Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-14

Thoreau-
He thrust hand inside his coat and
ciulcheo at the papers that Jean de
Gravois had read Then he drew them
iorth, slowly. and held them crumpled in
ms myers. while for many minutes he
stared straight out into the. gray gloom
OF the treeless plain.
His eyes shifted Searchingly they
travelled up the face of the crags behind
h1m They hunted where the starlight
maze deep pits of gloom in the twisting
edge Of the mountains. They vert from
rock to rock and from tree to tree until
at last they rested upon a giant spruce
which hung out over the precpitous wall
of the ridge, its thick top reckoning and
signing to the black rocks that shot up
out OF the snow five hundred feet below.
1t was strange tree. weird and black,
free of stub or bough for hundred feet.
and from far out on the barrens those
who travelled their solitary ways east and
shaped by men. Mukee had told Jan its
story. In the first autumn of the wom-
ans life at Lac Balm, he and Perez had
climbed the old spruce. looping off its
branches until only the black cap re-
NAMED: and after that it was known far
and wide as the 'lobstick" of Cummins'
wife 1t was a voiceless cenotaph. which
signified that all the honor and love
known to the wilderness people had been
given to her.
To 1t went Jan, the papers still held in
his hand. He had seen a pair of whisky
jacks storing food in the butt of the
tree, two or three summers before, and
now his fingers CROPPED for the hole
When he found il, he thrust in the pa
Ders, crowded them down and filled the
hole with chunks of bark
Always my sister-and never anything
more to Jan Thoreau.'' he said. gently in
French, as if he were speaking to a spirit
in the old tree. THAT is the honor of
these SHOWS; it is what the great God
means us to be" The strife had gone
from his voice: it rose strong and clear
as he stretched his arms high up along
the shorn side of the spruce. his eyes
upon the silent plume that heard his
OATH Il swear that Jan Thoreau will
never do wrong to the little Melisse!"
With a face white and set in its deter
mination, he turned slowly away from
the tree. Far away from the lonely
depths of the swamp there came the wall
ing howl of a VOLTA cry of hungerful
infinite sadness. 1t was like the bowling
of dog at the door of cabin in which
his master lay dead. and the sound of ii
swept a flood of loneliness into JAMS
heart. 1t was the death wall of his own
last hope. which hail gone out OF him
forever that night.
He listened and it came again; but in
the middle of 1t, when the long. moaning
grief Of the voice was rising to its full
despair, there broke in a sharp Interrupt
dog makes when it is suddenly struck.
In another moment the forest thrilled
with the deep-throated pack call of the
wolf who has started a fresh kill. Hard
ly had its echoes died away when. from
deeper in the swamp. there came an
other cry. and still another from the
mountain; and up and out Of the desola-
ton rose the calls Of others of the scat
tered pack, in quick response to the COM
rade who had first found meat.
All the cries were alike, filled with that
first wailing grief. except that of the
swelling throat which was sending forth
other of the mournful bowls changed into
the fierce hunt cry: then second,
third and a fourth. and the sound of the
chase swept swiftly from the swamp to
the mountain, up the mountain and down
into the barrens
"A caribou cried Jan. softly "A carl
bou and he is going into the barrens.
There is no water and he is LOST
He ran and leaned over beside the old
tree. SO that the great plain stretched
out below him. Into the west turned the
pack. the hurt cry growing fainter until
it almost died away. Then. slowly. it
grew again in volume, swinging into the
north, then to the east-approaching
nearer and nearer until Jan saw a dark.
swiftly moving blot in the white gloom.
The caribou passed by within half
rifle shot of him: another half rifle shot
behind followed the wolves flung out fan
ters in a half-moon Gordon and their
leaders almost abreast the caribou dozen
rods to each side.
There was no sound now. Below him
Jan could see the pale glmmer of ice and
snow where in summer there was a small
lake. Desperately the caribou made an
effort to reach this lake. The wolves
drew in The moon shape of their bodies
shrunk until it was nearer a circle. From
the plain side the leading wolf closed I'M
til he was running at the caribou's fore
legs The mountain wolf responded on
the opposite side. Then came the end.
quick, decisive and without sound.
After a few moments there came family
the swapping of jaws and the crunching
of bones. Torn ard bleeding. and yet
quivering with life the caribou was given
up to the feast.
Jan turned away from the scene. Torn
and bleeding at his own heart, he went
back to Lac Balm.
(To be continued tomorrow