Show he voice of the pach by MARSHALL AA aej a KJ jj I 1 copyright 1920 by little brown co barned by SYNOPSIS his that he 1 as not more than 61 a to ahe dan lulling sit despondently on a pnra bench wondering where he bhend those six months memories or ills grandfather and a deep love for all of the wild help him in rea thing a tied sion in a large southern oregon city he meets people who had known and loved his grandfather a famous frontiersman fie makei tt alth leenov a cyp leal wes erner the only other members of the household are lennox B son gilt and dauab ter snowbird their abode Is in the umpqua chlde and there I 1 sailing plans to ih e out the short apart of life which ie his been told Is his from the first I a health a marked improve anent ind in the companionship of lennox and Ms son and daughter he fits into the wood life as if ho had been born to it by quick thinking and a remarkable display of nerve lie saves lennox s life and his own when they are at tacked bv a mad coyote lennox declare he Is a reincarnation of hla grandfather dan 1 ailing I 1 whose fame aa a woodsman Is a household ord dan learns that an organized band of outlaws of which bert cranston Is the leader la making trouble in the vicinity jandry a former member of the gang has been induced to turn state 8 evidence 0 6 CHAPTER ill continued rie looked up and alii weird picture ans thrown upon the retina of ills bejes ejes the cavote covote was straight toward dan n grav demon that in his madness wis more terrible than any charging bear or elk por there Is an element of horror about h insane whether beasts or men hit cannot be denied hatli men felt lt with n chill that seemed to pene clear to their hearts the eyes flamed the white fangs of caught the sunlight and dan stood erect in hs jath hs rifle half raised to his shoulder and even in that first frenzied instant in which lennox looked at him lie siw there wag a a singular imperturbability on his face shoot roan 1 lennox shouted are you waiting tori but inn dian didn t shoot ills hand whipped to his face and he snatched off his thick glasses the eyes that were revealed were narrow and deeply intent and bv now the fren cavote covote waa not fifty feet all that had occurred since the aal roil chirped had possibly edun five seconds sometimes five seconds Is jnet n breath but as lennox waited for dan to shoot it seemed like a period wholly without limit lie won dered if the younger min biad fallen into that strange paralysis that n great terror sometimes imbued imbues shoot 1 he screamed again but it Is doubtful ft din even heird his i hout at that instant his gun setd into place his head lowered his ei seemed to burn along the glittering barrel ills finger pressed back against the trigger and the coir of the report rocked through the summer tie gun was of large caliber and no ihling creature could stand against the shocking power of he great the lead went straight home full through the neck land slant ing down through the breist and the cocote recoiled as it an irresistible hand had smitten him it Is doubtful if there was even a muscular quiver after struck the ground not twenty feet from where dan and the alne report echoed back to find onla lennox got up oft the ground and over toward the dead coote t lip looked a long alroe at alic gray body and then he stepped back to etere dan waited on the trill 1 I take it all back lie said simply ou take what back hint I 1 thought about sou that the I 1 ailing line had cone to the doss III never call ou a tenderfoot iut tell me one thing I 1 saw he ny you looked down the barrel I 1 see fann you held tho way you kept your head and that Is oil ilka your grandfather I 1 af hy when you had a repealing ralle did yoa wait so long to shoot 1 I jiam had one cartridge n my gun I 1 aldna think of it urell the coyote charged Len iMMEs was he insa thing in tin world to be expected lie opened hh straight mouth and uttered great boyish yell of joy ills eyes deemed to light the ees of the two men met and lennox shook him py the shoulder you re not dnn fallings grandson youre dan railing himself lie shouted no one but him would ahne had belf control to watt till the gime ras almost on top of him no oie but him would have kept his head in n tam like this you re dan railing I 1 tell you come back to earth grandson nothing you re a throwback and now youve got thosa glasses off I 1 can see his eyes looking right out of youra step on cm dan you 11 never need em agnan and ap that idea ot dying la four right now I 1 in going to make vou live ve flight blat disease a finish ami alti and that Is the way that din rail ing came into ills heritage in the of his own people and in which new spirit ans born n him to light and win and hie BOOK TWO the debt A CHAPTER 1 september ans at its last davs on the divide that fir wilder ness of iree clad ridges where dan falling hid gone for his list days everywhere the forest for the winter that would fill so quickly when these goad en september dais were done the under plane 0 the forest those peoples that live in the dust and have beautiful tropical forests in the ferns found themselves digging holes and filling them with stores of food of course alie add no idea on irth cirth c alij they were doing it except that a quiver af the end of their tills told thun to do so but the result BBS entirely the sime the would have a shelter for the winter but the roost noticeable change of all in these davs of summer was a distinct tone of sadness that sound ed throughout the forest of course the wilderness note Is somewhat sad but now as the leaves fell and the grasses died it seemed par pronounced all the forest voices added to it the wall of the geese the sad fluttering of fallen leaves and even the whisper of the north wind of course all the tones and voices of alie wilderness sound clearest at night for that Is the time that the forest really comes to life and dan railing sitting in front of lennous house the late september moon rise over dald moun tain could bear them very plainly it was true that in the two months he had spent in the mountains he had learned to be ver to the voices of the wilderness lennox had not been mistaken in ing him a natural woodsman lie had alon and insight and sympathy but most of nil he had a of wood lore from his ancestors two months before lie ind been a resident of cities now the wilder bad alm body and soul aliese ind been rare dars at first he had to limit his expeditions to n miles each day and even cheit he would come in at staggering aiom weariness he climbed hills hut seemed to tiar hla diseased lungs to shreds lennox t chiv hiv been afield in n crisis tp trust his marks now he had the natural cold nerve of a marksman end one twilight he brought the body of a lynx the branches of n pine at u of two hundred yards 14 got so he could n grouse out in the hal of n second or ao in which its bronze wings glinted in tin shrubbery and alien a man kiy do this a fair number of times out of ten he Is on the straight road toward greatness then came a day when dan chught his first steelhead in ohp north pork there s no more beautiful thin in the wilderness world than a trout in action he simply seems to dance on the surface of tho water leaping again and again and racing at an unheard of speed down the ripples he only from three to fifteen pounds but now and ngien amateur fishermen without souls ahne h hd 0 o pull him in with main strength and anre fitall somewhat dazed uy the result it might bo done with a ste pl cehle but on ordinary line or leader like a cobweb the steelhead take takei i defly and decides to run it can be after a time that the one thins that mav be crone Is to let out all the line and with prater and humble ne try to keep up with him dan no longer boio his glasses lvere dav his ves biad strengthened he could see more clearly now with his unaided eves glnn he hid ever seen before with the help of alie lens and the moonlight came down a rift in the tree and showed eliat alg face hid changed too it was no longer so white the ees were more intent the lips were it been two months silas I 1 en nok told him half the four that you gave yourself after you bere and s ou re tw ice as good now as when you came din nodded twice ten times as good I 1 waa wreck when I 1 came I 1 climbed up baldi within a mile of snowbirds Snow birds cab in without stopping to lest lennox looked thoughtful more thin once of late din had climbed up toward snowbirds Snow birds cabin if vats true that his guest and his hid become the best of companions in the two months but on second thought leanoa as not in the least afraid of ns the love of the rhoun tain women does not go out to acil inferiors r gets her he had beald will have to tame her and his words still held good the mountain rarely mistook a maternal tenderness for an appealing man for love it gasn wasn t that dan was weak except from the ravages of ills disease but he was still a long way from snowbirds Snow birds ideal although dan had courage and tint same rigid self control that was an old quality in his breed he was hlll a long way from a physically strong man it was still an even break whether he would ever wholly recover from his malady but dan was not thinking about this now all his perceptions had sharpened down to the finest focal point and he was trying to catch the spirit of he endless forest that stretched in front of the house ills pipe had ceone out and for a long time lenno haan hadn t spoken lie seemed to be straining boo with ineffective senses trying to recognize and name the taint sounds that came so tingling and tremulous out of the darkness As always they heard the stir and rustle of the gnawing people the chipmunks in the sh rubber the gophers who like blind miners biad ventured forth rom their dark burrows and per hops even the glide of those most dreaded poison people that had laars in the rock plies din felt that at last the wilderness itself was ing to him he had waited a long time to hear its voice ills thought went back to the wise men of the ancient world waiting to hear the riddle of the universe from the lips of the sphinx and how he himself more in his unconscious self rather than conscious had sought the eternal riddle of the wilderness lie had asked questions never in the form of words but only ineffable of his soul and at last it had responded the strange rising and falling song aia its own voice he articulation of the very heart and soul of the wilderness ita the wolf pack lennol told him softly the wolves have just joined together for the tall rutting then this means the end of the summer dan asked in a way but yet we don t count the summer ended until the rains break IlA ivens I 1 wish they would start I 1 ive never seen the hills so arv and I 1 in afraid that either bert brinston rr inston or som of his friends decide its time 0 o make a little mon ey forest cirps din T m sus of that gang I 1 believe they ve got a regular arson ring with unscrupulous stockmen stoc kmen behind them and perli aps just a penny winning deal of their own I 1 suppose ou know about landy how he s promised to turn stites evidence eliat will send aboh a dozen of these vipers to he penitentiary snowbird told me something aboul it in th next installment of the voice of the pack the outlaw band activity develop resulting in the inard r of a former member of abe ganer who turned avii dence TO BC CONTINUED |