University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-24

1OOOS-MeffIH COWP1HJ.
! struggle on the Sun Rock. From that
hour he became the deadliest enemy
of the lynx tribe. Wherever he struck
the scent of the big gray cat he was
turned into a snarling demon, and his
hatred grew day by day. as he be-
came more completely part of the
wild
He found that Gray Wolf was more
necessary to him now than she had
ever been since the day she had left
the wolf-pack for him. He was three
quarters dog, and the dog-part of him
/ demanded companionship. There was
only Gray Wolf to give him that now.
! They were alone. Civilization was
| four hundred miles south of them.
The nearest Hudson's Bay post was
sixty miles to the west Often, in
the days of the woman and the baby,
Gray Wolf had spent her nights alone
out in the forest, waiting and calling
for Kazan Now it was Kazan who
was lonely and uneasy when he was
away from her side.
In her blindness Gray Wolf could
no longer hunt with her mate. But
gradually a new code of understand
ing grew up between them. and
through her blindness they learned
many things that they had not known
before. By early summer Gray Wolf
could travel with KaZan, if he did not
move too swiftly. She ran at his
flank. with her shoulder or muzzle
touching him, and Kazan learned not
to leap, but to trOt. Very quickly he
found that he must choose the easiest
trails for Gray VOLTS feet. When
they came to a space to be bridged by
leap. he would muzzle Gray Wolf
and whine, and she would stand with
ears alert-listening. Then Kazan
would take the leap, and she under
stood the distance she had to cover.
She always over-leaped, which was a
good fault.
In another way, and one that was
destined to serve them many times
in the future, she became of greater
help than ever to KaZan Scent and
hearing entirely took the place of
sight Each day developed these senses
more and more, and at the same time
there developed between them the
dumb language whereby she could
impress upon Kazan what she had dis
covered by scent or sound. 1t be-
came a curious habit of Kazan's al
ways to look at Gray Wolf when they
stopped to listen, or to scent the air.
After the fight on the Sun Rock, Ka-
zan had taken his blind mate to
thick clump of spruce and balsam in
the river-bottom, where they remained
until early summer. Every day for
weeks KaZan went to the cabin where
Joan and the baby-and the man
had been. For a long time he went
hopefully, looking each day or night
to see some sign of life there. But the
door was never open. The boaros
and saplings at the windows always
remained. Never a spiral of smoke
rose from the clay chimney Grass
and vines began to grow in the path.
And fainter and fainter grew that |
scent which Kazan could still find |
about it the scent of man, of the |
woman, the baby.
One day he found little baby moe
casin under one of the closed win
dows. 1t was old, and worn out, and |
blackened by snow and rain, but he
lay down beside it, and remained
there for long time, while the baby
Joan-a thousand miles away-was
playing with the strange toys of civili-
zation Then he returned to Gray
Wolf among the spruce and balsam.
The cabin was the one place to
WOlA "Oulu HOt
him. At all other times she was at
his side. Now that she had become
accustomed to blindness, she even ac-
him on his hunts, until he
struck game, and began the chase.
Then she would wait for him. Kazan
usually hunted the big snow-shoe rab-
bits. But one night he ran down and
killed a young doe. The kill was too
heavy to drag to Gray Wolf, so he re-
turned to where she was waiting for
him and guided her to the feast In
many ways they became more and
more inseparable as the summer
until at last, through all
he wilderness, their footprints were
always two by two and never one by
me.
Then came the great fire.
Gray Wolf caught the scent of it
when it was still two days to the west.
IL u -