Gilpin observer., 1917-12-27

west. It was the call OF early days
the days away up on the Mackenzie
The Mackenzie was Thousand milei
away.
He came upon many trails in the
snow that day, and shifted the scents
left by the hoofs of moose and caribou
and the fur-padded feet Of lynx. He
followed a fox, and the trail led him tC
a place shut in by tall spruce, where
the snow was beaten down and red
dened with blood. There was an owls
head, feathers, wings and entrails lying
here, and he knew that there were
other hunters abroad besides himself.
Toward evening he came upon tracks
in the snow that were very much like
his own. They were quite fresh, and
there was a warm scent about them
that made him whine, and filed him
again with that desire to fall back up
ON his launches and send forth the
wolf-cry. This desire grew stronger
In him as the shadows of night deep
ened in the forest. He had Travelled
all day, but he was not tired. There
was something about night, now that
there were no men near, that exhilarat-
ed him strangely. The wolf blood in
him ran swifter and swifter. Tonight
it was clear. The sky was filed with
stars. The moon rose. And at last
he settled back in the snow and turned
his head straight up to the spruce tops,
and the wolf came out Of him in long
mournful cry which quivered through
the still night for miles.
For long time he sat and listened
after that howl. He had found voice
voice with strange new note in it,
and 1t gave him still greater confidence.
He had expected an answer, but none
came. He had Travelled in the face of
the wind, ana rs he howled, bull
moose crashed through the scrub tim
ber ahead Of him, his horns rattling
against the trees like the tattoo of a
clear birch club as he put distance be-
tween himself and that cry.
Twice Kazan howled before he went
on, and he found joy in the practice of
that new note. He came then to the
foot of rough ridge, and turned up
out Of the swamp to the top of 1t. The
stars and the moon were nearer to him
there, and on the other side of the
ridge he looked down upon great
sweeping plain, with a frozen lake glis-
tening in the moonlight and white
river leading from it off into timber
that was neither so thick nor so black
as that in the swamp.
And then every muscle in his body
grew tense, and his blood leaped. From
far off in the plain there came a cry.
1t was his cry-the wolf-cry. His jaws
snapped. His white fangs cleaned,
and he growled deep in his throat. He
wanted to reply, but some strange in
stinct urged him not to. That instinct
of the wild was already becoming mas
ter of him. In the air, in the whisper
ing of the spruce tops, in the moon and
the stars themselves, there breathed
a spirit which told him that what he
had heard was the wolf-cry. but that 1t
was not the wolf call.
The other came an hour later, clear
and distinct, that same wailing howl at
the beginning-but ending in staccato
of quick sharp yelps that stirred his
blood ut once into fiery excitement
that it had never known before. The
same instinct told him that this was
the call-the hunt-cry. 1t urged him to
come quickly. A few moments later it
came again, and this time there was n
reply from close down along the foot
of the ridge. and another from so far
away that Kazan could scarcely hear
1t. The hunt-pack was gathering for
the night chase; but Kazan sat quiet
and trembling.
He was not afraid, but he was not
ready to go. The ridge seemed to split
the world for him. Down there it was
new, and strange, and without men.
From the other side something seemed
pulling him back, and suddenly he
turned his head and gazed back
through the moonlit space behind him.
and whined. 1t was the dog-whlne now
The woman was back there. He could
hear her voice. He could feel the
touch of her soft hand. He could see
the laughter In her face and eyes, the
laughter that had made him warm and
happy. She was calling to him through
the forests, and he was torn between
desire to answer that call, and desire
to go down into the plain. For he
could also see many men waiting for
him with clubs, and he could hear the
cracking Of whips, and feel the sting OF
their lashes.
For long time he remained on the
top Of the ridge that divided his world
And then, at last. he turned and went
down into the plain.
CHAPTER ".
Leader Of the Pack.