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Show smells and sounds, but be felt that they were leaving an Imprint on the very fiber of hU soul. He knew o:ie tiling. He kiiew he could never forget for-get this first Introduction to the mountain moun-tain 1 1 1 1 1 r . The whole scene movul Li:n in strange, d.'ep ways In which he tin -J never been stirred before; It left him exultant ami, In deep wells of his nature far below the usual cur-renis cur-renis of excitement, a little excited too. Then both of them were startled out of their ndleotioris by the clear, unmistakable s.'inid of footsteps on the ridge. I . t ! i of them turned, and Lennox laughed softly in the dark-iic. dark-iic. "My da tighter," lie said. "I knew she wouldn't be afraid to conns" Dan could see only Snowbird's ntft-line ntft-line at lirst, just her shadow against i the moonlit hillside. His gla-ses yore 1 none too good at long range. And possibly, when she came within range, the first tiling that lie noticed about her w:i her stride. The girls he knew didn't walk in quite that free, strong way. She took almost a man-size man-size step; and jet it was curious that she diil not seem ungraceful. Dan had a distinct Impression that she was Heating down to him on the moonlight. She seemed to come with such unutterable unut-terable smoothness. And then he hoard her call lightly through the darkness. The sound pave him a distinct sense of surprise. Some-way, lie hadn't associated as-sociated a voice like this with a mountain moun-tain gild ; lie had supposed that there would lie so many harshening influences influ-ences in this wild place. Yet the tone was as clear and full as a trained singer's. It was not a high voice; and yet it seemed simply brimming, as n cup brims with wine, with the rapture rap-ture of life. It was a self-confident voice too, wholly unaffected and sincere, sin-cere, and wholly without embarrassment. embarrass-ment. Then she came close, and Dan saw the moonlight on her face. And so It came about, whether In dreams or wakefulness, he 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 shimmer to her moonlit hair. It brought curves to her body, and strength and firmness to her limbs, and the grace of a deer to her car- I Dan's appetite was not as a rule particularly par-ticularly good. But evidently the long ride had affected him. He simply didn't have the moral courage to refuse re-fuse wh n the elder Lennox heaped his philo. "Good heavens, I can't cat all that," he said, as It was passed to hiin. I Hit the others laughed and told him to take heart. He took heart. It was a singular thing, but at that first bite his sudden confidence in his gustatory ability almost al-most overwhelmed him. So he cut himself a bile of the tender steak fully half 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've certainly tasted it before." "I'll bet a few dollars that you haven't, if you've lived all your life In the Middle West," Lennox answered. an-swered. "Maybe you've got what the scientists call an Inherited memory of It. It's the kind of meat your grandfather grand-father used to live on venison." Soon after dinner Lennox led him out of the house for his first glimpse of the hills in the darkness. They walked together out to the gate, across the first of the wide pastures pas-tures wdiere, at certain seasons, Lennox Len-nox kept' his cattle; and at last they came out upon the tree-covered ridge. The moon was just rising. They could see it caslin" a curious srlint over the O Q SYNOPSIS. U'uriit-fl by Jits physician that tie has not more llmti six months to IIvm, hutting sits deHpundeiitly on a i' Li k bench, wondering where he should h;m nd those aix months. A friendly nquliTel practically decides liid maitt-r fur him. Ills blouil la piiuiei-r blood, and he decides to end hit days In the forests of Oregon. Ore-gon. Mciiinni'S of his grandfather and a d:ep love for all things of the wild belli hhn In reaching a decision. In a largo southern Oregon city ho meets people who had known and loved Ids grandfather, grand-father, a famous f ron tlersinan. lie makes bis home with Wlias Lennox, u typical westerner. The only oilier oili-er members of the household art; hoimux'i son, "Hill," and daughter, daugh-ter, "s'nowbird." Their abode is many miles from "civilization," in the Umpipia divide, and there KkdMns plans to live out the short span of life which he has been told is his. His extreme weakness In tha face of even a slight exertion exer-tion convinces 1dm that tho doctor had made u correct diagnosis of his case. From the first Failing's health shows a marked Improvement, Improve-ment, and in the companionship of Lennox and Ids son and daughter he fiiB Into the woods II f o as If he had been born to it. By quick thinking and a remarkable display ot "nerve" ho saves Lennox's life and his own when they are attacked at-tacked by a mad coyote. Lennox doclares he Is a reincarnation of his grandfather, Dan Falling I, whose fame as a woodsman Is a household word. ft very tips of the pines. But It couldn't get down between them. They stood too close, too tall and thick for that. And for a moment, Dan's only sensation sensa-tion 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 riage. Whether she had regular features fea-tures or not Dan would have been unable un-able to state. He didn't even notice. They weren't Important when health was present. Tet there was nothing of the coarse or bold or voluptuous about her. She was just a slender girl, perhaps twenty years of age, and weighing even less than the figure" occasionally oc-casionally to be read in the health magazines for girls of her height. And she wiis fresh and cool bej'ond 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 beyond a few girlish speculations she felt no Interest in him. After a single moment of rather strained, polite po-lite conversation with Dan just enough to satisfy her idea of the conventions con-ventions she began a thrilling girlhood girl-hood tale to her father. And she was-still was-still telling it when they reached the house. Dan held a chair for her in front of the fireplace, and she took it with entire en-tire naturalness. He was careful to put it where the firelight was at its height. He wanted to see its effect on the flushed cheeks, 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 ir-repressible girlishness that all of time had not years enough to kill. Bill stood watching her, his hands deep in his pockets, evidently a companion com-panion -of the best. Her father gazed at her with amused tolerance. And Dan be didn't know in just what way he did look at her. And he didn't have time to decide. In less than fifteen minutes, and wholly without warning, she sprang up from her chair and started toward the door. "Good Lord !" Dan breathed. "If you make such sudden motions as that I'll have heart failvre. Where are you going now?" "Back to my watch," she answered, her tone wholly lacking the personal note which men have learned to expect ex-pect in the voices of women. And an instant later the three of thetn saw her retreating shadow as she vanished among the pines. Dan had to be helped to bed. The long ride had been too bard on his shattered lungs; and nerves and body collapsed an instant after the door was closed behind the departing girl. He laughed weakly and begged their pardon; and the two men were really very gentle. They told him it was their own fault for permitting him to overdo. Lennox himself blew out the candle in the big, cold bedroom. The next installment of "The Voice of the Pack" imparts im-parts to Dan Failing the existence exist-ence of an organized band of outlaws. . t tTU Bti CONTINUED.) vi CHAPTER discontinued. "Of course but sit down now, anyway. any-way. I'm sorry that Snowbird Isn't here." "Snowbird Is" "My daughter. My boy, she can make a biscuit! That's not her name, of course, but we've always called her thnt. She got tired of keeping house find Is working this summer. Poor Bill lias to keep house for her, and no wonder lie's eager to take the stock down to the lower levels. I only wish he hadn't brought 'em up this spring at all ; I've lost dozens from the coyotes." "But a coyote can't kill cattle" "ft can if It has hydrophobia, a common com-mon thing In the varmints this time of year. But as I say, Bill will take the stock down next season, and then Snowbird's work will he through, and she'll come back here:" . "Then she's down In the valley?" "Far from it. She's a mountain girl If one ever lived. Perhaps ou don't know the recent policy of the forest service to litre women when they can be obtained. It was a policy started in war times and kept up now because it is economical and ellicient. She and a girl from college have a cabin not five miles from here on old Pald mountain, and they're doing lookout look-out duly." Dan wondered intensely what lookout look-out duty might be. "You see, Dan," Lennox said In explanation, "the government gov-ernment loses thousands of dollars every year by forest fire. A fire can be slopped easily If it is seen soon after it starts. But let it burn awhile, In this dry season, and It's a terror a wall of flume that races through the forests and can hardly be stopped. And maybe you don't realize how enormous this region is literally hundreds hun-dreds of miles across. We're the last outpost there aie four cabins, if you can find them, in the first seventy miles t uck to town. So they have to put lookouts on the high points, and now they're coming to the use of airplanes air-planes so they can keep even a better watch. Snowbird and a girl friend from college got jftbs this summer as lookouts all through the forest service serv-ice they are hiring women for the work. They are more vigilant than men. less inclined to take chances, and work cheaper. These two girls have a cabin near n spring, and they cook their own food, and are making what is big wages in the mountains. I'm rather hoping she'll drop over for fi few minutes tonight," "Good Lord does she travel over these hills in the darkness?" The mountaineer laughed a delighted de-lighted sound that came somewhat curiously from the bearded lips of the stern, dark man. "Dan, I'll swear she's afrnhl of nothing that walks the face of the earth and it isn't because she hasn't had experience either. She's a dead shot with a pistol, for one thing. She's physically strong, and every muscle is hard as nails. She used to have Shag, too the best dog in all these mountains. She's a mountain girl, I teli you; whoever wins her has pot to beahle to tame her!" The mountaineer laughed again. The cll to supper came then, and Pan goi "is first sight of mountain food. There were potatoes, newly dug. mountain vegetables that were crisp and cold, a steak of peculiar Btiape, and 9 great bowl of purple berries ber-ries to be eaten with sugar and cream. Standing in the Shadows, He Simply Watched Her. was deepening around them. It wasn't really .true. It was simply that he had become aware of the little continuous con-tinuous sounds of which usually be was unconscious, and they tended to accentuate the hush of the night. He knew,'' just as all mountaineers know, . that the wilderness about him was stirring and pulsing with life. Some of 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. He didn't kno-ar It, at the time, but Lennox turned Sjjickl.r toward hhn. It wasn't that be question had surprised the mountaineer. Rather it was the tone in which Dan had spoken. It was perfectly cool, perfectly self-contained. "The one right close is a chipmunk. I don't know what the others are; no one ever does know. Perhaps ground squirrels, or rabbits, or birds, and maybe one of those harmless old black bears who is curious about the bouse. And tell me can you smell anything" any-thing" "Good I.o''d. Lennox! I can smell all kinds of things." "I'm glad. Some men can't. Xo one can enjoy the woods if he can't smell. Part of the smells are of flowers, and part of balsam, and God only knows what Ike others are. They are just (he wildenie-s " Dan could not only perceive the |