University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-09-12

1t was eight o'clock when Harker.
McTrigger and two other men bore
Kazan to the arena by means OF the
wooden bars that projected from the
bottom of his cage. The big Dane
was already in the fighting cage. He
stood blinking his eyes in the bril-
liant light of the rejecting lamps. Ka-
zan did not show his fangs. Neither
revealed the expected animosity. 1t
was the first they had seen of each
other, and a murmur of disappoint-
ment swept the ranks Of the three
hundred men. The Dane remained as
motionless as a rock when Kazan was
prodded from his own cage into the
fighting cage. He did not leap OF
snarl. He regarded Kazan with a
dubious questioning poise to his
splendid head and then looked again
TO the expectant and excited faces OF
the waiting men. For few moments
Kazan stood stiff-legged, facing the
Dane. Then his shoulders dropped,
and he, too, coolly faced the crowd
that had expected fight to the death.
A laugh of derision swept through the
closely seated rows. Catcalls, jeering
taunts flung at McTrigger and Har-
ker, and angry voices demanding
their money back mingled with a tu-
multi of growing discomfort. Sandy's
face was red with modification and
rage. The blue veins in Harker's
forehead had swollen twice their nor
NAL size He shook his fist in the
face of the crowd, and shouted:
wait. Give 'em a chance, you
dam fools!"
| At his words every voice was stilled.
Kazan had turned. He was facing the
huge Dane. And the Dane had turned
his eyes to Kazan. Cautiously. pre-
pared for a lunge or a sidestep. Ka-
zan advanced a little. The Danes
shoulders bristled. He, too, advanced
upon Kazan. Four feet apart they
stood rigid. One could have heard
whisper in the room now. Sandy
and Harker, standing close to the
cage, scarcely breathed. Splendid in
every limb and muscle, warriors of a
hundred fights, and fearless to the
point of death, the two half-wolf vic
tins of man stood facing each other.
None could see the questioning look
in their brute eyes. None knew that
in this thrilling moment the unseen
hand of the wonderful Spirit God OF
the wilderness hOvered between them.
and that one of its miracles was de-
scending upon them. 1t was under
standing. Meeting in the open-rivals
in the traces-they would have been
rolling in the throes of terrific battle.
But here came that mute appeal of
brotherhood. In the final moment,
when only a step separated them, and
when men expected to see the first
mad lunge, the splendid Dane slowly
raised his head and looked over Ka-
zan's back through the glare of the
lights. Harker trembled, and under
his breath he cursed. The Danes
throat was open to Kazan. But be-
tween the beasts had passed the
voiceless pledge of peace. Kazan did
not leap. He turned. And shoulder
to shoulder-splendid in their con-
tempt of man-they stood and looked
through the bars of their prison into
the one of human faces.
A roar burst from the crowd-a
roar of anger, of demand, of threat
In his rage Harker drew a revolver
and leveled it at the Dane. Above the
tumult of the crowd a single voice
stopped him.
Hold it demanded. "Hold-in the
name of the law!"
For a moment there was silence.
Every face turned In the direction of
the voice Two men stood on chairs
behind the last row. One was Ser
geant Brokaw. of the Royal North
west Mounted. 1t was he who had
spoken. He was holding up hand,
commanding silence and attention.
On the chair beside him stood anoth-
er man. He was thin, with dropping
shoulders, and a pale smooth face-a
little man, whose physique and hoi-
low cheeks told nothing of the years
he had spent close up along the raw
edge of the Arctic. It was he who
spoke now, while the sergeant held
up his hand. His voice was low and
quiet:
"IIl give the owners five hundred
dollars for those dogs" he said.
Every man in the room heard the
offer. Harker looked at Sandy. For