Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-16

between them to hght over, each went
his own way.
Farther and farther Ba-ree ventured
from the windfall, always following
the creek Sometimes he was gone for
hours At first Gray Wolf was restless
when he was away, but she seldom
went with him and after a time her
restlessness left her. Nature was
working swiftly. 1t was Kazan who
was restless now. Moonlight nights
had come and the wanderlust was
growing more and more insistent In
his veins. And Gray Wolf too, was
filled with the strange longing to roam
at large out into the big world.
Came then the afternoon when Ba-
rec went on his longest hunt. Half
mile away he killed his first rabbit. He
remained beside it until dusk. The
moon rose, big and golden, flooding the
forests and plains and ridges with a
light almost like that of day. 1t was
glorious night. And Ba-ree found the
moon, and left his kill. And the d.
rection in which he travelled was away
| from the windfall.
! All that night Gray Wolf watched
and waited And when at last the
moon was sinking into the south and
west she settled back on her launches
turned her blind face to the Sky and
sent forth her first howl since the day
| Ba-ree was born. Nature had come In
! to her own. Far away Ba-ree heard,
but he did not answer. A new world
was his. He had said good-by to the
windfall - and home.
CHAPTER XIX.
It was that glorious season between
spring and summer. when the north
ern nights were brilliant with moon
and stars. that Kazan and Gray Wolf
set up the valley between the two
ridges on a long hunt. 1t was the be-
ginning of that wanderlust which al
ways comes to the furred and padded
creatures of the wilderness Immediate
ly after the young born of early spring
have left their mothers to find their
own way in the big world. They struck
west from their winter home under the
windfall in the swamp. They hunted
mostly at night and behind them they
left a trail marked by the partly eaten
carcasses Of rabbits and cartridges. 1t
was the season of slaughter and not OF
hunger. Ten miles west Of the swamp
they killed fawn This. too, they lett
after single meal. Their appetltes
became satiated with warm flesh ana
blood. They grew sleek and fat and
each day they basked IN the warm
sunshine. They had few rivals Inc
lynxes were in the heavier timber to
the south. There were no wolves
Fisher cat, marten and mink were
numerous along the creek. but these
were neither swift hunting nor long
fanged One day they came upon an
old otter He was giant of bis kind,
turning a whitish gray with the ap-
proach of summer, Kazan, grown rat
and law. watched him idly. Blind Gray
Wolf shifted at the flshy smell OF him
in the air. To them he was no more
than a floating stick, creature out OF
their element along with the flsh, and
thew continued on their way not know
ing that this uncanny creature with the
coal like fapDers was soon to become
thoir ally in one of the strange and
deadly feuds of the wilderness, which
are as sar culinary to animal life as the
deadliest feuds of men are to human
life.
The day followed their meeting with
the otter GRAY Wolf and Kazan contln-
ued three miles farther westward, still
following the stream. Here they en-
countered the interruption to their
progress which turned them over the
northward ridge. The obstacle was
huge beaver dam. The dam was two
hundred yards in width and flooded
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