Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-04

gently pulled bac the soft fur that en-
veloped the bundle she held IN her arms
He could sec one pink cheek OF baby joan
The eyes Of Joan, the mother, were like
stars.
ut was the baby who saved us," she
WHISPERED. The dogs were being torn TO
pieces by the wolves, and I saw them
leaping upon you, when one OF them
sprang TO the sledge. At first ] thought
IL was one of the dogs. But It was
wolf. He tore once at us, and the bear
skin saved us. He was almost at my
throat when baby cried, and then he stood
there, his red eyes foot from us, and I
could have sworn again that he was
dog. In an instant he turned, and was
fighting the wolves. l saw him leap upon
one that was almost at your throat"
"He was n dog" said old Pierre, hold
ing out his hands to the warmth. They
often wander away from tho posts and
Join the wolves have had dogs do that.
Ma cheri, n dog is a dog all his life.
Kicks, abuse, even the wolves cannot
change hlm-for long. He was ono of
the pack. He came with them-to kill,
But when he found us"
"IIe fought for us" breathed the girl.
She gave him the bundle and stood up
straight and tall and slim in the firellght.
"He fought for us--and he was terribly
hurt" she said. 'G saw him drag him
self away. Father, II he is out there
dying"
Pierre Radisson stood UP. He coughed
In shuddering way, trying to stife the
sound under his beard. The neck of Grim
son that came to his lips with the cough
Joan did not see. She had seen nothing
of 1t during the six days they had been
travelling up from the edge Of civilization.
81 have been thinking of that" no said.
''He was badly hurt and ! do not think
he went far. Here, take little Joan and
s.tN -. H., g-. .,,lrf
Tho moon and the stars were brilliant
in the sky when he went out in the plain.
a short distance from the edge of the
tmber-lne he stood for n moment upon
the spot whore the wolves had overtaken
them an hour before. Not one of his
four dogs had lived. The snow was red
with their lood, and their bodies lay stiff
where they had fallen under the pack.
Pierre shuddered as he looked at them.
If the wolves had not turned their first
mad attack upon the dogs what would
have become of himself. Joan and the
baby? lie turned away, with another of
those hollow coughs that brought the
blood to his lips
a few yards to one side he found In the
snow the trail of the strange dog that had
come with the wolves and had turned
against them in that moment when all
seemed lost. 1t was not clean running
trail. 1t was more OF n furrow in the
snow. and Pierre Radisson followed 1t,
expecting TO find the dog dead at the
end Of it.
In the sheltered spot to which he had
dragged himself in tho edge of the forest
kazan lay for n long time after the fight,
alert and watchful. He felt no very great
pain. But he had lost the power to stand
upon his legs. His flanks seemed para
lyzed. Gray Wolf crouched close at his
side, shifting the air. They could smell
the camp, and Kazan could detect the
two things that were there-man and
woman. lie knew that the girl was
there. where he could see the glow of the
firelight through the spruce and the
cedars. He wanted to go TO her He
wanted to drag himself close in to the
fire and take Gray Wolf with him, and
listen to her voice. and feel the touch of
her hand. But tho man was there, and
to him man had always meant the club,
the whip pain, death.
Gray Wolf crouched close to his side,
and whined softly as she urged Kazan to
flee deeper with her into the forest. At
last she understood that no could not
move and she ran nervously out into the
plain and back again, until her foot
prints were thick in the trail she made.
The instincts of matehood were strong in
her. 1t was she who first saw Pierre
Radisson coming over their trail, and she
ran swiftly back to Kazan and gave the
warning.
CONTINUED TOMORROW.