Pere Garneau, a pioneer priest of the North Saskatchewan country, had ministered for twenty years, by river and by trail, to the spiritual and temporal needs of the half-breeds and the Indians under the care of his church.

A heroic soul was the old Father, not to be daunted by dangers, simple as a child, and kindly.

But the years had done their work with him on eye and hand.

The running ice in the spring flood of the Eagle River got itself under the nose of the good Father's canoe, and the current did the rest.

His feeble cry would have brought no aid, had not Kalman, at the very moment, been shoving out his canoe into the current of the Eagle.