Show by JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 0 Doa bledy race C chapter XII continued 20 he mumbled that fact over and over thickly as though his brain could grap nothing beyond it she was dead and pierrot was dead and he 1 a few had accod it all he turned back toward the cabin not by the trail over which he had pursued but str through he thick bush groat likes of inow hjad benn to fall he looked at the ey where binks of dirk clouds were rolling up from the south and ast the sun went out soon there would be a storm a heavy snowstorm the big lal es falling on his aked hands and face set his r ind to work it was lucky for him fils storm it would cover ever thins the fresh trails even the grave he would dig for pier rot it does not tale tal e such a min is the factor long to recover a moral concussion dv the time io cime in of tlc alc cabin hla mind was again at work on physical tl ings on the necessities of the situation the appalling thing after ill was not that both pierrot and were dead but that his dreim was shattered it was not that avis dead bul that he had lost her this was liis disappointment the other thing his crime it was easy to cover it was not sentiment that made him d grave close to the pran cess mothers under alie tall spruce it was not sentiment that emde him dig the grave at all but caution he burled pierrot decently then he poured pierrott Pier rots stock of kerosene where it would be most effective and touched a match to it lie stood in the edge of lie forest until the cabin was a mass of lames the snow wis falling the freshly grave was a white mound and the trails were filling for the physical things he ind done there was no fear in bush ts heart as he turned ba k toward lac hi in iso one would ever look into the grave of pierrot du quesne and there was no one to him if such a miracle happened put of one thing his black soul would never be able to free it self always he would see the pale triumphant alce of the willow as she stood facing him in that moment of her glory when even as slie was choosing death rather alian him he had cried to himself h Is she not wonderful As bush had tors parce so baaree baree had forgotten factor from I 1 ic biln hen me gart ind run along the edge of chaibi baaree baree had squatted himself in the font beaten plot of snow where eleese had last stood his body self bened and his forefeet braced as he looked down he biad seen her take the leap many times that summer he and followed her in her daring dives into the deep quiet of the pool but this was a tremendous dis tance she had never dived into a place like that lie could see the black heads of the rocks appearing and disappearing in thi whirling foam like the heads heids of monsters at play the roar of the wa ter filled him with dread his eyes caught the swift rush of crumbled ice between lie rok walls and slie had gone don there ne hud a greit desire to follow her to jump in as he had always jumped 1 after her she was surely down ere even though he could not hee r she was playing among e rod s and hiding herself in the alte froth and wondering why he come but he hesitated hei with his head and neck over the vs and his forefeet gluing way a little in the snow with an effort he fraed himself back ind whined he barbed the choit sharp signal with ach he always called her there was no answer again and agian he barked and always there was nothing ant the roar of the water eliat cime hack to him the snow was falling now and me legart ind returned to the cabin after a little laree followed in the tl he had made along the edge of e chasm and wherever sd stopped to peer over airee paused also for a space his hatred of the man was burned up in ills de alfe to join the allow and he con i aed along th gorge until a tl ot a mile beyond where the rac lor had last looked into it he came w e narrow trail down which he and had amny times adventured w liest of rock violets the twisting lal that led down the face of the 1 I ans hied with snow now but aree cleared hla way through it un 1 l at last he stood at the edge of the ozon torrent Ise was not aare he whined and barked t W time there was in his signal hei an uneasy repression a whim B note which told that he lid not hect a reply for five minutes after he sat on his haun chei in the ow stolid as n rock whit it was 11 ll camo down out of the dark mys 7 tumult of the chasm to him t spirit whispers of iture that 1 him the truth it li beyond the r or raaon t but lie edal and bp and hla inn ces twitched as the troth crew in him and at last he raised his head slowly until his black muzzle pointed to the white storm in the sky and out of his there went forth the quavering long drawn howl of the husky who mourns outside the tepee of a master who Is newly dead on the trail heading cpr lac baan I 1 rush mcguggart Mc heird that cry and it was the smell of smoke thicken ing in the air until it stung his nos tails that drew airee at last awa croci the chasm and back to the cabin was not much left when he came to the clearing where the ciban had been was a red hot ing mass for a long time he sat watching it still waiting and still listening he no longer felt the ef feet of the bullet that had stunned him but ills senses were another change now as strange and j as their struggle against that darkness of near deatle in the cabin in a spice that had not covered more alian an hour the world had twisted itself grotesquely for airee that long ago the illow was sitting be fore her little mirror in the ciban tall ing to him and laughing in her happiness while he in in vist con on the floor and now there was no caan no no pierrot lie did not go nearer to the smolder ing mass of the cabin but ing low made ills way about the circle of the open to the dog this took him under the tall spruce I 1 or a full minute he paused here sniffing at the freshly ande mound under its white mantle of snow ahen he went on he still lower and his ears wen flat against his head the dog corral was open and empty had seen to that again baaree baree squatted back on hs haunches and sent forth the death howl this time it was for pierrot in it there was a different note from that of the howl he had sent forth from the chism it was positive certain in alie chasm hia cry had been tempered with doubt a questioning hope something that was eo human thai hid shivered on alie trail but ilaree knew whit lay in that freshly dug now covered grave A scant three feet of airth could not hide its secret from him chere was death definite and unequivocal rut for Ie he was still hoping and seeking until noon he did not go far from the cabin but only once did lie actu and sniff about the blick ally ip timbers again and pile of steaming of the clear he circled the edge again ing keeping just within the bush and timber sniffing the air and listening twice he went back to the cl there came to I 1 ate in the afternoon impulse that carried him him a sudden through the forest he did not diw suspicion run openly and fear biad roused in him afresh the instincts of lie wolf mth his ears flattened the side of his head his tall drooping until the tip of it dragged the snow and his back sag evasive of gang in the curious the wolf lie scarcely made himself als from the shadows of the spruce and balsams in the trail there was no faltering caree made it was straight as a rope might have been drawn through fie him birly in the forest and it brought dusk to the open spot where had fled with him that day she had the edge of pushed over the precipice into the pool in the place of the balsam shelter of that day there wa now a water tight birch bark tepee which pierrot had helped the willow to make during the cum mor daree went straight to it and with a low and thrust in his beai expectant whine it was dark there was no answer and cold in the lie could make that indistinctly the two blankets out were always in it jbf row of big tin their T 1 kept boxes in tepees T tores he stoe sto e which pierrot improvised out of scraps of iron nd heavy tin but Ise was not mere and there was no sign of her outside the snow was unbroken ex capt by his own trail it was w ion he returned to the burned cabin all that night he hung about the deserted dog corral and all through the die snow fell steadily so tint ny dawn b sank into it to his shoulders when he moved out into the clearing ath daiy diy the sky had cleared the sun cune c une up and the world was almost too dazzling for the eyes it warmed B arees blood with new hope and expectation his brain struggled even more eagerly than yesterday to comprehend surely the would he returning soon he would hear tier voice she would appear suddenly out of the forest he would receive some signal from her one of these things or all of them must happen HP stopped sharply in his tracks at every sound and sniffed the air from every point of the wind he was traveling ceaselessly his body made deep trails in the snow around and over the huge white mound where alie cabin had stood his trad s led from the corral to the tall spruce and they were as numerous as the footprints of a wolf pack for half a mile up and down the chasm on the afternoon of this day the second big impulse came to him it was not reason and neither was it instinct alone it wis the struggle hilf way between the brute mind fighting ailts best with the mastery of an in tangible thing something tint could not be seen by the eye or heird by tile ear Iseo eese was not in the cabin because there was ao cabin she was not at the he could find no trace of her in the chasm slie was not with pierrot under the big spruce therefore unreasoning but sure ha began to follow the old trap line hito the north and west no man has ever looked clearly into the mystery of death as it Is impinged upon the senses of the northern dog it comes to him sometimes with the wind most frequently it must come with the wind and yet there are ten thousand musters in the northland who will swear that their dogs have given warning of death hours before it actually came and there are many of these thousands who know from experience peri ence that their teams will stop a quarter of a mile from n stranger cabin in which there Is un burled dead baaree baree had smelled death and lie knew without process of reasoning that the dead was pierrot how he knew this and why he accepted the fact as inevitable Is one of the avs which at times seems to give the direct challenge to those who coni cede nothing more than instinct to the brute mind he knew that pierrot was dead without exactly knowing what death was but of one thing he was sure he would never see pierrot aaen he would never hear his voice gaan he would never hear agnan the sw ish swish swish of his snowshoes in the trail ahead and so on the trap line he did not look for pierrot pierrot was gone forever but baaree baree had not yet associated acain ann he belleek bel leed that was nahe and lie was now just as sure that he would overtake her on the gnp line as he w ts yesterday yester dav that lie would find her at the birch birb tepee since yesterday yester dav mornings breakfast with the allow ll low baaree baree had pone with out eating to appease his hunger meant to hunt an 1 his mind was apo filled alth his quest of eleese for thit th it he would have pone hungry all that day but in the third mile from the cabin he came to a trip in which was a big snowshoe the rabbit was still ache and he killed it and ate fill until dark he did not miss a trap in one of them there was a linx in another a fisher cat out on the white surface of a lake lie brind at a snowy mound under which lav the body of a red fox killed by one of poison hilts both the lin and the fisher cat alac and the steel chains of their traps clanked sharply as they prepared to ghe baaree baree battle but baaree baree was uninterested he hurried on his uneasiness grow ing as alie day darkened and ho found no sign of the V II 11 low TO BB CONTINUED |