University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-29
CHAPTER XIV
The Right of Fang


After the fight Kazan lay down ex
hausted In the blood-stained snow
while faithful Gray Wolf, still file,
with the endurance of her wild vol
breed. tore fiercely at the thick ski
on the bulls neck to lay open the rel
flesh. When she had done this sh,
did not eat, but ran to Kazan's sid,
and whined softly as she muZzled hin
with her nose After that they feasted
crouching side by side at the bull:
neck and tearing at the warm sweet
| flesh.
The last pale light of the northern
day was fading swiftly into night when
they drew back.gOrged untilthere were
no longer hollOws in their Sides The
faint wind died away. The clouds that
had hung in the sky during the day
drifted eastward, and the moon shone
brilliant and clear. For an hour the
night continued to grow lighter. To
the brilliance of the moon and the
stars there was added now the pale
fires of the aurora borealis, shivering
and flashing over the Pole.
Its kissing cracking monotone, like
the creaking of steel sledge-runners
on frost-filled snow, came family to
the ears of Kazan and Gray Wolf.
AS yet they had not gone hundred
yards from the dead bull, and at the
first sound of that strange mystery
in the northern skies they stopped and
listened to it, alert and suspicious.
Then they laid their ears aslant and
trotted slowly back to the meat they
had killed. Instinct told them that it
was theirs only by right of fang. They
had fought to kill it. And it was in
the law of the wild that they would
have to fight to keep it. In good
hunting days they would have gone
on and wandered under the moon and
the stars. But long days and nights
of starvation had taught them some
thing different now.
On that clear and stormless night
following the days of plague and fam
inc, a hundred thousand hungry crea-
lures came out from their retreats to
hunt for food. For eighteen hundred
miles east and west and a thousand
miles north and south, slim gaunt-bel-
lied creatures hunted under the moon
and the stars. Something told Ka-
zan and Gray Wolf that this hunt was
on, and never for an instant did they
cease their vigilance. At last they lay
down at the edge of the spruce thick
ct, and waited Gray Wolf muZZled
Kazan gently with her blind face. The
uneasy whine in her throat was a
warning to him. Then she shifted the
air, and listened-sniffed and listened.
Suddenly every muscle in their bod
les grew rigid. Something living had
passed near them, something that they |
could not see or hear, and scarcely |
scent It came again, as mysterious |
rs a shadow, and then out of the air |
here floated down as silently as
huge snowflake a great white owl. |
Kazan saw the hungry winged crea-
.ure settle on the bulls shoulder. Like |
, flash he was, out from his cover
Gray Wolf a yard behind him. With
IN angry snarl he lunged at the white
.obber, and his jaws snapped on empty
.ir. His leap carried him clean over
he bull. He turned, but the owl was
zone.
Nearly all of his old strength had
to him now. He trotted about
he bull, the hair along his spine
,ristling like a brush, his eyes wide
md menacing. He snarled at the still
.ir. His jaws clicked. and he sat back
IN his launches and faced the blood
tanned trail that the moose had left
,efore he died. Again that instinct
8 infallible as reason told MIN tnat
anger would come from there.
Like a red ribbon the trail ran back
through the wilderness. The little
wift-moving ermine were everywhere
his night, looking like white rats as
hey lodged about in the moonlight.
hey were first to find the trail. and
nth all the ferocity of their blood
ating nature followed it with quick
xciting leaps. A fox caught the
cent of it quarter of mile to wind
ard. and came nearer. From out of
deep windfall a beady-eyed. thin
ellied fisher-cat came forth. and
topped with his feet in the crimson
ibbon.
It was the fisher-cat that brought
.azan out from under his cover of
pruce again. In the moonlight there
as a sharp quick fight, a snarling
nd scratching, cat-like yowl of pain,
nd the fisher forgot his hunger in
Ight. Kazan returned to Gray Wolf