“My name is Howell,” began the man; “Hill Howell,” he went on, “and in the places where I’m best known I’m frequently called ‘Colonel’ Howell, but I don’t get that title because I am a native Kentuckian. I secured it up in this part of the world—just why, I don’t know. I’m not going to tell you the story of my life or of any remarkable adventures, because I’m only a plain business man. But I’ll have to repeat to you some account of my experience in the Northwest before you understand why I’m so interested in your machine and in you young men.
“In Kentucky,” resumed Colonel Howell, after he had helped himself to a cigar from his vest pocket, “we once thought we had oil. To prove how little we had, I spent my own small means and, while I got no oil to speak of, I got a considerable knowledge of this industry. This came just in time for me to make my way to Kansas. That was fifteen years ago. There I found not only oil but considerable return for my labors. It didn’t make me a rich man, but it gave me all the money I needed.
“Then I discovered that I had considerable of the spirit of adventure in me and I started for the Klondike. Like many another mistaken prospector, I determined to go overland and down the Mackenzie River. With a small party I started down the Athabasca River from Athabasca Landing. I would probably have gone on and died in the wilderness, as most adventurers did who took this route, but when we had gone three hundred miles down the river and were just below the Big Rapids, at a place they call Fort McMurray, I caught the odor of oil again and the Klondike fever disappeared.
“When I saw the tar sands and the plain signs of oil in the Fort McMurray region, I separated from the party and stopped in the new oil region. There were a few prospectors in the vicinity and having got the oil mania again, I found I was not prepared to make more than a preliminary prospect. My former companions had consented to leave me but few provisions. I had to live practically alone and without adequate provisions or turn back towards civilization at once.
“To the others in the field I discredited the possibilities of the region and set out on foot, with a single Indian as a guide, to make my way to Athabasca Landing. Here I planned to secure food and proper tools and machinery to return to Fort McMurray and develop what I believed would be a sensational sub-arctic oil region.”
“I’ve heard about it,” broke in Norman. “You pass Lac la Biche going there, don’t you?”
Colonel Howell nodded and proceeded: “It was impossible to return to Athabasca Landing by canoe, as the river is too swift. For that reason I made a thirty-day trip on foot and reached the Landing with the winter well advanced.
“Here I found I could not get what machinery I needed and I put off my project until the next season when the ice had gone out of the river. I returned to the States and in the following July I went back to the Landing ready to go down the river once more. I took with me, from Chicago and Edmonton, well-boring machinery and ample provisions for a year’s stay in the wilderness. At Athabasca Landing I found it impossible to buy proper boats and I lost considerable time in making two large flatboats patterned after the Hudson’s Bay Company’s batteaux.”
“‘Sturgeon heads,’” exclaimed Roy. “I’ve always wanted to see one of them.”
“That’s what they call ’em,” exclaimed the colonel. “I guess I don’t need to describe them to you. Well, when they were completed, I loaded my machinery, quite a batch of lumber, and my flour and pork—I freighted all of this one hundred miles from Edmonton—and with three workmen, set out down the river with an Indian crew and a couple of old-time steersmen.”