Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1917-05-23
CHAPTER Ix-Continued.

still. He thrust his nose into her loose
hair. A whine rose in his throat, and
suddenly he raised his head and
shifted in the face of the wind. Some
thing came to him with that wind. He
muZZled Joan again, but she did not
stir. Then he went forward, and stood
in his traces, ready for the pull, and
looked back at her. Still she did not
move Or speak, and Kazan's whine
gave place to a sharp, excited bark.
The strange thing in the wind came
to him stronger for a moment. He
began to pull. The sledge runners
had frozen to the snow, and it took
every ounce of his strength to free
them. Twice during the next five min
utes he stopped and shifted the air.
The third time that he halted, in Il
drift of snow, he returned to Joan's
side again, and Whined to awaken her.
Then he tugged again at the end of
his traces, and foot by foot he dragged
the sledge through the drift. Beyond
the drift there was a stretch of clear
ice, and here kaZan rested. During Il
lull in the wind the scent came to him
stronger than before.
At the end of the clear ice was a
narrow break in the shore, where a
creek ran into the main stream. If
Joan had been conscious she would
have urged him straight ahead. But
kaZan turned into the break, and for
ten minutes he struggled, through the
snow without a rest, whining more
and more frequently, until at last the
whine broke into a joyous bark. Ahead
of him, close to the creek, was a small
cabin. Smoke vas rising out of the
chimney. 1t was the scent of smoke
that had come to him in the wind. A
hard, level slope reached to the cabin
door, and with the last strength that
was in him, Kazan dragged his bur-
den up that. Then he settled himself
back beside Joan, lifted his shaggy
head to the dark sky and howled.
A moment later the door opened. A
man came out. kazan's Redeemed,
snow-shot eyes followed him watch
fully as he ran to the sledge. He
heard his startled exclamation as he
bent over Joan. In another lull of the
wind there came from out of the mass
of furs on the sledge the wailing, half
smothered voice of baby Joan.
A deep sigh of relief heaved up from
Kazan's chest. He was exhausted.
His strength was gone. His feet were
torn and bleeding. But the voice of
baby Joan filled him with a strange
happiness, and he lay down in his
traces, while the man carried Joan and
the baby into the life and warmth of
the cabin.
A few minutes later the mar reap
peared. He was not old, like Pierre
Radisson. He came close to KaZan,
and looked down at him.
MY Cod" he said. And you did
that-alone!
He bent down fearlessly, unfastened
him from the traces, and led him
tated but once-almost on the thresh-
old. He turned his head, swift and
alert. From out Of the moaning and
wailing of the storm it seemed to him
that for a moment he had heard the
voice of Gray Wolf.
Then the cabin door closed behind
him.
Back in a shadowy corner of the
cabin he lay, while the man prepared
something over a hot stove for Joan.
1t was a long time before Joan rose
from the cot on which the man had
placed her. After that KaZan heard
her sobbing; and then the man made
her eat, and for a time they talked.
Then the stranger hung up a big blan-
ket in front of the bunk, and sat down
close to the stove. Quietly Kazan
slipped along the wall, and crept I'M
der the bunk. For a long time he
could hear the sobbing breath of the
girl. Then all was still.
The next morning he slipped out
through the door when the man opened
it, and sped swiftly into the forest.
Half a mile away he found the trail
of Gray Wolf, and called to her. From
the frozen river came her reply, and
he went to her.
Vainly Gray Wolf tried to lure him
back into their old haunts-aWay
from the cabin and the scent of man.
Late that morning the man harnessed
his dogs, and from the fringe of the
forest Kazan saw him tuck Joan and
the baby among the furs on the sledge,
as old Pierre had done. All that day
he followed in the trail of the team,
with Gray Wolf sinking behind him.
They Travelled until dark; and then,
under the stars and the moon that had
followed the storm, the man still urged
on his team. 1t was deep in the night
when they came to another cabin, and
the man beat upon the door. A light,
the opening of the door, the joyous
welcome of a mans voice, Joan's sob.
bling cry-Kazan heard these from the
shadows in which he "a hidden, and
then slipped pack to Gray Wolf.
In the days and weeks that followed