Show a SON OF KAZAN M Mr r by y L JAMES OLIVER v CURWOOD COPYRIGHT 1 l Service Chapter XU X I 22 The trap line ot of o Pierre II Eustach ran thirty miles manes straight west of Lac Bala It was not as long a line as had been but It was like 1110 a main arter artery running through the heart of a rich fur tur countr country It had bail belonged to PIerre Eustach's father cud and his grandfather and his Ills great grand father and b beyond rond that It reached Pierre averred erred hack back to the Jhc cr very pulse of the finest blood In lu France The books at post went back only as far tar as the great grandfather great tad end of ot It the older evidence e of ownership own own- ownership ownership being at Churchill It was as the finest tIn est game tame country between lake and the Barren Harren Ian Lands ls It was In December that Baree naree cam came to It It Again lie he was tra traveling lIng southward In n a slow and wandering fashion seeking seek seek- seekIng seeking ing food In the snows The Kis- Kis KIs Use or Great Storm had come earlier than usual this winter and for a week after alter It scarcely a hoot hoof or claw v was moving mo Eyer Every trapper from Hudsons Hudson's ons on's bay bayto bayto bayto to the the country of or the Athabasca knew that after the Big Storm the famished fur animals would be seeking food and that traps and properly set and baited stood the bl biggest gest chance of the year of ot being filled Some of them set out over o their trap trap- trap lines lines on the sixth day some on the seventh se and others on the eighth It was on the seventh se do day that Bush flush Mc- Mc Taggart Mc-Taggart Ic- Ic Taggart started over O Pierre Eustach's line which was ns now his own for the season It took him two da days s 's to uncover un- un un uncover cover er the traps dig the snow from them thim rebuild the fallen trap houses trap rearrange the Hie baits On the third day ho was l back at Lac Bal It was on n this day that Baree naree came came cameto cameto to th the cabin at the far tar end of garts gart's tarts tart's line trail troll was fresh In the snow now about the cabin and the Instant Ilaree Haree sniffed of ot It every ery drop of blood In his Ills body s seemed emed t leap suddenly with a strange excite excite- excitement excitement excitement ment It took perhaps halt half a minute for the scent that tilled filled his nostrils to associate Itself with what hind had gone before aiu and at the end of that halt half minute te there rumbled l In Barce's Baree's chest chesta a deep and sullen growl For many minuteS after atter that be stood like a ablack ablack ablack black rock In the snow watching the lie cabin Then slowly he lie began hegan circling about It drawing nearer and nearer until at last he was sniffing at the threshold No sound or smell of ot life came from Crom Inside hut but he lie could smell sIDell time the old smell of Then he faced the wilderness the wilderness the ss-the the direction in which the Ole trap-line trap ran back to Lac ham lie Ile was trembling His Ills muscles twitched L lIe He whined Pictures were assembling more and more vividly tin In his the mind mind the fight In the cabine cabin Ne- Ne Ne geese the wild chase through h the snow v to the chasms chasm's even edge edge even the memory of ot that old age-old struggle when bad caught him In the rabbit snare In his hia whine there was wasa wasa wasa a great yearning almost expectation Then It died slowly away After all ull the scent In the snow now no was of a thing that he had hf hated ted and wanted to kill killand and not of anything that lint he had loved loyed For or an on Instant nature had Impressed en n him the sl significance of association a tiong tion a brief space only and then It was gone The whine died away but butIn butin butIn In Its III place ace came again alain that ominous growl Slowly Siow be he followed followell the Ue trail and a quarter of a mile from the cabin struck the lie first trap on the line Hun hun hun- hunger Hunger ger er had hind caved cavell In lii hl Ills sides shIes until he lie was wa like 1110 a starved wolf Volf In the first trap trap- trap house house had placed as bait ball baitTie quarter hind-quarter of a snowshoe rabbit Baree reached In cautiously lIe He hall bail le learned man many things on Pierrot's line line he hall had learned what the snap of If a trap meant he had hall felt the cruel crud pain of steel Jaws he knew kne knew better better than the shrewdest fox what a deadfall would llo do when the trl trigger ger was WaIl sprung sprung and herself had tuu taught ht him him that he was never to touch poison bun So Sobe o ohe he closed his teeth gentry gently In the rabbit flesh and drew It forth as ns cleverly cI crl us as art himself could have done lie visited five fi traps before dark and ate the five fire e baits without springing II a apan pan Then he went on Into a worm balsam swamp and found himself a abed abed abed bed for tor the night The next da day saw the beginning ot of the struggle that lint was to follow be be- between between tween the wl wits of ot man and beast To Ilaree Barel time the encroachment of ot flush Bush Mc Mc- Taggarts Taggart's trap line was not war It was existence It was to furnish him food as Pierrot's line had bad furnished hed him toad food for many weeks But hut he sensed the fact that In this Instance he was lawbreaker law and had an nn enemy to outwit out Had It been good hunting weather wather he lie might have ha gone gunc on for forthe forthe fortie the unseen han hand liand l that lint win was guiding his wanderings was wa drawing him slowly but surely back to the old beaver hea pond und and tile the Gray Cray Loon As It wits with tue tte snow deep and soft ender him him- him so o deep that In places he plunged Into It over o his hia ears eaM trap trap- trap line line UJ was wot ore a trail ot of of manna made for or his special use lIe He followed In Inthe Inthe the factors factor's snowshoe tracks track and In Intile tile lie third trap killed a rabbit Starved Star for ninny many days he lie was filled tilled with willi n a wolfish lounger hunger and before beCore the da day was over o lie Iw robbed the lie bait from a full Cull dozen of traps Three limes Imes III lie struck enlson polson poison baits venison balts-venison or fat Cat In the thc heart of which was a II dose of strychnine and each ach time his keen nostrils detected the danger dan The second l da day being less hungry hun and more keenly alive to the hated smell of Ills his en enemy em Baree naree ute ate less but was wai more destructive l lart was not as skillful as Pierre I In keeping the scent ot of his Ills hands handi from rom the lie traps and houses and ever every now and then the smell of him was strong In Baree's nose This wrought In naree Baree a swift and definite antagonism a steadily Increasing hatred where a few days dus before hatred was almost forgotten The dog did not add two and two together ether to make four he did not go back step b by step to o prove to himself that the man fIlan manto manto to horn this trap line belonged was the lie cause of all alt his and trou trou- trou- trou troubles hut bles-hut bles hut he did find himself pos pos- possessed pos pos- possessed possessed of ot a II deep and yearning hatred was the one creature ex- ex except except ex except the wolves that he had ever It J Ir IrI IrI II r I i i I I II Ii I i I I Ir IrIt I Ir r It I l s- s sHe t- t tHe c ct He Stood Like a Black Rock Watch WatchIng Ing the Cabin hated It was who had hurt him who hind hurt Pierrot who had made him lose his beloved and Nt was here on this tills lIne trap trap It If he had been wandering before beCore wi without t object or destiny he was given ghen a mission now It was to kl keep p to the traps trapa To fo feed feell himself And to vent his lils hatred and his Ills vengeance lS as lie lived lI The second night Baree naree la lay with wino a full tull stomach In a thicket of pine the third du day he lie was traveling westward over o the trap line n again Barl Early eu on tills this morning Bush Mc Sic Ic Tag Taggart started out to gather Jather his hlf catch fitch and where he lie crossed the stream six miles from Lac he first t saw Baree's tracks track lie He stopped to examine them then with sudden and un- un unusual un unusual usual Interest falling failing at last on his hh knoes whipping pIT oft the glove glo from his right hand and picking UI up a single haIr I The Alack binck wolf lie He uttered the ord word In an odd r J hard voice and Involuntarily his eyes turned turnell straight In the direction of the Gray Cray Loon After that lint even en more more I carefully than then before he examined one of the clearly Impressed l tracks I la the mow ow When u ka h rose to hs his t feet t there was In hi his face tace the lie look lonk of one who had hind made nude an unpleasant discovery A black wolf he repented and shrugged his lila shoulders Balm Ball Lerue Is n a n fool It Is a dog And then aft aft- after after er a moment he muttered in a voi ol voice scarcely louder louder thin than a whisper nor ner dog dep All that da day Bu h art fol- fol followed followed fol followed lowed a trail where Baree had left lert traces trac's of Ills his presence Trap lup after aeter trap he found robbed And from Crom the first disturbing excitement excitement of Ills his discovery of Baree Baree's naree's s presence his lils humor changed slowly to one of rage and his hili rage Increased as the da day dragged out lIe Ile was not unacquainted with tour four four robbers robbe's of the line trap but usually a wolf olt or a fox or a dog who had grown rown adept In thievery r troubled only a few Cew traps But nut In this tills case ase n Baree ree was traveling straight from Crom trap to trap and his footprints In the lie snO snow showed shoved that he stopped at each ench there was to almost n II devilishness to his work He lIe evaded the lie poisons Not once one did dill he lie stretch his head hall or paw within the danger zone of a n deadfall For apparently no reason whatever E r he had destroyed n a splendid mink whose glossy fur Cur lay scattered In worthless bits over o the snow v Toward rowan the end of the day came to a deadfall In which a II lynx had died Baree Barce had torn the sll Er silvery flank of the animal until the lie skin Wl was of less than half value alue cursed aloud and his breath came hot The third day l did dill no not return to Lac Bain Ilala but began Legan a n can cau cautious hunt for or Baree An Inch or two of fresh Cresh snow now had hind fallen and as If It to take even En greater measure of ven yen vengeance vengeance from his man enemy ree n Baree had left his footprints freely within a radius of ot a hundred yards of the cabin It was as halt half an hour before beCore Mc Mc- Ic Taggart could pick out the straight trail and he followed this for two hours Into a thick swamp Baree kept with the wind Now ow and then he be caught the toe scent of ot his lils pur pur- pursuer n a dozen times he lie wanted waited un until the other was so close he could hear the snap of ot brush or the metallic click cHck of ot twigs against fig his Iola rifle barrel And then with a sudden Inspiration that lint brought time the curses afresh to Mc Ic Taggarts Taggart's lips he lie swung In a wide circle and cut straight back for the line line trap When the lie Factor reached the line along toward noon Baroe Baree had already begun Ids his work worl lIe He had killed and eaten a n rabbit lie he had robbed three traps In the distance ot of ota ofa ofa a mile and he was headed again straight over o the trap-line trap for or Post Lac Data It was the fifth da day that hat flush Mc Mc- Ic I Taggart returned to his post lIe He was Tas In an ugly mood Only Valence of the thc four Frenchmen was wa there and It was wasI I Valence who heard his story and aft aft- afterward afterward erward heard him cursing Marie Maric She She- j came Into the lie store a n little later Inter big big- eyed big eyed eed and frightened one oue of ot her flaming red where cTaggart 1 had struck her Chapter XIV By the middle of January the war between n Baree Ilaree and Bush II had ad become more than an incident incident- Incident more than a passing adventure to the beast and more than an irritating I happening to the lie man It was for forI forthe forthe forthe I the time lime the elemental ral raison ralson on detre of their lives Baree hunto hung hun to the lie trap trap- trap line line lIe He haunted It like a devastating devastatIng devastating ing specter and each ench time that h he sniffed afresh the scent of ot the the actor lator frond from Lac Lal halo BalD he was Impressed still sUII stillmore stillmore more strongly with the Instinct that he was avenging ing himself upon a n dead dead- deadly deadly ly Iy enemy Again aln and again he lie out out- outwitted out outwitted witted art lie he continued to strip his Ills traps of their bait the lie hu- hu humor humor hu humor mor grew In him more strongly to de dE- dEstroy destroy destroy stroy the be fur lie came across his i greatest pleasure came to not be-not be not In eating but Lut In destroying The fires lires ut ot Ills his hatred haired burned fiercer as ni the weeks wels passed until at last he would snap nap an and l tear with his long fangs at atthe atthe atthe the snow where l feet Ceet had passed And all of the time thine an-a an away back of ot his lils there was wai hadI a 11 I vision Islon of ot that continued to grow ro more and more clearl clearly In his brain That first great the loneliness loneliness I loneliness of the long lla days s 's and longer nl nights of his lils waiting and seeking on onlie I the Gray Cray Gra Loon oppressed him again ns as It had oppressed him In the lie early I dayt of her loss On day day- starry or moon moonlit I lit nights he sent forth orth hits his wailing cries cIles for Cor her again and flush Bush leTa I Jart listening to them them In the thc middle I of the lie night felt strange shivers run up UD his spine I TO BE nE CONTINUED |