Captain Morrison stalked to the rail and looked down at the scene of activity below. His mouth twitched and he wiped his perspiring face with a shaky hand.
“Good Heavens! I never would have suspected—it is hard to believe—Frazer! The last person on earth I’d associate with such a crime.”
“That’s true,” Mr. Scott admitted. “He’s changed a lot in the last two or three years. Gambling and drinking led up to it. He was pressed for money, had appropriated funds belonging to the company.”
“Weren’t two of those prisoners Toby McCallum and Wolf Brennan? Seems to me I recognized them.”
“That’s who they were. The others were Henri and Pierre Mekewai, two Indians.”
“Never heard of the Indians, but Toby McCallum and Wolf Brennan I know well. Very unscrupulous, both of them. At one time, about ten years ago, they worked under me. I was on the Athabasca then. My run was from Gruard to Athabasca Landing. Lazy, impertinent, light fingered. I had the devil’s own time with them. Finally forced to dismiss them from my employ.”
“How far do you run up the river?” Dick asked, hoping to change the subject.
“I go as far as Big Rock Lake. During high water, occasionally I go down Big Rock River which flows into the Peace.”
Dick started. “You mean to say, Captain, that in high water you can run your steamer clear from here to Peace River Crossing?”
“Quite right, my boy. A month ago I could have done it quite easily. But not now. Under the present arrangement, all the supplies for these northern posts in this immediate territory, are freighted across country from Peace to Big Rock Lake. Costs the company a pile of money, too. If the cost wasn’t so prohibitive, we would deepen the channel in Big Rock River.”