Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1916-09-01
TRUE AT The LAST
WoIf-Dog Deserted Master. But
Still Loved Him.
Answered "caII of His Fathers"
Thouqh He Proved Loyal When
Loyalty Meant Death by the
Faras Of His Pack.

| He had been called Wolf since pup
pyhood. He stood nearly forty inches,
with small ragged rail-like body, and
unusually long legs that ended in great,
soft, padlike feet. Jack Stern, Steve
Wormell's partner, used to say that
the dog could not turn round in their
''two-by four cabin without knocking
over the table and chairs and seriously
endangering the stove and other furni-
txre.
One evening, as Steve and Jack sat
playing a game of cribbage in their
ranger cabin, a wolf howled lugubri-
ously from the mountain side. After q
moment came the answer; then an
other caught UP the call, and another,
until the lonesome wall echoed from
mountain top to mountain top.
Suddenly there came howl, nearer
and more deep-throated.
Stern opened the door.
"Come here, Steve!" he said, and
the ranger stepped to his side.
On small, treeless mound, not far
from the cabin. sat Wolf He was
squatting on his launches, with his
nose pointed toward the sky, while
from his throat came cry quite I'M
like his usual howl.
Its the call of his fathers, Steve"
said Jack. "Some day you'll have, no.
dog; he'll be gone with the pack"
Steve laughed at the idea He had
brought Wolf. an awkward. bench-leg-
ged puppy, out to the ranger cabin in a
sack the dog had always been faith
full and contented with his lot.
But one morning in the spring Wolf
was missing.
At first Steve chung to the hope that
Wolf would return when the running
season was over. He had heard Of
dogs doing that. But spring merged
into summer, and summer into fall, yet
the dog did not come back.
Then they began. to hear thai Wolf
had been seen running at the head of a
small band of wolves.
When the snow had crusted so that
it would bear up the weight Of man,
Steve threw his rifle across his arm
and walked over to the breaks of the
Grande Ronde. He was nearing the.
broken lands when the sound of run
ming pack came to his ears. A moment
later a small band of wolves, perhaps
fifteen in number, burst from the tim
Der, running toward him. And at their
head ran Wolf.
The ranger forgot his danger. He.
cried, "Wolf, don't you know me?"
The sound of his voice brought the
great dog to a standstill, and the pack
stopped with him. Nose in the air.
sides aquiver, he stood moment:
then. with low bay of recognition, he
sprang toward his one-time master.
The pack, evidently installing their
leaders intention, likewise rushed at
Steve. And the next instant, with his
gun dubbed, he was in the midst of a
snarling, swapping mass of famine
crazed wolves.
When Jack arrived on the scene he
found Steve sitting in the snow, with
the shaggy head of Wolf piIIowed in
his lap. Around him, with their NANCY
pelts torn and bloody, lay half a dozen
dead wolves.
The rangers clothing was torn to
shreds and one arm and leg were a
mass OF cuts and gashes; but there
were tears in his eyes.
Gle fought for me, Jack" he said.
pressing the stiffening lids over the
glazed eyes of the dead hound. "He
gave his life for me- How he fought
And against his own blood, too. Yon-
der lies one of his own pups. Why
shouldn't l love him ?''-Youth's Com
panion.