University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-12
CHAPTER l
The Miracle

kaZdn lay mute anu InotioHicSS, HIS
gray nose between his fOrepaws, his
eyes half closed. A rock could have
appeared scarcely less lifeless than
he: not a muscle twitched; not hair
moved; not an eyelid quivered. Yet
every drop of the wild blood in his
splendid body was racing in ferment
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 wall
ing winds of the long Arctic night
over the barrens. He had heard the
thunder of the torrent and the cata-
ract, 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 a giant
among his kind and as fearless, even,
as the men who drove him through
the perils of a frozen world.
He had never known fear-until
now. He had never felt in him the
desire to run-not even on that ter
rible day in the forest when he hal
! fought and killed the big gray lynx.
He did not know what it was that
! frightened him, but he knew that he
was in another world, and that many
things in it startled and alarmed
him. 1t 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 remem
bered having looked on master who
lay very quiet and very cold in the
snow, and he had sat back 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 a
little. He heard steps. then low
voices. One of them was his masters
voice. But the other-it sent a little
tremor through him, Once, so long
ago that it must have been in his pup
pyhood days, he seemed to have had
a dream of laugh that was like the
girls laugh-a laugh that was all at
once filled with wonderful happi-
ness, the thrill of a wonderful love,
and a sweetness that made KaZan lift
his head as they came in. He looked
straight at them. his red eyes gleam-
ing. At once he knew that she must be
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
color of the crimson bakneesh vine in
her face and the blue of the bakneesh
flower in her shining eyes. Suddenly
she saw him, and with a little cry
darted toward him.
"Stop!" shouted the man. Hes
dangerous! Kazan-''
She was on her knees beside him,
all fluffy and sweet and beautiful, her
eyes 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
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 old Ka-
zan. 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
face was crushed down against him.
and he felt her sweet warm touch.
In those moments Kazan did not
move He scarcely breathed 1t
seemed a long time before the girl lift
ed her face from him. And when she
did. there were tears in her blue
eyes, and the man was standing above
them, his hands gripped tight, his
jaws set
81 never knew him to let any one
touch him-with their naked hands,"
he said in a tense wondering voice.
Move back quietly. Isobel Good
heaven-look at that"
n