University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-31

! were unaVdlllnS, anu IN Spltc VI Hcl
protest he wandered each day little
farther east and south at the head o.
his pack.
Instinct impelled the four huskie.
to move in that direction. They hat
not yet been long enough part of the
wild to forget the necessity of man
and in that direction there was man
In that direction, and not far from
them now, was the Hudson Bay Com
pany's post to which they and theiI
dead master owed their allegiance
! Kazan did not know this, but one day
something happened to bring back
visions and desires that widened still
more the gulf between him and Gray
Wolf.
They had come to the cap of ridge
when something stopped them. 1t was
mans voice crying shrilly that word
of long ago that had so often stirred
the blood in KaZan's own veins
"m'hoosh, m'hoosh! m'hoosh.'-and
from the ridge they looked down upon
the open space of the plain, where a
team of six dogs was trotting ahead
of a sledge, with a man running behind
them, urging them on at every other
step with that cry of "m'hoosh!
m'hoosh, m'hoosh,"
Trembling and undecided, the four
huskies and the wOlf-dog stood on the
ridge with Gray Wolf cringing behind
them. Not until man and dogs and
sledge had disappeared did they move,
and then they trotted down to the
trail and shifted at it whiningly and
excitedly. For mile or two they fol-
lowed it, Kazan and his mates going
fearlessly in the trail Gray Wolf
hung back, travelling twenty yards to
the right of them. with the hot man
scent driving the blood feverishly
through her brain. Only her love for
Kazan-and the faith she still had in
him-kept her that near.
At the edge of a swamp Kazan halt
ed and turned away from the trail.
With the desire that was growing in
him there was still that old suspicion
which nothing could quite wipe out
the suspicion that was an inheritance
of his quarter-strain of wolf Gray
Wolf whined joyfully when he turned
into the forest, and drew so close to
him that her shoulder rubbed against
Kazan's as they Travelled side by side
The "slush" SHOWS followed fast af-
ter this. And the "slush" SHOWS
meant spring-and the emptying of
the wilderness of human life Kazan
and his mate soon began to scent the
presence and the movement of this
life. They were now within thirty
miles of the post. For a hundred
miles on all sides of them the trappers
were moving in with their late win
ter's catch of furs. From east and
west, south and north, all trails led
to the post. For a week not a day
passed that they did not cross a fresh
trail, and sometimes two or three.
Gray Wolf was haunted by constant
fear. In her blindness she knew that
they were surrounded by the menace
of men. To KaZan what was coming
to pass had more and more ceased to
fill him with fear and caution. Three
times that week he heard the shouts
of mer-and once he heard a white
mans laughter and the barking of
dogs as their master tossed them their
daily feed of fish. In the air he caught
the pungent scent of camp-fires and
one night, in the far distance, he heard
a wild snatch of song, followed by the
yelping and barking of dog-pack.
Slowly and surely the lure of man
drew him nearer to the post-a mile
two miles tomorrow, but
always nearer. And Gray Wolf, fight
ing her losing fight to the end, sensed
in the danger-filled air the nearness
of that hour when he would respond
to the final call and she would be left
alone
These were days of activity and ex-
citement at the fur company's post,
the days Of accounting, of profit and
Of pleasure; the days when the will
derness poured in its treasure of fur,
to be sent little later to London and
Paris and the capitals of Europe. And
this year there was more than the |
usual interest in the foregathering of |
the forest people. The plague had |
wrought its terrible havoc, and not |
until the fur-hunters had come to ans
wer to the spring roll-call would it be |
known accurately who had lived and |
who had died
The Chippewans and half-breeds |
from the south began to arrive first. |
with their teams of mongrel ours, /
picked up along the borders of civili- /