Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-10-05
CHAPTER I.
The Miracle.

Kazan lay mute and motionless, his
gray nose between his forepaws, his
eyes half closed. A rock could have
appeared scarcely less lifeless than
he; not muscle twitched; not hair
moved; not an eyelid quivered. Yet
every drop of the wild blood in his
splendid body was racing in fer
ment of excitement that Kazan had
never before experienced; every nerve
and fiber of his wonderful muscles
was tense as steel wire. Quarter
strain wolf, three-quarters husky
he had lived the four years OF his life
in the wilderness. He had felt the
pangs Of starvation. He knew what
1t meant to freeze. He had listened
to the wailing winds Of the long Arc
tic night over the barrens. He had
heard the thunder of the torrent and
the cataract, and had covered under
the mighty crash Of the storm. His
throat and sides were Scared by
battle, and his eyes were red with the
blister of the SHOWS. He was called
Kazan. the Wild Dog, because he was
giant among his kind and as fear
less, even, as the men who drove MIN
through the perils of a frozen world
He had never known fear-until
now. He had never felt in him be-
fore the desire to run-not even on
that terrible day in the forest when
he had fought and killed the big gray
lynx. He did not know what 1t was
that frightened him, but he knew that
he was in another world, and that
many things in it startled and alarmed
him. It was his first glimpse OF civil
lization. He wished that his master
would come back into the strange
room where he had left him. 1t was
a room filled with hideous things
There were great human faces on the
wall, but they did not move or speak,
but stared at him in way he had
never seen people look before. He
remembered having looked on mas
ter who lay very quiet and very colo
in the snow, and he had sat PACK on
his launches and walled forth the
death song; but these people on the
walls looked alive. and yet seemed
dead.
Suddenly Kazan lifted his ears
little. He heard steps, then low
voices. One of them was his masters
voice But the other-it sent little
tremor through him! Once, so LONG
ago that It must have been IN MS
pnppyhood days, he seemer to nave
had a. dream of laugh that was like
the girls laugh-a laugh that was all
AT once filed with wonderful nap
piness. the thrill of wonderful love
and sweetness that made Kazan III,
his head as they came In. He looked
straight at them, his red eyes CLEAN
inv. At once he knew that she must
he dear to his master, for his masters
arm was about her. In the glow OF
the light he saw that her hair was
very bright. and that there was the
solor Of the crimson bakneesh vine IN
her face and the blue Of the bakneesh
flou er in her shining eyes. Suddenly
she saw him, and with little cry
darted toward him.
"Stop!'' shouted the man. He's
dangerous! Kazan-
She was on her knees beside him
all fluffy and sweet and beautiful, her
ewes shining wonderfully, her hands
about to touch him. Should he cringe
back? Should he snap Was she one
of the things on the wall, and his
enemy? Should he leap at her white
throat? He saw the man running for.
ward, pale as death. Then her hand
fell upon his head and the touch sent
a thrill through him that quivered IN
every nerve of his body. With both
hands she turned up his head Her
face was very close, and he heard her
say, almost sobbingly:
"And you are Kazan-dear Ola
Kazan. my Kazan, my hero dog-Who
brought him home to me when all the
others had died! My Kazan-my
hero!"
And then. miracle of miracles, her