Journey by James A. Michener Read Free Book Online

regardless of what Halverson says he did. And this one”—pushing aside the Desbordays with contempt—“has not a word of information that I would consider solid.”
    “Where’s that leave us, Harry?” Luton asked, and Carpenter said: “In a fix. But not one we can’t work our way out of. After all, we know that people are getting to the gold fields. The outflow of gold proves that, and so shall we.”
    In cautious, statesmanlike terms Lord Luton stated what their strategy must be: “Immediately upon docking in Canada we shall rush by train across the continent to Edmonton, and there make the most penetrating inquiries as to the truth of the two routes. Only when we have more detailed and reliable facts in hand shall we decide our next step, but I assure you of this. We shall get to the gold fields.” And the other three supported this resolve, with Philip adding: “If Yankees can get there in their fashion, we can certainly do the same in ours.”
    —
    None of the team had ever been in Canada, nor had they read much about it. Lord Luton said he knew all that was needed: “When the Americans broke away back there, Canadians had sense enough to stand firm.” By that he meant that they had remained in the Empire, and he could not for the life of him understand why the Americans had not.
    “England has everything a man wants—good government, a king we love or a queen we love even more. Wealth…order…membership in the best group of nations in the world. It will take the Yankees generations to catch up with what they already had, but tossed away.”
    He was therefore disposed to like Canada, and when the
Parisian
started picking its way through the clusters of big islands guarding the entrance to the St. Lawrence River, and then entered the spaciousriver itself, he said approvingly: “What a splendid way to enter a country!” He felt even more encouraged when the ship passed by the tall cliffs at Quebec City which were surmounted by the gracious Château Frontenac, a new hotel whose reputation had already reached the ears of London society.
    “Marvelous beginning,” he said, but when they docked at Montreal his ardor diminished, for he saw that he was now in the middle of a society that was completely French, and this he did not approve: “I could’ve got to real France by crossing the Channel and saved a bundle. I was on a ship of the right name for that.” His day in the city was not a happy one, for he felt as if he had been cut off from England and thrust into an alien setting he had not anticipated: “Might as well be Albania.”
    Trevor Blythe, listening with amusement to Luton’s barrage of acerbic comment, thought: He’s a young man with an old man’s ideas, but since he himself was a guest on the trip, he deemed it best not to speak.
    The Englishmen received their first indications of the gold mania that had hit Canada when they hurried to the railway booking office to pick up their tickets: “Oh, Your Lordship! You were so wise to cable ahead for reservations. If you hadn’t, I don’t know what we could have done. Hundreds every day clamoring to go west. You’d have found every seat sold till well into next week.”
    “Even first class?”
    “Especially first class. Gold-seekers are happy to pay a premium. They’re convinced that in six weeks they’ll be millionaires.”
    Safely aboard the handsome new Canadian train that had recently begun to run uninterruptedly from the Atlantic seacoast to the Pacific, the four Englishmen again received the kind of joyous surprise that made travel a pleasure, for a train of eleven cars, five of them luxurious, was waiting to speed travelers along the first short leg of the journey—Montreal to Ottawa—in maximum comfort. The four Englishmen, of course, were traveling first class, Luton and Carpenter in one delightful bedroom saloon, Trevor and Philip in another, while Fogarty had fairly comfortable sitting space in one of the less expensive