270 The King of the Thundering Herd 



was too cold and desolate for other men, 

 there you might find the trappers of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. For the beaver, 

 the muskrat, the mink, the otter, and all 

 the other furred denizens of the wilderness 

 dwelt here. 



Clustered about Fort Edmonton, like a 

 lot of barnacles upon a great ship, were the 

 teepees of the Cree Indians. In fact, a horde 

 of Indians and half-breeds (breeds as they 

 were called) always hung about the fort. 

 For a part of the year they trapped and for 

 the rest spent their money for whiskey and 

 tobacco and hunted and fished. 



It was into the favorite hunting-ground 

 of the Cree Indians, the aborigines of the 

 upper Saskatchewan country, that Buck 

 had unwittingly led his little herd, so 

 while they luxuriated in this new-found 

 land of milk and honey the Crees dis- 

 covered their coming and soon were busy 

 laying plans for their destruction. 



