Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1918-03-08
She Had Faith That He Would Come.

ing of Kazan and his capture by Sandy
McTrigger. For hours after the shot
she crouched in the bush back from
the river, waiting for him to come to
her. She had faith that he would
come, as he had come thousand
times before, and she lay close on her
belly, shifting the air, and whining
when it brought no scent of her mate.
Day and night were alike an endless
chaos of darkness to her now, but she
knew when the sun went down. She
sensed the first deepening shadows of
evening, and she knew that the stars
were out, and that the river lay in
moonlight. 1t was night to roam,
md after a time she moved restless
ly about in a small circle on the plain,
md sent out her first inquiring call
for Kazan. Up from the river came
he pungent odor of smoke, and in
,tinctively she knew that it was this
smoke, and the nearness of man, that
vas keeping Kazan from her. But
She went no nearer than that first cir.
lie made by her padded feet. Blind
less had taught her to wait. Since
he day of the battle on the Sun Rock,
when the lynx had destroyed her eyes,
kazan had never failed her. Three
line she called for him in the early
light. Then she made herself a nest
lnder banskian shrub, and waited
lntil dawn.
Just how she knew when night blot
ed out the last glow of the sun, SO
without seeing she knew when day
,ame. Not until she felt the warmth
IF the sun on her back did her anxiety
overcome her caution. Slowly she
moved toward the river smiling 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 a little she scrambled
down and went straight to the spot
where she and Kazan were drinking
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-smell 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 SUBJ
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. II
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 II 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.
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.
ground-mouse rustled through the
grass close to her forepaws, and she
snapped at 1t, and closed her teeth
on rock. The muscles of her Shout
ders twitched TREMENDOUSLY and she
shivered rs If stricken by intense cold.
She was terrified by the darkness that
shut out the world from her, and shs
paved ut her closed eyes. as If she
might open them to light.
ITO he C0ntin ed \