Isobel

A Romance of the Northern Trail

by James Oliver Curwood, 1913

TO
CARLOTTA
WHO IS WITH ME AND TO
VIOLA
WHO FILLS FOR ME A DREAM OF THE FUTURE
I AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATE THIS BOOK

I

THE MOST TERRIBLE THING IN THE WORLD

At Point Fullerton, one thousand miles straight north of civilization,
Sergeant William MacVeigh wrote with the stub end of a pencil between
his fingers the last words of his semi-annual report to the
Commissioner of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police at Regina.

He concluded:

"I beg to say that I have made every effort to run down Scottie
Deane, the murderer. I have not given up hope of finding him, but I
believe that he has gone from my territory and is probably now
somewhere within the limits of the Fort Churchill patrol. We have
hunted the country for three hundred miles south along the shore of
Hudson's Bay to Eskimo Point, and as far north as Wagner Inlet.