The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1921-04-07
| The Voice of the Pack
BY EDISON MARSHALL
BY EDISON MARSHALL
Copyright. 1920. by Little. Brown g. Co.

~ NNAOs ot0Nh |" ~
with a steel cable, but an ordinary
line or leader breaks like a cobweb.
When his majesty the steelhead takes
the fly and decides to rum. IL can be
learned after a time that the one
thing hat may be done is to let out all
the line and with prayer and humble
ness try to keep up with him.
Dan no longer wore his glasses
Every day his eyes had strengthened.
lie could see more clearly now, with
his unaided eyes, han he had ever
seen before with the help of the lens.
ana the moonlight came down through
a rift In the trees and showed that his
face had changed, too. 1t was no
longer so white. The eyes were more
intent. The lips were %straighter.
It's been two months" Silas Len
o told him, half the four that you
gave yourself after you arrived kere.
n you're twice as good now as when
you came"
Dan nodded. "Twicei Ten times
as good i was a wreck when | came.
Today / climbed halfway up Badly
within a half mile of Snowbird's cab
in-without stopping to rest"
Lennox looked thoughtful. More
than once, of late, Dan had climbed up
toward Snowbird's cabin. 1t was true
that his guest and his daughter had
become the best of companions In the
months; but on second thought,
Lennox was not In the least afraid of
complications. The love of the noun
tain ONE does not go out to phys
ical Interiors. whoever gets her."
he had said, will have to tame her."
and his words still held good. The
mountain women rarely mistook a ma
ternal tenderness for an appealing
man for love. Il wasn't that Dan was
weak except from the ravages of his
disease; but he was still a long way
from Snowbird's ideal. Although Dan
had courage and that same rigid self
control that as'a an old quality in his
breed, he was still a long way from
a physically strong man. 1t was still
an even break whether he would ever
wholly ecove 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
spirit of the endless forest that
stretched In front Of the house. His
pipe had gone out, and for a long time
Lennox hadn't spoken. He seemed to
be straining too, with ineffective
senses, trying to recognize and name
the faint sounds that came so tingling
and tremulous out of the darkness. As
always, they heard the stir and rustic
of the, gnawing people; the chipmunks
in the shfubbery, the gophers who,
like blind misers, had ventured forth
from their dark burrows: and per-
haps even the scaly glide Of those
moSt-dreaded poison people that had
lairs in the rock piles.
Dan felt that at last the wilderness
itself vas speaking to him. He had
waited a long time to hear It's voice.
His thought went back to the wise
men of the ancient world, waiting to
hear the riddle of the universe from
the lips Of the Sphinx. and how he
himself-more in his unconscious self,
rather than conscious-had sought the
eternal riddle of the wilderness. He
had asked questions-never in the
form of words but only ineffable
warnings of his soul-and at last 1t
had responded. The strange rising
and falling song was It's own voice, the
articulation of the very heart and soul
of the wilderness.
Its the wolf pack" Lennox told
him softly. 1.-THE wolves have just
Joined together for the fall rutting."
"Then this means the end of the
summer?" Dan asked.
I'm a way. but yet we don't count
the summer ended until the rains
break. Heavens. I wish they would
startl I've never seen the hills so
dry, and I'm afraid that either Bert
Cranston or some-of his friends will
ey fighting forest fires. Dan I'm sus-
picious of that gang. I believe they've
got a regular arson ring, maybe with
INSCRIPTIONS stockmen behind them,
and perhaps just a penny-winning deal
of their own. ] suppose you know
about Landy Hlldreth-how he's prom
Used to TURF states evidence that viii
send about a dozen of these vipers to
the penltentiaryr
"Snowbird told me something about
It,"