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Page Eighty-eight

cared, for they could now see the high snow-capped peaks. They would be in the Atluck Lake country tomorrow !

Then came the blow. Without any warning the Indian guides suddenly threw down their 100-lb. packs and refused to move one step further towards Atluck Lake.

There was something about the hills that made the Indians think of the wild man!

“No good, I no want to go any more,” they muttered.

“Country no good. I no go!”

“Pack too heavy—I no used to it!”

The terror in their eyes, gave away the silly excuse, as they pointed beyond— “Big bad Devil Man in there!”

Tasoo Wins Our

Talk was useless and the hunters were defeated. Neither bribes nor threats could persuade the terror-stricken Indians to go into that region, for it was taboo!

They could not go on alone carrying two extra packs of 100-Ibs. each, so back they trudged to their star ting point. On reaching the encampment again, they got rid of the heavy surplus food in quick order. Remembering the Indian’s love of bargaining, they decided to auction it off to them. So making a joke of it, they ex- plained that if they gave it away, they would be sure to give it to the wrong one! In no time, it was sold for far more than it ever cost them.

Women the world over, dearly love an auction sale, and those squaws outdid them all, in their wild excitement, to out- bid one another!

The story of the Devil Man was con- firmed, some months later, by the well- known prospector, Mike King, who had just returned from Atluck Lake, where he had been searching for timber limits.

“T came suddenly face to face with a most terrifying and enormous man-like animal,” he said.

“T was scared to death for the first time in my life. I aimed my rifle, but did not fire 1 to shoot, I ran for my life’, he laughed.

“It had a huge head and long arms, which hung down to the ground. Covered with heavy black hair, three or four inches long, it looked more like a gorilla, than anything else,” said Mike.

He returned later, to the same country, to see what had become of the creature. Coming to the foot of a small stream, where a bed of Indian potatoes grew, a sort of wild onion and a great delicacy to the Indians—there he saw a footprint of a huge foot, much wider across the toes than any man’s, yet narrow at the heel. He got out of there quickly.

“In the 1840's,” he explained, “a British warship was sent up the Coast of Van- couver Island, to subdue a troublesome Indian settlement. While they were open- ing fire on their miserable huts, the ship’s mascot, a young gorilla, escaped and swam to shore.”

“The Indian women fled into the in- terior, not wishing to get mixed up in the fighting. During the flight, one of the young squaws met the escaping gorilla and they went off together.”

That may account for the Big Devil Man.

ee ee

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