SANDY STEELE ADVENTURES

Black Treasure
Danger at Mormon Crossing
Stormy Voyage
Fire at Red Lake
Secret Mission to Alaska
Troubled Waters

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION
IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM
COPYRIGHT © 1959 BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER, INC.
PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER, INC.
ROCKEFELLER CENTER, 630 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK 20, N. Y.

FIRST PRINTING

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 59-13882
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY H. WOLFF BOOK MFG. CO., INC., NEW YORK

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

1 Off to Alaska 9

2 A Hint of Trouble 14

3 A Mysterious Intruder 26

4 Charley Works Out the Huskies 37

5 Christmas in the Wilderness 49

6 Attack from the Air 59

7 The Big Race 66

8 Lost in a Blizzard 80

9 Trapped in an Icy Tomb 98

10 Down the Chilkoot Chute to Victory 109

11 Off to Hunt Kodiak Bears 121

12 Treed by a Wounded Bear 135

13 The Ghost Mine 156

14 The Plot Revealed 167

15 Final Victory 185

CHAPTER ONE
Off to Alaska

Sandy Steele twisted his lanky six-foot frame in the cramped airplane seat, stretching his long legs out in the aisle. Yawning, he glanced out of the small, round window beside him. Although it was daylight now, the ground was completely hidden by a layer of dense clouds that stretched away to the horizon on all sides like fluffy marshmallow topping. The sound of the motors was a dull, monotonous throbbing in his ears.

Sandy leaned forward and ruffled the black crew cut that was just visible over the top of the seat ahead of him. “Hey, Jerry, you awake?”

“Yeah,” a voice mumbled sleepily, “I’m awake. Are we going to land yet?”

“I don’t know.” Sandy looked across the aisle at his father, who was just lighting his pipe. “How about it, Dad?”

Dr. John Steele studied his watch thoughtfully. “Oh, I’d say about another half hour.”

The steward, an army corporal, walked back from the forward compartment with a tray of paper cups. “Coffee, anyone?”

The steaming-hot black liquid cleared the cobwebs out of Sandy’s head, and he began to look forward with excited anticipation to their arrival in Canada.

“Will Professor Crowell meet us at the airport?” he asked his father.

Dr. Steele nodded. “Yes. Then we’ll drive back to his place and pick up his dog team.”

Jerry James’s granite-jawed face appeared over the back of the seat as he knelt, facing Sandy. “What’s this about dogs?”

“Berkley Crowell breeds sled dogs as a hobby,” Dr. Steele explained. “Eskimo huskies. He’s taking his prize team up to Alaska to compete in the annual race from Whitehorse to Skagway.”

“Hey, that sounds like fun,” Jerry said.

“As a matter of fact,” the doctor went on, “that will be one of your major jobs on this expedition. You boys will drive the truck with the dogs and help the professor with their care and feeding.”

Dr. Steele turned his attention back to his book as Sandy and Jerry got into a conversation with the young corporal who had served the coffee.

“Both you fellows from California?” the corporal asked. “Whereabouts?”

“Valley View,” Sandy told him. “That’s near San Diego, but more inland.”

“I have a cousin in the Navy,” the corporal said. “He was stationed at San Diego. Nice country.” He grinned. “You guys are going to find the climate of Alaska a lot different than California.”

Jerry shivered. “You’re telling us!”

“You go to school in Valley View?” the corporal asked.

“High school,” Sandy told him. “We’re both juniors.”

“How long are you going to be in Alaska?”

“About three weeks, I guess. It’s the Christmas vacation, and my dad got our principal to let us take an extra week on account of the educational value of this expedition we’re going on.”

The corporal looked interested. “What kind of an expedition is it?”

“My dad is a United States government geologist,” Sandy explained. “This expedition is part of a long-range Canadian-American project to chart glacial movements during the Ice Age. We’ll be collecting soil, rock and ore samples on our way through western Canada and