Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1921-10-27

nsountain breed, Lennox. kept 1t IN
my pocket where 1 could fight for It,
at any minute"
Cranston had been mistaken, after
all, in thinking that in fear Of himself
Dan would be afraid to keep the
packet on his person, and would crav-
enly conceal it in the house. He would
have been even more surprised to
know that Dan had lived in constant
hope of meeting Cranston on the
ridges, showing him what it contained,
and fighting him for It, hands to
hands. And even yet, perhaps the day
would come when Cranston would
know at last that Snowbird's words,
after, the fight Of long ago, were true.
The twilight was falling over the
snow, so Snowbird and Dan turned to
the toll of building a sled.
The snow was steel-gray in the
moonlight when the little party made
their start down the long trail. Their
preparations, simple and crude as they
were, had taken hours Of ceaseless
labor on the part of the three. The
ak, its edge dulled by the flame and
its handle burned away, had been
cooled in the snow, and with one
sound arm, LennOx had driven the hot
nails that SnOwbird gathered from
the ashes of one Of the outbuildings.
The embers of the house itself still
glOwed red in the darkness.
Dan had cut the green limbs of the
trees and planed them with his ak.
The sled had been completed, handles
attached for pushing it, and piece of
fence wire fastened with nails as a
rope to pull it. The warm mackinaws
Of both of them as well as the one
blanket that Lennox had saved from
the fire were wrapped about the old
frOntiersman's wasted body-Dan and
Snowbird hoping to keep warm by the
exercise of propelling the sled. Ex-
cept for the dull ak and the half
empty pistol, their only equipment
was a single charred pot for melting
snow that Dan had recovered from
the ashes of the kitchen.
The three had worked almost in
silence. Words didn't help now. They
wasted no sorely needed breath. But
they did have one minute to talk when
they got to the top Of the little ridge
that had overlooked the house.
"WeIl travel mostly at night" Dan
told them. 1--WE can see in the snow,
and by taking our rest in the daytime,
when the sun is bright and warm, we
can save our strength. We won't have
to keep such big fires then-and at
night our exertiOn will keep us as
warm as we can hope for Getting up
all night to cut green wood with this
dull ak in the snow would break us to
pieces very soon, for remember that
we haven't any food. know how to
build a fire even in the snow-es-
pecially if I can find the dead, dry
heart of a rotten log-but it isn't any
fun to keep it going with green wood.
We don't want to have to spend any
more of our strength stripping off wet
bark and hacking at saplings than we
can help; and that means we'd better
do our resting in the heat of the day.
After ALL it's a fight against starva-
ton more than anything else.'
"Just think" the girl told them, re-
preaching herself, '"if I had shot
straight at that wolf today, we could
have gone back and got his body. It
might have carried us through"
Neither of the others as much as
looked surprised at these amazing re-
grets over the lost, unsavory flesh Of
wolf. They were up against reall-
ties, and they didn't mince words.
Dan smiled at her gently, and his
great shoulder leaned against the
traces.
They moved through a dead world.
The ever-present manifestations Of
wild life that had been such a delight
to Dan in the summer and fall were
quite lacking now. The snow was
trackless. Once they thought they
saw a snowshoe rabbit, strange
shadow on the snow, but he was too
far away for SnOwbird to risk a pis-
tOl shot. The pound or two Of flesh
would be sorely needed before the
Journey was over, but the pistol car
trldges might be needed still more.
she didn't let her mind rest on certain
possibilities wherein they might be
needed. Such thoughts stole the cOur-
age from the spirit, and courage was
essential beyond all things else to
bring them through
AS the dawn came out, they all
stood still and listened to the wolf
pack, singing on the ridge somewhere
behind them.
1t was large pack. They couldn't
make out individual voices-neither
the more shrill cry of the females, the
yapping Of the cubs, or the low, clear
G-belOw-middle-C note of the males
IF they should cross our tracks"
LennOX suggested.
'No use worrying about that now
not until we come to It," Dan told
him.