Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-06
the ears Of Kazan and Gray Wolf.
AS vet they had not gone a hundre
Copyright, The Bobbs- r7l Company.

AS yet they had not gone a hundred
yards from the dead bull, and at the
first sound of that strange mystery in
the northern skies they stopped and
listened to it. alert and suspicious.
Then they laid their ears aslant and
trotted slowly back to the meat they
had killed. Instinct told them that it
was theirs only by right of fang. They
had fought to kill it. And 1t was In
the law Of the wild that they would
have to fight to keep it. In good hunt
ing days they would have gone on and
wandered under the moon and the
stars. But long days and nights Of star
walton had taught them something diff
ferent now.
On that clear and stormless night
following the days of plague and fam
inc, hundred thousand hungry crea-
lures came out from their retreats to
hunt for food. For eighteen hundred
miles east and west and thousand
miles north and south. slim garnt bel
lied creatures hunted under the moon
and the stars Something told Kazan
and Gray Wolf that this hunt was on,
and never for an instant did they
cease their vigilance. At last they lay
down at the edge of the spruce thicket
j and waited Gray Wolf muzzled Kazan
/ gently with her blind face. The I'M
easy whine in her throat was a warn
! ing to him. Then she shifted the air,
and listened shifted and listened.
| Suddenly every muscle in their bod
les grew rigid, Something living had
passed near them, something that they
could not see or hear, and scarcely
scent. 1t came again, as mysterious as
a shadow. and then out of the air there
f1oated down as silently as huge
! snowflake a great white owl Kazan
saw the hungry winged creature set.
tie on the bulls shoulder. Like a fash
he was out from his cover. Gray Wolf
yard behind him. With AN angry
snarl he lunged at the white robber,
and his jaws snapped empty air. His
leap carried him clean over the bull.
He turned. but the owl was gone.
Nearly all of his old strength had re-
| turned to him now. He trotted about
the bull, the hair along his spine brist-
ling like a brush, his eyes wide and
menacing. He snarled at the still air.
His jaws clicked, and he sat back on
his launches and faced the blood
stained trail that the moose had left
hafore he died. Again that instinct as
infallible as reason told him that dan
ger would come from there.
Like a red ribbon the trail ran back
through the wilderness. The little
swift moving ermine were everywhere
this night, looking like white rats as
they lodged about in the moonlight
and with all the ferocity of their blood.
eating nature followed 1t with quick
exciting leaps. A fox caught the scent
of it quarter of mile to windward,
and came nearer. From out of deep
windfall a beady-eyed, thin bellied
fisher cat came forth, and stopped with
his feet in the crimson ribbon.
It was the fisher cat that brought
Kazan out from under his cover Of
spruce again. In the moonlight there
was sharp quick fight, snarling and
SCI atching. a cat-like yowl OF pain,
and the fisher forgot his hunger In
fight, Kazan returned to Gray Wolf
with a lacerated and bleeding nose.
Gray Wolf licked it alphabetically,
while Kazan stood rigid and listening.
The fox swung swiftly away with
the wind, warned by the sounds of con-
flict. He was not fighter, but MUIR
derer who killed from behind, and a
little later he leaped upon an owl and
tore it into bits for the half pound Of
flesh within the mass of feathers.
But nothing could drive back those
little white outlaws of the wilderness
. the ermine They would have stol-
en- between the feet Of man to get at
the warm flesh and blood of the fresh
" killed bull Kazan hunted them saw
agely. They were too quick for him.