CHAPTER I 



THE MAN ON THE QU'APPELLE TRAIL 



Among the lonely lakes I go no more, 



For she who made their beauty is not there ; 

 The paleface rears his tepee on the shore 



And says the vale is fairest of the fair. 

 Full many years have vanished since, but still 



The voyageurs beside the camp-fire tell 

 How, when the moon-rise tips the distant hill, 



They hear strange voices through the silence swell. 



E. Pa*ulvne Johnson. 

 The Legend of Qu'Appelle. 



TO the rimming skyline, and beyond, the wheat- 

 lands of Assiniboia* spread endlessly in the sun- 

 shine. It was early October in the year 1901 

 one of those clear bright days which contribute enchant- 

 ment to that season of spun gold when harvest bounties 

 are garnered on the Canadian prairies. Everywhere 

 was the gleam of new yellow stubble. In serried ranks 

 the wheat stooks stretched, dwindling to mere specks, 

 merging as they lost identity in distance. Here and 

 there stripes of plowed land elongated, the rich black 

 frfyMy turned earth in sharp contrast to the prevailing 

 gold, while in a tremendous deep blue arch overhead an 

 unclouded sky swept to cup the circumference of vision. 

 Many miles away, yet amazingly distinct in the rarefied 



* The provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, Western Canada, were 

 not created until 1905. Prior to that the entire country west of the 

 Province of Manitoba was known as the North-West Territories, of which 

 the District of Assiniboia was a part, the part which subsequently formed 

 the southern portion of the Province of Saskatchewan. 



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