Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-10-14
LANES OLIVER (lRWOOD!


pack and with the full rush and weight
of his shoulders struck him fairly in
the SIDE. More deadly than the throat
grip had Kazan sometimes found the
1unge when delivered at the right mo-
ment. 1t was deadly now. The big
gray wolf lost his feet, rolled upon his
back for an instant, and the pack rush
ed in, eager to rend the last of life
from the leader whose power had
ceased to exist.
From out of that gray, snarling.
bloody Tipped mass, Kazan drew back,
painting and bleeding. He was weak.
There was curious sickness in his
head. He wanted to lie down in the
snow. But the old and infallible in
stinct warned him not to betray that
weakness. From out of the pack
slim, 1.-the, gray she-wolf came up to
him, and lay down in the snow before
him, and then rose swiftly and shifted
at his wounds.
She was young and strong and beau
tiful, but Kazan did not look at her.
Where the fight had been he was look
ing, at what little remained of the old
leader. The pack again had returned
to the feast. He heard again the
cracking of bones and the rending of
flesh, and something told him that
hereafter all the wilderness would
hear and recognize his voice, and that
when he sat back on his launches and
called to the moon and stars, those
swiftfooted hunters Of the big plain
would respond to 1t. He circled twice
about the caribou and the pack, and
then trotted off to the edge Of the
black spruce forest.
When he reached the shadows he
| looked back. Gray Wolf was following
him. She was only few yards behind.
And now she came up to him, little
| timidly. and she, too, looked back to
| the dark blotch of life out on the lake.
| And as she stood there close beside
him. Kazan shifted at something in the
air that was not the scent of blood.
nor the perfume of the balsam and
spruce. 1t was thing that seemed to
come to him from the clear stars, the
cloudless moon. the strange and beau
tiful quiet of the night itself. And
Gray Wolf
He looked at her, and he found Gray
VOLTS eyes alert and questioning. She
was young - SO young that she seem.
ed scarcely to have passed out Of
puppyhood. Her body was strong and
slim and beautifully shaped. In the
moonlight the hair under her throat
and along her back shone sleek and
soft. She whined at the red staring
light in Kazan's eyes. and It was not
puppy's whimper. Kazan moved to-
ward her, and stood with his head
over her back. facing the pack. He
felt her trembling against his chest.
He looked at the moon and the stars
again. the mystery of Gray Wolf and of
the night throbbing in his blod.
Not much of his life had been spent
at the posts Most of it had been on
the trail - in the traces and the
shirt Of the mating season had only
| stirred him from afar. But it was very
near now. Gray Wolf lifted her head
| Her soft muzzle touched the wound on
! his neck. and in the gentleness OF that
touch. in the low sound In her throat,
Kazan felt and heard again that won
derful something that had come with
the caress of the woman's hand and
the sound of her voice.
! He turned, whining his back bristl-
ing. his head high and defiant Of the
wilderness which he faced Gray Wolf
trotted close at his side as they enter
ed into the gloom of the forest.
The Fight In The Snow.
They found shelter that night under
thick balsam and when they lay down
on the soft carpet of needles which
the snow had not covered, Gray Wolf
snuggled her warm body close to Ka-
IAN and licked his wounds. The day
broke with velvety fall of snow, SO
white and thick that they could not see
a dozen leaps ahead of them in the