Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/90



T required two weeks of resting to get Tib's face back into shape so he could look in a mirror without groaning. And I reckon he wasn't all kinds of a hero when Finzer and his men heard Fame hoarsely hooting his name all along the wide waters. Oh no! To rescue the kid was a good press-agent move, but the besting of Champion Chuck had the corner on salvos of praise. Finzer wanted to do two things—adopt us both for life and to organize a gold-hunting expedition. But beyond making him a present of what information we possessed, my patron would have no more to do with the Seal River and its strenuous environment. And in return for the information, which was largely guess-work, the agent promised to ship our baggage and picture-machine down to Montreal on the company's next steamer. He also consented to provide us with an escort and guides for a two-hundred-mile hike across country, to the eastern shores of Hudson Bay. The trip was quite easy,