University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-29

Fifty yards from them a number o.
moose had gathered for shelter in tn
thick spruce. They had eaten clear {
space an acre in. extent. The tree.
were cropped bare as high as the.
could reach, and the snow was beateI
hard under their feet. There were
six animals in the acre, two of then
bulls-and these bulls were fighting
while three cows and yearling were
huddled in a group watching the
mighty duel. Just before the storm
young bull, sleek, three-quarters
grown, and with the small compact
antlers of four-year-Old, had led the
cows and the yearling to their shell
tered spot among the spruce. Until
last night he had been master of the
herd. During the night the older bull
had invaded his dominion. The invad-
er was four times as old as the young
bull He was half again as heavy. His
huge palmate horns. knotted and ir-
regular-but massive-spoke of age.
A warrior of a hundred fights, he had
not hesitated to give battle in his eff
fort to rob the younger bull of his
home and family. Three times they
had fought since dawn, and the hard
trodden snow was red with blood. The
smell of it came to Kazans and Gray
VOLTS nostrils. KaZan shifted hun
grily. Queer sounds rolled up and
down in Gray VOLTS throat, and she
licked her jaws.
For moment the two fighters drew
a few yards apart, and stood with
lowered heads. The old bull had not
yet won victory. The younger bull
represented youth and endurance; in
ted against craft, greater weight, ma
ted agaist craft, greater weight, ma
turer strength-and a head and horns
that were like battering ram. But
in that great hulk of the older bull
there was one other thing-age. His
huge sides were painting. His nos
trils were as wide as BELLS Then, as
if some invisible spirit of the arena
had given the signal. the animals came
together again. The crash of their
horns could have been heard half a
mile away, and under twelve hundred
pounds of flesh and bone the younger
bull went plunging back upon his
Then was when youth dis
played itself. In an instant he was up,
and locking horns with his adversary.
Twenty times he had done this, and
each attack had seemed filled with in
creasing strength. And now, as if
realizing that the last moments of the
last fight had come, he twisted the old
bulls neck and fought as he had nev-
er fought before. Kazan and Gray
Wolf both heard the sharp crack that
if a dry stick had been
stepped upon and broken. 1t was Feb
ruary, and the hoofed animals were
beginning to shed their horns |
especially the older bulls, whose !
palmate growths drop first. This fact |
gave victory to the younger bull in |
the blood-stained arena a few yards |
from Gray Wolf and Kazan. From it's
socket in the old bulls skull one of |
his huge antlers broke with that sharp |
sound, and in another mo-
ment four inches of stiletto-like horn |
buried itself back of his foreleg. In
an instant all hope and courage left |
him, and he swung backward yard by |
yard, with the younger bull prodding
MS neck and shoulders until blood
1ripped from him in little streams.
At the edge of the clearing he flung
himself free and crashed off into the
'orest.
The younger bull did not pursue.
He tossed his head, and stood for a
'ew moments with heaving sides and
iilated nostrils, facing in the direc-
ion his vanquishing foe had taken.
Then he turned, and trotted back
o the still motionless cows and year.
ings.
Kazan and Gray Wolf were quiver-
ng. Gray Wolf skunk back from the
,dge of the clearing. and Kazan fol-
owed. No longer were they interest
ID in the cows and the young bull
rom that clearing they had seen meat
riven forth-meat that was beaten in
ight, and bleeding. Every instinct of
he wild pack returned to Gray Wolf
ow-and in KaZan the mad desire to
aste the blood he smelled Swiftly
hey turned toward the blood-stained
rail of the old bull, and when they
anne to it they found it spattered
ed. KaZan's jaws dripped as the hot {
cent drove the blood like veins of
re through his weakened body. His '
yes were Redeemed by starvation, and I
4 them there was a light now that
hey had never known even in the s