University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-27

zan approached the opening to tn,
tepee. He looked in. In the middl,
of the tepee, lying on the charred EN-
bers of fire, lay a ragged blanket
and in the blanket was wrapped thu
body of little Indian child Kazar
could see the tiny moccasined feet
But so long had death been there ht
could scarcely smell the presence o
it. He drew back, and saw Gray Vol
cautiously nosing about a long anC
peculiarly shaped hummock in the
snow She had travelled about 1t three
times. but never approaching nearer
than a man could have reached with
a rifle barrel. AT the end of her third
circle she sat down on her launches,
and kazan went close to the hum
mock and shifted. Under that bulge in
the snow, as well as i'm the tepee,
there was death. They skunk away,
their ears fiattened and their tails
dropping until they trailed the snow,
and did not stop until they reached
their swamp home. Even there Gray
Wolf still shifted the horror of the
plague, and her muscles twitched and
shivered as she lay close at Kazan's
side.
That night the big white moon had
around its edge a crimson rim. It
meant cold-intense cold. Always the
plague came in the days of greatest
cold-the lower the temperature the
more terrible it's havoc. It grew
steadily colder that night, and the in
creased chill penetrated to the heart
of the windfall, and drew Kazan and
Gray Wolf closer together. With dawn,
which came at about eight o'clock,
kazan and his blind mate sailed forth
into the day. 1t was fifty degrees be-
low zero. About them the trees cracked
with reports like pistol-shots. In the
thickest spruce the partridges were
into round balls of feathers.
The snow-shoe rabbits had burrowed
deep under the snow or to the heart
Of the heaviest windfalls. Kazan and
Gray Wolf found few fresh trails, and
after an hour of fruitless hunting
they returned to their liar. Kazan,
1og-like. had buried the half of a rab-
bit two or three days before, and they
lug this out of the snow and ate the
frozen flesh.
All that day it grew colder-steadi-
y colder. The night that followed was
;loudless, with white moon and bril-
liant stars. The temperature had fall
IN another ten degrees, and nothing
vas moving. Traps were never sprung
IN such nights. for even the furred
hings-the mink, and the ermine, and
he lynx-lay snug i'm the holes and
he nests they had found for them
selves. An increasing hunger was
lot strong enough to drive Kazan and |
tray Wolf from their windfall. The |
lext day there was no break in the |
errible cold, and toward noon Ka-
an set out on hunt for meat, leav- |
ing Gray Wolf in the windfall. Being |
hree-quarters dog, food was more |
Necessary to Kazan than to his mate.
Nature has fitted the wolf-breed for
anime, and in ordinary temperature
fray Wolf could have lived for
ortnight without food At sixty de-
rees below zero she could exist d
week. perhaps ten days. Only thirty
ours had passed since they had de-
oured the last of the frozen rabbit,
nd she was quite satisfied to remain
n their snug retrea,.
But Kazan was hungry. He began to
unit in the face of the wind, travel
1g toward the burned plain. He
osed about every windfall that he
anne to, and investigated the thick
is. A thin shot-like snow had fallen,
nd in this-from the windfall to the
urn-he found but a single trail, and
nat was the trail of an ermine In
er a windfall he caught the warm
cent of a rabbit, but the rabbit was as
afe from him there as were the par
'idges in the trees, and after an hour
t futile digging and gnawing he gave
p his effort to reach 1t. For three
ours he had hunted when he returned
, Gray Wolf. He was exhausted.
lille Gray Wolf, with the instinct Of h
lie wild, had saved her own strength
nd energy, Kazan had been burning 1
p his reserve forces, and was hun I
rier than ever. =
The moon rose clear and brilliant in |
lie sky again that night, and Kazan {
t out once more on the hunt. He l
rged Gray Wolf to accompany him, |
Inning for her outside the windfall '
for her twice-but Gray c
'olf laid iler ears aslant and refused Y
move The temperature had now '
1lop IN civ nr Sayopfu do \