Show ksor 0 OF KAZAN KA ZAN by bi JAMES curwood 0 ani WIN be chapter IX continued 16 baree baaree had a not 0 t forgotten Ne A dozen times h he e turned hla his head bead bad back and whined and always he picked out accurately the direction in which the hi cabin lay but he did not turn back an aa the night lengthened hla his search for or that something which he be had not found continued lila hla hun ger even with the fading out of the moon and the coming of the gray dawn was not sufficiently keen to make him hunt for food it was cold and it seemed colder when the glow of tile the moon and stars died out under his padded feet fee t especially pec ally lally in the open spaces was a thick white frost in which he left clearly at times the imprint of his taa boea and claws he had traveled steadily etea dlly for hours a great many miles in all and he was tired when tile the first light of the day came and then there came the time when with a sudden sharp click of his jaws he stopped like a shot in n his tracks at last it had come the meeting with that for which he had been seeking with her head toward him film and waiting tor for him is as he came out of the shadows his scent strong in her keen nose mose stood Ma beegun the young wolf baree baaree had not smelled tier her hut but he be saw her directly he came out of the rim of 0 young balsams that fringed the open it was then that he stopped and for a full minute neither of them moved a muscle or seemed to breathe there was not a fortnights fort nights difference la in their age and yet Mahee gun was much the smaller of the two tier her body was as long but site she was slimmer she stood on slender legs that were almost like the legs of a fox and the lie curve of tier back was that of a slightly bent bow a sign of swiftness almost equal to the wind slit she stood poised for flight even as baaree baree advanced tits his first step toward her and then very slowly her body delft relaxed O andin and in a direct ratio rat loas va he be drew nearer her ears lost their alertness and dropped aslant baree baaree whined ills his ears were up his head alert his tall aloft and bushy cleverness it if not strategy had already become a part of ills his masculine cud lie did not immediately the affair lie he was within five feet of when he casually bally turned awny from her and faced the east where a faint ap pp penciling nelling of red and gold was waa heralding the day for a few moments he sniffed and looked around find and pointed the wind with much as though impressing on hla his fair acquaintance as ai many a two legged animal hns has done before him hla his tremendous importance in the world at large and Mahee gun gua was property properly impressed barbes bluff worked as beautifully as the bluffs of the two legged animals ue ile sniffed the air with such thrilling and suspicious zeal that gun aruns a ears sprang alert and she sniffed it with him he turn tuond d his head bead from point to point so sharply and alertly that her feminine curiosity if not anxiety made her turn tier her own head in questioning conjunction and when barve whined us as though in the air he be had caught a mystery which she could not possibly understand a responsive alve note gathered in her throat blut smothered and low ns its a womans comans excean tion when she Is not quite sure whether she should interrupt tier her lord or not at this sound which 11 parees arees sharp pars ears caught he swung up to tier lier with a light and m mincing in cing step and in another moment they were smelling noses when the sun rose half an hour later late r it found thern them still in the small open on the side of the ridge with a 4 deep fringe of forest under them anti and beyond that a wide timbered plain which looked like a ghostly shroud in its mantle of frost up over this came it lie e first ra artil d glow of the ilay day filling the open with a warmth that grew move moie and more comfortable at as the sun run crept higher neither karee nor Mahee gun were inclined to move for a while and for an hour or two they lay basking in a cup cap of the slope looking down with questing and widen wideawake wake eyes upon the wooded plain that stretched away under them like a grent great sea Mahee Mallee eun guil too had sought the hunt pack and like baree baaree had failed to catch it IL they were tired a little discouraged cou raged for the time and hungry bu but t still alive hilive with the fine thrill of anticipation and restlessly sensitive to the new and mysterious conscious ness nesa of companion companionship aMp half a dozen times baree baaree got up and nosed about Ila beegun a as she lay in the san whining to her softly and touching her wn toft coat with his muzzle but dofa fofa tor a long time she he bild little attention to him at lust last she ahe follo followed d him all that day they wandered and rested together once more moire the night came it wai wa moon or stars stam the began to fan fall at dusk thickly heavily without a breath of sound it was wag not cold but it was still so 80 still that baree baaree and Mahee gun traveled only a few ew yards at a time and then stopped to listen in this wa way y all the night prowlers of the hie forest were traveling if they were moving at all it was the first of the big snow to the flesh eating wild things of the forests clawed and winged the big snow was the beginning of the winter carnival carn lial of slaughter and of wild adventure in the long nights of merciless warfare on the frozen trails the days of breeding of motherhood the peace of spring and summer were over out bf the sky came the wakening of the northland the call of all flesh eating creatures to the long hunt and in the first thrill of it living things were moving but little this night and that watchfully watch tully and with suspicion baree baaree and Mahee gun felt the exciting pulse of a new life it lured them on it invited them to adventure into the white mystery of the silent storm and inspired by that restlessness of youth and its desires they went on ahe snow grew deeper under their feet in the open spaces they waded through it to their knees and it con tinned to fall in a vast white cloud that descended steadily out of the sky it was near midnight when it stopped 7 4 with her head toward him stood Mahee gun the young wolf the clouds drifted away from under the stars and tile he moon and for a long time barce and Mahee gun stood with out moving looking down from the bald crest of a ridge upon a wonderful world never had they seen so BO far except in the light of day alny under them was a plain they could see its forests lone trees tint that stood up like shadows out of the snow a stream still un frozen sit I 1 maineri n R like glass with the flicker of firt firelight light on it toward this stream barn led tile the way lie he no longer thought of if and he whined with pent up happl De as lie stopped slopped halfway alwn aind turned to muzzle Alabee guil lie he wanta d to roll lt in tile the chow and frisk bout about with ills his companion he wanted n anted to barl bark 11 IP put up ills his lead head ano and howl bowl as lie laid t ad howled at tile the ile itta moon aloon back at tile the cullu cub in something held him from froin aing di ln these things perhaps it was mahee guns gun s demeanor dedik guior site blie accepted tits his at tent tensions ions rigidly once or twice she hod find seemed elmost frightened twice baree baaree lind had heard the he sharp clicking of her teeth the previous night and all through to tonight nights s storm their corn com had and biown more intimate but nox now there was taking its place a mysterious aloof aloofness on the part of Mahee gun pierrot could have explained pla ined with the white snow under and about him and the luminous moon and stars above film harce barce like the night had undergone a transformation which even the lie sunlight of day had bad not made in him film before his ells coat was like polished jet jel every hair in tits body glistened black black I 1 was it IL and nature was trying to tell Mahee gun that of all the creatures hated by her kind the creatura cleatur crea turn which they feared and hated bated most was black with her it vms w not experience per peri fence ence but instinct telling her of the age old feud between the gray wolf and the black bear until they struck the broad openings of the plain the young she wolf had followed ba ree without hesitation now there was a gathering strangeness and andeel slon la in her manner and twice r rhe ehe he topped stopped anti and would h av lot let bar barf go co on without herl hen i As aa hoar bout after they entered the to plain there came suddenly out of the west the ton tonguing cuing of the wolf pack it W waa IN not far distant distan probably not more t than ban a mile along the foot of at the ridge end and the sharp quick yapping that followed the first outburst was evidence that the long fanged hunters had put up sudden game a caribou or young moose and were close at its heels beels at the voice of lier her own people Mahee gun laid her ears close cloae to her head and was off like an arrow from a bow the unexpectedness of her movement and the swiftness of tier her flight put baree baaree well behind her in the race nice over oer the plain she was running blindly favored by luck for tin nn interval ot of perhaps five alve minutes the pack were so near to their game that they made no sound and the chase swung full into the face of matecun Mahe Mahee cun gun and baree baaree the latter fatter was not half a dozen lengths behind the joung young volf when a crashing in the brush directly ahead stopped them so sharply that they tore up the snow with their braced forefeet and squat haunches ten seconds later a caribou burst through and flashed acasa an open not more than twenty yards from where they stood they could hear its swift pouting panting as it disappeared and then come came the pack at sight of those swiftly moving moling gray bod bodies es dalees heart leaped for an instant into his fits throat he forgot Mahee Malice gun and that she had run away from him the moon and the stars went out of exis existence terIce for him ile he no longer sensed the chill of the snow under his feet he was wolf all wolf with the warm scent of the caribou in tits his nostrils and the passion to kill sweeping through him like fire he darted after the pack very soon he folind himself close to the flanks of one of the gray monsters of the pack half a minute later a new hunter swept in from the bush behind him tind nd then a second and after that a third it was wa ar if baree baaree had belonged to the pack always ile he had joined it naturally as other stray wolves had joined it from out of the bush there had bad been no ostentation no welcome such as Mahee gun had glien given him in the open no hostility he belonged with these slim swift looted footed outlaws of the old forests and tits his own jaws snapped and his blood ran hot ns as the smell aniell of the caribou grew heavier and the sound of its crashing body nearer 1 it seemed to him they were almost at its heel beef when they swept into tin nn open plain a stretch of bara with out a tree or a shrub shrill brilliant in the light of the fie stars tin and moon across its unbroken carpet of snow sped tile the caribou a spare hundred yards abend of the pack now the two leading arut aiu alg i the trail but shot out at an angle one to the right and the other to tile ho left of tho the pur pursued sited and like well trained soldiers the pack split in halves find and spread out hin fun shape in the final charge the two ends of the fan forged allend ahead and closed in until the lenders lender were running almost abreast of the caribou with fifty or sixty feet appa rating thera them from tile ibe pursued thus adroitly and swiftly with deadly precision the pack had formed a horseshoe cordon of fangs from which there was but one course of flight straight alien ahead for the caribou to swerve half a degree to the right or left meant death it was the duty of the leaders to draw in the ends of the horseshoe now until one or both of them could make the fatal lunge for the ham strings after that it would be a simple matter tile the pack would close in over the caribou like an inundation baree baaree bad found his place in tile the lower rim of the horseshoe so that lie was fairly well in hie rear when the climax cattle the plain made it a sudden dip straight ahead was the gleam of water water shimmering softly in the star glow and the sigi sight it of it sent seat a final great spurt of blood through the caribous cirl bous bursting heart forty seconds would tell tile the story atory forty seconds of a last spurt for life of a fitial dual tremendous effort to escape death baree baaree felt the sudden thrill of these moments and he forged ahead with tile others in that lower rim of the horseshoe as one of the leading wolves 8 made ia d e a lunge for the young bulls hamstring ham string it was a clean miss A second wolf darted in and this ot one I 1 e a also iso int missed 8 sed there was no time for others to take their place from tile the broken end of the horseshoe bilbee baree heard the earl carl hous bous luay heavy plunge into water when baree baaree joined the pack a maddened mouth frothing snarling horde naps apa moos tile the young oung bull was well out in the he river and swimming steadily for the opposite shot shore 6 TO BIC CONTINUED |