The daily Alaskan., 1922-04-25

game thai tAe pack had ever laced. the leader chose to make the first leap himself. II was true that these two had neither such horns nor razor edged hOofs as the elk, yer they had eyes that chilled his heart when he tried to look al them. But one was lying almost prone and the fire was out. Besides the madness of starya. ton. intensified ten times by their ter. rible realization of the wound at her hip, was upon the pack as never be fore. The muscles punched al his lean Hanks.
 But as Snowbird and her father gazed at him In fascinated horror. the great wolf suddenly smashed down h the snow. She was aware of It's curl ous, utter collapse actually before the sound of the rifle shot that occasIoned it had penetrated her consciousness. It was a perfect shot at long range; and for a long Instant her tortured faculties. refused to accept the truth.
 Then the rife spoke again, and & sec ond woIf-a large male that crouched on the other side of the sled-felI kick ing in the snow. The pack had leaped forward al the first death; but they halted at the second. And then ter TOT came to them when the third wolf suddenly opened It's savage lips and screamed In the deaSh agony.
 Up to this time except for the re- port of the rife, the attack had been made in utter silence. The reason was Just that both breath and nervous force are needed to shout; and Dan Failing could afford to waste neither of these vital forces. He had dropped to his knee. and was firing again and again. his gray eyes looking clear and straight along the barrel his fingers without jerk or tremOr pressing again and again at The trigger, his hands holding the rifle as In wise. Every nerve and muscle were completely In his command. The distance was far, yet he shot with deadly, amazing ac- curacy. The wolves were within few feet of the girl and fractlon's waver fin the gun barrel might have sped his bullet toward her,
 Its Dan Failing" LennOx shouted az the fourth wolf died.
 Then Snowhird snatched her pistol from her fathers hand and opened fire. The two shells were no longer needed to free herself and her father from the agony of fangs She took careful aim, and although pistol Is never as sc- curate or as powerful as rife she killed one wolf and wounded another.
 Frenzird in their Savagcry. three or four Of the remaining wolves leaped at the body Of one of the wounded; but the others scattered in all direC. lions Still Dan fired with the same un- belfpyube accuracy. and still the wolves died in the snow. The girl md the man were screaming now In the frenzipd joy Of delIyeranCe. The wolves scurrled franticaily among the trees: and some of them unknowlngly ran full In the face of their enemy, to be shot down without mercy. Aud few indeed were those that escaped to collect on a distant ridge. and, per hups, to be haunted in dream by ( death that came out of the shadows to blast the pack.
 Again the pack song would be de spalring and strange In the winter nIghts-that age old chant Of Famine and Fear and the long wur of exist enCe with only Death and Darkness in the end. And because it Is the voice Of the wilderness Itself, the tender foot that camps ln the evergreen for est will listen, and his talk will die at his lips, and he will have the begin ulngs of knowledge. And perhaps he will wonder if God has given him the thews and fiber 10 meet the wilderness breast to breast as Dan had met 1t; to remain and to fight and to conquer. And thereby his metal will be tested In the eyes of the Red Gods.
 Snowbird stood waiting in the snow, arms stretched 10 her forester as Dan came running through the wood. But his arms were wider yet, and she went softly Into them.
  Concluded in our next