The evening world. Newspaper, August 11, 1914, Page 13

~~ Le / os One ee VOCOOC Coprmaht, 1014, by Bodbe-Merill Go, BrNOVSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS, oll dog, belongs to. Tho hereon who nF eee ts Isobel, Thorne’s eoreciy oak winter Karan wlling ot, inte Teobel Peat itn foe Yhis Get use away" tuto. tha” wilderuess, CHAPER IV. (Continued,) Free From Bonds. ROM deep in the forest there came a long, wailing howl, filled with a plaintive sad- ness. It was Kazan's fare- well to the woman. After that cry Kasan sat for a Yong time on his haunches, enifing the new freedom of the air and watching the deep black pits in the forest about him as they faded away before dawn. Now and then, since the day the traders had first bought him and put him into sledge-tracss way over on the Mackenzie, he had often thought of this freedom long- ingly, the wolf blood in him urging him to take it. But he had never quite dared. It thrilled him now. There were no clubs here, no whips, none of the man-beats' whom he had first learned to distrust and then to hate. It was his misfortune—that quarter- strain of wolf; and the clubs, instead of subduing him, had added to the @avagery that was born in him, Men bad been his worst enemies. They had beaten him time and again until he was almost dead. They had called him “bad,” and stepped wide of him, and never missed the chance to snap a whip over his back. His body was covered with ecars they had given him. He had never felt kindness or love until the first night the woman had put her warm little hand on his head, and had snuggled her faco close down to his, while Thorpe—her hus- band—had cried out in horror. He had almost buried his fangs in her white flesh, but in an instant her oid touch, and her sweet voice, 4 sent through him that wonderful thrill that was his first knowledge of love. And now it was a man who was driving him from her, away from the hand that had never held a club or a whip, and he growled as he trotted deeper into the forest. He came to the edge of a swamp as day broke. For a time he had been filled with a strange uneasiness, and light did not quite dispel it. At last he was free of men. He could detect nothing that reminded him of their hated presence in the air. But neither could he smeil the presence of other dogs, of the sledge, the fire, of companionship and food, and so far back as he could remember they had always been a part of his lif Hero it was very quiet. The swamp lay in a hollow between two ridge mountains, and the spruce and cedar grew low and thick—#o thick that there was almost no snow under them and day was like twilight. Two vide ay. Feari fearing ‘ot violence, things he beran to mise more than, # others—food and company. Both’ if and the dog that was In him Reaades the first, and that of him that was dog longed the To both desires the wolf blood that Was strong in him rose responsively. “It told him that somewhere in this allent wong between the two ridges companionship, and that al! he bad to do to find it was to sit back on his haunches and cry out his loneliness, More than once something trembled in his deep chest, rose in hia throat and ended there in # whine. It was the wolf howl, not yet quite born. Food came more easily than voice. Toward midday he cornered a big white rabbit under a log, and killed it. The warm flesh ane’ blood was better than frozen fish, or tallow and bran, and the feast he had gave him confidence. That afternoon he chased many rabbits, and killed two more. Until now, he had never known t delight of pursuing and killing at will, even though he did not eat all he killed. But there was no fight in the rab- bits. They died too easily. They were very sweet and tender to eat, when he was hungry, but the first thrill of killing them passed away fter 9 time. He wanted something bigger. Ho no longer slunk along as if ho were afraid, if he wanted to remain hidden. held his head up. His back bristled. His tail swang free and bushy, like a wolf’ ‘or He waveied north and west. the call of early days—the days away up on tho Mackenzie. The Macken- was a thousand miles away. He came upon many trails in the show that day, and sniffed the scents left by the hoofs of moose and cari- dou, and the fur-padded feet of a lynx. He followed a fox, anc the ‘trail led him to a place shut in by tall spruce, where the snow was beaten down and reddened with bigo ‘There was an owl's head, feat! wings and entrails lying here, a he knew that there were other hunters ‘abroad besides himself, Toward evening he came upon tracks in the snow that were very much like his own, They were quite fresh, and there was a warm scent about them that made him whin and filled him again with that d to fall back upon his haunches and eend forth the wolf-cry. This desire grew stronger in him as the shadows of night deepened tn the forest. He had travelled all day, but he was not tired. There was something about night, now that there were no men near, that exhil- arated him strangely. The wolf blood in him ran swifter and swifter. To-night it was clear, The sky wa: Gilead with stars The moon rose, And at last he settled back-in the snow and turned his head etraight up to the spruce- tops, and the wolf came out of him DDODOODGEDGHODOGOQHODGHOGHHHOHDHHDGHOGEDHHHHOHHOHDSHHE This Book on the Stands VOU of ill Cost You $1.25, Get It for 6 Cents. mM Pry The "Reactor World “Daily megeriae. Tierdis: The Best Dog Story Ever Written. GOQGQSEGOOGOOOOOS: in a tong mournful ery which quivered through the still night for miles. For a long time he sat and listened 4fter that howl. He had found voice voice with a strange new note in nd it gave him still greater con- fidence. He had expected an answer, but none came. He had travelled in the face of the wind, and as he howled a bull moose crashed through the scrub timber ahead of him, his horns rattlin, inst the trees like the tattoo ol clear birch club as ho put distance between himself and that cry. Twice Kazan howled before he went ‘on, and he found oy in the practice of that new note. He came then t, ridge, and turne it of the swamp to the top of it. tars and the moon were nearer to him there, and on the other sido of the ridge looked down upon a great sweeping Plain, with a zon lake glistening in the moonlight, and &@ white river leading from it off into timber that was neither so thick nor #0 black as that In the swamp. And then ed muascie in his body grew tense, his blood leaped. From far off in the plain there came acry. It wag his cry—the wolf cry. His jaws snapped. His white fan; gleamed, and he growled deep in hi He wanted to reply, but some strange instinct urged not to. ‘That instinct of the wild was already becoming master of him. In the air, in the whispering of the spruce tops, in the moon and the stars them- selves, there breathed a spirit which told him that what he had heard was the wolf cry, but that it was not the wolf call. The other came an hour later, clear and distinct, that same wailing howl at the beginning—but ending in a staccato of quick sharp yelps that stirred his blood at once into a flery excitement that it had never known befor The same instinct told him that this was the call—the hunt cry. It urged him to come quickly. A few moments, later me again, and this time there was a reply from close down along the foot of the ridge, and another from so far away that Kazan could ecarcely hear it. The hunt pack was gathering for the night chase; but Kazan sat quiet and trembling. He was not afraid, but he was not ready to go. The ridge seemed to split the world for him. Down there it was new, and strange, and without men, From the other side something seemed pulling him back, and sud- denly he turn back through the moonlit spi hind him, and whined. It w. dog-whine now. The woman was back there, He could hear her voice. He could feel the touch of her soft hand. He could see the laughter in her face and eyes, the laughter that had made him warm and happy. She was calling to him through the for. ests, and he was torn between desire to answer that call, and desire to go down into the plain. For he could waiting for him cracking whip @ teal the tre n js, and feel of their lashes, bend For a long time he remained on the top of the ridge that divided his world, And then, at last, he turned and went down into the plain, All that night he kept close to the huntpack, but never quite approached it. This was fortunate for him, He still bore t ent of traces, and of man. The pack would have torn him into pieces, ‘Be first inatinct of the wild in u of self-preservation. It may have been this, a whisper pack through the years of savi fore- bears, that made Kazan roll in the snow now and then where the feet of the pack had trod the thickest. That night the pack killed a cari- bou on the edge of the lake and feast- ed until early dawn, Kagan hung in the face of the wind. The emell of the blood and of warm flesh tickled his nostrils, and his sharp ears could eateh the cracking of bones. But the instinct was stronger than the temp- tation. Not until broad day, when the pack had scattered far and wide over the plain, did he go boldly to the scane of the kill, He found nothing but an area of blood reddened snow, vov- ered with bones, entrails and ‘torn bits of tough hide. But it was enough, and he rolled in it and buried his Nose in what was left, and remained all that day close to it, saturating himself with the scent of It. That night, when the moon and the stars came out again, he sat back with fear and hesitation no longer in him, and announced himself to his new comrades of the great plain. The pack hunted again that night, or else it was a new pack that start- ed miles to the south, and came up with a doe caribou to the big frozen lake. The night was almost as clear as day, and from the edge of the forest Kazan first saw the caribou run out on the lake a third of a milo away. The pack was about a dozen strong, and had already split into the fatal horseshoe formation, the two leaders running almost abreast of the kill, and slowly closing in. With a sharp yelp Kazan darted out into the monlight. He was di- rectly In the path of the fleeing doe, and bore down upon her with lght- ning speed, Two hundred yards away the doe saw him and swerved to the right, and the leader on that side met her with open jaws, Kazan was in with the second leader, and leaped at the doe's soft throat. Tn a@ snarling mass the pack cloned in from behind, and the doe went down, with Kazan half under her body, his fangs sunk deep in her jugular. She lay heavily on him, but he did not lose his hold. It was his first big kill, His blood ran like fire, He snarled between his clamped teeth, Not untii the last quiver had loft the body over him did ho pull him. self out from under her chest and forelegs. He had killed a rabbit that day and was not hungry. So he sat back in the snow and waited, while the ravenous pack tore at the dead doe, After a little he came nearer, nosed in hetween two of them and was nipped for his intrusion, As Kazan drew back, still hesitat- ing to mix with his wild brothers, a big gray form leaped out of the pack and drove straight for his throat. He had just time to throw his shoul- der to the attack, and for a moment the two rolled over and over in the snow. They were up before the ex- A Complete Novel Each Week in The Evening World : if He heard | Joan's voice 0) GHDOODHHDGDHIGHOGODGWOGODHHHGHDOHOGDIGOISS. OOQOODOO citement of sudden battle had drawn the pack from the feast. Slowly they circled about each other, their white fee~ bare, their yellowish backs br ing like brushes. ‘The fatal ring of wolves drew about the fighters. It was not new to Kazan. A dozen times he had sat in rings like this, waiting for the final moment. More than once he had fought for his life within the circle. It was the sledge dog way of fighting. Unless man in- terrupted with a club or a whip it always ended in death. Only the fighter could come out alive. Sometimes both died. there was no n here—only that fatal cordon waiting white-fanged demons, ready to leap upon and tear to pieces the first of the fighters who was thrown upon his side or back. Kazan was a stranger, but he did not fear those that hemmed him in, The one great law of tlie pack would compel them to be fair. He kept his eyes only on the big gray leader who had challenged him. Shoulder to shoulder they continued to circle. Where a few moments be- fore there had been the snapping of jaws and the rending of flesh there was now silence. Soft-footed and soft-throated mongrel dogs from the south would have snarled and growled, but Kazan and the wolf were still, thelr ears laid forward in- stead of back, their tails free and bushy. Suddenly the wolf struck In with the swiftness of lightning, and his jaws came together with the sharp- ness of steel striking steel. They missed by an inch. In that same instant Kazan darted into the side, and like knives his teeth gashed the wolf's flank, They circled again, their eyes grow- ing redder, their lips drawn back un- Ul they seemed to have disappeared, t And then Kazan leaped for that death grip at the throat—and missed, It was only by an inch again, and the wolf came back, as he had done, and laid open Kazan's flank so that the blood ran down his leg and red- dened the snow. burn of that flank-wound told Kazan that his enemy was old in the game of fight- ing. He crouched low, his head straight out, and his throat close to the snow, It was a trick Kazan had learned in puppyhood—to shield his throat, and walt. Twice the wolf circled about him, and Kazan pivoted slowly, his eyes half closed. A second time the wolf leaped, and Kazan threw up his ter- rible jaws, sure of that fatal grip just in front of the forelegs, His teeth snapped on empty alr, With the nimbleness of a cat the wolf had gone completely over his back. The trick had failed, and with a rumble of the dog-snarl in his throat, Kazan reached the wolf in a single bound. They met breast to breast. Their fangs clashed and with the whole weight of his body, Kazan flung himself against the wolf's shoulders, cleared his jaws, and struck again for the throat hold, Tt was another miss—by a hair's breadth vot he could recover, the wolf's teeth were buried in tho back of his neck, For tho first time In his life Kazan It the terror and the pain of the death-grip, and with 4 mighty he flung his head a little forward snapped blindly. His powerfal closed on the wolf's foreleg, close to the body. There was a cracking of bone and a crunching of flesh, and the circle of waiting wolves grew tense and alert. One or the other of tho fighters was suro to go down be- fore the holds were broken, and they but awaited that fatal fall as a signal to leap in to the death Only the thickness of hair and hide on the back of Kazan’s neck, and the toughness of his muscles, saved him from that terrible fate of the van- quished. The wolf's teeth sank deep, but not deep enough to reach the vital spot, and suddenly Kazan put every ounce of strength in hig limbs to the effort, and flung himself up bodily from under his antagonist, The grip on his neck relaxed, and with another rearing leap be tore himself free. As swift as a whiplash he whirled on the broken legged leader of the pack and with the full rush and that had come weight of his shoulders struck him fairly in the side. More deadly than the throat grip had Kazan sometimes found the lunge when delivered at the right moment. It was dently now. The big Fa, wolf lost his feet, rolled upon his back for an in- stant, and the pack rushed in, eager to rend the last of life from the leader whose power had ceased to exist. From out of that gray, snarling, bloody lipped mass Kazan drew back, panting and bleeding. He was weak, There was a curious sickness in his head. He wanted to lie down in the snow. But the old and infallible ta- stinct warned him not to betray that weakness. From out of the pack a slim, lithe, gray she-wolf came up to him ‘and iny down in the snow before him, and then rose swiftly and sniffed at his wounds, She was young and strong and beautiful, but Kazan did not look at her. Where the fight had been he was looking, at what little remained of the old leader. The pack had re- turned to the feast. He heard again the cracking of bones and the rending of flesh, and something told him that hereafter all the wilderness would hear and recog nize his voice, and that when he sat back on his haunches and called to the moon and the stars, those swift-footed hunters of the big plain would respond to it. He circled twice about the caribou and the pack, anit then trotted off to the edge of the black spruce forest. When he reached the shadows he looked back, Gray Wolf was follow- ing him, She was only a few yards behind. And now she came up to him,-a little timidly, and she, tov, looked back to the dark blotch of life out on the lake. And as she stood there close beside him, Kazan sniffed at something in the air that was not he scent of blood, nor the perfume of the balsam and spruce. It was 4 thing that seemed to come to him from the clear stars, the cloudless moon, the strange and beautiful quiet of the night itself. And its presence seemed to bo a part of Gray Wolf. He looked her, and he found Gray Wolf's alert and question. ing. She was young—so young that she seemed scarcely to have passed out of puppyhood, Her body was strong and slim and beautifully shaped. In the moonlight the hair under her throat and along her back shone sleek and soft. She whined at the red staring light in Kazan's eyes, and it was not a puppy's whimper, Kazan moved toward her, and stood with his head over her back, facing the pack. He felt her trembling against his chest. He looked at tho moon and the stars aguin, the mys- tery of Gray Wolf and of the night throbbing tn his blood. Not much of his life had been apent at the posts. Most of it had been on the trail—in the traces—and the spirit of the mating season had only ‘stirred him from afar, But it near now. Gray Wolf lifted T head, Her. sot. muzzle touched the wound on his neck, and in the gentleness of that touch, in the low sound in her throat, an felt and heard again that wonderful something with the caress of the woman's hand and the sound of Gy her voice, He turned, whining, hie back bris- ting, his head high and defiant of the wilderness. which he faced Wolf trotted close at his side entered into the gloom of the forest. CHAPTER V. The Fight in the Snow. HEY found shelter that olght under thick balsam, and when they lay down on the soft carpet of needles which the snow had not covered, Gray Wolf snuggled her warm body close to Kazan and licked his wounds. The day broke with @ velvety fall of snow, so white and thick that they could not see a dozen leaps ahead of them in‘ the open, It was quite warm, and so still that the whole world seemed filled with only the flutter and whisper of the snowflakes. Through this day Kazan and Gray Wolf travelled side by side. Time and again he turned his head back to the ridge over which he had come, and Gray Wolf could not un- derstand the strange note that trem- bled in his throat. She told him many other things In the days and nights that followed. The third night himself gathered the hunt-pack and led in the chase, Three times that month, be- fore the moon left the skies, he led the chase, and each time there was @ ul. But as the snows began to grow softer undep his feet he found a greater and greater companionship in Gray Wolf, and they hunted alone, living on the big white rabbits. In all the world he had loved but two things, the girl with the shining hair d the hands that had cares: him —and Gray Wolf. He did not leave the big plain, and often he took his mate to the top of the ridge, and he gt md to tell what he had left back t With the dark nights the call of the ‘womal became so strong upon him that hi was filled with @ longing to go bac’t, and take Gray Wolf with him. Something happened very soon after that. They were crossing the open plain one day when up on the face of the ridge Kasan saw something that made his heart stand atill. A man, with a dog-sledge and team, was com- ing down into their world. The wind had not warned them and suddenly Kazan saw something glisten in, the man's hands. He knew what it was. Tt was the) SalGe fae spat fire and thunder an je He gave his warning to Gray Wolf, and they were off Hke the wind, side by side. And then came the soun and Kazan'’s hatred of men buret forth in o snarl as he leaped. There was a queer humming over their heads, The sound from behind came again, and this time ony Wolf gave a yelp of pain and rolled over and over in the snow. She was on her feet ngain in an instant, and Kazan dropped behind her and ran there until they reached the shelter of the timber. Gray Wolf lay down and began licking the wound in her shoulder, Kazan faced the rid) The man was taking up their tre He stopped where Gray Wolt had fallen and examined the snow. Then he came on. Kazan urged Gray Wolf to her feet, for the thick swamp All that day they kept in the face of the wind, and when Gray Wolf say down Kazan stole back over the trail, watching and sniffing the air. For @ys after that Gray Wolf ran lame, @d when once they came upon the remains of an old camp Kagan's teeth were bared in snarling hatred of Eee pay ~acent that had been left be- nd. Growing in him there was for vengeance—vengeance for his own hurts, and for Gray Wolf's. He tried to nose out the man-trail under the and Gray Wolt lously, and tried to lure him deeper into the forest. At last he followed her sullenly. There was a savage redness in his eyes. Three days later the new moon Ces fresh—so fresh ‘that he stopped as suddenly as eng atruck by a bullet when he ran upo {t, and stood with every muscle tn tis body quivering and his hair an end. It was @ man-trail. There were the marks of the sledge, the dogs’ fect, and the snow-shoe prints of his enemy. ‘Then he threw up his head to the stars, and from his throat there rolled out over the wide plains the hunt-cry— the wild and savage call for the pack. Never had he put the savagery in it that was there to-night. Again and again he sent forth that call, and then there came an answer and another and still another, until Gray Wolf herself sat back on her haunches and added her voice to Kazan's, and far out on the plain a white and haggard-faced man halted his exhausted d to listen, while a voice sald faintly from the sledge: “The wolves, father. Are they com: ing—after us?” The man was allent. Ho was not young. The moon shone in his long white beard, and added grotesque to the helght of his tall, gaunt figure, Are You Going Away for Vacation? When you go out of town for vacation you may find it is difficult and costly to provide yourself with the right sort of reading matter. Why send to the city for novels at $1.25 or $1.50 each or buy them at a fancy price in some country store? You can supply yourself with the best, most delightful summer reading for six cents a week. By subscribing to The Evening World for the rest of the summer you will secure a complete novel each week. Not some old book a country dealer has not been able to sell, but the finest up-to-date fiction by the foremost living authors, Bear this in mind, not only for yourself but for any of your friends who expect to spend their vacations in the country. a desire '! Auge Bay st ve sé 113 An Ideal Summer Romance of the Big ‘Outdoors By James Oliver Curwood A girl bad raised her head from a bearskin pillow on the sleigh. | ti hi iF fell in a thick sbint her shoulder, and she w: something tightly to her breast. “They're on the tratl of something — probably a deer,” said the man, look- ing at the breech of bis rifle. “Don't worry, Jo, We'll stop at the next bit of scrub and seo if we can't wn enough dry stuff for a fire. ah-h-h-h, boys! and he snapped his whip o backs of his team. From the bundie at the girl's breast there came a all wailing cry. And far back in the plain there mm" it the scattered voice of the ek. At last Kazan was on tho trail of ¢n, vengeance. He ran slowly at hie? with Gray Wolf close besid pausing every three or four Hundred yards to send forth the =. A pray leaping form joined them from be- hind, Another followed. Two c: 4 in from the side, and Kagzan’s polit howl gave place to the wild tongye of the pack. Numbers grew, and with increasing number the pace became faster, Four -six—seven—ten—four- teen, by the time the more open and windswept part of the plain was reached, It was a strong pack, filled with old and fearless hunters. Gray Wolf and she kept clos ers. She could a» nothing of his red-shot eyes and drip- ping jaws, and would not have under- stood If she had seep. But she could feel and she was thrilled by the spirit of that strange agd mysterious sav- agery Chat had made Kazan forget il things but hurt and death, The pack made no sound. There was only the panting of breath and the soft fall of many feet. swiftly and close. And always Kasan ‘was a loap ahead, with Gray Wolf nosing his shoulder. Ne had he wanted to kill as he felt the desire in him to kill now. For tho first time he had no f Ad man, no fear of the club, of the or of the thing that blazed forth ‘te and death. He ran more swiftly in order to overtake them and give them battle sooner. All of the pent-up madn of four years of slavery and abuse at the hands of men broke loose in thin red streams of fire in his veins, and when at last he saw a moving blotch far out on the plain ahead of him, the cry that came out of his throat was one that Gray Wolf did not understand Threo hundred yards beyond that moving blotch was the thin line of timber, and Kazan and his followers bore down swiftly. Halfway to the timber they were almost upon It, and suddenly it stopped and becamo a k and motionless shadow o8 the snow. From out of itt there leaped that lightning tongue of flame that Kazan had always dreaded, and heard the hissing song of the deat bee over his head. He did not mind it now. He yelped sharply, and the wolves raced in until four of them were neck-and-neck with him. A second flash—and the death-bee drove from breast to tail of a huge gray fighter close to Gray Wolf. A third—a fourth—a fifth spurt of that fire from the black shadow, end ged himself felt a sudden swift passin, @ red-hot thing along hia shoul where the man’s last bullet shaved re the hair and stung his flesh, Threo of the pack had gone down under the fire of the rifle, and half of the others were swinging to tho right and the left. But Kazan crove straight Pad Faithfully Gray Wolf followed im. mane Setee- dey had been treed from hela like a club in his hands, Kazan met by the fightt He fought like fend, and was the strength and the flerce- ness of two mates in the mad gnash- oe Gray Wolf's fang ‘wo of the wolves rushed in, and Kazan heard the terrific, back-breaking thud of the rifl ‘o him it was the club. He wanted to reach it. He wanted to reach the man who held it, and he freed bimaelf from the fighting mass of the dogs and sprang to the sledge. For the first time he saw that there was something human on tho sledge, and in an instant he was Pn it. He buried his jaws deep. y sank in something soft and hairy, and he opened them another lunge. And then he peers the voice! It was her voic muscle in his body stood till. became suddenly like flesh turned to lifeless stone, Her voice! The hear thrown back and what had Ls hia den under it he saw clearly now in the light of the moon and the stars, In him instinct worked more swiftly than buman brain could bi given birth to reason. It was not she, But the voice was the same, and the white girlish face so close to his own blood-reddened eyes held in it that same mystery that he had learned to love. And hoe saw now that which she was clutching to her breast, and there came from It a strange’ thril- ling cryand he knew that here on the sledge he had found not enmity and death, but that from which he had been driven away In the other world beyond the ridge. In a flash he turned. He snapped at Gray Wolf's flank, and she dropped away with a startled yelp. It had all happened in a momen but the man was almost down, K. van leaped under his clubbed rifle and drove into the face of what was left of the pack. His fangs cut like knives. Tf he had fought Mke a demon against the dogs, he fought Itke ten demons now, and the man—bleeding and rendy to fall—stagmered back to the sledge, marvelling at what was happening. For In Gray Wolf there was now the Instinct of matehood, and seeing Kagan tearing and fight- Ing the pack she joined him in the struggle which she could not under- etand. When it was over Kazan and Gray Wolf were alone out on the plain The pack had stunk away Into the night, and the same moon and stars that had given to Kazan the first knowledge of his birthright told him now that no longer would those wild ‘b DODOQOIOTH OG Robert W. ‘Chambers’ s | MOGOOOA OOOO; WAR Novel Great FRANCO. PRUSSIAN ssi4N LORRAINE They ran | for di brothers of the plains respond to bie call when he bowled Into the aky. In the afternoon they returned to what was loft of the caribou doe on ug Gray Wolf hung bac yet know the meaning of [a hala deadiess and traps, but the instinct numberless generations was in her veins, and it told her there was danger in visiting a second time a thing that had grown cold in death. Kazan had seen masters work about carcasses that the wolves had left. Ho hed seen them conceal traps clev- erly and roll little capsules of strych- nine in the fat of the once he had put a fore! and had experienced its ee and deadly grip. But ave Gray Wolf's fear. He urged her to accompany him A | ‘hite hummocks on the Ie Ky last she went with him and back restlessly on her heunches, le he dug out the bones and pleces of flesh that the snow had kept from freezing. But she would not eat, and at last Kazan wentfand sat on his haunches at her side, and with her looked at what he had dug out from under the snow. Hoe aniffed the elr. Ho could not sme! danger, but Gray Wolf told him that it might be there. And Gray Wolf was is and il logs was terribly bitten. After a time he saw a fire in the edge of the forest. The old call was strong upon him. He wanted to crawl in to tt, and feel the ali hand on bis head, as he had felt that other hand in the world beyond the ridge. He would have gone—and would have urged Gray Wolf to go with him—but the man was there. Ho whined, and phan Wolf thrust her warm mut his neck. Something told them a both they were outcasts, that the plains and the be and the stars were agains’ and they blunk into the shelter and the gloom of the forest. Kazan could not go far. He could still smell the camp when he lay down. Gray Wolf snuggled close to him. Gently she soothed with her soft tongue Kasan's bleeding wounds. And Kagan, lifting bis |, whined softly stars. CHAPTER VI. Joan. N the edge of the cedar and spruce forest old Pierre Radiseon built the fire. He was bleeding from a dozen wounds, where the fangs of the wolves had reached to his flesh, and he felt in his breast that old end terrible pain, of which no one knew the meaning but himself. He dragged in log after log, .piled them on the fire until the flames leaped to the crisping needies of the limbs above, and heaped @ supply close at b: for use later in the night. From the sledge Joan watched him, atill wild-eyed and fearful, etill trem- bling. She wi holding her baby close to her breast. Her long heavy hair smothered her shoulders and arms in @ dark lustrous veil that gilatened and rippled in the firelight when she moved. Her young face was acarcely &@ woman's to-night, though ahe was @ mother. She looked like a child. Old Pierre laughed as he threw down the last armful of fuel, and stood breathing hard. “It was close, ma cheri,” he panted through his white beard. “We were nearer to death out there on the plain than we will ever be again, I hope. But we are comfortable now, nd warm. Eh? You are no longer afraid?” He sat down beside his dat nie, ntly pulled buck the soft fur that enveloped the bundle she held in her arms. He could see one pink oheek of baby Joan. The eyes of Joan, the mother, wero like stars, “It was the baby who saved us, she whispered. “The dogs were bein, torn to pleces by wol and saw them leaping upon you, when oi of them sprang to the sledge. At firat I thought it was one of the But it was ag almost at my throat when baby cried, and then he at there, his red eyes @ foot from us, and I could have sworn again that he wa log. In an inetant he turned, and was fighting the wolves, 1 saw bim leap pen | one that was almost at your th: “He was a dog, ronaia old Pierre, holding out hie hands to the warmth, “They often wander away from the posts and join the wolves, I have had dogs do that. Ma cheri, a dog js @ dog all bis life. Kic! abuse, even the wolves cannot change him— for long. He was one of the pack. He came with them—to kill, But when he found us “He fought for us,” breathed the girl, She gave him the bundle and stood up, straight and tall and slim in the firelight. “He fought for u»— and he was terribly hurt,” she said. “I wow him drag himself away, Fath er, if he is out there—dying” Pierre Radisson stood up. He coughed in a shuddering way, trying to stifle the sound under his beard. The fleck of crimson that came to his lips with the cough Joan did not see, Bhe had seen nothing of it dur- ing the six days they had been trav- ciling up from the edge of civiliza- tion, Because of that cough and the stain that came with it, Pterre had made more than ordinary haste. “I have been thinking of that,” he sald, “Ho was badly burt, and I do not think he went far, Here—take Httle Joan and eft close to the fire until I come back.” ‘The moon and the stars were brill- fant in the sky when he went out jo the plain. A short distance from the edge of the timberline he stood for moment upon the spot where ¢ wolves hed overtaken them an before. Not one of his four dogs had Ived, The snow was red with their bloml, and their bodies lny stiff where they DODDDHOHS: 4 fallen under the pack. ered would have \d the baby? He turned a' another of those hollow coughs that brought the blood to his lips. A few yards to one side he found fe the snow the trail of the strange that had come with the Mt Saf had turned inet them in moment when all seemed lost. ie not a clean running trail, It wi moro of a furrow im the snow, Pierre Radisson folk x pect! to find the dog dead at the end of It, In the sheltered spot to which ged himself in the edge the forest Kazan lay for a long time give the fight, alert and watchful. But be legs. Gray Wolf crouched close ai o sniffing the air. They could smell camp, and Kazan could detect two things that were there—man woman. He knew that the girl was there, where he could see the glow of firelight through the spruce and the cedars. He wanted to go to her. = wanted to drag himself close in to the fire, and take Gray Wolf with 4 en to her voice, and feel touch of her hand. But the there, and to h aa meant the club, the whip, pain, deat Gray Wolf crouched close to side, and whined softly as she wi Kazan to flee deeper with her into forest. At last she understood that he could not move, and she ran nervouse ly out Into the plain, and bac! baw | her footprints were thick in t io made. The instinct: m tehood were strong in hi It was she who fret saw Radisson coming over their tratl, she ran swiftly ats to Kasap “Th hon Ka can ught Pr Dge A. san ea 0 coming ecw the ae, ae ae le tried through the Lone hag drag himself back, but he could only by inches, it on} Wey 4 the. rid in his yr of the rifle in his hollow eougt and iatteng a feet in the crouched shoulder, to ‘snoulae ie him, tremblin, showing teeth, When ‘bierre, had a f within fifty feet of them Bode k back into the deper snadows of spruce. back into the snow again. leaned his rifle against @ sapii bent over him fearlessly. fierce grow! Kazan snapped at tended’ bar hands. To his surprise man did not ae up a etick or a cl He held out his hand in—caue peer oe ont in a voice new Kazan. egal srowled, sakes; Xi ‘The man persisted, talking to all the time, and once his mit and touched Kazan's head, and @ touch of It, and there wes her threat nor hurt in it. es Pierre turned away and went over the trail. When ho was out of sight and heer. ing, Kazan whined, and the along his spine flattened. He wistfully toward the glow of The man had not burt him, three-quarters of him that wanted to follow, Gi Wolf came back and stood. stiffly planted forefeet at his wide. She had never been thi J to man before, except when the had overtaken the sledge out on the oy She could not understand, raed dangerous of all things, more to feared than the strongest beasts, storms, the floods, cold and ane tion. And yet this eeo Rawan'e, Seek ane bee? " on azan's bac! ead, Bi ere mittened hand ee she trotted back into” thea darnoees sain, for beyond the edge of the forest she once more saw ‘The man was returning, and with Her voice was soft Bhe dropped on her knees tp snow, just out of reach. ~two inches toward her. the old light In her eyes and 1 now, the love and gentleness he had known onco before, when woman with shining hair and eyes had come into his life. “Come!” she whispered as she saw him move, and she bent a little, reached a little further with her hand, and at last touched his head. Pierre knelt beside her. He was proffering something, and Kazan smelled meat. But tt the girl’ hand that made him tremble ihiver, and when she drew back, urge ing him to follow her, he dragged himwelf painfully a foot or twe through the snow. Not until then did the girl see mangled leg. In an instant one. LI forgott n all caution and was down clone at hig side, 'He can't walk,” she cried, 4 den tremble in ‘her voice. mon pere! Here is @ terrible cut. We must carry him. much,” replied “Tl guessed that Radisson. “For that reason I brought Mon Dieu, listen te the blanket. that! From the darkness of the forest there came a low walling cry. Kazan lifted his head CY trombling whine answered in thros t was Gray Wolf calling him, It was a miracte that Pierre Radie- son should put the blanket about Kazan and carry him into the Rie ore | without scratch miracle that he arm resting on Kazai as she held one end of ¢ (To Be Continued.) r bite. Tt wa wit OO. DOODGODOGDDODGDOOSHN! Kasan's fangs were bared ingly when Pierre mogoet and i down at him. rt a himecif to hie feet, maa 4 a ae: ay ee aa