began, Johnson shot him through the wooden door. A brief firefight broke out, and the team managed to return the wounded King to Aklavik where he eventually recovered. Manhunt A posse was then formed consisting of nine men, 42 dogs and of dynamite which they intended to use to blast Johnson out of the cabin if necessary. After surrounding the cabin they thawed the dynamite inside their coats. The common version states that this charge was thrown onto the roof of the cabin, collapsing it in the following explosion. After the explosion, the men tried to rush in. Johnson opened fire from a five-foot dugout beneath the ruins. No one was hit, and after a 15-hour standoff (ending at 4:00 A.M.) in the weather, the posse retreated to Aklavik for further assistance. Again, the RCMP investigative report partially contradicts this, claiming that the dynamite charge barely damaged the cabin, but it was later purposely destroyed to prevent him from returning to it, which may have led to the impression by some that the blast had destroyed it. By this point, the news had filtered out to the rest of the world via radio. After being delayed because of blizzard conditions, the reinforced posse returned on January 14 to find that Johnson had left the cabin, and the posse struck out after him. Eventually, they caught up with him on January 30, surrounding him in a thicket. In the ensuing firefight, Johnson shot Constable Edgar Millen through the heart, killing him. Millen was later to have a tributary of the Rat River, Millen Creek, named for him. A memorial is located in the area. Once again they fell into retreat. The posse continued to grow, enlisting local Inuvialuit and Gwich'in who were better able to move in the back country. Johnson had clearly decided to leave for the Yukon, but the RCMP blocked the only two passes over the Richardson Mountains. That did not stop Johnson, who climbed a peak and once again disappeared. In desperation, the RCMP hired First World War flying ace and leading post-war aviator Wilfrid "Wop" May of Canadian Airways to help in the hunt by scouting the area from the air. He arrived in the new ski-equipped Bellanca monoplane on February 5. May discovered that Johnson had crossed the Richardson Mountains when the airplane saw his tracks on the far side of the range. On February