Gilpin observer., 1918-01-03
CHAPTER v-continued.

felt the terror and the pain of the
dsath-grip, and with a mighty effort he
flung his head little forward and
snapped blindly. His powerful jaws
closed on the VOLTS foreleg, close to
the body. There was a cracking Of
bone and crunching Of flesh, and the
circle of waiting wolves grew tense and
alert. One or the other of the fighters
was sure to 60 down before the holds
were broken, and they but awaited
that fatal fall as q signal to leap in
to the death.
Only the thickness Of hair and hide
on the back Of Kazan's neck, and the
toughness of his muscles, saved him
from that terrible fate of the van
Quished. The VOLTS teeth sank deep,
but not deep enough to reach the vital
spot, and suddenly Kazan put every
ounce of strength in his limbs to the
effort, and flung himself up bodily from
under his antagonist. The grip on his
neck relaxed, and with another rearing
leap he tore himself free.
AS swift as q whip-lash he whirled
on the broken-legged leader of the pack
and with the full rush and weight of
his shoulders struck him fairly in the
side. More deadly than the throat-grip
had Kazan sometimes found the lunge
when delivered at the right moment. 1t
was deadly now. The big gray wolf
lost his feet, rolled upon his back for
an instant, and the pack rushed in,
eager to rend the last of life from the
leader whose power had ceased to
exist.
From out of that gray. snarling,
bloody-ipped mass, Kazan drew back,
painting and bleeding. He was weak.
There was a curious sickness in his
head. He wanted to lie down in the
snow. But the old and infallible in
stinct warned him not to betray that
weakness. From out of the pack a slim,
1.-THE, gray she-wolf came up to him,
and lay down in the snow before him,
and then rose swiftly and shifted at his
wounds.
She was young and strong and beau
tiful, but Kazan did not look at her.
Where the fight had been he was look
Ing, at what little remained of the old
leader. The pack had returned to the
feast. He heard again the cracking of
bones and the rending of flesh, and
something told him that thereafter all
the wilderness would hear and recog-
nize his voice, and that when he sat
back on his launches and called to the
moon and the stars, those swift-footed
hunters of the big plain would respond
to it. He circled twice about the carl
ibou and the pack, and then trotted Off
to the edge of the black spruce forest.
When he reached the shadows he
looked back. Gray Wolf was following
him. She was only few yards be-
hind. And now she came up to him, q
little timidly, and she, too, looked back
to the dark blotch of life out on the
lake. And rs she stood there close be-
side him, KaZan shifted at something
in the air that was not the scent of
blood, nor the perfume of the balsam
and spruce. 1t was thing that seemed
to come to him from the clear stars,
the cloudless moon. the strange and
beautiful quiet of the night itself. And
Its presence seemed to be q part of
Gray Wolf.
He looked at her, and he found Gray
VOLTS eyes alert and questioning. She
was young-so young that she seemed
scarcely TO have passed out of puppy
+ hood. Her body was strong and slim
\ and beautifully shaped. In the moon
light the hair under her throat and
along her back shone sleek and soft.
She whined at the red staring light In
Kazans eyes, and 1t was not puppy's
whimper. Kazan moved toward her,
and stood with his head over her back,
facing the pack. He felt her trembling
against his chest. He looked at the
moon and the stars again, the mystery
of Gray Wolf and Of the night throb-
bing in his blood.
Not much Of his life had been spent
Mt the posts. Most of 1t had been on
the trail in the traces = and the
spirit Of the mating season had only
stirred him from afar. But 1t was very
near now. Gray Wolf lifted her head.
Hef soft nuzzle touched the wound on
his heck. and in the gentleness Of that
touch, in the low sound In her throat,
Kaznn felt and heard again that won
derful something that had come with
the caress of the womnn's hand and
the sound Of her voice.
He turned, whining, his back bris-
sling, his head high and defiant Of the
upilderness which hs faced. Gray Wolf