Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-04
famine and death for the wild things
CHAPTER XIII.


! The Trail OF Hunger.
Kazan and Gray Wolf had been a
hundred and forty hours without food.
TO Gray Wolf this meant auCte dis
comfort, a growing weakness. To ka-
zan it was starvation Six days and
SIX nights of fasting had drawn In
their ribs and put deep hOllows in
front of their headquarters. Kazan's
eyes were red, and they narrowed into
Sits as he looked forth into the day.
Gray Wolf followed him this time
when he went out on the hard snow.
Eagerly and hopefully they began the
hunt in the bitter cold. They swung
around the edge Of the windfall,
where there had always been rabbits.
There were no tracks now, and no
scent. They continued in horseshoe
circle through the swamp, and the only
scent they caught was that Of a snow
owl perched up in a spruce. They
came to the burn and turned back,
hunting tie opposite side of the swamp
On this side there was a ridge. They
climbed the ridge, and from the cap o.
lit looked out over a world that was
! barren of life. Ceaselessly Gray Wolf
! shifted the air. but she gave no signal
| to Kazan. On the top of the ridge Ka-
Zan stood painting His endurance was
! gone On their return through the
swamp he stumbled over an obstacle
which he had tried to clear with a
jump. Hungrier and weaker, they re-
turned to the windfall The night that
followed was clear, and brilliant with
stars. They hunted the swamp again.
Nothing was moving - save one other
creature, and that was a fox. Instinct
told them that it was futile to follow
him.
1t was then that the old thought of
the cabin returned to Kazan. Two
things the cabin had always meant to
him warmth and food And far be-
yond the ridge was the cabin, where
he and Gray Wolf had howled at the
scent of death. He did not think of
man Or of that mystery which he
cabin, and the cabin had always meant
food, He set off in straight line for
the ridge, and Gray Wolf followed.
They crossed the ridge and the burn
beyond, and entered the edge of sec
ond swamp Kazan was hunting list
lessly now. His head hung low. His
bushy tail dragged in the snow. He
was intent on the cabin only the
cabin. 1t was his last hope. But Gray
Wolf was still alert, taking in the wind
and lifting her head whenever Kazan
stopped to shuttle his chilled nose in
the snow. At last it came - the
scent! Kazan had moved on, but he
stopped when he found that Gray Wolf
was not following. All the strength
that was in his starved body revealed
itself in sudden rigid tenseness as he
looked at his mate. Her forefeet were
planted firmly to the east; her slim
gray head was reaching out for the
scent; her body trembled.
Then - suddenly they heard a
sound, and with whining cry Kazan
set out in it's direction, with Gray Wolf
at his flank. The scent grew stronger
and stronger in Gray VOLTS nostrils
and soon it came to KaZan. 1t was not
the scent of rabbit or a partridge. It
was big game They approached eau
tiously, keeping full in the wind. The
dense, and now from hundred
Yards ahead of them - there came a
crashing of locked and battling horns.
Ten seconds more they climbed over a
snow drift, and Kazan stopped and
dropped fiat on his belly Gray Wolf
crorched close at his side, her blind
eyes turned to what she could smell
but could not see.
Fifty yards from them a number of
had gathered for shelter In the
thick spruce. They had eaten clear
a space an acre in extent The trees
were cropped bare as high as they
coulG reach, and the snow was beaten |