Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-20
CHAPTER XXI.
A cha$ an fhA Sandbar.

A Shot on the Sandbar.
July and August Of 1911 were months
OF great fires in the Northland. The
swamp home of Kazan and Gray Wolf,
and the green valley between the two
ridges, had escaped the seas Of devas-
tating flame: but now, as they set
forth on their wandering adventures
again, it was not long before their
padded feet came in contact with the
scared and blackened desolation that
had followed so closely after the plague
and starvation of the preceding win
ter. In his humiliation and defeat. af-
ter being driven from his swamp home
by the beavers, Kazan led his blind
mate first into the south. Twenty
miles beyond the ridge they struck the
fire killed forests. Winds from Hud-
sons bay had driven the flames in an
unbroken sea into the west, and they
had left not vestjge of life or patch
OF green. Blind Gray Wolf could not
see the blackened world, but she sens.
ed it. 1t recalled to her memory of
that other fire, after the battle on the
Sun Rock and all Of her wonderful
instincts, sharpened and developed by
her blindness, told her that to the
north - and not south - lay the hunt.
ing grounds they were seeking. The
strain OF dog that was in Kazan still
pulled him south. It was not because
he sought man, for to man he had now
become as deadly an enemy as Gray
Wolf herself. 1t was simply dog in
stinct to travel southwark; In the face
of fire it was wolf instinct to travel
northward At the end of the third
day Gray Wolf won They recrossed
the little valley between the two
ridges, and swung north and west in
to the Athabasca country, striking a
! course that would ultimately bring
them to the headwaters Of the McFar-
lane River.
Late in the preceding autumn pros
pector had come up to Fort Smith, on
the Slave River, with a pickle bottle
filled with gold dust and nuggets. He
had made the find on the McFarlane.
The first mails had taken the news to
the outside world and by midw1nter
the earliest members OF treasure
/. hunting horde were rushing into the
country by snowshoe and dogsledge.
Other finds came thick and fast, The
McFarlane was rich in free gold, and
miners by the score staked out their
claims along it and began work. Late
Corners swung to new fields farther
north and east, and to Fort Smith came
rumors of finds" richer than those Of
the Yukon. A score Of men at first
then a hundred, five hundred, thous-
and 10 rushed into the new country.
Most of these were from the prairie
countries to the south. and from the
placer beds of the Saskatchewan and
the Frazer. From the far North, trav-
cling by way Of the Mackenzie and the
Lard, came smaller number Of seas
oned prospectors and adventurers from
the Yukon = men who knew what it
meant to starve and freeze and die by
inches.
One of these late corners was Sandy
McTrigger. There were several reas-
ons why Sandy had left the Yukon. He
was Gin bad" with the police who pa
trolled the country west of Dawson,
and he was broke" In spite OF these
facts he was one Of the best prospec-
tors that had ever followed the shores
of the Klondike. He had made discov-
cries running up to million or two,
and had promptly lost them through
gambling and drink. He had no con-
science, and little fear Brutality was
the chief thing written in his face. His
undershot Jaw, his wide eyes, low fore
head and grizzly mop of red hair pro-
claimed him at once as man not to
be trusted beyond ones own vision or
the reach of bullet. It was suspected