Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-19
KA IAN

lne race OF the wind. Kazan caught n
ssnlsle whin of the maintained air and
ms ms spine grew stiff. But blind Gray
s mol was keener than the little red-eyed
aI sVN oil the North Her pointed nose
slowly followed Sandy's progress. She
neard dry stick crack under his feet
oVV yards away. She caught the metallic
CLICK or his gun-barrel as IL struck a
Dlrcn sapling. The moment she lost
SANDY In the wind she whined and rub
oee herself against Kazan and trotted
rev steps to the southwest.
At times such as this Kazan seldom re-
FUSED 10 take guidance from her They
trotted away side by side and by the
tline sandy was creeping up enake-like
with the wind in his face Kazan was
peering from the fringe of river brush
uown wn upon the canoe on the white strip
vi SAND When Sandy returned. after an
hour OF futile stalking, two fresh tracks
led straight down to the canoe. He looked
at them IN amazement and then a sinister
grin wrinkled his ugly face. He chucltled
as ne went to his kit and dug out n
small rubber bag. From this he drew q
usntly corked bottle, filled with gelatine
capsules. In each little capsule were five
grains of strychnine. There were dark
hlnts that once upon time Sandy Nc
Trigger had tried one of these capsules
by dropping It in a cup Of coffee and
giving 1t to a man. but the police had
never proved It, He was expert in the
use OF poison. Probably he had killed
n thousend foxes in his time, and he
chucked again as he counted out a dozen
OF the capsules and thought how easy IL
would be to get this inquisitlve pair of
wolves.
Two or three days before he had killed
q caribou, and each of the capsules he
now rolled up In a little ball of deer fat,
doing the work with short sticks in place
of his fingers, so that there would be no
man-smell clinging to the death-baits. Be-
lore sundown Sandy set out at right an
giles over the plain, planting the bats.
Most of them he hung to low bushes.
Others he dropped In worn rabbit and car
ibou trails. Then he returned to the creek
and cooked his supper.
The next morning he was UP early and
Off to the poison bats. The first bait was
untouched. The second was as he had
planted 1t. The third was gone. A thrill
shot through Sandy as he looked about
him. Somewhere within a radius of two
or three hundred yards he would find his
game. Then his glance fell to the ground
under the bush where he had hung the
poison capsule and an oath broke from his
lips. The bait had not been eaten The
caribou fat lay scattered under the bush
and still imbeddea in the largest portion
of II was the liSle white capsule-un-
broken 1t was Sandy's first experience
WIN " WIN WIlOSt lIlSllHClS were
sharpened by blindness, and he was puz-
zled. He had never known this to happen
before If fox or n wolf could be lured
to the point of touching a bait, II followed
that the bait was eaten. Sandy went on
to the fourth and the fifth bats. They
were untouched The sixth was torn to
pieces, like the third. In this instance the
capsule was broken and the white powder
scattered Two more poison bats Sandy
found pulled down in this manner He
knew that Kazan and Gray Wolf had
done the work. for he found the marks
of their feet in dozen different places.
The accumulated bad humor of weeks of
futile labor found vent in his disappoint-
ment and anger. At last he had found
something tangible to curse. The failure
OF his poison balts he accepted as a sort
of climax to his general bad luck. Every
thing was against him, he believed, and
he made up his mind to return to Red
Gold City. Early in the afternoon he
launched his canoe and drifted down
stream with the current. He was con-
tent to let the current do all of the work
today. and he used his paddle just enough
to keep his slender craft head on.
He leaned back comfortably and smoked
his pipe. with the old rife between his
knees. The wind was in his face and he
kept a sharp watch for game.
1t was late in the afternoon when Kazan
and Gray Wolf came out on sandbar
five or six miles down stream. Kazan
was tapping up tho cool water when