“Pioneer settlers for your glorious forty-ninth state,” Professor Crowell answered. “There’s a steady stream of them. Did you know that the population of Alaska has tripled since World War Two?”
“It sort of gives you goose pimples,” Sandy said. “It’s almost as if you turned back the clock a hundred years.”
“The last frontier of the United States,” Dr. Steele remarked. “On this planet, at least.”
“When will we be leaving, Professor Crowell?” Lou Mayer asked.
The professor glanced down at his wrist watch. “It’s eight o’clock now. I estimate we’ll be on our way shortly after noon. I want you fellows to get a hot meal into you first. Then we’ll load the truck and station wagon.” He looked around at Dr. Steele. “We’ll pick up your equipment at Fort St. John on the way back.”
Jerry was fascinated by the high banks of snow on the shoulders of the road. “Boy, I wonder how they keep this thing open. Back in the States we’re always reading about whole towns being cut off by a measly two feet of snow.”
“Even big cities like New York,” Sandy chimed in.
The professor smiled. “That’s because cities like New York aren’t prepared for heavy snowfalls. Up here, we expect it. Why, I bet a little village like Dawson Creek has more snow equipment than most big cities on the eastern seaboard of the United States. Along the Alaska Highway, for instance, there are one hundred and twenty-five weather stations alone, and almost as many maintenance stations. No, you stand a better chance of getting marooned on the Pennsylvania Turnpike than you do on this road.”
Professor Crowell’s ranch house was located on a cutoff about a quarter of a mile from the main highway. It was a sprawling frame building with a large barn at the back of the property and completely surrounded by a thick spruce forest.
The professor, a widower, had twin daughters, Judy and Jill, who kept house for him. Their domestic efficiency made them seem older than their seventeen years. The girls were blond and blue-eyed and very pretty, and Jerry couldn’t look at them without stammering and blushing. It was obvious he was smitten with the twins.