Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-09

near the bull. Gradually the pack hat
swung eastward, until itw as now fit.
miles east and twenty miles south o
the old home under the windfall. More
than ever Gray Wolf began to long fol
their old nest under the fallen trees
lAgain with those first promises Of
spring in sunshine and air, there was
coming also for the second time in hel
life the promise of approaching moth
erhood
But her efforts to draw Kazan back
were unavailing, and in spite of hel
protest he wandered each day little
farther east and south at the head Of
his pack.
Instinct impelled the four huskies
to move in that direction. They had
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 Company's
post to which they and their dead mas
ter owed their allegiance. Kazan did
not know this, but one day something
happened to bring back visions and de,
sires 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
a 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
sledge, with a man running behind
them, urging them on at every other
step with that cry of IN 'hoosh!
m'hoosh! mhoosh!"
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 1t whiningly and excited
ly. For mile or two they followed 1t.
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 teverishly 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 -
suspicion that was as 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 will
derness Of human life. Kazan and his
mates soon began to scent the pres
ence and the movement Of this life.
They were now within thirty miles of
the post For hundred miles on all
sides of them the trappers were NOV
ing in with their late winters catch of
furs. From east and west, south and
north all trails led to the post. The
pack was caught In the mesh Of them.
For week not day passed that they
did not Cross fresh trail, and some
times 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 men = and once he heard 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 campfires 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 - mile
tonight, two miles tomorrow, but al
ways nearer And Gray Wolf, fighting
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
element at the fur company's post, the
days of accounting, of profit and of
pleasure - the days when the wilder
ness poured in it's 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 I'M
til the fur hunters had come to answer
to the spring roll call would it be