Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1921-05-05
CHAPTER "


snowbird felt very glad OF her init.
mate. accurate knowledge Of the
whole region OF the Divide. In her IN.
fancy the winding trnIls had been Der
playground. and long ago she had nc.
qulred the mountaineer's sixth sense
for trayersing them at night She had
need Of that knowledge now. She
slipped into her free. swinging stride;
and the Inst beams from the windows
OF the house were soon lost IN the
pines behind her. II was one Of those
silent, GREATNESS nights with which
no mountaineer IL entirely unacquain,.
ed. and for a long time the only sound
she could hear was her own Hoft
tramp 10 the pine needles. The trees
themselves were motionlcsa. 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 tins stories
tell that certain tcndcrfeet dying OF
thirst 10 the barren hills. have been.
But she always liked the sound; and
She missed Il especially tonight
She felt that II she would stop to
listen. there would be many faint
sounds IN the thickets- those little
hushed noises that the wild things
make 10 remind night.wandercFs. Of
their presence. But she did not ia
tho least caro- TO hear these sounds.
They 90 not tend toward peace Of
mind on long walk over the ridges.
The wilderness began az once.
Whatever influence toward civlliza.
ton her fathers house had brought 70
The wiids chopped on as beneath q
blade In the first fringe Of pines This
10 altogether Characteristic OF the Ore.
gon forests They arc much too bis
and too old 10 be tanned 10 any large
degree by the presence cf one house.
No one knew this fact better than
Lennox himself who. IN a hard win,
ter Of four yeara before, had looked
out Of bis window to flnd the walf
pack ranged IN hungry circle about
his house. Within two hundred yards
after she had passed through her IN.
theirs door. she was perfectly aware
that the Wild was stirring and thrOb.
bling with life about her. AT fiFat she
tried very hard TO think Of other
things. Bot the attempt wasn't en-.
tirely n success. Ard 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.
sciousness began to make an entrance,
n person Hes siIIl long enough. be
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 az last.
II WINS this way with a very peculiar
noise that crept 10 through the silence
from the trall behind her. She
wouldn't give II any heed az first. But
In very little while indeed. Il grew
so inslstent that she could no longer
disregard It.
Some living creature was trotting
along on tho trail behind. Keeping ap-
proximately the same distance be-
tween them.
Foregoing any attempt 10 ignore 4,
she set her cool young mind TO think
ing what manner OF beast II might be.
It's 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 Il might be. had az
ilrst seemingly moved with utmost
caution. but now took less care with
It's step than II customary with the
wild denizens of the woods. A wolf,
for instance. can simply drift when II
wishes. and the silence OF q cougar Ii
a name. Yet unless her pnrsner we're
q 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
benr, suddenly curious as to whai@thls
dim light Of hers might be; hui 30
couldn't bring herself to accept the
lie. Wool. except when wounded or
cornered. Is the most amiable crea-
ture In the Oregon woods. aud It
would give her almost sense Of Sc
curity to have him waddline along
behind her. The wolves and cougar.
remembering the arms Of Wool. would
not be nearly so curious. But unfor-
funately. the black bear had never
done such thing in the memory Of
man, and II he had, he would have
made six times as much noise He
can 90 fairly softly when be is stalk.
ing, but when he is Obliged to frot--
as he would he obliged to do to keen
up with o swift-waikiDg human figure
he cracks twigs like rolling log.
She had the impression that the ami
NAL behind had been passlng like
smoke at FIRST bur wasn't taking the
trouble to do It now.
The sound was a soft pnt-pnt on the
trail--sometimes entirely 0blIterated
but always recurring when she began