YUKON TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 284, 25 November 1908, Page 4

YUKON TRAGEDY.

SEARCH FOK LOST BARONET AFTER LAPSE OF TEN YEARS. Great interest has been aroused by the announcement that the provincial j authorities of British Columbia have ben requested by a relative again to try to investigate the circumstances attending the disappearance of Sir Arthur Curtis, an English baronet, on the overland trail to tlie Yukon ten years ago. According to law Sir Arthur is dead, the l'robate Court having granted Lady Curtis leave to presume his death. His return now would make matters uu-i pleasant, fur in I'JOO Lady Curtis married Colonel Robert Mazier* Brady, R.G. A., of Buncrana, Co. Donegal. Sir Arthur's son, Roger, who succeeded to the title, is now twenty-two and resides in Hampshire. The story of this ten-year-old tragedy goes to make some of the most enthralling chapters in Mr Roger Pocoek's book, " The Frontiersman.'' Mr. Po'cock (who founded the Legion of Frontiersmen) writes of what he knows, for it was he who led the party of which the ill-fated baronet was one.

This 'party was called the " Star pack train," and it started from Ashcroft, on the Canadian Pacific railway, in June, 181)8, bound for the Klondike. Half the members of the party were to engage in prospecting for gold, the pack train paying the expenses. The party had terrible experiences and the disappearance of Sir Arthur Curtis and Hie long search for liim which followed nearly brought disaster to the entire train. Mr l'ocoek thus describes the events which led up to Sir Arthur's disappearance :

'(_' (Sir Arthur Curtis) came of a naval family who must have hated horses from time immemorial. Of most engaging humor, chivalrous, and unselfish, (J was a born sportsman, an enthusiast at nulling, yet seemed only at home on Hie water. Therefore, I wis apt to be rude when our success, our very lives depended upon learning horsemanship and woodcraft. Hut still he was patient with me, his dignity too fine and deep a thing to ruffle easily upon the surface, and I never guessed how sore lie was at heart. SIR ARTHUR DISAPPEARS.

" After fnrilmg Mud lliver. we Were compelled—ten ■horses astray in the willows—to lie in camp for a day. Apart from the horse-hunting we had harness to repair, and I did all the cooking. Indeed, bar twenty minutes for a bath, I had been nt work since three in the morning, and night fell at nine o'clock while still there was much to do. C had been thinking all day. and when he offered to help me wash up after supper. I told him roughly to "go away and rest."

r " The words cut worse than a whiplash across his face—words that could [ never lie withdrawn, never forgiven. C was my partner, not my servant; I and if J could not command myself, how should I lead V So 1 was weighed in the balance, was found wanting.'' Sir Arthur was never seen again. Mr Poeni'k proceeds to describe the heartbreaking search, the co-operation of a (rally of Indians, who on the ninth day declined to continue the hopeless quest. "So on the. tenth day," he continues, "we who were left gathered about our camp lire for the. last time. Our food had nil been spent in the search, which meant short rations until some of us could bring a load of provisions from Quesnelle." "My leadership must be resigned, and my presence would be needed in England, where T must get probate for C 's widow. The Company gave me a paper holding me free from Ida me. "All of them, though nearly starved to death, reached the Slickeen in safety, with sixteen horses out of the lifty-one which we had bought, and in this fared better than most'men on that disastrous trail.

''lt is still rather a puzzle to me how I got home to England. At Ashcroft T had nothing left but a horse blanket and a bad dose of neuralgia. Afterwards I fell ill. "Slowly the news leaked out that T had murdered C , and because his name was one held in great honor Up press was eager to do justice! to such news as came out from'the forest. "For months there were lurid details of search expeditions, of Indians holding the body for ransom, of a sk"lcton identified by a ring with armorial bearings, then came rumours of the man himself being seen alive in England. 1 have no facts or theories.".,