Williams news., 1921-07-29
The Voice of the Pack By EDISON MARSHALL
By EDISON MARSHALL

 I she knew-a wild, sobbing figure in | the darkness.
 She's only got one shot more," he said He knew how many bullets her pistol carried; and the danger-what- ever it was-muSt be just at hand. Un- derbrush cracked beneath him. And
 then the horse drew up with a jerk that almost hurled him from the sad dle
 He dashed at her in vain. She was
 not afraid in the darkness and the
 rocks of the trail, but some Terror in the woods in front had in an instant broken his control over her. She reared, snorting; then danced in an
 impotent circle. Meanwhile, precious seconds were fleeing.
 He understood now. The horse stood still, shfvering beneath him, but would not advance a step. The silence deepened. Somewhere in the dark ness before him a great cougar was waiting by the trail, and Snowbird, hoping for the moment that it had given up the chase, was hastening through the shadows squarely into its ambush.
 Whisperfoot crouched lower: and again his long serpent of tail began
 
 precedes his leap. He had not forgot ten the wild rapture of that moment he had inadvertently sprung on Landy Hildreth-or how, after his terror had died, he had come creeping back. He hunted his own way, waiting on the trail; and his madness was at it's height. He was not just Whisperfoot the coward, that runs at the shadow of a tall form in the thfckets. The consummatfon was complete, and that single experience of a month before had made of him a hunter of men. His muscles set for the leap.
 So intent was he that his keen senses didn't detect the fact that there was a curious echo to the girls footsteps. Dan Failing had slipped down from his terrified horse and was running up the trail behind her. pray ing that he could be in time.
 Snowbird heard the pat, pat of his feet; but at first she did not dare to hope that aid had come to her. She had thought of Dan as on the far away marshes; and her father, the only other living occupant of this part of the Divide, might even now be ly- ing dead in his house. In her terror. she had lost all power of interpreta- ton of events. The sound might be the cougars mate, or even the wolf pack, Jealous of his game. Sobbing, she hurried on into Whisperfoot's am. bush
 Then she heard a voice, and 1t seem- ed to be calling to her. "Snowbird- I'm coming, Snowbird" a mans strong voice was shouting. She whirled with a sob of thankfulness.
 At that instant the cougar Sprang.
 Terrified though she was, Snow birds refexes had kept sure and true. Even as the great cat leaped, long, 1.-the shadow out of the shadow, her finger pressed back against the trigger of her pistol. She had been carry ing her gun in front of her, and she fired if. this last time, with no con- scious effort. It was just a last fn- stinctive effort to defend herself
 One other element affected the fs- sue. She had whfrled to answer Dams cry just as the cougar left the ground. But she had still been in range The only effect was to lessen, in some de- gree, the accuracy of the spring. The bullet caught the beast in mid-air: but even if it had reached its heart, | the momentum of the attack was too | great to be completely overcome. l Snowbird only knew that some vast, | resistless power had struck her, and i that the darkness seemed to roar and l explode about her.
 Hurled to her face in the trail. she | did not see the cougar sprawl on the earth beside her. The flame in the | lantern almost f1icked out as it fell from her hand, then flashed up and down. from the deepest gloom to a vivid glare with something of the ef- feet of lightning fifckering in the sky. Nor did she hear the first frenzied hrashing of the wounded animal. Kindly unconsciousness had fallen, ob- scuring this and also the sight of the great cat, in the agony of it's wound, with broken shoulder and pared claws across the pine needles oward her defenseless body
 CTO BE CONTINUED)