Gilpin observer., 1918-03-21

| Just how she knew when night blot.
ted out the last glow Of the sun, SO
without seeing she know when day
came. Not until she felt the warmth
of the sun on her back did her anxiety
overcome her caution. Slowly she
moved toward the river. shifting the
air and whining. There was no longer
the smell of smoke in the air, and she
| could not catch the scent of man.
She followed her own trail back to
the sand-bar, and in the fringe Of
thick bush overhanging the white
shore of the stream she stopped and
listened. After little she scrambled
down and went straight to the spot
when the shot came. And there her
nose struck the sand still wet and
thick with Kazan's blood.
She knew it was the blood of her
mate, for the scent of him was all
about her in the sand, mingled with
the man-snlell of Sandy McTrigger.
She shifted the trail of his body to
the edge of the stream, where Sandy
had dragged him to the canoe. She
found the fallen tree to which he had
been tied. And then she came upon
one of the two clubs that Sandy had
used to beat wounded Kazan into sub,
missiveness. 1t was covered with blood
and hair, and all at once Gray Wolf
lay back on her launches and turned
her blind face to the sky, and there
rose from her throat cry for Kazan
that drifted for miles on the wings
of the south wind. Never had Gray
Wolf given quite that cry before. 1t
was not the "call" that comes with
the moonlit nights, and neither was
it the hunt-cry, nor the she-wolf's
yearning for matehood. 1t carried
with it the lament of death. And after
that one cry Gray Wolf skunk back to
the fringe Of bush over the river, and
lay with her face turned to the stream.
A strange terror fell upon her. She
had grown accustomed to darkness,
but never before had she been alone
in that darkness. Always there had
been the guardianship of Kazan's pres
ence. She heard the clucking sound
of spruce hen in the bush few
yards away, and now that sound came
to her as If from out of another world. |
A ground-mouse rustled through the |
grass close to her forepaws, and she |
snapped at it, and closed her teeth |
on q rock. The muscles Of her shoul- |
ders twitched tremulously and she |
shivered as If stricken by intense cold. |
She was terrified by the darkness that
shut out the world from her, and she
paved at her closed eyes, as if she
might open them to light.
Early in the afternoon she wandered
back on the plain. 1t was different.
1t frightened her. and soon she re-
turned to the beach, and snuggled |
down under the tree where KaZan had
lain. She was not so frightened here.
The smell of KaZan was strong about
her. For an hour she lay motionless,
with her head resting on the club clot-
ted with his hair and blood. Night |
found her still there. And when the
moon and the stars came out she
crawled back into the pit in the white
sand that Kazan's body had made un-
der the tree.
With dawn she went down to the
edge of the stream to drink. She
could not see that the day was almost
as dark as night, and that the gray
black sky was chaos of slumbering |
storm. But she could smell the pres
ence Of it in the thick air, and could
feel the forked flashes of lightning
that rolled up with the dense pail
from the south and west. The distant
rumbling of thunder grew louder, and
she huddled herself again under the
tree. For hours the storm crashed
over her. and the rain fell in deluge.
When 1t had finished she skunk out |
from her shelter like a thing beaten.
Vainly she sought for one last scent
Of Kazan. The club was washed clean.
Again the sand was white where
Kazan's blood had reddened 1t. Even
him left.
Until now only the terror Of being
alone In the pit Of darkness that en-.
veloped her had oppressed Gray Wolf.
With afternoon came hunger. It was |
this hunger that drew her from the |
sand-bar, and she wandered back into
the plain. A dozen times she scented |
game, and each time 1t evaded her. |
Even ground-mouse that she cor
nerct under root, and dug out with |
her paws, escaped her fangs.
Thirty-six hours before this Kazan |
and Gray Wolf had left half of their
last kill q mile or two farther back |
on the plain. The kill was one of the
big barren rabbits, and Gray Wolf
turned in Its direction. She did not
require sight to find 1t. In her was
developed to Its finest point that sixth
sense of the animal kingdom. the sense
OF orientation. and as straight as
pigeon might have winged its flight
she cut through the bush to the spot