Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-23
CuAPTER NN

nor a good half mile Muskwa followed
il over the trail Of Laugdon. He ran az
first . then he walked finally ne Stoppeu e'-
tiraly and sat down Ike . dog racing 'ne
distant slope. Had Langdon neen hl"ut IL me
could not have halted until he was ured'
rut tho cub had not liked his pannipr prlS-
on lie had been tremendously losted ana
hounccd about. and twice the morse that
carried him had shaken himself ana those
.L,r{rrs had been like earthquakes TO
Nruskya lie knew that the cage az wen
o,, 1.anrdon was ahead Of him. lie SAT LOT
n time and whimpered wistfully, hut ne
wont no farther. lie was sure ula' ult
Cricnd ne had grown 10 love would return
after a little. He always came pacN' s ne
bad never failed him. So he began to hunt
about for a spring beauty or a dog-tooth
,i,ict and for. some time he was careful not
20 stray very far away from where the
outfit had passed.
An that dav tho cub remained in the
Oo,yor-strewn meadows under the slope u
was very pleasant In the sunshine, and he
,,,,,,d more than one patch Of the bulbous
roots he liked. lie dug and he hIled hlm-
sclf and he took a nap in the afternoon
hut when the sun began 10 go down and the
heavy shadows OF the mountain darkened
tho valley ne began to grow afraid.
10 vas stll a very small baby Of a cub,
and only that one dreadful night after his
mother had died had he spent entirely alone.
Thor had replaced mother, and Langdon
had taken the place Of Thor so that until
now he had never felt the loneliness and
cr,ptiness of darkness. lie Crawled under
a cIump Of thorn close to the trail, and con-
tinucd to wait, and listen, and snin expect
antly The stars came out clear and brill
liant hut tonight their lure was not strong
enough to call him forth. Not until dawn
did he steal out cautiously from his shelter
of thorn.
The sun gave him courage and confidence
again and he began wandering back
through the valley, the scent Of the horse
trail growing fainter and fainter until at
last it disappeared entirely.
That day Muskwa ate some grass and a
few og-tooth violet roots. and when the
second night came he was abreast of the
| slope over which the outfit had come from
! the valley in which were Thor and IskwaO.
| He was tired and hungry, and he was utterly
| lost.
| That night he slept in the end Of a hollow
! log. The next day he went on, and for
/ many days and many nights after that he
| was alone in the big valley. He passed
close to the pool where Thor and he had met
! the old bear, and he nosed hunErily among
| the hshbones he slSirted the edge Of the
! dark, deep lake ; he saw the shadowy things
| luttering in the gloom of the forest again
! he passed over the beaver dam, and he slept
| for two nights close to the log-jam from
which he had watched Thor throw out their
| first fish. He was almost forgetting Lang
| don now, and was thinking more and more
| about Thor and MS mother. He wanted
| them. He wanted them more than he had
ever wanted the companionship of man, fol
| Muskwa was fast becoming a creature ot
the wild again
1t was the beginning of August before
| the cub came TO the break in the valley ant
| climbed up over the slope where Thor hat
! first heard the thunder and had first felt
| the sting of the white mems guns. In these
two weeks Muskwa had grown rapidly, ir
| spite OF the fact that he often went TO bee
on an empty stomach and he was M
deep, sunless canyon above the clay wallov
| he went, and as there was only one way
| out he came at last to the summit Of the
| break over which Thor had gone and ovel
which Langdon and Bruce had followed IT
close pursuit, And the other valley--his
| home-ay under Muskwa
or course, he did not recognize II. He
saw and smeled in It nothing that was
! familiar But II was such a beautiful val
| ley, and so abundantly filled with plenty
! and sunshine, that he did not hurry through
| IT, He found whole gardens of spring beau.
ties and dog-tooth volets And on the third
day he made his first real kill. He almost
| stumbled over a baby whistler no larger
than n red squirrel, and before the little
creature could escape he was upon IT, II
made him splendid feast.
It was fully week before he passed
| along the creek bottom close under the slope
where his mother had died.
If he had been travelling along the crest
of the slope he would have found her bones