Book excerpt: Jack Howland is an engineer from Chicago who is sent to build the rail route in the remote and unforgiving terrains of the Canadian wilderness. But Jack soon begins to suspect that something sinister is going on in this part of the world which forced a other engineers before him to abandon their jobs and run for their safety. But that is not all! There is a mysterious girl whom Jack meets at every turn... James Oliver Curwood was an American action-adventure writer and conservationist. His books ranked among top-ten best sellers in the United States and at least eighteen motion pictures have been based on or directly inspired by his novels and short stories. At the time of his death, he was the highest paid (per word) author in the world. His writing studio, Curwood Castle, is now a museum in Owosso, Michigan.