Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1922-07-08
CHAPTER |.
A Bolt From the Blue.

Eighteen below; fair weather for
December In New Manitoba where the
forest. though 1t chills the soil till
midsummer, yet shuts out the razor
edge Of the winds that make the prai-
ries. farther south. an Icy inferno.
Here the bush, which had seemed
to stretch out illimItably. thinned into
bedraggled patches among the up
cropping rocks. A little farther and
1t began once more: the break was like
= great. curving arm thrust into the
heart Of 1t, as II some giant fingers
had plucked up the trees In handsful
and scooped the foundation from the
frozen soil, and then had been with
drawn, leaving the imprints Of the
great finger-tips.
These tinger-tips were huge sink
holes, sometimes filled with water, SO
that they formed clear lakes; more
often sodden sponges OF decayed veg
etable matter, oozy, treacherous and
unstable. The flnger-lines were the
circular ridges marking the subsistence
of the mud. The thumb was Big Mus
keg, which the two men who stood on
the top of the humpbacked ridge
ceuld see extended beneath them.
Big Muskeg at this point less than
half mile across, was everywhere OF
unsounded depth. 1t curved and wound,
river Of ooze, now broadening into
chains Of lakes, now narrowing into
gullies; here and there crossed by
trails, but never stable, nowhere Of
fering firm foundation for the perma-
nent way of the Missatibi railroad.
The Missatibi was a branch line,
feeding the new road that was push
Ing northward toward the ports be
on Hudson bay. 1t linked with 1t at
Clayton, whence 1t was being extended
eastward into a virgin wilderness.
Even in the days when half dozen
companies were pegging out ways for
lines that were to divert the wheat
north, Joe Bestocks line had been the
Joke Of legislatures and financiers.
Those other lines that we're being
built into Clayton passed through the
wheat-iands; Joe's line ran east out OF
Clayton Into wilderness. Joe Bostock
had secured his capital. but he had no
competitors.
And slowly MIssatibi, with Its small
shareholders and limited means, had
gone ahead. The first location par
ties had cleared road to Big Mus
keg. The rails had been laid half
way. But that was all, save for the
partly constructed shacks and build
ings for the workmen there, and the
sheds for the construction material
that had not yet been freighted In.
Joe, standing with legs straddling
the top Of the ridge, turned to Wilton
Carruthers, the chief engineer of the
. company, with eyebrows arched and
humorous inquiry on his weather
beaten old face. There was no need
for speech at that moment. because
the mind of each man dwelt on the
identical problem.
The two men had come east BY dog
sleigh, accompanied by two half.
breeds, Jean Passepartout and papil.
lon, the one In charge Of the dogs, the
other carrying the transit-compass
They had camped seven miles back on
the preceding evening, and had set out
at daybreak to survey the swamp
lands from the ridge. For the prob.
lem which had suddenly risen up to
confront them clamored for solution
before construction could be carried
forward, and on Its solution depended
the future OF the Missatlbi.
With the physical eye neither Joe
nor Carruthers could hope to accom-
piIsh anything. Wilton was seeking
inspiration. though he did not know It
Theoretically he was endeayoring to
discern some place where foundation
might be coaxed above the unstable
uuaklng surface with trestling and
cribsN6rt, ercssfng that combined
the least possible deviation OF route
gifh no more than four-ffths Of one