His hunch was confirmed when he came opposite the limits and secured a full view of Nannabijou Bay, empty of almost every pulp-pole.
He dropped down for a closer look. The Mounties still patrolled the waterfront, but the camp was a scene of animated chaos. Gangs of men were at work repairing the roadways riven deep by the torrents of the night before while others were engaged in removing the fallen timber that blocked every thoroughfare. He noted that the bridge over the Nannabijou River was gone and the hills were made more desolate by fresh fields of tangled windfalls.
As he swooped, Hammond glimpsed Inspector Little signalling to him to proceed direct to the Cup and return. The young airman picked out a likely looking landing place back of the limits, then shot his machine upward. He followed the course of the Nannabijou to the point where Solomon Creek made its confluence, when he swerved and followed the creek.
Below him now he could discern what had caused the flood that had swept down in the night and carried out the immense field of pulpwood boomed in the bay. The huge beaver-dam on the creek was gone, and where the lake had been, behind the dam, there remained only a slimy area of silt and mud. Thus it was brought home to him at a glance that the war between the rival lumber companies for the operating rights on the limits had been ended by the elements in favour of the North Star. . . The elements alone? He wondered. . . . Likely here was another mystery in the history of the North Star that would remain unsolved. Nobody had seemingly thought of the possibilities in case that lake of water behind the beaver-dam were set free.
Significant as all these things were, Hammond’s main interest was soon centred on the Cup of Nannabijou and its environs. As he glided over the draw in the cliffs along the creek trail to where it seemingly ended in the tunnel opening out over the rapids in the gorge he got a true perspective of the water-gate guarding the only entrance from the land side through the cliffs of the Cup. From his lofty point of observation he could note how the creek in the first place had cut a big oval-shaped “O” in the rock, leaving a high pinnacle in the centre.