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Kent had not forgotten that he was an outlaw, but he was not afraid Now that he had soain upon what he called "the finesse of the gah he was sure that even his old friends at the Landing would fail to recognize hi, and his hair was shaggy and uncut Picard hadcaribou skin, and it was fringed like an Indian's Kent chose his time and entered Chippewyan just before dusk
Oil la in the Hudson's Bay Company's store when he went in with his furs The place was empty, except for the factor's clerk, and for an hour he bartered He bought a new outfit, a Winchester rifle, and all the supplies he could carry He did not forget a razor and a pair of shears, and when he was done he still had the value of two silver fox skins in cash He left Chippewyan that saht of a Winter moon made his ca
He was on the Slave River now and for weeks traveled slowly but steadily northward on snowshoes He avoided Fort S and struck ard before he came to Fort Resolution It was in April that he struck Hay River Post, where the Hay River empties into Great Slave Lake Until the ice broke up, Kent worked at Hay River When it was safe, he started down the Mackenzie in a canoe It was late in June when he turned up the Liard to the South Nahani
"You go straight through between the sources of the North and the South Nahani," Marette had told him "It is there you find the Sulphur Country, and beyond the Sulphur Country is the Valley of Silent Men"
At last he cae of this country He camped with the stink of it in his nostrils The h the fumes of a yellow sh broad, low s Mile after mile he buried himself deeper in it, and it became more and more a dead country, a lost hell There were berry bushes on which there grew no berries There were forests and swa creature to inhabit them
It was a country of water in which there were no fish, of air in which there were no birds, of plants without flowers--a reeking, stinking country still with the stillness of death He began to turn yellow His clothing, his canoe, his hands, face--everything turned yellow He could not get the filthy taste of sulphur out of his ht west by the coiven him at Hay River Even this compass became yellow in his pocket It was impossible for him to eat Only twice that day did he drink from his flask of water