Williams news., 1921-05-27
By EDISON MARSHALL
Copyright. 1920. by Little. Brown & Co


 I with steel cable, but an ordfnar,
 line or leader breaks like a cobweb l When his majesty the steelhead take. l the fly and decides to run, it can bt 1 learned after a time that the one thing that may be done is to let out al
 the line and with prayer and humble | ness try to keep up with him. l Dan no longer wore his glasses | Every day his eyes had strengthened He could see more clearly now, with
 his unaided eyes, than he had ever
 seen before with the help of the lens
 And the moonlight came down through
 a rift in the trees and showed that his
 face had changed, too. It was no
 longer so white. The eyes were more
 intent The lips were Straighter.
 It's been two months,'' Silas Len-
 nox told him, "half the four that you
 gave yourself after you arrived kere.
 And you're twice as good now as when
 you came"
 Dan nodded. "TwiceI Ten times
 as good! I was a wreck when I came
 Today I climbed halfway up Baldy- within a half mile of Snowbird's cab fn-without stopping to rest.'
 Lennox looked thoughtful. More than once, of late, Dan had climbed up toward SnOwbird's cabin. It was true that his guest and his daughter had become the best of companions in the two months; but on second thought, Lennox was not in the least afraid of complications. The love of the noun tain women does not go out to phys fcal interiors. Whoever gets her." he had said. twill have to tame her." and his words still held good. The
  ternal tenderness for an appealing man for love. It wasn't that Dan was weak except from the ravages of his disease; but he was still a long way from Snowbfrd's ideal. Although Dan had courage and that same rigid self control that was an old quality in his breed, he was still long way from a physically strong man. It was still an even break whether he would ever wholly recover from his malady.
 But Dan was not thinking about this now. All his perceptions had sharpened down to the finest focal point, and he was trying to catch the l spirit of the endless forest that l stretched in front of the house. His | pipe had gone out, and for long time | Lennox hadn't spoken. He seemed to De strafning too, with ineffective | senses, trying to recognize and name he faint sounds that came so tingling md tremulous out of the darkness As llways, they heard the stir and rustic 'f the gnawing people; the chipmunks | n the shrubbery, the gophers who, ike blind misers, had ventured forth rom their dark burrows; and per laps even the scaly glide of those nost-dreaded poison people that had airs fin the rock piles.
 Dan felt that at last the wilderness tself was speaking to him. He had waited a long time to hear its voice. lis thought went back to the wise 1en of the ancient world, waiting to ear the riddle of the universe from he lips of the Sphinx, and how he imself-more in his unconscious self, ather than consciouS-had sought the ternal riddle of the wilderness He ad asked Questions-never in the orm, of words but only ineffable of his soul-and at last 1t ad responded. The strange rising nd falling song was it's own voice, the of the very heart and soul f the wilderness. "It's the wolf pack" Lennox told ( lm softly. ''The wolves have just ] lined together for the fall rutting." ''Then this means the end of the Dan asked.
 ''In a way, but yet we don't count e summer ended until the rains . 'eak. Heavens, I wish they would 1 ; art! I've never seen the hills so = y, and I'm afraid that either Bert : or some of his friends will . eide it's time to make a little mon fighting forest fires Dan Pm sus- i; cious of that gang. I believe they've i, t a regular arson ring, maybe with . lscrupulous stockmen behind them, :, Id perhaps just penny-winnfng deal .
 their own. I suppose you know :. out Landy Hildreth-how he's prom f. ,d to turn states evidence that will nd about a dozen Of these vipers to e penitentfary?'
 'Snowbird told me something about