous mining district of Cariboo and the beautiful valley of the Okanagan. Mr. Cole, my clerk, will introduce you to Mr. Blair, our member of Parliament for Westminster, who will present you to the rest of the party. Mr. Blair, I need not say, is one of the brightest business men in the West.
"I'll try when he wakes," said Okanagan. "You'll find some flat stones by the river. I want one with an open grit that you could grind a knife down with." It was long before Alton awakened, and then it became evident that he was not wholly sensible. Loss of blood, over-fatigue, exposure and hunger had left their mark on him, and while he rambled disjointedly a bitter wind sprang up.
For a blissful moment she fancied the journey was at an end, for there were lights and voices and a pleasant smell of firwood smoke, but Okanagan shouted to his team, and the lights faded away behind as they plunged into the silence beneath the pines again. "Father," she said faintly, "do you think he has gone the wrong way? It seems ever so long since we left the settlement."
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