Show warned by SYNOPSIS his physician that be ha not more than six montha to live falling sits despondently on a park bench wondering where he should spend those six months A friendly squirrel practically decides the matter tor him ills blood Is pioneer blood and he decides to end his days in the forests of ore gon memories of his grandfather and a deep love for all things of the wild help him in reaching a decision in a large southern oregon city be meets people who had knon and loved his grandfather a famous frontiersman lie makes his home ellaa lennox a typical westerner the only other members of the household are lennox s son bill and daughter snowbird their abode ts many allea from civilization in the umpqua divide and there I 1 ailing plans to live out the short epan of life which he has been told Is his ills extreme weakness in the face of even a slight exertion convinces him that the doctor had made a correct diagnosis of hla case prom the farst railing s health shows a marked improve ment and in the companionship of lennox and his eon and daughter he fieg into the woods life as if he had been born to it by gulck thinking and a remarkable display of nerve he saves lennox s life and his own when they are attacked by a mad coyote lennox declares he Is a reincarnation of his grandfather dan falling I 1 whose fame as a woodsman Is a word 0 d CHAPTER Ill Continued of course but sit down now any i way I 1 m sorry that snowbird im t lore snowbird Is sly my boy she can make n biscuit I 1 not her name of course but wove always called her that ante got tired 0 keeping house and li working this summer poor bill has to keep house for her and no wonder lies eager to take the stock doarn to the lower levels I 1 only wish lie brought cm up tills spring at all ive josf dozens from the coyotes but a coyote cant kill cattle it cin if it has hydrophobia n corn anon thing in the varmints var mints this time of year but as I 1 say bill will take the i stock down next season and then snowbirds Snow birds work will be through and shell come back here then shea down in the valley far from it ashes a mountain girl if one ever ched perhaps you dont know the recent policy of the forest service to alro women when they can be obtained it was a policy started in war throes and kept up now because it la economical and efficient she and a girl from college haie a cabin not five miles from here on old bald mountain and doing lookout duty dan wondered intensely what lookout duty might be you see dan lennox sald in explanation the government cosea thousands of dollars ear by forest fire A alre can be stopped easily it it Is seen soon after it starts but let it burn awhile in tills dry season and its a terror a wall of flame that races through the forests and can hardly be stopped and mabe you dont realize how enormous this region Is literally hundreds of miles across e re the last there are tour cabins it you can find them in the first seventy miles back to town so they hae to put lookouts on the high points and BOW coming to the use of airplanes so they can keep even a better watch snowbird and a gari friend from college got this summer as lookouts all gli the forest service they are hiring women for the work they are more vigilant than men less inclined to take chances and work cheaper these two girls hae a cabin near a spring and they cook their own food and are making what is big wages in the mountains tea rather hoping shell drop over for a few minutes tonight good lord does she travel over these hills in the darkness the mountaineer laughed a delighted sound that cime somewhat curiously from the bearded lips of the dark man dan swear ashes afraid of nothing that walks the face of the earth and it isn t because be had experience either ashes n dead shot with a pistol for one thing ashes physically strong and every muscle Is hard as nails she ased to live shag too the best dog in all these mountains ashes a mountain girl I 1 tell you whoever w ina her has got to be able to tame herf the mountaineer laughed again the call to supper came then and dan got ills first tight of mountain food there were potatoes newly dug vegetables that were crisp and cold a steak of peculiar chape ania great of purple ber als to be paten with sn girand dans appetite was not as a rule particularly ticul arly good but evidently the long ride had affected him ue simply have the moral courage to re fuse the elder lennox heaped his plate good heavens I 1 cant eat all that he said as it was passed to him but the others laughed and told him to take heart lie took heart it was a singular thing but at that first bite his sudden confidence in bis gustatory ability almost overwhelmed him so he cut himself a bite of the tender steak fully halt as generous as the bites that bill was consuming across the table and its first flavor simply filled him with delight what Is this meat he asked I 1 ve certainly tasted it before III bet a few dollars that you haven t if s auve lived nil your life in the middle west lennox answered maybe youve got what the scientists call an inherited memory of if its the kind of meat your grandfather used to live on venison soon after dinner lennox led him out of the house for bis first glimpse of the hills in the darkness they walked together out to the gate across the first of the wide pis tures where at certain seasons lennox kept his cattle and at last they came out upon the tree covered ridge the moon was just rising they roud see it casting a curious glint the ery tips of the pines but it get down between them they stood too close too tall and thick for that and tor a moment dans only sensation was one of silence you have to stand still a moment to really know anything lennox told him they both stood still dan was as motionless as that day in the park long weeks before when the squirrel had climbed on his shoulder the first effect was a sensation that the silence standing in the shadows he simply watched her was deepening around them it really true it was simply that he had become aware of the little con tenuous sounds of which usually he was unconscious and they tended to accentuate the bush of the night he knew just as all mountaineers know that the wilderness about him was stirring and pulsing with life some j the sounds were quite clear an occasional stir of a pebble or the crack of a twig and some like the faintest twitching of leaves in the brush not ten feet distant could only be guessed at what Is making the sounds he asked lie dlan t know it at the time but lennox turned quickly toward him it thai the question had surprised the mountaineer blather it was the tone in which dan had spoken it was perfectly cool perfectly self con bained the one right close Is a chipmunk I 1 dont know what the others are no one eer does know perhaps ground squirrels or rabbits or birds and haibe maibe one of those harmless old black who Is curious about the house and tell roe can you smell anything good lord lennox I 1 I 1 can smell all kinds of things I 1 ro glad some men cant no one can enjoy the woods if he cant smell part if alio smells anre of flowers and part of imoni and god only knows want the are alicy are just the i dnn cougil jot oil perceive the smells and sounds but be felt that they were leaving an imprint on the very fiber of hla soul he knew one thing lie knew he could never for yet this first introduction to the moun tain night the whole scene moved alm ilm in strange deep ways in which he had never been stirred before it left him exultant and in deep wells of his nature far below the usual currents of excitement a little excited too then both of them were startled out of their reflections by the clear unmistakable sound of footsteps oa the ridge both of them turned and lennox laughed softly in the darkness my daughter he said 1 I anew she wouldn t be afraid to boiu dan see only snowbirds Snow birds outline at first just her shadow against tho hillside ills glares v ere none too good at long range and pois aly when she came within range the first thing that he noticed about her was her stride the girls he knew walk in quite that tree strong way she took almost a man size step and et it was curious that she did not seem ungraceful dan had a distinct impression that she was floating down to him on the moonlight she seemed to come with such unutterable smoothness and then he heard her call lightly through the darkness the sound gave him a distinct sense of surprise some way he associated socia ted a voice like this with a mountain girl he had supposed that there be so many harshening influences in this vt lid place yet the tone wai as clear and full as a trained singers it was not a high voice and let it seemed simply brimming as a cup brims with wine with the rapture of life it was a self confident voice too wholly unaffected and sincere and wholly without embarrass ment then she came close and dan saw the moonlight on her face and so it came about whether in dreams or wakefulness be could see nothing else for many hours to come the girl who stood in the moonlight had health she was simply vibrant with health it brought a light to her eyes and a color to her cheeks and life and to her moonlit hair it curves to her body and strength and firmness to her limbs and the grace of a deer to her carriage whether she had regular features or not dan would have been unable to state lie even notice they important when health was present yet there was nothing of the coarse or bold or voluptuous about her she was just a slender girt perhaps t enty years of age and even less than the figure oc caslo nally to be read in the health magazines for girls of her height and fhe w fresh and cool beyond all words to tell and dan had no delusions about her attitude toward him for a long instant she turned her keen young eyes to his white thin face and at once it became abundantly evident that belond a few girlish speculations he felt no interest in him after a single moment of rather strained polite conversation with dan just enough to satisfy her idea of the con began a thrilling girlhood tale to her father and she wai still felling it when they reached the house dan held a chair for her in front of the fireplace and she took it with en tire naturalness he was careful to put it where the firelight was at its height no wanted to see its effect on the blushed checks the soft dark hair and then standing in the shadows he simply watched her with the eye of an artist he delighted in her gestures her rippling enthusiasm her utter irrepressible that all of time had not years enough to kill bill stood watching her his hands deep in hla pockets evidently a companion of the best her father gazed at her with amused tolerance and dan he dlan t know in just what way he did look at her and he have time to decide in lesa than fifteen minutes and wholly without warning she sprang up from her chair and started toward the door good loidl dan breathed if you make such sudden motions as that have heart failure where are you going now back to my watch she answered her tone wholly lacking the personal note which men have learned to ex hect in the voices of women and an instant later the three nf them saw her retreating shadow as she vanished among the pines dan had to be helped to bed the long ride had been too hard on hla shattered lunga and nerves and body collapsed an instant after alie door was closed behind the departing girl lie laughed weakly and begged their pardon and the two men were really very gentle they told him jt was their own fault for permitting him to overdo I 1 eanox himself blew out the candle in lie big cold bedroom the next installment of the voice of the pack impart to dan failing the eart ence of an organized band of outlaw TO dt |