Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1918-01-15
CHAPTER xII-Continued.

p
One day he found little baby moe
casin under one of the closed win
blackened by snow and rain, but he
lay down beside 1t, and remained there
for long time, while the baby Joan
a thousand miles away-was playing
with the strange toys Of civilization.
Then he returned to Gray Wolf among
the spruce and balsam.
The cabin was the one place to
which Gray Wolf would not follow
him. At all other times she was at his
side. Now that she had become ac-
customed to blindness, she even &C
companied him on his hunts, until he
struck game, and began the chase.
Then she would wait for him. Kazan
usually hunted the big snow-shoe rab-
bits. But one night he ran down and
killed young doe. The kill was too
heavy to drag to Gray Wolf, so he re-
turned to where she was waiting for
him and guided her to the feast. In
many ways they became more and
more inseparable as the summer
heightened, until at last, through all
the wilderness, their footprints were
always two by two and never one by
one.
Then came the great fire.
Gray Wolf caught the scent of II
when 1t was still two days to the west
The moon, drifting into the west, be
came blood red. When 1t dropped be
hind the wilderness In this manner
the Indians called 1t the bleeding moon
and the air was filed with omens.
All the next day Gray Wolf wa,
nervous, and toward noon Kazar
caught in the air the warning that SHE
had sensed many hours ahead Of him
Steadily the scent grew stronger, anC
by the middle Of the afternoon the sur
was yelled by a film of smoke.
The flight Of the wild things from the
triangle of forest between the juno
lions of the Pipestone and Cree rivers
would have begun then. but the vino
shifted. 1t was fatal shift. The fire
was raging from the west and south
SThen the wind swept straight east
ward, carrying the smoke with 1t, anc
during this breathing spell all the wild
creatures In the triangle between the
two rivers waited. This gave the fire
time to sweep completely across the
base Of the forest triangle. cutting OF
the last trails Of escape.
Then the wind shifted again, and the
a ~ hn FRI
angle became death-trap. All through
the night the southern sky was filled
with lurid glow. and by morning the
heat and smoke and ash were sufrocat
Ing.
Panic-stricken, Kazan searched vain
fly for a means Of escape. Not for ar
instant did he leave Gray Wolf. II
would have been easy for him to swim
across either OF the two streams, fol
he was three-Quarters dog. But at the
first touch of water on her paws, Gray
Wolf drew back, shrinking. Like al
her breed, she would face fire ant
death before water. Kazan urged. A
dozen times he leaped In, and swan
out into the stream. But Gray Vol
would come no farther than she coulS
wade.
They could hear the distant murmur
ing roar Of the fire now. Ahead Of /
came the wild things. Moose, carbon
and deer plunged into the water Of tn,
streams and swan to the safety Of thu
opposite side. Out upon a white finge
of sand numbered big black bear witt
two cubs, and even the cubs took t,
the water, and swan across easily. Ka
Fan watched them, and whined to Ora,
Wolf.
And then out upon that white finge
of sand came other things that dreade'
the water as Gray Wolf dreaded it:
big fat porcupine, sleek little marter
a fisher-cat that shifted the air an
walled like child. Those things tina
could not or would not swim outnun
bered the others three to one. Hun
dreds of little ermine scurried alon
the shore like rats, their squeaking Iii
tie voices sounding necessarily; foxe
ran swiftly along the banks, seekin
a tree or a windfall that might bridg
the water for them; the lynx snarle
and faced the fire; and Gray Wolf
own tribe-the wolves-dared take n
deeper step IMAM she.
Dripping and painting, and hal
choked by heat and smoke, Kazan cam
to Gray VOLTS side. There was bu
one refuge left near them, and tina
was the sand bar. 1t reached out &c
fifty feet into the stream. Quickly
led his blind mate towe-d 1t. AS the
came through the low brush to tn
river bed. something stopped thel