The daily Alaskan., 1922-04-01
Copyright, 1920, Little, Brown 4 oaupSayl


 ;laddening heart that Richards. one of the rangers. had been student at medical college and had taken a pO- sition with the forest service to re- galn hls health. She would cross the ridge to the station. phone for a doe tor In the valleys. and would return on horseback with Richards for such first aid as he could give. The only problem that remained was that of getting her father into the house.
 He was stirring a little now. Evi- dently consciousness was returning to him. And then she thanked heaveh for the few simple lessons in first aid that her father had taught her in the days before carelpSSness had cume upon hlm. One Of his lessons had been that of carrying an unconscious human form-a method by which even A woman may carry. for a ShOrr dis, tance. heavy man. It was GpprONi- matcly the method used In carrying wounded in No Mans Land; the body thrown over the SECulderS. one arm through the fork Of the legs to thS wounded maaS hand Her father wuS moi particularly heavy man. and Shr was an exceptionally strong young tramp in the pine needles The trees themselves were mOtlOnleSS. That peculiar sound, not greatly different from that of running water which the wind often makes In the pine tops was entirely lacking. Not that she could be deceived by It-as stories tell that certain tenderfeet. dying of thirst in rhe barren hills, have been. But she always liked the sound; and she missed lt especially tonight.
 She felt that If she would stop 10 listen. there would be many faint sounds In the IhlCkets-thoSe little huShed noises thul the wild things make to remind nlght-wandererS of their presence. But she did not tn the least care tO hear these sounds. They dc not tend toward peace of mind on long walk over the ridges
 The wilderness began nt once Whatever influence toward cIviIi2u ton her fathers house had brought to the wilds chopped off as beneath a blade ln the first fringe of pines. This is altogether characteristic Of the Ore gon forests. They are much too hit and too old to be tanned in any large degree by the presence of oue house. No one knew this fuCt better than Lennox himself who, in hard win ter of four years before, had looked out of his window tO find the wolf pack ranged in a hungry circle about his house. Within two hundred wards after she had passed through her ia ther'S door, she was perfectly 0war, that the wild was stirring and thrOh. ping with life about her. Al first she tried very hard to think of other things. But the attempt wasn't ell tIrely a success. And before she had covered the first of the twelve miles. the sounds that from the first had been knocking al the door Of her con seriousness began to make an entrance.
 If a person lies still long enough, he eau usually hear his heart beating and the flow of his blood iu his arteries. Any sound. no matter how faint. will make itself heard al last It WAS this way with very peculiar noise that crept up through the silence from the trail behind her. She wouldn't give il any heed ut first, But In a very little while indeed, it grew so lnsistent that she could no longer disregard It.
 Some living creature was trotting along on the trail behind, keeping ap- proximuteIy the same distance be- tween them.
 Foregoing any attempt to ignore k, she set her cool young mind to think ing what manner of beast it might be. It's step was DO, greatly different from that of a large dog-eXCept possibly dog would have made slightly more noise. Yet she couldn't even be sure of this basic premise because this animal, whatever it might be. had at first seemingly moved with utmost caution. but now took less care with it's step than Is customary with rhe wild dpnizenS of the woods. wolf, for Instance. can simply drift when 1t wishes. and the silence of cougar Is a name. Yet unless her purSuer were a dog. which seemed entirely unlikely, it was certainly one of these two. She would have liked very much to believe the step was that of Old Wolf the hear suddenly curious as to what this dim light of hers might be; but she couldn't bring herself to accept the lie. Woof. except when wounded or corpercd. Is the most amIable crea- ture in the Oregon woods and lt would give her almost sense Of Se- Cnrity to have him waddling along behind her. The wolves and cougar remembering the arms of WoOf, would not he nearly sn curious. But unfOr- tunateIy. the black bear had never done such a thing Tn the memory Of man, and if he had. he would have made six times as much noise. He am gO fairly Softly when he Is stalk