RESCUED IN THE ROCKIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15664, 18 July 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

RESCUED IN THE ROCKIES.

ENGLISH OFFICER'S MAN-HUNT. CASE OF ABDUCTION. Life in the North-west Mounted Police is rarely monotonous; sometimes it is thrilling to a degree. Sergeant C. S. Harper, one of tho many Englishmen who are in this splendid force, participated somo time ago in an adventurous man-hunt in the Rockies, which vividly recalls some of the exploits portrayed with so much realism by the cinematograph. Lost winter tho courso of his duty led to Sergeant Harper undertaking in tho Rockv Mountains, on the western border of the Pence River district, a patrol which was occasioned by ono Asa Hunting, originally of Montana, a person of irregular occupation, an excitable man with eccentricities, such as an excessive fondness for firearms, which caused him to be I feared by the Indians and half-breeds if I not by the white people of the region. In July, 1913, this man abducted a 15-year-old girl, Mildred S— In the oye of tho law it was an abduction, but the girl accompanied him willingly enough, and before leaving her mother's roof made up a bundle of her personal belongings. Included in these was her doll. Tho mother made a complaint, and tho Mounted Police detachments were notified to keep watch for thp couple. The lugitives, however, fled into the Rocky Mountains, into the j region whore th o Smoky, the Porcupine, | and tho Wapiti Rivers take their rise. Tho country is exceedingly rough, is almost inaccessible, and is inhabited only by a few Indians and half-breeds. Superintendent A. E. C. McDonnell was authorise'd to send a party at once to arrest them—in this case a form of rescue. Ho despatched Sergeant Harper and Constable F. Stevenson, a young Scotsman, who had not long been in the force. Harper engaged Richard Harrington, who I had recently been in the region to be visii ted, as guide and packer, and the throe i men, with three saddle horses and six 1 pack horses, on November 4 left Lano I Saskatoon, the westernmost outpost- of i civilisation. Later the sergeant engaged I Philip Delormo, a half-breed. 1 Harper expected to return in six weeks 1 at the latest, that is, by December 16. , The six weeks went by, and no word came. Eventually news was received that Harper, who had arrested Hunting and I the girl, wero returning by tho way ho i had come, and that his journey was likely |to be slow. On his return Harper related a tale of adventure Ho describes thus the capture of his quarry— On the 22nd Delorme, who had climbed a hill to on* side of us, returned with word that ho uaw smoke of a camp fire about one mile ahead. I told Harrington and Delorme to stay and to come jup if I called. I walked on and crossed j the Muddv River, and, going into a bunch | of spruce, came on to a tepee made of j poles and spruce boughs. I went inside and saw the girl Mildred — cooking I some food. 1 asked her where Hunting was. and she said ho was out visiting ! some traps and would be back soon. She i thought I was a trapper, and when I told I her I was a policeman, come to take her I bacK. she started screaming for Hunting. II picked her up and took her into the i bush, as I thought Hunting would come jup on the run. I left her with Delorme i and Harrington, and myself ran on to 1 the side of the mountain to see if we I could see him coming. I saw him coming ■ along tho Big Smoky River with his gun j under his arm. Harrington and I ran 'down and ' hid in tbj spruce wood,, and j then when he came opposite I shouted )to him to throw his hands up. Hunting I offered no resistance, and made no rej marks beyond asking where the girl was. ' I warned him in the correct manner and took his gun, a 38-55 Winchester, away from him." So easy, after all, was this desperate character taken. Harper is now addressed as Staff-sergeant Harper."