The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1917-09-27

with short sticks in place Of his fin
gers, so that there would be no man.
smell clinging to the death-baits. Be
fore sundown Sandy set out ut right
angles over the plain, planting the
bats. Most of them he hung to low
bushes. Others he dropped in worn
rabbit and caribou trails. Then he re-
turned to the creek and cooked his sup
per.
The next morning he was up early.
and of To the poison bats. The first
bait was untouched. The second was
as he had planted it. The third was
gone. a thrill shot through Sandy as
he looked about him. Somewhere with
In a radius of two or three hundred
yards he would find his game. Then
his glance 1All TO he 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 Embedded in the largest
portion of it was the little white cap
sule-unbroken. 1t was Sandy's first
experience with n wild creature whose
instincts were sharpened by blindness,
and he was puzzled. He had never
known this to happen before. If n fox
or q wolf could be lured to the point of
touching Il bait, 1t 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 a dozen diff
ferent places. The accumulated bad
humor of weeks of futile labor found
vent In his disappointment and anger.
At last he had found something tangible
to curse. The failure of his poison
bats he accepted as a sort of climax
to his general bad luck. Everything
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 tho
work today, and he used his paddle
just enough TO keep his slender craft
head N. He leaned back comfortably
and smoked his pipe, with the old rifle
between his knees. The wind was in
his face and he kept a sharp watch for
game.
It was late in the afternoon when
Kazan and Gray Wolf came out IN u
sand bar five or six miles downstream.
Kazan was tapping up the cool water
when Sandy drifted quietly around a
bend a hundred yards above them. If
the wind had been right, or If Sandy
had been using his paddle, Gray Wolf
would have detected danger. 1t ~
the metallic click-click of the old-fash-
Toned lock of Sandy's rifle that awak-
ened her to a sense of peril. Instantly
she was thrilled by the nearness Of it.
Kazan heard the sound and stopped
drinking to face it. In that moment
Sandy pressed the trigger. A belch OF
smoke, n roar of g%unpowder. and Ka-
IAN felt a red-hot stream of fire pass
with the swiftneSs of a lightning-flash
through his brain. He stumbled back,
his legs gave way under him, and he
%crumpled down In a limp heap. Gray
Wolf darted like a streak off into the
bush. Blind, she had not seen Kazan
Wilt down upon the white sand. Not
until she was a quarter Of a mile away
from the terrifying thunder of the
white mans rifle did she stop and wait
for him.
Sandy McTrigger grounded his canoe
on the sand bar with an exultant yell.
Got you, you old devil. didn't II he
cried. IT'D "a got the other, too, II I'd
"a had something besides his ahmed
old relic! !"
He turned Kazan's head over with
the butt of his gun, and the lecr of sat
iSfaction in his face gave place to a
sudden look Of amaZement. For the
first time he saw the collar about ka-
zan's neck.
My Gawd, it amt a wolf he
gaSped.. Its q dog, Sandy McTrigger
IA dogv"
(TO BE C~ONTTNUEn)
----4---