The Jasper news. [volume] (Jasper, Missouri) 1898-1924, 1921-06-30
CHAPTER II-contlnued.


ten o'clock. "The sun is warm enough
60 that we won't need much Of hre.
And we'll try to get five hours sleep.
TOO long, II we're going to make II
out" Lennox objected.
THAT leaves a workday of nineteen
hours" Dan persisted. mot any TOO
little. Five hours 1t will be-"
He found where the snow had drift
ed against a great, dead log. leaving
the white covering only a foot IN
depth on the lee side. He began to
scrape the snow away, then hacked at
the log with his ak until he had pro-
cured a piece of comparatively dry
wood from its center. They all stood
breathless while he lighted the nttle
pile Of kindling and heaped 1t win
green wood-the only wood procur-
able. But It didn't burn freely. II
smoked fitfully, threatening to die out
and emitting very little heat.
But they didn't. particularly care.
The sun was warm above, as always
In the mountain winters of southern
Oregon. Snowbird and Dan cleared
spaces beside the fire and slept. Len
nox, who had rested on the journey,
lay on his sled and with his uninJured
arm tried to hack enough wood from
the saplings that Dan had cut TO keep
the fire burning.
At three they got up, still tired and
aching in their bones from exposure.
Twenty-fOur hours had passed since
they had tasted food, and their unre-
plenished systems complained. There
Is no better engine in the wide world
than the human body. 1t will stand
more neglect and abuse than the finest
steel motors ever made by the hands
of craftsmen. A man may fast many
days If he lies quietly in one place
and keeps warm. But fasting Is a
deadly proposition while pulling
sledges over the snow.
Dan was less hopeful now. His face
told what his words did not. The
lines cleft deeper about his lips and
eyes; and Snowbird's heart ached
when he tried to encourage her with
a SMILE 1t was wan, strange smile
that couldn't quite hide the first sick
ness of despair.
The shadows quickly lengthened-
simply leaping over the snow from the
fast-fnlling sun. The twilight deep
ened, the snow turned gray, and then,
in a vague way, the journey began to
partake of a quality of unreality. 1t
was not that the cold and the snow
and their hunger were not entirely
real, or that the wilderness was !
longer naked TO their eyes. 1t was just
that their whole effort seemed like
some dreadful. unburdened journey in
a dream-a stumbling advance under
difficulties too many and real to be
true.
The first sign was the far-off cry
of the wolf pack. 1t was very faint
simply a stir in the eardrums, yet Il
was entirely clear. That clear, colo
mountain air was n perfect telephone
system, conveying a message distinct
ly, no matter how family. Their,
were no tall buildings or cities to dis
turb the ether waves. And all .hret
of them knew at the same instant 4
was not exactly the cry they hat
heard before.
They couldn't have told just why
even If they had wished to. talk abou
It. In some dim way. It had lost tn,
strange quality of despair 1t had hell
before. II was as If the pack wer,
running with renewed life, that eacl
wolf was calling TO another with
dreadful sort of eXultation. II was al
excited cry, too-not the long, sat
song they had learned to listen for. /
sounded Immediately behind them.
They couldn't help but listen. N
human ears could have shut out tn
sound. But none of them pretende,
that they had heard. And this was tn
worst sign Of all. Each one of tn
three was hoping against hope in hi
very heart; and at the same time, hor
Ing that the others did not understand
For long time, as the darkness
deepened about them. the forests wer
still Perhaps, Dan thought, he ha
been mistaken after all. His shoulder
strai3htened. Then the chorus blare
again.
The man looked back at the cir
smiling into her eyes. Lennox lay q
II asleep, the lines Of his dark fac
curiously pronounced. And the cir
because she was Of the mountains
body and soul, answered Dams smil,
Then they knew that all of them kne
the truth. Not even an. inexperience
ear could have any delusions abor
the pack song now. It was that OLE