of Great Slave Lake, 350 miles to north-west. With an interpreter and a dog-train, Field set out in the icy weather, got his man, brought him back to Chipewyan, re-outfitted there and with the madman. strapped to the sled started off for Fort Saskatchewan, where he arrived 44 days later, having covered a total distance over the snow of 1300 miles!

To Constable Pedley, stationed at Chipewyan in 1904, came a similar stern duty. An evangelist missionary had made his winter headquarters in a lonely spot on the Peace River where in a low log cabin he lived with but one half-breed, Anton Riveaux, for companion. The missionary became insane and Pedley's duty was to get him out south to the asylum. The mad missionary was wrapped in furs, put into an Eskimo sleeping-bag and securely fastened to the one sled, and the single constable started out with his charge on the grim journey of 500 miles across unbroken snow. For this whole distance Pedley ran with the dogs and ministered daily to the wants of his charge. The temperature was from 30° to 40° below zero, the coldest hours being those before the dawn.

At 4 P.M. each day camp was made, the dogs were fed, the madman was forced to take necessary food, and Pedley himself ate his bannock, beans, and bacon and drank his tea-that is, if he succeeded in making a fire. For two whole days and a night the party was caught in a blizzard, and Pedley, after sheltering the dogs under the lee of the sled, fastened the maniac and himself in their sleeping-bags to a pine-tree trunk.

At Fort McKay on the Athabasca, the patient was released for a little exercise, when he made a dash for the woods. Pedley gave chase, overtook him, fastened his arms and his legs and carried him back a quarter of a mile to camp. At Big Weechume Lake a guide was secured to Lac la Biche, where a team of horses took the place of the dogs, and Fort Saskatchewan was reached on January 7th. By the end of February the missionary was discharged from the hospital absolutely cured in mind and body.

Pedley, in his turn, on his way back to Chipewyan, himself gave way at Lac la Biche and became violently insane. The strain had been too great for him. Six months in the Asylum at Brandon brought complete recovery to the plucky constable, and he was granted a three months' leave of absence, which he spent at home in East Anglia. At the end of his leave Pedley again reported for duty at Regina, where he is still giving his services for his country. Of such stuff are the Cubs of the Lion.

When an officer of the Mounted Police rides his cayuse to mountain camp or threads on snowshoes the north trails of the trapper, he is not an exponent of the law, he is the law itself. He makes arrests and escorts his man often to a prison of his own making, where, after a trial before a Mounted Police tribunal, the lawbreaker may be incarcerated for a term of years. A policeman sent out to make an arrest must not shoot first; so the record of the force has become a long roll of brave adventures, great tragedies, and the impossible made fact.

Every department of the Canadian Government is helped by the men of the Mounted Police. The force furnishes escorts for the Government officials who go far north to pay to the respective Indian tribes their annual treaty money. The Department of Agriculture largely depends upon the Mounted Police for the veterinary inspection of all new stock coming into the country, for detailed reports upon the cattle and crops in the new districts, for the enforcing of game laws, and for the distribution of free seed-grain to needy homesteaders.

All along the international boundary line outposts of Police prevent smuggling. Over the prairie country constables ride from farm to farm giving advice to the new comer regarding the sowing of seed, building of shacks, and herding of stock, receiving at the same time and forwarding to headquarters any complaints which are offered regarding neglect or injustice. Thus the whole country is patrolled regularly, and a police Doomsday Book of the prairie compiled.

In the year 1901 our present King and Queen, then the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, passed through Western Canada on their homeward way from their Empire-circling tour, and the Duke of Cornwall wrote: I am especially anxious to record my appreciation of that splendid force, the North-West Mounted Police. I had the pleasure of inspecting a portion of the corps at Calgary, and was much struck with the smart appearance of both men and horses, and with their general steadiness on parade. They furnished escorts throughout our stay in Western Canada, frequently horses for our carriages, and found the transport, all of which duties were performed with ready willingness and in a highly creditable manner.'

In the South African War, the R.N.W.M.P. was well represented, although, unfortunately, their identity as a force was not maintained. Their contributions to the war were:

That the Canadians played the part of men in South Africa is clearly proved by the fact that in the Orange Free State, and afterwards on the march to Pretoria under Lord Roberts, the Canadian Mounted Rifles almost invariably formed the advance guard. The Victoria Cross was won in 1900 by Sergeant A. H. O. Richardson, a member of the 'C' Division of the R.N.W.M.P. who served with Strathcona's Horse and who earned the distinction of being the first Colonial gazetted in South Africa. Sergeant Richardson rode to the assistance of a wounded comrade at Wolvespruit and brought him in, in the face of a fierce cross-fire at a range of 300 yards, while himself riding a badly shot horse. In the distribution of honours at the end of the Boer War three other members of the Mounted Police (Superintendent Sanders, Inspector Macdonell, and Inspector Cartwright) received the Distinguished Service Order.

It is thus on African veldt and Canadian prairie that the Rider of the Plains works into daily deeds his translation of his oath of service :‘I, A.B., solemnly swear that I will faithfully, diligently, and impartially execute the duties required of me as a member of the Royal North-West Mounted Police Force, and will well and truly obey and perform all lawful orders and instructions which I shall receive as such, without fear, favour, or affection of or toward any person. So help me God.'

AGNES DEANS CAMERON.

VOL. XXXV.-NO. 199, N.S.

7

THE DEVILRY OF GHOOLAM RASOOL.

'TOBA! Toba!-Shame, Shame!' rose a chorus of indignant voices. Allah forbid such defilement !'

Ghoolam Rasool, which being interpreted signifies the Slave of the Prophet, was seated in the hall of his mud fort on the bank of the Indus. A man of iron thews and sinews, he was totally destitute of scruples. By reason of the fierce disposition which he shared with that denizen of the jungle, he was popularly known as 'The Tiger.' Besides being a Syud, or lineal descendant of the Prophet Mahomed, he was regarded with wide-spread awe and veneration as chief of the clan Jatoi. His aim in life was to maintain his ancestral independence, and as far as might be to withstand the authority of the British Raj.

The Tiger was seated on a string bed. Two attendants standing beside him stirred the heavy air with fans of scented khus-khus; and a crowd of myrmidons and flatterers sat facing him in a halfcircle on the floor. Pathans and Beloochis were these by descent; incurable bullies and ruffians by nature. Law to them meant something to be defied; life stood for something to be taken when desirable. And now all were consumed with anger at the indignity that was in store for their chieftain.

'Say it over again, Abdoolla!' roared the Tiger. beware that no lie crosses thy lips, lest they be cut off!'

'And

'Bismillah,' replied Abdoolla, standing with folded hands before his lord, how could a falsehood issue from this slave's mouth in the presence of the great one? This is the truth: that a summons is issued for Syud Ghoolam Rasool Jatoi to appear in the magistrate's court on a charge of removing the landmark of Ali Mahomed of Mirpur. This slave heard the order for the summons given to the head-moonshi.'

If a Roman Catholic cardinal in the dark ages, or the robber chief of a castle on the Rhine, had been ordered to appear before a civil court on a criminal charge the insult could not have been greater. Was a descendant of the prophet and the head of the Jatois to submit to this outrage?

'By the beard of the prophet,' this word is not to be endured. give?'

thundered Ghoolam Rasool,

What counsel have ye to

'Kill the magistrate and burn his court-house,' said a fireeater named Hyder Ali.

'Let them send a lakh of summonses, and pay no heed to them,' suggested Inayatoolla, a more cautious villain.

'The first thing is to slay Ali Mahomed, and seize his crops and his cattle and his women,' said a bloodthirsty young swashbuckler named Daud; and a dozen others were ready with as many schemes in which violence was the predominating feature.

'Enough, enough!' said the Tiger. This is the order. Whoever dares to serve a summons on Ghoolam Rasool shall disappear from the world, man and horse, gun and saddle. There shall be a living death for the luckless one: and no sign of his life or his death shall be known to his father or his children.'

'Wah wah!' ejaculated the chorus of sycophants, this is an excellent saying. Who but Ghoolam Rasool could devise so admirable a plan?'

Then the Tiger unfolded to his merry men the details of his design; and they were filled with delight as they learnt his devilish intentions. What these were is to be seen.

The same afternoon there rode up to the mud fort on the river bank head-constable Azimoolla, who was reputed to be one of the smartest officers in the Shahdadpur Police. His khaki uniform fitted his well-knit figure to perfection: and his accoutrements gleamed in the brilliant sunshine. He was mounted on a handsome almond-coloured Persian horse which he cherished as his own child. He halted at the threshold of the fort, and politely explained to Hyder Ali and Daud, who were seated on a wooden bench smoking their hookahs and playing pacheesi, that he desired an interview with Ghoolam Rasool on government business.

'Beshuk, certainly,' said Hyder Ali with equal politeness. 'His honour shall be informed of the request.'

So saying he entered the fort and speedily returned with an intimation that his master would receive the head-constable at once. Azimoolla dismounted, and leaving his horse with Daud, followed Hyder Ali into the presence of the Tiger. He gave a precise military salute, and produced the summons.

'This order of the court was entrusted to this humble one!' he said respectfully, 'to be shown to your honour and returned to the magistrate with your honour's signature.'

'Who should disregard an order of the court?' said Ghoolam