Show I I i BAR 6 SON OF KAZAN I by byI I W JAMES OLIVERC OLIVER C m I B I Chapter XIII I 22 22 I The trap line of ot Pierre Eustach ran an thirty miles straight west of LacI Lac I Ban Bain It was wag not as JIB long a n line as Pierrot's had been but It was like a n main artery running through the heart of ot a n rich fur country It had Imd belon belonged ed to Pierre Eu Eustach's achs ach's fL father ther and his grandfather and find his great grand father and beyond that It reached Pierre PIerrc averred back to the very pulse of the finest blood In France The books at post went back only as far tar as the great grandfather end of it It the older older- evidence of ownership ownership own own- being at Churchill It It was the finest game IRme country between Reindeer lake and the Barren Lands Lanas It was In i December that Baree aree came to It Again he was traveling southward In a slow and wandering fashion seeking seek seek- k- k lag ing food In the deep deco snows The Kis- Kis Festin or Great Storm had come earlier than usual this winter r and for tor a week after It scarcely a hoof or claw was was moving Every trapper from Hudsons Hudson's bay bayto bayto bayto to the country of the Athabasca knew that after the Big Storm the famished fur animals would woula be seeking food food and that traps and properly set and baited stood the biggest chance of t. t the e year of being filled led Some of ot them set out over their trap- trap l lines es on t the e sixth sixth day some Bome on th the seventh se and others on the eighth It was wason on the s seventh day that Bush Dush Mc Mc- Taggart started over Pierre Eustach's line which was now his own for the season It took him two days to uncover nn- nn cover the traps dig the snow from them rebuild the fallen trap houses rearrange the baits On the third day he be was back at Lac Bain n. n It was on this tills day that Baree came cameto cameto cameto to the cab cabin n at the far end of ot garts gart's line Une rt's trail was fresh In the snow abo about t the cabin and the Instant Baree sniffed of It every drop of blood In his body seemed to leap suddenly with a a strange excite excIte- ment It took peth perhaps ps half a minute for the the scent scent that filled his nostrils to associate itself with what had gone before and nd at the thc end of that half- half minute there rumbled in Baree's chest chesta a a deep and sullen growl For many r minutes after that he stood like Uke a aI ablack ablack I black rock In the snow watching the cabin Then slowly he began circling about It drawing nearer and nearer nearer- until at la last t he was sniffing at the threshold No sound or smell of ot life lite came from inside but he could could smell the old smell of Then he faced laced the wilderness the the direction In which the trap line ran back to Lac Bain He was trembling His muscles twitched He whined PIctures PIctures' Pictures were wire assembling more and m more re vividly In Inh h his s mind mind tine the fight in the cabin Ne- Ne the wild wild- chase through the rte snow to the chasms chasm's edge edge even even the memory of that old age-old struggle when had caught him In the tine rabbit snare In his whine there was wasa as asa a great yearning almost expectation Then It died slowly a away After all the scent in the snow was of or a thing that lie he had hated and wanted to kill and not of anything of-anythIng that he hc had loved For an Instant nature had Impressed on him the significance of ot associations a a brief space only and and then It was gone The whine died away ay butIn butin but butin in its place came again that ominous growl Slowly he followed the trail and a quarter of or a mile from the cab cabin n struck the first trap on the line Hunger Hunger Hunger Hun Hun- ger had caved in his sides until he was like a starved wol wolf In the first trap trap- house had placed as bait the quarter hind of a snowshoe rabbit Baree re readied reached d che-d In cautiously lie had learned many things on on Pierrot's line he h had d learned what the tIle snap of ot a trap meant he had felt the cruel pain of ot sr steel el Jaws he knew better than the tine shrewdest fox what a u deadfall would do when the trigger was sprung sprung and and herself had taught him that he was never to touch polson poison balt So o ohe he closed his teeth gently In the rabbit flesh and drew it as cleverly as ns himself could have done He visited five traps before dark dink and ate the five ve baits without springing a pan Then he went went wenton on Into a warm balsam swamp and found himself a n abed nb a. a b bed d for the night The Tite next day saw the beginning J of the struggle that was to follow between between between be be- tween the wits of man and beast To 10 Baree the encroachment of Bush Mc tIc- Taggarts Taggart's s 's trap line was wa not war It was existence It was to furnish him food as Pier Pierrot's rots rot's line had furnished him food for many weeks But he tensed sensed d the thc fact that In this tills Instance e ehe he was law breaker ker and had an enemy emmy to outwit Had It been good hunting weather he might have gone on forthe forthe for forthe the unseen hand that was guiding his wanderings was drawing him slowly but surely but surely back to the old beaver pond and the Gray Loon As It was with the snow deep and soft sott under him trim trim- so to deep that In places he plunged Into tit It over h his htA ears ears trap trap- tine was wal Uk like a II troll trail of manna made maae I I for tor his special use Ho f followed fallowed In Inthe inthe I Ithe the factors factor's snowshoe tracks and Inthe in inthe inthe the third trap killed a rabbit Starved for many days he be was tilled filled with a n wolfish hunger and before the day was over he lie robbed the bait from a full dozen of traps Three times he struck poison baits venison poison venison or caribou fat In the heart of which was a lose dose of strychnine and each time his hla keen nostrils nostrils s detected the danger The second day being less hungry hunlY and more keenly alive to the hated smell of his hits enemy Baree ate less but was more destructive l was not as skillful as Pierre Eustach In keeping the scent of his hands from Prom the traps and houses and I every now and th the then h n the smell of him was strong In Baree's nose This wrought in Baree a swift and definite antagonism a steadily Increasing hatred where a few days before hatred was almost forgotten The dog did not add two and two together to make four ho did not go back step by step to prove to himself that the man manto manto manto to whom this trap line belon belonged ed was was was' the cause of all his grIer and nd troubles trou trou- bles but bles but he be did find himself possessed possessed possessed pos pos- of ot a deep and yearning hatred was the one creature except ex ex- ex- ex the ilie wolves that that he had bad everI ever ver I I I I J I i I I I It t I 1 a r He Stood Like a Black Rock WatchIng Watch Watch- Ing the Cabin hated it was l who had hurt him who had hurt Pierrot who had bad made him lose his beloved and and was here on this trap-line trap If It he had been wandering before without ut object or destiny he was given a mission now It was to I keep to the traps To feed himself And to vent his hatred and his vengeance vengeance as ns he lived The Tile second night Baree lay lily with a full stomach In a thicket of pine th the third day he lie was traveling westward over over- the trap-line trap again Early on this morning Bush Mc Mc- Taggart started out to gather his catch and where he crossed the stream six miles from Lac Bain he first saw Baree's Daree's tracks track He stopped to examine them with sudden and unusual un un- unusual usual Interest falling at last las on his knees whipping off the glove from his right h hand nd and picking up a single hair The Tile black wolf He lIe uttered the word In an odd I hard voice and Involuntarily his eyes turned straight In the direction of the Gray Loon After that even eve more carefully than before he examined r Z Y Z v.- v. vr y r Z V e Z orbs one of the clearly Impressed r ed trac trades ks When he rose roae e to his I In 10 the enow Inow snow look loot feet teet there was In hk bl race the of one who had made an unpleasant discovery repeated and nd A black wolf I I he shrugged his shoulders Dab Bah I Lerue Lerne Is' Is a n fool It Is a dog And then a after after aft aft- he be muttered in a voice lC er cr a moment scarcely louder londer than a 11 whisper cr ner ner er dog Bush urt followed followed followed fol fol- fol- fol All that day lay lowed a n trail where Baree Duree had left traces of ills his presence Trap after trap he lie found robbed And AntI from the first disturbing excitement nt of his tIl discovery 5 o ery changed of ot Dar Baree's es e's presence his humor slowly to one of rage dud and nd his rage Increased as the day ay dragged out He lIe was vas not unacquainted with four footed robbers of at the thc trap line but u usually a n wolf or a fox tox or a dog dOJ who had grown adept In thievery ry troubled onla only this case Baree Bares a few v traps But In was traveling straight from trap to tr trap iP and his footprints In the snow V showed that he stopped at each There was to almost a human devilishness to his wor work c. c He ne evaded the i poisons Not once did hl be he stretch his head or paw within the danger ZO zone lC of a d deadfall 11 For apparently no reas reason n whatever he had destroyed a a- splendid mh mink whose gl glossy fur lay scattered In worthless bits hits over the snow Toward the end of ot the day to deadfall in came to n 8 a which a lynx had died Baree Daree had torn the silvery flank of ot the animal until tl the e skit skin was of less U than an half halt value l gart cursed aloud and his breath came hot The third day l did not return to Lac Bain but began a n cautious cautious cautious cau cau- hunt for Baree An Inch or two of fresh snow had fallen and as ns if to take even greater m measure a ure of ot vengeance vengeance ven yen from his man-enemy man Baree Daree had left his footprints freely within a B radius of ot a n hundred yards of the cabin It was half halt an nn hour before Mc Mc- Taggart could pick out the straight trail and he lie followed this for two hours Into a thick swamp s Baree kept with the wind Now and then he caught the scent of his Ills pursuer pursuer pur- pur pur n a a dozen times he waited until the theother other was so close he be could hear tho the snap i of t brush brush or the hc metallic click of twigs against his rifle barrel And then with a sudden Inspiration that brought the curses afresh to Mc Mc- Taggarts Taggart's lips Ups he swung in a wide circle and cut cut ut straight back for the trap When the Factor reached the line along toward noon Bar Baree e had already beg begun n his wor work He lie had killed and eaten caten a rabbit he had robbed three traps In the distance ofa of ot ota ofa a mile and he be was was was' headed again straight over oyer the tho trap-line trap for Post Lac Bain It was the fifth day ay that Bush Mc Mc- Taggart returned to his post He was In an ugly mood Only Valence of the four Frenchmen Frenchman Ii was there ther and nd It was Valence who heard his story and afterward afterward aft aft- erward enyard heard him cursing MarIe She came Into the store a little later big big- eyed and frightened one of her her cheeks flaming red where had struck her Chapter XIV i By the middle of ot January the war between Baree Darce and Bush had become more than an Incident incident- more than a n passing adventure to the b beast ast and more than an an irritating happening to the man luau It It was forthe for tor forthe the time the elemental raison ralson d detre etre of their lives Baree hung to the trap- trap line He Hc haunted it like a devastating devastating ing specter and enc each l time th that t he sniffed afresh the scent of the l Factor from Lac Bain he was impressed stillmore still sUII stillmore more strongly with the Instinct that he was avenging himself upon n a a dead deadly Iy ly enemy Again and again he outwitted outwitted outwitted out out- witted he continued to strip his traps of their bait the humor hu lu- mor mol grew In him more strongly to destroy destroy de de- stroy the Hie fur he came across his greatest pleasure came to be not be-not not In eating but In destro destroying The fires of ot his hatred burned fiercer as the weeks passed until at nt last he would snap and tear with his long fangs tangs atthe at atthe atthe the snow where feet had passed And all of the time away back of or his t. t there was a vision of ot N that continued to grow more and more c clearly early In his I brain That first great grent loneliness the loneliness the loneliness loneliness ess of th the long Jong days day and longer nights of h his waiting and seeking on the Gray Loon oppressed him again as It had oppressed him In the early days lays of her loss On starry or moon moon- moonlit moonlit lit nl nights he sent forth his walling wailing I cries for her again and und Bush Bus gart listening to them I In the he middle I of ot the thc night felt strange shivers run I up his spine TO BE nE CONTINUED I. 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