University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-26

devour. Gray Wolf, in her blindness,
scented death. 1t shivered in the tree
tops above her. She found 1t in every
trap-house they came tO-death-man
death. 1t grew stronger and strong
er, and she whined, and nipped Ka-
zan's flank And Kazan went on. Gray
Wolf followed him to the edge of the
clearing in which Lofts cabin stood,
and then she sat back on her haunch-
es, raised her blind face to the gray
sky. and gave long wailing cry. In
that moment the bristles began to
stand up along Kazan's spine. Once,
long ago. he had howled before the
tepee Of a master who was newly dead,
and he settled back on his launches,
and gave the death-cry with Gray
Wolf. He, too, scented it now. Death
was in the cabin. and over the cabin
there stood sapling pole, and at the
end Of the pole there fiuttered strip
Of red cotton rag-the warning flag of
the plague from Athabasca to the bay
This man, like a hundred other he
rOes of the North, had run up the
warning before he laid himself down
to die. And that same night, in the
cold light of the moon, Kazan and
Gray Wolf swung northward into the
country of the Fond du Lac,
There preceded them a messenger
from the post on Reindeer Lake. who
was passing up the warning that had
come from Nelson House and the !
country to the southeast.
There's smallpox on the Nelson"
the messenger informed Williams, at /
Fond du Lac, land it has struck the /
Crees on WOllaston Lake. God only 1
knows what it is doing to the Bay In /
dians, but we hear it is wiping out the /
Chippewas between the Albany and the )
Churchill" He left the same day
with his winding dogs I'm off to
carry word to the Reveillon people to
the west" he explained
Three days later, word came from
that all of the company's
servants and his majesty's subjects
west Of the bay should prepare them
selves for the coming of the Red Ter
ror. Williams thin face turned as
white as the paper he held, as he read
the words of the Churchill factor.
at means dig graves" he said
That's the only preparation We can
make"
He read the paper aloud to the men
1t Fond du Lac, and every available /
nan was detailed to spread the warn
ng throughout the posts territory
There was a quick harnessing of dogs,
md on each sledge that went out was
/ roll of red Gotten cloth-rolls that
we're ominous of death, lurid signals
# pestilence and horror. whose touch
'ent shuddering chills through the
men who were about to scatter them
4mong the forest people. Kazan and
Tray Wolf struck the trail of one of
hese sledges on the Gray Beaver, and
ollOwed it for half mile The next
ay, farther to the west, they struck
and on the fourth day still a
bird. The last trail was fresh, and
Tray Wolf drew back from it as if
tung, her fangs snarling. On the
1ind there came to them the pungent
dor of smoke. They cut at right
ngles to the trail, Gray Wolf leap
1g clear of the marks in the snow,
nd climbed to the cap Of a ridge. To
'indward of them, and down in the
lain, cabin was burning. A team
huskies and a man were disappear
lg in the spruce forest. Deep down
, his throat Kazan gave rumbling
'hine Gray Wolf stood as rigid as a
ock In the cabin plague-dead man
as burning 1t was the law of the
orth. And the mystery of the funer-
pyre came again to Kazan and Gray
yolf This time they did not howl,
ut skunk down into the farther plain,
nd did not stop that day until they
ad buried themselves deep in a dry
nd sheltering swamp ten miles to the
orth