52 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



witnesses to the killing of the engineer by the captain 

 and that the captain had deliberately planned their death. 

 The sailors explained their former testimon}' by saying 

 that when the Olga had come in sight of Herschel Island, 

 Klinkenberg had called all hands on deck and had made 

 them a brief speech to this effect: "Boys, you know the 

 penalty for killing five men is the same as for killing four. 

 You know what has happened to the four of you who are 

 not here to-day. The same thing will happen to the first 

 man who tells on me, and maybe to the second and third." 

 Then he outlined to them briefly what his own testimony 

 to the police would be, and advised them to make their 

 testimony similar. They had done so, and while Klinken- 

 berg was still at Herschel Island none of them had dared 

 to say a word. All this and more the crew testified under 

 oath after Klinkenberg had sailed west from Herschel 

 in his little boat. 



When the new story got about there was great excite- 

 ment at the island and much talk of pursuing Klinken- 

 berg, but it was soon agreed that by now he must have 

 crossed the international boundary, only forty miles west 

 of Herschel Island. There a Canadian police would have 

 no jurisdiction, Alaska being U. S. territory. Further- 

 more, it was clear that if the American authorities wanted 

 to arrest Klinkenberg, they could do so whenever they 

 liked in Alaska. 



People who do not know the frontier, imagine that 

 criminals can hide in r.uch places as the polar regions. 

 Nothing is more nearly impossible. People who live two 

 or three hundred miles away are in effect near neighbors. 

 News does not spread rapidly but it does spread. If 

 one Hudson's Bay trader stubs his toe in January, the 

 trader down river may not hear about it till March, but 



