Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-02
I CHAPTER XII (Continued. }
PETEY DlNK

He rose, opened the door softly, ana
went out Instinctively his eyes turn
ed westward. The sky was blaze
Of stars In their light he could see
the cage, and he stood, watching and
listening. A sound came to him. 1t
was Gray Wolf gnawing at the saplings
bars of her prison. A moment later
there came low sobbing whine, and
he knew that it was Kazan crying for
his freedom.
Leaning against the side of the cab
IN was an ak. Weyman seized 1t, and
his lips smiled silently. He was thrill
ed BY a strange happiness and thous-
and miles away in that city on the
Saskatchewan he could feel another
spirit rejoicing with him. He moved
toward the cage A dozen blows, and
two OF the sapling bars were knocked
out. Then Weyman drew back. Gray
Wolf found the opening first, and she
slipned out into the starlight like d
shadow. But she did not flee. Out In
the open space she waited for Kazai
and for moment the two stood there,
looking at the cabin. Then they set on
into freedom. GRAY VOLTS shoulder at
Kazan's flank.
Weyman DTedJucu ucCPAy.
1.-TWO by two - always two by TWO
until death finds one OF them' ne
whispered.
CHAPTER XII.
The Red Death
Kazan and Gray Wolf wandered
northward into the Fond du Lac coun-
try and were there when Jacques,
Hudson Bay Company's runner, came
M TO the post from the south with the
first authentic news of the dread
plague - the smallpox For weeks
there had been rumors on all Sides
And rumor grew into rumor. From
the east the south and the west they
multiplied, until on all sides the Paul
Reveres of the wilderness were carry
ing word that La Mort Rouge = the
Red Death So was at their heels. ana
the chill of great fear swept IKE d
shivering wind from the edge OF civil
ization to the bay. Nineteen years oe-
fore these same rumors had come up
from the south, and the Red Terror
had followed. The horror of 1t still re-
manned with the forest people, for a
thousand unmarked graves, Stunned
like a pestilence, and scattered from
the lower waters of James Bay to the
lake country of the Athabasca, gave
evidence of the toll it demanded.
Now and then in their wanderings
Kazan and Gray Wolf had come upon
the little mounds that covered the
dead. Instinct something that was
infinitely beyond the comprehension OF
man - made them feel the presence of
death about them, perhaps smell 1t in
the air. Gray VOLTS wild blood and
her blindness gave her an immense ad-
vantage over Kazan when it came to
detecting those mysteries of the air
and the earth which the eyes were not
made to see. Each day that had fol-
lowed that terrible moonlit night on
the Sun Rock. when the lynx had
blinded her, had added to the infallibil-
ity of her two chief senses - hearing
and scent And it was she who discov-
cred the presence of the plague first,
lust as she had scented the great for
est fire hours before Kazan had found
It in the air.
Kazan had lured her back to trap
line. The trail they found was old It
had not been travelled for many days.
In trap they found a rabbit, but it
had been dead long time. In another
there was the carcass of fox. torn
into bits by the owls. Most of the
trans were sprung. Others We're COW
cred with snow. Kazan, with his three
quarters strain of dog, ran over the
trail from trap to trap, intent only on
romething alive meat to devour
GRAY Wolf, in her blindness. scented
death It shivered in the tree tops
above her She found it in every trap
house they came to death man
death. 1t grew stronger and stronger,
and she whined, and nippel Kazan's