Evening star., 1914-04-19

the RED WOLF would outWit her- She
must go on. The bark. or yelp, had
been a signal, but now there came to
her ears the long howl. She had heard
it often in the great forests at home.
1t was the call of the pack that there
was to be a kill. She might shoot half
a dozen of them and the living rend the
on and overtake her.
She swung on upward catching a
saplirsg here, a limb there, pulling her
self over hard bits of going. Once she
turned and fired a chance shot in the
direction of the bowling. Far away
came the roar of one of the mountain
lions; and the pack of red wolves be-
came suddenly and magically silent.
Kathlyn made good use of this inter
val But presently the pack raised it's
howl again. and she knew that the
grim struggle was about to begin.
k
She reached the door of the rest house
just as the pack. a large one, came into
view. heads down. tails streaming.
Pundita, who was at the fire preparing
the noon meal seized kathlyn by the
arm and hurried her into the house,
barricading the door. The wolves. ar
irving. flung themselves against 1t
savagely. But the door was stout, and
could have made it yield.
Unfortunately, there was no knowing
when the man folk would return from
their chase of the horses. nor how
long the wolves would lay siege. The
two women tried shooting, though
Pundita was the yeriest tyro, being
hands than at the bowling animals out
side. They did little or no damage to
the wolves. for the available cracks
were not at sufficiently good angles.
An hour went by. kathlyn could hear
the wolves as they crowded against the
door. smiling the sill.
The colonel Bruce, Ramabai and All
med had found the horses half a dozen
miles away. and they had thrashed the
thieving natives soundly and instilled
the right kind of fear in their breasts.
natives back to the rest house. The
crack of their rifles soon announced to
Kathlyn that the dread of wolves was
a thing of the past. She wisely re-
Trained from recounting her expert
ences. The men had worry enough.
Il
After hasty meal the journey to-
ward the seaport began in earnest.
Umballah's attack had thrown them
far out of the regular track. They
were now compelled to make a wide
detour. Where the journey might have
been made in three days, they would
be lucky now if they reached the sea
under five. The men took turns in
standing watch whenever they made
camp. and Kathlyn nor Pundita had
time for idleness. They had learned their
lessons; no more carelessness, nothing but
the sharpest vigilance from now on.
One day, as the pony caravan made
a turn round a ragged promontory, they
suddenly paused. Perhaps twenty
miles to the west lay the emerald
tinted Persian gulf. The colonel slip
ped off his horse. dragged Kathlyn
from hers and began to execute a
hornpipe. He was like boy.
"The sea, Kit, the sea! Home and
Winnie; out of this DEVILS caldron.
You will come along with US. Bruce?'
"I haven't anything else to do" Bruce
smiled back.
herself suddenly filled with strange
embarrassment In times of danger
sham and subterfuge have no place.
Heretofore she had met Bruce as a man.
to whom a glance from her eyes had
told her secret. Now that the door to
civilization lay but a few miles away.
the old conventions dropped their OBJ
scuring mantles over her, and she
felt ashamed. And there was not a
little doubt Perhaps she had mis-
taken the look in his eyes. back there
in the desert back in the first day
when they had fed together from the
ordeals And yet!
On his part, Bruce did not particu-
larly welcome the sea- There might be
another man somewhere. No woman
So beautiful as Kathlyn could possibly
be without suitors. And when the
journey down to the sea was resumed
he became taciturn and moody, and
Kathlyn's heart correspondingly
heavy.
The colonel was quite oblivious to
this change. He swung his legs free
of the primitive stirrups and whistled
the airs which had been popular in
|, America at the time of his departure
There was no lightness in the ex-
pressions of Ramabai and Pundita
They were about to lose these white
people forever. and they had grown
to love, nay, worship them. More, they