On the Edge of the Arctic or, An Aeroplane in Snowland   By: H. L. (Harry Lincoln) Sayler (1863-)

ON THE EDGE OF THE ARCTIC

or

An Aeroplane in Snowland

by

ASHTON LAMAR

Illustrated by Norman P. Hall

[Illustration: The Gitchie Manitou ready for its first flight in the Far North.]

The Reilly & Britton Co. Chicago

Copyright, 1913 by The Reilly & Britton Co. All Rights Reserved

ON THE EDGE OF THE ARCTIC

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I Introducing An Airship And Count Zept 9

II A Curious Stranger Learns the Object of the Gitchie Manitou 27

III Colonel Howell Makes a Novel Proposal 42

IV Colonel Howell Discovers an Old Friend in Jack Zept 58

V Negotiating and Outfitting 72

VI The Expedition Strikes a Snag in Edmonton 86

VII A Tempestuous Voyage to Athabasca Landing 100

VIII Count Zept Makes Himself Known at the Landing 114

IX The Song of the Voyageur 128

X Paul Awakens to the Situation 142

XI Preparing Camp for Winter 155

XII Breasting a Blizzard in an Airship 169

XIII In the Land of Caribou, Moose and Musk Ox 187

XIV In the Cabin of the Paralyzed Indian 201

XV A Letter Goes Wrong 217

XVI Roy Conducts a Hunt 232

XVII The Gitchie Manitou Wins a Race 248

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Gitchie Manitou ready for its first flight in the Far North. Frontispiece

"I've an idea and I got it the minute I saw your aeroplane to day." 51

"Don't shoot," he protested. "What's the use?" 181

"They must have seen us," panted Roy as he and Norman advanced. 205

ON THE EDGE OF THE ARCTIC OR AN AEROPLANE IN SNOWLAND

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCING AN AIRSHIP AND COUNT ZEPT

This story, which is an account of the peculiar and marvelous adventures by which two Canadian boys Norman Grant and Roy Moulton achieved a sudden fame in the Arctic wilderness of the great Northwest, had its beginning in the thriving city of Calgary. The exact time was the big day of the celebrated "Stampede," Calgary's famous civic celebration. It was in July and among the many events that had drawn thousands of people to the new Northwestern metropolis, Norman and Roy were on the program as aviators and exhibitors of their new aeroplane.

These young men were born in Calgary and had lived eighteen years in that city. Since this almost covered the period of Calgary's growth from a trading post to a modern city, each young man had a knowledge of the wilderness and its romance that other boys could get only from history. This meant that they knew plainsmen, scouts, ranchmen, cowboys, hunters, trappers, and even Indians as personal friends. It meant also that they had a real knowledge of the prairies, the woods and even of the mountains. Their knowledge of these men and the land in which they lived was personal and did not come from the fanciful narratives of books of adventure.

Each boy was the son of a mechanic, men who had come into the Province of Alberta with the first railroads. And each boy was educated in all that a grammar school affords. The picturesque romance of the Northwest having been a part of the life of each, it might have been supposed that the ambitions of the two lads would have run toward mining or ranch life or even toward the inviting work of hunters or trappers.