Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1918-02-12
Copyright by the Bobbs-Msrrill Company
CHAPTER XVI.
Professor McGIlI.


of relaxation. There had been some
gambling, a few fights and enough
liquor to create excitement now and
then, but the presence of the mounted
police had served to keep things I'M
usually tame compared with events a
few hundred miles farther north, In the
Dawson country. The entertainment
proposed by Sandy McTrigger and Jan
Harker met with excited favor. The
news spread for twenty miles about
Red Gold City and there had never
been greater excitement In the town
than on the afternoon and night of the
big fight. This was largely because
Kazan and the huge Dane had been
placed on exhibition, each dog In
specially made cage of his own, and
fever of betting began. Three hundred
men, each of whom was paying five
dollars to see the battle, viewed the
gladlators through the bars of their
cages. Harker's dog was q cOmbina-
ton of Great Dane and mastiff, born In
the north, and bred to the traces. Bet
ting favored him by the odds of two to
At these odds there was plenty of Ka-
zan money. Those who were risking
their money on him were the older
wilderness men-men who had spent
their lives among dogs, and who knew
what the red light in Kazan's eyes
meant. An old Kootenay miner spoke
low in anothers ear:
n l. flx,. 111 dc
II had to. He'll fight all around the
Dane. The Dane won't have no
method"
'But he's got the weight" said the
other obviously. Look at his jaws,
an his shoulders"
"An' his big feet. an his soft throat,
an the clumsy thickness of his belly
interrupted the Kootenay man. "For
heavens sake, man take my word for
1t, an don't put your money on the
Daniel"
Others thrust themselves between
them. At first Kazan had snarled at
all these faces about him. But now
he lay back against the boarded side
of the cage and eyed them sullenly
from between his forepawS.
The fight was to be pulled Off in Har-
ker's place, combination of saloon
and cafe. The benches and tables had
been cleared out and In the center of
the one big room a cage ten feet square
rested on platform three and half
feet from the floor. Seats for the three
hundred spectators were drawn closely
around this. Suspended just above the
open top Of the cage were two big oil
lamps with glass refectors.
1t was eight o'clock when Harker,
McTrigger and two other men bore Ka-
IAN to the arena by means of the wood
en- bars that projected from the bottom
of his cage. The big Dane was already
in the fighting cage. He stood blinking
his eyes in the brilliant light of the
rejecting lamps. He pricked up his
ears when he saw Kazan. Kazan did
the expected animosity. 1t was the first
they had seen of each other, and MUIR
muir of disappointment swept the ranks
of the three hundred men. The Dane
remained as motionless as a rock when
Kazan was prodded from his own cage
into the fighting cage. He did not leap
or snarl. He regarded Kazan with a
dubious questioning poise to his splen-
did head, and then looked again to the
expectant and excited faces of the walt
ing men. For a few moments Kazan
stood stiff-legged, facing the Dane.
Then his shoulders dropped, and he,
too, coolly faced the crowd that had ex-
pected fight TO the death. A laugh of
derision swept through the closely seat
ed rows. Catcalls, jeering, taunts flung
at McTrigger and Harker, and angry
voices demanding their money back
mingled with tumult of growing dis
content. Sandy's face was red with
modification and rage. The blue veins
in Harker's forehead had swollen twice
their normal size. He shook his fist in
the face of the crowd, and shouted:
"Waiti Give 'em a chance, yor
foolsi"
At his words every voice was stilled
Kazan had turned. He was facing the
Dane. The Dane had turned his eyes
" 1Aa1dAi- OdubtOocAJf tPdA td AoA 9
lunge or a sidestep, Kazan advanced
little. The Danes shoulders bristled
He, too, advanced upon Kazan. -Four
feet apart they stood rigid. One coulC
have heard whisper in the room now
Sandy and Harker, standing close t.
the cage, scarcely breathed. Splendid
in every limb and muscle, warriors o
a hundred fights, and fearless to thu
point of DEATH the two half-wolf vic
tins of man stood facing each other
None could see the questioning look il
their brute eyes. None knew that il
this thrilling moment the unseen han'
of the wonderful Spirit God of the viii
derness lowered betweea them, AM
that one of its miracles was descendin
upon than. 1t was understanding
Meeting in the open-riyals in tn
traces-fhey would have been rollin
in the tproes of terrific battle. But her
con.a th4t ruufa anppaI of brotherhood