Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1921-07-28
BY EDISON MARSHALL
oopyrIght. laa0. By Llttle. Brown 9 81

copyright, 1y1O by Little, Brown g. Co
with steel cable, but an ordinary
line or leader breaks like cobweb.
When his majesty the steelhead takes
the fly and decides to run, 1t can be
learned after time that the one
thing that 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.
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
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.
ITS 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. "Twice! Ten times
as good! l was a wreck when came
Today l 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
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
ical interiors. whoever gets her."
he had said will have to tame her."
and his words still held good The
mountain women rarely mistook ma
ternal tenderness for an appealing
man for love. 1t 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 was 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 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
spirit of the endless forest that
stretched in front of the house. His
pipe had gone out, and for 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 shrubbery, 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 was speaking to him. He had
waited a long time to hear its 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
yearnings of his soul-and at last it
had responded. The strange rising
and falling song was its own voice, the
articulation of the very heart and soul
of the wilderness.
"It's the wolf pack" Lennox told
him softly. ''The wolves have just
Joined together for the fall rutting.'
"Then this means the end of the
summer" Dan asked.
"In a way, but yet we don't count
the summer ended until the rains
break. Heavens, / wish they would
start! I've never seen the hills so
dry, and Tn afraid that either Bert
Cranston or some of his friends will
decide it's time to make a little mon
ey fighting forest fires. Dan, Tn sus-
picious of that gang. believe they've
got a regular arson ring, maybe with
INSCRIPTIONS stockmen behind them,
and perhaps just penny-winning deal
of their own. suppose you know
about Landy Hildreth-how he's prom.
Used to turn states evidence that will
send about a dozen of these vipers to
the penitentiary2"
"Snowbird told me something about
IT,"