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Show mS (A JAMES OLIVER t COPYRIGHT BY POUOlfDAYWCCita-rt WNUSorvIe HIS FIRST BATTLE Synopsis Baree Is born In a vast tnnprle of fallen timber that shuts out the liifht of day. He Is the son of Kazan, the dos, and of Gray Wolf, the blind wolf. He makes the acquaintance of his father and sees sunlight for the first time. He gets the use of his legs. Chapter I Continued 2 tn a way Baree sensed this. He was not ui raid of the owls. He was not i! fraid of the strange blood-curdling cries they made in the black spruce-tops. spruce-tops. But once fear entered Into him, and lie scurried hack to his mother. Jt was when one of the winged hunters hunt-ers of tiie air swooped down on a enowshoe rabbit, and the squealing agony of the doomed creature set his heart thumping like a little hammer. He felt in those cries the nearness of that one ever-present tragedy of the wild death. He felt it again that night when, snuggled close to Gray Wolf, he listened to the fierce outcry of a wolf-pack that was close on the heels of a young caribou bull. And the meaning of it all, and the wild thrill of It all, came home to him early In the gray dawn when Kazan returned, holding between bis jaws a huge rabbit that was still kicking' nnd squirming Willi life. This rabbit was the climax in the first chapter of Baree's education. It was as if Gray Wolf and Kazan bad planned It all out, so that he might receive his first introduction in the nr't of killing. When Kazan had (implied it. Baree approached the big hare cautiously. The back of Wn-poos, Wn-poos, the rabbit, was broken. His round eyes were glazed, and he had ceased lo feel pain. But to Baree, as he dug his tiny teeth into the heavy fur under Wapoos' throat, the hare was very much alive. The teeth did not "go through into the flesh. With puppyish fierceness Baree hung on. He thought that he was killing. He could feel the dying convulsions of Wapoos. He could hear the last gasping gasp-ing breaths leaving the warm body, and he snarled and tugged until finally lie fell back with a mouthful of fur. When he returned to the attack, Wapoos Wa-poos was quite dead, and Baree continued con-tinued to bite nnd snarl until Gray Wolf came with her sharp fangs and tore the rabbit to pieces. After that followed the feast. So Baree came to understand that to eat meant to kill, and as other days nnd nights passed, there grew in him swiftly the hunger for flesh. In this he was the true wolf. From Kazan lie had taken other and stronger inheritances in-heritances of the dog. He was magnificently mag-nificently black, which In later days gave him the name of Ivuskcta Mohe-ktm Mohe-ktm the black wolf. On his breast wns a star. His right ear was tipped with white. His tail, at six weeks, was busily and hung low. It was a wolf's tall. His ears were Gray Wolf's ears sharp, short, pointed, always alert. His fore-shoulders gave promise prom-ise of being splendidly like Kazan's, nnd when he stood up he was like the trace-dog, except that he always stood sldewise to the point or object be was watching. This, again, was the wolf, for u dog faces the direction in which he is looking intently. One brilliant night, when Baree was two months old, and when the sky was filled with stars and a June moon so bright that it seemed scarcely higher than the tall sprnce-tops, Baree settled set-tled back on his haunches and howled. It was a" first effort. But there was no mistake in the note of it. It was the wolf-howl. But a moment later when Baree slunk up to Kazan, as if deeply ashamed of his effort, be was wagging wag-ging his tall in an unmistakably apologetic manner. And this again was the dog. If Tnsoo, the dead Indian In-dian trapper, could have seen him then, he would have Judged him by that wagging of his tail. It revealed the fact that deep in his heart and In his soul, If we can concede that he had one Raree was dog. In another way Tusoo would have found judgment of him. At two months the wolwhelp has forgotten hw to play. He is a slinking part of the wilderness, already at work prey- ; Ing nn creatures smaller and more hell'' "s than himself. Baree still fayed, in his excursions away from "'e windfall he had never gone farther than the creek, a hundred yards from '"here hia mother lay. He had helped tear many dead and dying rabbits nto pieces; he believed, if he thought Ton the matter at all, that he was exceedingly ex-ceedingly fierce and courageous. But was his ninth week before he felt w spurs and fought his terrible battle "th the young owl In the edge of the "'Ick forest. The tact that Oohoomlsew, the big SIoiv-owl, had made her nest In a broken stub not fnr from the windfall destined to change the whole course of Baree's lite, just as the blinding of Gray Wolf had changed hers. The creek ran close past the stub, which had been shriven by lightning; light-ning; and this stub stood In a still, dark place in the forest, surrounded by tall, black spruce and enveloped in gloom even in broad day. Many times Baree had gone to the edge of this mysterious bit of forest and had peered in curiously, and with a growing grow-ing desire. On this day of his great battle its lure was overpowering. Little by little lie entered into it, his eyes shining brightly and his ears alert for the slightest sounds that might come out of It. His heart beat faster. The gloom enveloped him more. He forgot .the windfall and Kazan and Gray Wolf. Here before him lay the thrill of adventure. He . heard stranger sounds, but very soft sounds, as if made by padded feet and downy wings, and they filled him with a thrilling expectancy. Under his feet there were no grass or weeds or flowers, flow-ers, but a wonderful brown carpet of soft evergreen needles. They felt good to his feet, and were so velvety that he could not hear his own movement. move-ment. He was fully three hundred yards from the windfall when he -passed Oohoomisew's stub and into a thick growth of young balsams. And there directly in his path crouched the monster ! Papayuchisew (Young Owl) was not more than a third as large as Baree. But be was a terrifying looking object. ob-ject. To Baree he seemed all head and eyes. He could see no body at all. Kazan had never brought in anything like this, and for a full half minute he remained very quiet, eyeing it speculatively. spec-ulatively. Papayuchisew did not move a feather. But as Baree advanced, a cautious step at a time, the bird's eyes And the Fight Began. grew bigger and the feathers about his head ruffled up as if stirred by a bit 1 of wind. He came of a fighting family, fam-ily, this little I'apayuchisew a savage, sav-age, fearless, and killing family and even Kazan would have taken note of those ruffling feathers. Willi a space of two feet between them, the pup and the owlet eyed each other. In the moment, if Gray Wolf could have seen, she might have said to Baree: "Use your legs and run!" And Oohoomisew. the old owl, might have said to Papayuchisew : "Von little foid use your wings and fly!" They did neither and the fight began. be-gan. Papayuchisew started It, and with a single wild yelp Baree went hack in n heap, the owlet's beak fastened like a red-hot vise In the soft flesh at the end of his nose. That one yelp of surprise sur-prise and pain was Baree's first and last cry In the fight. The wolf surged In him; rage and the desire to kill possessed him. As Papayuchisew hung on. he made a curious hissing sound; and as Baree rolled anil gnashed his teeth and fought to free himself from that amazing grip on his nose, fierce : little snarls ruse out of bis throat. For fully a minute Baree had no use of his jaws. Then, by accident, lie wedged Papayuchisew in a crotch of a low ground shrub, and a bit of ids nose gave way- He might have run then, but Instead of that he was back at the owlet like a (lash. Flop wont Papayuchisew on his back, and Baree buried his needle-like teeth in the bird's breast. It was like trying to bile through a pillow, the feathers were so close and thick. Peeper and deeper B.iree sank his fang, and Just as they were beginning to prick the owlet's skin, Papayuchisew jabbing a little blindly with a beak that snapped sharply every time It closed got him fcy the ear. The pain of that hold was excruciating excruciat-ing to Baree, and lie made a more desperate des-perate effort to get hlg teeth through his enemy's thick armor of feathers. In the struggle they rolled under the low balsams to the edge of the ravine through which ran the creek. Over the steep edge they plunged, nnd as they rolled and bumped to the bottom, bot-tom, Baree loosed his hold, rapayuvlii-sew rapayuvlii-sew hung valiantly on, and when they reached the bottom he still had his grip on Baree's ear. Baree's nose was bleeding; his ear felt as if it were being pulled from his bead; and in this uncomfortable moment mo-ment a newly awakened instinct made Baby Papayuchisew discover his wings as a fighting asset. An owl has never really begun to fight until he uses his wings, and with a joyous hissing, hiss-ing, Papayuchisew began heating his antagonist so fast and so viciously that Baree was dazed. He was compelled com-pelled to close his eyes, and he snapped blindly. For the first time since the battle began he felt a strong inclination inclina-tion to get away. He tried to tear himself free with his forepaws, hut Papayuchisew slow to reason hut of firm conviction hung to Baree's ear like grim fate. At tli is critical point, when the understanding un-derstanding of defeat was forming itself swiftly in Baree's mind, chance saved him. His fangs closed on one of the owlet's tender feet. Papayuchisew Papayuchi-sew gave a sudden squeak. The ear was free at last and with a snarl of rriumph Baree gave a vicious tug at Fapayuehisew's leg. In the excitement of battle he had not heard the rushing tumult of the creek close under them, and over the edge of a rock Papayuchisew and he went together, the chill water of the rain-swollen stream muffling a final snarl and a final hiss of the two little fighters. Chapter II To Papayuchisew, after his first mouthful of water, the stream wns almost al-most as safe as the air, for he went sailing down it with the lightness of a gull, wondering In his slow-thinking big head why he was moving so swiftly swift-ly and so pleasantly without any effort of his own. To Baree It was a different matter. He went down almost like a stone. A mighty roaring filled his ears; it wns dark, suffocating, terrible. In the swift current he was twisted over and over. For twenty feet be wan undet water. Then he rose to the surface and desperately began using his legs It was of little use. He had only time to blink once or twice and catch a lungful" of air when he shot into a current cur-rent that was running like a millrace between the butts of two fallen trees, and for another twenty feet the sharpest sharp-est eyes could not have seen hair or hide of him. He came up again at the edge of a shallow riffle over which the water ran like the rapids at Niagara in miniature, nnd for fifty or sixty yards he was flung like a hairy ball. From this he was hurled into a deep, cold pool ; and then half dead he found himself crawling out on a gravelly bar. For a long time Baree lay there In a pool of sunshine without moving. His ear hurt him; his nose was raw, and burned as if he had thrust it into fire. His legs ..nd body were sore, and as be began to wander along the gravel bar, he wns the most wretched pup in the world. He was also completely com-pletely turned around. In vain he looked about .him for some familiar mark something that might guide him back to his windfall home. Everything Every-thing was strange. He did not know that the water had flung him nut on I the wrong side of the stream, and that I to reach the windfall he would have to cross it again. He whined, hut that was as loud as his voice rose. Gray Wolf could have heard his barking, for the windfall was not more lhan two hundred and fifty yards up the stream. But the wolf In Baree held him silent, except for his low whining. Striking the main shore, Baree he-nan he-nan going downstream. This wns away from the windfall, and each step that lie took carried him farther and farther far-ther from home. At the end of half an hour Baree would even have web' coined Papayuchisew'. And lie would not have fought him he would have Inquired, if possible, the way back home. . Well, Baree, has had his first battle and come out alive. Also, he is lost and homesick. What next? ' (TO BE CONTINUED.) |