El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-06-28
THE BLACK OUTLAWS
BY F. st. Mars.

vt WAS terrible weather and the two
great blacldeathered, blackhearted
l. ravens who lived on the moor were
hard put to it to keep even their ras-
cally bodies alive, even though, it is
said, ravens will live where oIner crea-
lures starve. This is true, for their
code of honor is slack, and they live
on the starved ones.
The snow had come late, and, as all
late SHOWS are, was the worse for It
SO late had it come, in fact, that we
find one of our ravens standing on
ledge of rock above a cliff, looking
down upon his mate on their great nest
of sticks lined with dry grass and
sleeps wool, which they had built
and almost deserted because the snow
half covered his mate as she sat on
the three eggs.
Far as his keen, twinkling mis-
schievous eyes could see over the
dreary moor, up TO the great noun
tains on one side, and down the val
leys and lowlands where the towns
were on the other, was nothing but
desolation of shimmering white, un-
broken by a single living, moving OBJ
Ject. Stay, though, there was something
about a mile away across the moor
The cock birds quick eye spotted it
instantly, and rising hastily, he flew
slowly toward it, heavily on his great
black piniOns for they were both very
hungry and could not afford to lose
chance at anything. Moreover, unless
ne cOulQ ina his mate IOOQs over ana
above feeding himself, she would eth
er freeze where she sat, or have to de-
Sert the aggS and leave them to freeze.
The object that moved was a game
keeper, and he had a gun of course As
he waded along and the raven ap-
preached him, but before he noticed
the bird, there rose from behind a
clump of Stunted, half buried heather
three cock grouse. They had been
sheltering out of the terrible north
wind and did not hear the keeper com
ing.
There was a flash and a loud report
followed by another One of the grouse
turned Clearly head over heels, and fell
headlong, and one Of the other two left
three feathers behind them, though he
kept on after his unWounded compan-
ion for about 500 yards. Then sudden
" he began climbing straight up into
the sky, till just when he was no more
than a Speck his wings collapsed, and
down he came, whirling round and
round as he fell. He had been hit in
the lungs-birds always act like that
when they are hit in the lungs.
The keeper at once hurried towards
the place where he fell, after picking
up the first grouse; but he had not
taken four strides when he uttered a
shout Down over the edge of the roll
ing white moor swept the old cock ray
en- He had seen the second grouse
fall, and was racing the keeper for the
body.
he hGGptL LdLs anu SWOIG anu
shouted as he saw the body settle, and
began hopping and dancing in the
snow, but the snow was deep and the
pace slow, and when he got within 100
yards of him, the rascally raven rose
and slowly tapped off out of shot to
a boulder. where he sat and called
CLOCK, CLOCK in harsh derisive croak-
ings. As for the grouse. there was
when the keeper finally found it.
scarcely more than half of it left The
raven had gObbled down the rest.
Then the keeper set a trap with the
remains of the grouse for bait, and
went away, the raven sitting on his
boulder and watching him the whole
time. But he would have none OF the
trap He knew very well that when
he had fed on it, the grouse had not
had an iron thing with jaws and a
chain attached to il like that, and
though he inspected it from every point