Williams news., 1921-05-20

long smothered in cities, but sure and | true as ever. It was the beginning 1 of regeneration. Voices of the long | past were speaking to him. and the | Failings once more had begun to run true to form. Inherited tendencies were in a moment changing this weak, diseased youth into . frontiersman and wilderness inhabitant such as his ancestors had been before him. They were slipping along over the pine needles. their eyes intent on the trail ahead. And then Lennox saw a
 curious thing. He beheld Dan sud
 denly stop in the trail and turn his
 eyes toward a heavy thicket that lay
 perhaps one hundred yards to their
 right. For an instant he looked al-
 most like a wild creature himself. Ills
 head was lowered. as if he were lis
 tening. His muscles were set and
 ready.
 Lennox had prided himself that he
 had retained all the powers of his five
 senses, and that few men in the noun
 tains had keener ears than he. Yet
 1t was truth that at first he only knew
 the silence, and the stir and pulse of
 his own blood. He assumed then that
 Dan was watching something that from his position, twenty feet behind,
 u0 COuIO HOl Sce- 1e ITleu UO pTODc
 the thickets with his eyes.
 Then Dan whispered. Ever so soft
 a sound, but yet distinct in the si. fence. There's something living in that thicket"
 Then Lennox heard 1t, too. As they
 stood still, the sound became ever clearer and more pronounced. Some living creature was advancing toward them; and twigs were cracking be- meath Its feet. The sounds were rath- CT subdued, and yet, as the animal ap- preached, both of them instinctfveIy knew that they were extremely loud for the usual footsteps of any of the wild creatures
 "What is it?'' Dan asked quietly.
 Lennox was so intrigued by the sounds that he was not even observ-- ant of the peculiar, subdued quality | have wondered at 1t. 'T'm free to | confess I don't know" he said. Its | booming right toward us, like most | animals don't care to do. Of course | 1t may be a human being. You must | watch out for that"
 They waited The sound ended. They stood straining for a long mo- ment without speech.
 'That was the tiumdest thfngr Lennox went on. "Of course 1t might have been a bear-you never know what they're going to do. It might have got sight of us and turned of. But can't believe that 1t was just a 1eer&'
 But then his words chopped square y off in his throat The plodding ad- vance commenced again. And the lext instant a gray form revealed It. ,n1f a fho e<70p 0f fho fhfcEQt l
 It was Graycoat the coyote. half blind with his madness, and des- ,erate in his agony.
 There was no more deadly thing in Ill the hills than he. Even the bite # rattlesnake would have been well .omed beside his. He stood a long and all his instincts and re- lexes that would have ordinarily made him flee in abject terror were hwarted and twisted by the fever of lis madness. He stared a moment at he two figures, and his red eyes could ot interpret them. They were simply oes, for it was true that when this acking agony was upon him, even , feless trees seemed foes sometimes Ie seemed eerie and unreal as he aged at them out of his burning eyes; nd the white foam gathered at his angs. And then, wholly without he charged down at them. .
 He came with unbelievable speed. he elder Lennox cried once in warn 1g and cursed himself for ventur- f lg forth on the ridge without a gun. Q [e was fully twenty feet distant from T an; yet he saw in an instant his nly course. This was no time to 'ust their lives to the craftsmanship an amateur. He sprang toward an, intending to wrench the weapon 'om his hand. But he didn't achieve his purpose. t the first step his foot caught in rejecting root, and he was shot to $ face on the trail. But a long life
 the wilderness had developed Lem )x's reflexes to an abnormal degree; any crises had taught him muscle Id nerve control; and only for a action of instant, period of me that few instruments are fine tough to measure, did he lie supfnely ,on the ground. He rolled on, into position of defense. But he knew w he could not reach the younger an before the mad coyote would be ,on them. The matter was out of s hands. Everything depended on e aim and self-control of the tender ot.