THE VALLEY OF SILENT MEN

A STORY OF THE THREE RIVER COUNTRY

BY JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD

AUTHOR OF "THE RIVER'S END," ETC.





THE VALLEY OF SILENT MEN


Before the railroad's thin lines of steel bit their way up through
the wilderness, Athabasca Landing was the picturesque threshold
over which one must step who would enter into the mystery and
adventure of the great white North. It is still Iskwatam--the
"door" which opens to the lower reaches of the Athabasca, the
Slave, and the Mackenzie. It is somewhat difficult to find on the
map, yet it is there, because its history is written in more than
a hundred and forty years of romance and tragedy and adventure in
the lives of men, and is not easily forgotten. Over the old trail
it was about a hundred and fifty miles north of Edmonton. The
railroad has brought it nearer to that base of civilization, but
beyond it the wilderness still howls as it has howled for a
thousand years, and the waters of a continent flow north and into
the Arctic Ocean. It is possible that the beautiful dream of the
real-estate dealers may come true, for the most avid of all the