The Dolores star., 1921-07-08
CHAPTER w.

Snowbird felt very glad of her inti-
mate, accurate knowledge of the
whole region Of the Divide. In her in
fancy the winding trails had been her
playground. and long ago she had ac-
luired the mountaineer's sixth sense
for traversing them at night. She had
need of that knowledge now. She
slipped into her free. swinging stride;
and the last beams from the windows
OF the house were soon lost in the
pines behind her. 1t was one of those
silent. breathless nights with which
no mountaineer is entirely unacquaint-
ed and for long time the only sound
she could hear was her own soft
tramp in the pine needles. The trees
themselves were motionless. That
peculiar sound, not greatly different
from that of running water which the
wind often makes IN the pine tops,
was entirely lacking. Not that she
could be deceived by it-as stories
tell that certain tenderfeet. dying of
thirst in the barren hills, have been.
But she always liked the sound; and
she missed it especially tonight
SHt ttit lllul II size WOutO STOP 10
listen. there would be many faint
sounds in the thickets-those little
hushed noises that the wild things
make TO remind night-wanderers of
their presence. But she did not in
the least care to hear these sounds.
They do not tend toward peace of
mind on long walk over the ridges
Whatever influence toward civiliza-
tion her fathers house had brought to
the wildS chopped off as beneath a
blade in the first fringe of pines. This
is altogether characteristic of the Ore
gon forests. They are much too big
and too old to be tanned in any large
'egree by the presence of one house.
No one knew this fact better than
Lennox himself who In hard win
ter of four years before, had looked
out of his window to find the wolf
pack ranged in Il hungry circle about
his house. Within two hundred yards
after she had passed through her ia
ther's door. she was perfectly aware
that the wild was stirring and throb-
bing with life about her AT first she
tried very hard to think of other
things. But the attempt wasn't en-
tirely a success. And before she had
covered the first of the twelve miles,
the sounds that from the first had
been knocking at the door of her con-
seriousness began to make an entrance.
If pert,Sn lies still long enough. he
can usually hear his heart beating
and the flow of his blood In his
arteries. Any sound, no matter how
faint will make itself heard at last.
it was this way with very peculiar
noise that crept up through the silence
from the trail behind her She
wouldn't give it any heed ut first. But
I'm very little while indeed, 1t grew
so insistent that she could no longer
disregard it.
Some living creature waB trotting
along on the trail behind, keeping ap-
proximately the same distance be-
tween them.
Foregoing any attempt to ignore it,
she set her cool young mind to think
ing what manner of beast it might be-
its step was not greatly different from
that of large dog-except possibly a
dog would have made slightly more
noise. Yet she couldn't even be sure
of this basic premise, because this
animal, whatever it might be, had at
first seemingly moved with utmost
caution. but now took less care with
its step than is customary with the
wild deniZens of the woods A wolf,
for instance, can simply drift when 1t
wishes. and the silence of a cougar is
name. Yet unless her pursuer were
n dog. which seemed entirely unlikely,
It was certainly one of these two. She
would have liked very much to believe
the step was that of Old Wolf the
bear, suddenly curious as to what this
dim light of hers might be; but she
couldn't bring herself to accept the
lie Woof. except when wounded or
cornereG. is the most amiable crea-
ture in the Oregon woods, and it
would give her almost sense of Sc
curity to have him waddling along
behind her. The wolves and cougar,
remembering the arms of Woof, would
not he nearly so curious. But unfor-
tunately. the black bear had never
done such thing in the memory of
man, and If he had. he would have
made six times as much noise. He
can go fairly softly when he is stalk
ing, but when he Is obliged to trot--
as he would be obliged to do TO keep
up with a swift-walking human figure
he cracks twigs like rolling log
She had the impression that the AMI
NAL behind had been passing like
smoke at first. but wasn't taking the
trouble to do 1t now.
The sound was soft pat-pat on the
trail-sometimes entirely obliterated
but always recurring when she began
to believe that she had only fancied
tn presence. Sometimes a twig, rain
M~ked though II was. cracked beneath