A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
Published by arrangement with George H. Doran Company
Printed in U. S. A.
COPYRIGHT, 1923,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
SPIRIT-OF-IRON. III
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
TO
THE NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE
"ORIGINALS" OF 1874,
THE ADVANCE SCOUTS OF THE ARMY OF
WESTERN CANADIAN CIVILIZATION
FOREWORD
"Spirit-of-Iron" is an attempt to present fact in the form of romantic fiction. It portrays the development of North-Western Canada in the pioneer period, the main events of which, with one or two exceptions, have been closely followed.
The characters are types. Hector Adair is intended to represent the ideal Mounted Police officer in particular and the ideal British officer generally. He is not to be identified with any historical figure connected with the Force. The plan, here employed, of symbolizing and tracing the development of a country through the development of an individual such as Hector is, I think, new. The politician, Welland, similarly, is a type, and has no definite connection with any famous politician of real life. The men of the Police—the Marquis, Sergeant Kellett and others—are also types, true to the extraordinary calibre of the Force. The remaining characters—whom the reader may identify if—and as—he chooses, all had their originals in the old Canadian North-West.
Practically every incident and episode of the story had its origin in fact. The arrest of Wild Horse, the Whitewash Bill man-hunt, the holding of Hopeful Pass and innumerable minor incidents all occurred, though not necessarily in the circumstances described, while the details of the dangerous plot confronting Hector in Book IV are drawn, almost line for line, from a great if obscure page in the more recent history of the Mounted Police in the North. Hector's long struggle with Welland is not based on any particular conflict of this kind in real life, but that such things occur, in Canada as elsewhere, any man acquainted with the Services and politics can vouch for. Finally, the locale of each episode is not necessarily to be identified with any particular point in our North-West.