Williams news., 1922-11-10
Copyrisht by Little. Brown ( G.

triangle where a buck had stepped and further away he found two pairs of deer tracks-evidently those of a doe with fawn. A wolf had stopped to cool his heated tongue in the wa ters. possibly in the middle of some terrible hunt in the twilight hours.
 Then he found a huge abrasion in the mud that puzzled him still more At the first he couldn't believe that it was a track The reason was sim ply that the size of the thing was in credible-as if some one had laid four sack in the mud and taken it up again. He did not think of any of the moderately forest creatures as being of such proportions. It was very stale and had been almost oblit- erated by many days of sun. Perhaps he had been mistaken in thinking it an imprint of a living creature. He went to his knees to examine it.
 But in one instant he knew that he had not been mistaken. It was track not greatly different from that of an enormous human foot; and the separate toes were entirely distinct It was a bear track, of course. but one of such size that the general run of little black bears that inhabited the hills could almost use it for den or nlDoTnaClOn!
 He got up and went on-farther toward Trails End. He walked more swiftly now, for he hoped to reach the end of Pine-Needle Trail before nightfall, but he had no intention of halting in case night came upon him before he reached it. He had waited too long already to find Linda.
 Another hour ended the days sun light. The shadows fell O11icE1v hJ1t it was long time yet until darkness He yet might make the trail-end. He gave no thought to fatigue. In the first place, he had stood up remark ably well under the days tramp for no other reason than that he had al- ways made point of keeping in the best of physical condition. Besides there was something more potent than mere physical strength to sustain him now. It was the realization of the nearing end of the trail-a knowl- edge of tremendous revelations that would come to him in a few hours more
 Already great truths were taking shape in his brain; he only needed a single sentence of explanation to con- meet them all together. He began to feel a growing excitement and inn patience.
 It was quite dark now; and he could barely see the trail For the Whole sceHe was lad out in mystery below him.
 The fire had been built at the door of perhaps four rooms. The firelfght played in its open doorway. Some thing beside it caught his attention, and instinctively he followed it with his eyes until it ended in an incred- ible region of the stars. It was great pine tree, the largest he had ever seen-seemingly a great sentinel over all the land
 But the sudden awe that came over him at the sight of it was cut short by the sight of a girls figure in the frelight He had an instant's sense that he had come to the wilderness heart at last, that this tall tree was its symbol, that if he could under stand the eternal watch that it kept over this mountain world, he would have an understanding of all things but all these thoughts were submerged in the realization that he had come back to Linda at last.
 He had known how the mountains would seem. All that he had beheld today was just the recurrence of things beheld long ago. Nothing had seemed different from what he had expected; rather he had sense that 8 lost world had been returned to him. and 1t was almost as if he had never been away. But the girl in the fire light did not answer in the least de gree the picture he had carried of Linda.
 He remembered her as blond headed little girl with irregular fea- lures and a rather unrea sonable al- lowance of homeliness. All the way he had thought of her as a baby sis ter-not as a woman in her flower For a long second he gazed at her in speeches. amazement
 Her hair was no longer blond. True. it had peculiar red lights when the firelight srone through T; but he knew by the light of day it would be deep brown He remembered her as an awkward little thing that was hardly able to keep her feet under her. This tall girl had the wilderness grace-which is the grace of a deer and only blind eyes cannot see 1t. He dimly knew that she wore a khaki coicred skirt and a simple blouse of white tied with blue scarf. Her arms were bare In the fires Gleam.