Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-25
CHAPTER XIV.


Alone in Darkness. !.
Never had the terror and loneliness
of blindness fallen upon Gray Wolf as
ing of Kazan and his capture by Sandy
McTrigger. For hours after the shot
she crouched in the bush back Tom
the river, waiting for him to come to
her. She had faith that he would
come, as he had come thousand
times before, and she lay close on her
belly, shifting the air, and whining
when it brought no scent of her. mate.
Day and night were alike an endless
chaos Of darkness to her now, but she
knew when the sun went down. She
sensed the first deepening shadows of
evening, and she knew that the stars
were out, and that the river lay in
moonlight. 1t was night to roam, and
after time she moved restlessly about
in small circle on the plain, and
sent out her first inquiring call for Ka-
ian. Up from the river came the pun
gent odor of smoke, and instinctively
she knew that it was this smoke, and
the nearness Of man. that was keep.
ing KaZan from her. But she went no
nearer than that first circle made by
her padded feet. Blindness had taught
her to wait. Since the days of the bat
tie on the Sun Rock, when the lynx
had destroyed her eyes, KaZan had
never failed her.. Three times she
called for him in the early night. Then
she made herself nest under ban
skian shrub, and waited until dawn.
Just how she knew when night blot
ted out the last glow of the sun, so
without seeing she knew when day
came Not until she felt the warmth
of the sun On her back did her anxiety
overcome her caution. Slowly she
moved toward the river, shifting the
air and whining. There was no longer
the smell of smoke in the air, and she
could not catch the scent of man. She
followed her own trail back to the sand
bar and in the fringe of thick bush
over hanging the white shore of the
stream she stopped and listened. After
a little she scrambled down and went
straight to the spot where she and Ka-
IAN were drinking when the shot came.
And there her nose struck the sand
still wet and thick with KaZan's blood.
She knew it was the blood of her
mate, for the scent of him was all
about her in the sand, mingled with
the man smell Of Sandy McTrigger
She shifted the trail of his body to the
edge of the stream, where Sandy had
dragged him to the canoe. She found
the fallen tree to which he had been
tied. And then she came upon one
Of the two clubs that Sandy had used
to beat wounded Kazan into submits
siveness. 1t was covered with blood
and hair, and all at once Gray Wolf
lay back on her launches and turned
her blind face to the sky, and there
rose from her throat cry for Kazan
that drifted for miles on the wings Of
the south wind. Never had Gray Wolf
given quite that cry before. 1t was not
tho "calP' that comes with the moonlit
nights, and neither was it the hunt cry
nor the she VOLTS yearning for mate
hood. 1t carried with it the lament of
death. And after that one cry Gray
Wolf skunk back to the fringe of the
bush over the river, and lay with her
face turned to the stream.
A strange terror fell upon her She
had grown accustomed to darkness.
but never before had she been alone
in that darkness. Always there had
been the guardianship of K"zans pres
pnce. She heard the clucking sound
# a spruce hen in the bush a few
Yards away and now that sound came
10 her as if from out of another world.
A ground mouse rustled through the