Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-15
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TSuRPERS.

THE JSIRIlsttS.
TT WAS that glorious season between
Il spring and summer, when the northern
nights were brilliant with moon and
stars, that Ka2an and Gray Wolf set up
the valley between the two ridges on
a long hunt. II was tho beginning of
that wanderlust which always comes
to the furred and padded creatures Of
the wilderness Immediately after the
young born OF early spilns have et,
their mothers to find their own In the
big world. They struck w"st 'rcm thcir
winter home under the windfall ~ the
swamp They hunted most a, W. ~ /.
and behind them they left a tcail marked
by the partly eaten car asseH "t i"'' T.
aud pnrtridges. II was the scaSon or
slaughter and not of hunger. Ten miles
west Of the swamp they aided lawn
This. too. they left after q single meal.
Their appetites became sat'ated with
warm flesh and blood. They grew sleek
and fat aud each day they basked longer
in the warm sunshine. They had rev
rivals. The lynxes were in the heavier
timber to the south. There were no
wolves. Fisher-Cat. martcn and mink
were numerous along the creek, but
these were neither swift-hunting nor
long-fanRed one day they came upon
an old otter. He was a giant Of MS
kind. turning whitish gray with the
approach of summer. ka2an, grown fat
and lazy, watched him idly, Blind Gray
Wolf shifted at the fshy smell of him
i'm the air. To them he was no more
than a floating stick, n creature out OF
their element, along with tht fish, aud
they continued on their way not know
ing that this uncanny creature with the
coal-like happers was soon to become
their ally In one of the strange and
deadly feuds of the wilderness. which
are as sanguinary TO animal life as the
deadliest feuds OF men are TO human
life.
The day following their meeting with
the otter Gray Wolf and kazan continued
three miles farther westward. still fol-
lowing the stream Here they encoun-
tered the interruption to their progress
which turned them over the northward
ridge. The oostu,le was huge beaver
dam.
The dam was 200 yards In width and
flooded mile of swamp and timber above
1t. Neither Gray Wolf nor kazan was
deeply interested in beavers. They also
moved out of their element, along with
the fish and the otter and swift-winged
birds.
SO they turned into the north, not know
ing that nature had already schemed that
they four-the dog, wolf. otter and
beaver-shoud soon be engaged in one of
those merciless struggles of the wild
which keep animal life down to the sur
vival of the fittest, and whose tragic his
tories are kept secret Under the stars and
the moon and the winds that tell no tales
For many years no man had come into
this valley between the two ridges to mo-
lest the beaver. If n Sarcee trapper had
followed down the nameless creek and had
caught the patriarch and chief of the
colony, he would mt once have judged
him to be very old and his Indian tongue
would have given him nPme. He would
have called him Broken Tooth, because
one of the four long teeth with which he
feled trees and built dams was broken
off Six years before Broken Tooth had
led Il few beavers of his own age down
the stream, and they had built their first
small dam and their first lodge.
CONTINUED MONDAY