University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-31

mile away he could see where the
flames of the great fires were redden.
ing the sky. He gazed back to see II
Gray Wolf was following and then
went on until he struck an open and
hard travelled trail. 1t was beaten
with the footprints of men and dogs
and over it two of the caribou had been
dragged day or two before.
At last he came to the thinned out
strip of timber that surrounded the
clearing and the flare of the flames
was in his eyes. The bedlam of sound
that came to him now was like fire in
his brain. He heard the song and the
laughter of men, the shrill cries of
women and children, the barking and
snarling and fighting of hundred
dogs. He wanted to rush out and
join them. 10 become again a part OF
what he had once been. Yard by yard
until he reached the edge of the clear
ing. There he stood in the shadow of
a spruce and looked out upon life as
he had once lived it, trembling, visit
full and yet hesitating in that final mo-
ment.
A hundred yards away was the saw
age circle of men and dogs and fire.
His nostrils were filled with the rich
aroma of the roasting caribou, and as
he crouched down, still with that wolf
ish caution that Gray Wolf had taught
him, men with long poles brought the
huge carcasses crashing down upon
the melting snow about the fires. In
one great rush the horde of wild rev.
elers crowded in with barred knives,
and a snarling mass of dogs closed in
behind them. In another moment he
had forgotten Gray Wolf, had forgot
ten all that man and the wild had
taught him, and like gray streak was
across the open.
The dogs were surging back when
he reached them, with half a dozen of
the factors men lashing them in the
face with long caribou-gut whips. The
sting of lash fell in a fierce cut over
an Eskimo dogs shoulder, and In
swapping at the lash his fangs struck
rump. With lightning swift
ness Kazan returned the cut, and in
an instant the jaws of the dogs had
met. In another instant they were
down and Kazan had the Eskimo dog
by the throat.
With shouts the men rushed in.
Again and again their whips cut like
knives through the air Their blows
Tell on Kazan, who was uppermost,
and as he felt the burning pain of the
whips there flooded through
him all at once the fierce memory of
he days of .old-the days of the Club
and the Lash. He snarled. Slowly
he loosened his hold of the Eskimo
logs throat. And then, out of the me-
ee of dogs and men, there sprang
mother man-with a club. 1t fell on
kazan's back and the force of it sent
him fiat into the snow. 1t was raised
lgain. Behind the club there was a
ace-a brutal, fire-reddened face. 1t
vas such face that had driven Kazan
nto the wild, and as the club fell
lgain he evaded the full weight of its
,low and his fangs cleaned like ivory |
Inives. A third time the club was
aised, and this time Kazan met it in
nid-air and his teeth ripped the |
ength Of the mans forearm.
Good Cod" shrieked the man in
,ain. and Kazan caught the CLEAN of
rife barrel as he sped toward the |
crest A shot followed. Something |
ike a red-hot coal ran the length Of
lazan's hip, and deep in the forest he
topped to lick at the burning furrow
where the bullet had gone just deep |
nough to take the skin and hair from
rs flesh.
Gray Wolf was still waiting under
he balsam shrub when Kazan re-
urned to her JOyously she sprang
orth to meet him. Once more the man
ad sent back the old Kazan to her.
lie muzzled her neck and face, and
TODD for a few moments with his
cad resting across her back, listen
ng to the distant sound.
Then, with ears laid fiat, he set out
traight into the north and west. And
ow Gray Wolf ran shoulder to shoul-
er with him like the Gray Wolf of
he days before the dog-pack came;
Or that wonderful thing that lay be-
ond the realm of reason told her that
nee more she was comrade and mate,
nd that their trail that night was
eading to their old home under the
vindfall.
CHAPTER XVII
His Son
1t happened that Kazan was to re-