The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1917-10-25
kAZAN
BY JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD
CHAPTER XIX.
An Empty World.

he slipped through the banSkians Xix,
"A shadow, his ears fiattened, his tai
trailing, his headquarters betrayin,
that curious Sinking quality of III,
wolf and dog stealing away from dan
ger. Then he anne out upon n plain
and the stiffness, the billion stars il
h clear vault of the sky, and III,
keen ar that carried with il a breatl
of the Arctic harrens made him aIer
and questioning. He faced the direc
ton of the wind. Somewhere off there
far to the south and west, was Ora,
Wolf.
For the first time in many week.
he sat back on his launches and gay,
the deep and vibrant call that echoed
weirdly for miles about him. Back il
the banskianS the big Dane heard If
and whined. From over the still bod,
OF Sandy McTrigger the little profes
sor looked up with Il white tense face
ana listened for Il second cry. But
instinct told KaZan that to that first
call there would be no answer. anC
now he struck out swiftly, g~allopina
mile after mile, as a dog follows tho
trail Of Its master home. He did
not turn back to the lake, nor was his
direction toward Red Gold City. As
straight as he might have followed q
road blazed by the hand of mar he
cut across the forty miles of plain and
swamp and forest and rocky ridge
that Inv hntNrnnp him and ,In NToIN,,
lane. All that night he did not call
again for Gray Wolf. With him rea.
soning was n process brought about
by habit-by precedent-and as Gray
Wolf had waited for him many times
before he knew that she would be
waiting for him now near the sand
bar.
BY dawn he had reached the river
within three miles of the sand-bar
Scarcely was the sun up when he stood
on the white strip Of sand where he
and Gray Wolf had come down tc
drink. E~xpectantly md confidently he
looked about him for Gray Wolf, whin
Ing softly, and wagging his tail. He
began to search for her scent, but
rains had washed even her footprints
from the clean sand. All that day he
searched for her along the river and
out on the plain. He went to where
they had killed their last rabbit. He
shifted at the bushes where the poison
bats had hung. Again and again he
sat back on his launches and sent
out his mating cry to her. And slow.
ly, as he did these things. nature was
working in him that miracle of the
wild which the Crees have named the
spirit call" AS it had worked in
Gray Wolf, so now it stirred the blood
of KaZan.
With the going of the sun, and the
sweeping about him of shadOwy night.
he turned more and more TO the south
and east. His whole world was made
up of the trails over which he had
hunted. Beyond those places he did
not know that there was such a thing
as existence. And in that world, small
in his understanding of things, was
Gray Wolf. He could not miss her.
That world, in his comprehension of
it, ran from the McFarlane in a mar
row trail through the forests and wei
the plains TO the little valley. If Gray
Wolf was not here-she was there,
and Iirelessly he resumed his quest of
her.
Not until the stars were fading out
Or the sky again, and gray day was
giving place to night. did exhaustion
and hunger stop him. He killed a rab-
bit, and for hours after he had Toasted
he lay close to his kill, and slept.
Then he went on.
The fourth night he came to the
little valley between the two ridges,
and under the stars, more brilliant
autumn nights. he followed the creek
down into their old swamp home. 1t
was broad day when he reached what
had once been his home and Gray
VOLTS, and for many minutes Kazan
stood silent and motiOnleSs shifting the
air. Until now his spirit had remained
unbrokcn. FoOtSore, with thinned sides
and gaunt head, he circled slowly
through the swamp. All that day he
searched. And his crest lay fiat now,
and there was a hunted look In the
droOp Of his shoulders and in the shift
ing look of his eyes. Gray Wolf was
gone.
Slowly nature a ~impinging that
fact upon him. She had passed out
of his world and out Of his life, and
he was filed with a loneliness and q
grief so great that the forest seemed
strange, and the stiffness Of the wild
a thing that now oppressed and fright
ened him. Once more the dog in him
was mastering the wolf. With Gray
Wolf he had possessed the world OF
freedom. Without her, that world was
so big and strange and empty that 1t
appalled, him.
Late in the afternoon he came upon
a little pile Of crushed clam shells on
the shore of the stream. He shifted
at them-turned away-went back.
and shifted again. But the scent she
had left behind was not strong enough
to tell KaZan, and for a second time
AL