Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1918-01-18

1
both desires the wolf blood that wa
strong In him rose responsibility. 1t told
| him that somewhere in this silent
world between the two ridges there
vas c0mpanionship, and that all he
| had to do to find it was to sit back on
his launches, and cry out his loneli.
ness. More than once something trem.
bled In his deep chest, rose In his
throat, and ended there in whine. II
was the wolf howl. not yer quite born
Food came more easily than voice.
Toward midday he cornered big
white rabbit under log. and killed it.
The warm flesh and blood was better
than frozen fish, or tallOw and bran.
and the feast he had gave him conf
dence. That afternoon he chased many
rabbits, and killed two more. Until
now, he had never known the delight Of
pursuing and killing at will, even
though he did not eat all he killed.
But there was no fight in the rab-
bits. They died too easily. They were
very sweet and tender to eat, when he
was hungry, but the first thrill of kill
Ing them passed away after time. He
wanted something bigger. He no long
er skunk along as IL he were afraid. or
as IT he wanted to remain hidden. He
held his head up. His back bristled.
His tail swung free and bushy, like a
VOLTS. Every hair in his body quiv-
cred with the electric energy of life
and action. He travelled north and
west. It was the call of early days
the days away up on the Mackenzie.
The Mackenzie was thousand miles
away.
He came upon many trails in the
snow that day, and shifted the scents
left by the hOcfs of moose and caribou,
and the fur-padded feet of a lynx. He
followed fox. and the trail led him to
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 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
1t 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 a strange new note in IL,
and it gave him still greater confidence.
He had expected an answer, but none
came. He had travelled in the face of
the wind. and as he howled, a bull
moose crashed through the scrub tim
Der 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 a rough ridge, and turned up
out Of the swamp to the top of it. The
stars and the moon were nearer to him
there, and on the other side of the
ridge he looked down upon a great
sweeping plain, with frozen lake glis.
tening In the moonlight, and a 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
or 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 coll
The other came an hour later, clear
and distinct, that same wailing howl at
The beginning-but ending in a staccatO
Of quick sharp yelps that stirred his
blood at once into fiery excitement
that it had never known before. The
same instinct told him that this was
EhescpAwthe hunt-cry. 1t urged him to
come quickly. Xaew moments later IT
came again, and this time there was a
reply from close down along the foot
Of the ridge, and another from so far
away that Kazan could scarcely hear
t. The hunt-pack was gathering for
he night chase; but Kazan sat quiet
and trembling.
He was not afraid, but he was not
'eady to go. The ridge seemed to split
he world for him. Down there it was
lew, and strange, and without men.
From tho nthar aldo cnmothiuU oaa,pad