[Illustration: “Dick,” he trembled, “What happen? You shoot this
man—you—” (_Page 174_)]
DICK KENT
AT HALF WAY HOUSE
By MILTON RICHARDS
Author of
“Dick Kent With the Mounted Police,”
“Dick Kent in the Far North,”
“Dick Kent With the Eskimos,”
“Dick Kent, Fur Trader,”
“Dick Kent With the Malemute Mail,”
“Dick Kent on Special Duty,”
“Tom Blake’s Mysterious Adventure,”
“The Valdmere Mystery,” etc.
[Illustration: Logo]
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
Printed in U. S. A.
BOYS _of the_ ROYAL MOUNTED POLICE SERIES
STORIES OF ADVENTURE IN THE NORTH WOODS
FOR BOYS 12 TO 16 YEARS
By MILTON RICHARDS
DICK KENT WITH THE MOUNTED POLICE
DICK KENT IN THE FAR NORTH
DICK KENT WITH THE ESKIMOS
DICK KENT, FUR TRADER
DICK KENT WITH THE MALEMUTE MAIL
DICK KENT ON SPECIAL DUTY
DICK KENT AT HALF WAY HOUSE
Copyright, 1929
By A. L. BURT COMPANY
Printed in U. S. A.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I Dinosaur’s Island 3
II Two Visitors 10
III Suspicion Grows 18
IV The First Encounter 28
V Dick Finds a Canoe 37
VI A Bleak Prospect 45
VII Breeds Don’t Count 53
VIII A Human Gorilla 61
IX Bows and Arrows 66
X Toma’s Daring Plan 74
XI A Canoe at Last 82
XII The Meeting on the River 91
XIII Half Way House 100
XIV Charges and Counter-charges 107
XV A Threatening Letter 115
XVI A Midnight Raid 123
XVII A Hidden Pit 132
XVIII Take the Offensive 141
XIX Troubles Come Fast 150
XX Toma Brings News 158
XXI Frazer’s Ruse 167
XXII Tension Tightens 176
XXIII The Police Take Charge 183
XXIV Near Frazer’s Cabin 191
XXV Gathering up the Threads 199
XXVI Frazer’s Confession 205
XXVII Toma’s Scar 214
XXVIII Leave-taking 222
XXIX The River Pilot 231
XXX Back from the Barracks 243
XXXI He Who Laughs Last 253
DICK KENT AT HALF WAY HOUSE
CHAPTER I.
DINOSAUR’S ISLAND.
Just before dusk, riding in on a slight swell, the canoe touched on the
leeward side of the island. It was a wooded island, similar to a score
of others that dotted that lake. There was little to differentiate it
from its brothers except that in its very center the fir and balsam had
graciously withdrawn to permit a huge shaft of solid rock to raise its
head loftily and majestically skyward.
The three young men who disembarked from the canoe, stood looking toward
the shaft with something like eagerness in their eyes. Then one of them
spoke:
“There it is! The rock of the dinosaur!”
Another of the trio, a stockily built boy with light blue eyes and sandy
complexion, removed a battered felt hat that had been crammed down over
his well-shaped head and ran his fingers through a mop of corn-colored
hair.
“Bones! Toma—bones!”
The remaining member of the party, swarthy, dark, soft-footed, agile as
a panther, grinned as he stooped down to tie the strings of one of his
moccasins.
“Mebbe this not right place after all,” he said.
The first speaker turned swiftly at this and regarded the stooping
figure. What had induced Toma to make that remark? The description that
had been given them by Mr. Donald Frazer, factor at Half Way House,
fitted this island exactly: an island in a lake of many islands, an
island with a tall rock. Dick Kent remembered as well as if it had been
only yesterday.
“It’s three hundred miles northwest of here in a country of innumerable
lakes,” the factor had directed them. “These lakes all drain into the
Half Way River. They are all very close together, forming a sort of
chain. Most of the lakes are dotted with a few islands, but there is one
lake, near the center of the chain, that has more islands than all the
rest—scores of small wooded islands. On one of these you will find a
tall, spindling rock. The island with that rock is the island of the
dinosaur.”
So remembering this conversation, Dick could not believe with Toma that
they might have come to the wrong place. Here was the wooded island.
Here was the spindling rock. Here was the lake of many islands.
“Why don’t you think it’s the right place?” he demanded.
The young Indian straightened up quickly, his eyes twinkling.
“Why you get so worried, Dick?” he inquired blandly. “I no say this the
wrong place. Mebbe so, mebbe not. Plenty islands I see in other lakes
an’ plenty rocks too.”
“But not a rock as tall as that one,” objected Sandy.
Dick nodded his head.
“Yes, and most of the other lakes we explored had only a few islands.
This one tallies exactly with the description Mr. Frazer gave us.”
Toma grinned again.
“All right,” he waved their arguments aside. “What you say, we go see?”
The three boys pushed forward. The island was scarcely more than four or
five acres in area. In a few minutes they reached the center, coming to
a full stop near the base of the pinnacle. They found a peculiar
formation here. In some prehistoric time a gigantic upheaval had thrust
the underlying strata to a position very nearly perpendicular. In other
words, layer upon layer of substratum had been lifted up out of the
earth and exposed to view. Embedded in one of the layers of rock was the
huge fossil of a prehistoric reptile. Its immense frame could be seen
very distinctly from where the boys were standing. Supported by the
rock, much of which had crumbled away, the skull of the dinosaur rested
lightly against the side of the pinnacle and the bones of the rest of
the body, still joined and intact, extended downward to the edge of a
deep pit.
The effect of all this was ghastly. Staring at it, one was conscious of
an indescribable feeling that the fleshless body of the dinosaur still
retained life and that it had clambered out of the deep pit beneath it
and was now endeavoring to climb the tall, spindling spire of granite.
So lifelike and terrible indeed, did the primeval monster appear, that
for a full five minutes the three boys stood there without as much as
moving a muscle.
Suddenly the tension snapped as Dick burst into a roar of laughter. He
laughed until the tears came into his eyes and coursed down his cheeks.
He roared and slapped his thigh and sat down on a rock, swaying back and
forth in a paroxysm of uncontrollable mirth.
Toma and Sandy stared at their chum in utter amazement. They surveyed
each other blankly. They looked quickly over at the dinosaur in the
belief that possibly they had overlooked something.
“See here,” began Sandy, “what in the name of common sense are you
yowling about? If you can possibly see anything funny in that grewsome
mass of bones your sense of humor is warped. Stop it, Dick! Stop it, I
say before you drive me daft. Stop!”
Dick raised his head and wiped his eyes. He was still choking.
“You—you see nothing funny?” he gasped.
“I do not!”
“What do you think of our friend, the dinosaur?” and Dick indulged in
another convulsive chuckle.
Sandy’s eyes flashed fire.
“Say—”
“Look at it! Look at it!” shrieked Dick. “Its size! Must weigh
tons—tons, Sandy. And—we’ve come—three hundred miles—laboring under
impression—going to carry it back on a raft.”
“Well—”
“On a raft,” continued Dick. “That thing on a raft. If you can, just get
that picture in that slow mind of yours.”
Toma was grinning broadly now.
“The portages,” he wondered.
“Yes, think of carrying that huge skeleton over the portages.”
“Why it—it can’t be done,” stated the young Scotchman, beginning to see
the light. “Absolutely out of question. We’ve come on a fool’s errand.
Mr. Frazer must have—”
“Known it!” Dick took the words out of his chum’s mouth. “Of course, he
knew it. Can’t you see, Sandy, we’ve been victimized, made the butt of
one of the worst jokes I’ve ever heard of. No wonder they all grinned
and acted so queerly when we left the post. By this time, half the
people in this north country are laughing up their sleeves. It’s all a
hoax. I’ll bet that London museum Mr. Frazer told us about hasn’t even
made an offer for this dinosaur.”
“You mean the whole affair from beginning to end was planned by that
fool and his friends?”
“Exactly.”
“And that we’ve not only lost what we thought was a chance to make a few
hundred dollars but have become the laughing stock of—of—” Sandy choked
and gurgled.
“Right again,” grinned Dick. “You’re learning fast.”
Sandy’s color drained from his cheeks and he sat down quickly,
endeavoring to control the fierce gathering storm within.
“And _you_ call that a good joke,” he inquired bitterly, “a friendly,
decent joke that sent us packing through a hundred dangers at the risk
of life and limb? _You_ can laugh at that?”
“Well, what would you have me do? Sit down and cry? Not I. Might as well
make the best of it. I’ll go back and laugh with ’em.”
“I laugh too,” said Toma. And he did.
Sandy continued to glower. He looked up at the dinosaur. Then he put his
head in his hands and groaned.