The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1922-12-15


and wailing sobs of coyote. as he
looks down upon camp fire from the
ridge above. Sleep does not come cas-
lily when a gaunt wolf walks In slow,
inquisitive circle about the pallet,
scarcely q leaf rustling beneath his
feet. And few times, In the history
of the frontier, men have had queer
tingllngs and creepings In the scalp
when they have happened TO glance
over their shoulders and see the eyes
OF great, tawny puma glowing an
odd blue In the freight. Yet, Bruce
all three together. In preference to the
Killer.
The reason was extremely simple.
No words have ever been capable OF
expressing the depths Of cowardice of
which a coyote is capable. He will
whine and weep about camp, like
soul lost between two worlds, but II
he Is In his right mind he would have
each one of his gray hairs plucked out,
one by one, rather than attack man.
The cunning breed to which he belongs
has found out that it doesn't pay. The
wolf is sometimes disquietingly brave
when he Is fortified by his pack breth-
rem In the winter, but in such a season
as this he Is particularly careful to
keep out Of the sight of man. And the
Tawny One himself, white-fanged and
Iong-elawed and powerful as he is,
never gets farther than certain dread
full, speculative dreams.
But none Of these was true of the
Killer He had already shown his
scorn of men. His very stride showed
that he feared no living creature that
shared the forest with him. In fact.
he considered himself the forest mas
ter. The bear is never a particularly
timid animal, and whatever timidity
the Killer possessed was as utterly
gone as yesterdays daylight.
Bruce watched him with unwinking
eyes. 1t might be that the Killer would
no conscious knowledge, as yet, that
1t Is movement rather than form to
which the eyes Of the wild creatures
are most receptive. But he acted up
on that fact now as If by instinct. He
was not lying in quite the exact spot
where the Killer had left his dead the
preceding night, and possibly his out
line was not enough like it to attract
the grizzly's attention. Besides, in the
intermittent light, 1t was wholly pos
sible that the grizzly would try to find
the remains of his feast by smell
Bruce made no movements TO attract
his attention, he might wander away
In search of other game.
For the first time in his life, Bruce
knew Fear as 1t really was. 1t is
knowledge that few jewellers in cities
can possibly have; and so few times has
it really been experienced in these days
of civilization that men have mostly
forgotten what 1t is like If they ex-
perience it at all, 1t Is usually only in
dream that arises from the germ
plasm-a nightmare to paralyZe the
man In his bed. The moon was
strange and white as 1t slipped in and
out of the clouds, and the forest, mys-
FERROUS as Death itself, lightened and
darkened alternately with a strange
effect of unreality; but for all that,
Bruce could not make himself believe
that this was Just a dream The
dreadful reality remained that the
Killer, whose name and works he
knew, was even now investigating him
from the shadows one hundred feet
away.
The fear that came to him was that
Of the young world-fear without rec
ompense, direct and primitive fear
that grew on him like a sickness 1t
was the fear that the deer knew as
they crept down their dusky trails at
night; it was the fear of darkness
knows what cruelty that would be Wis
tied upon him by those terrible rend-
ing fangs and claws. It was the fear
that can be heard in the pack song in
the dreadful winter season, and that
can be felt In strange overtones, in the
utters in the haIf-darkness. He had
been afraid for his life every moment
he was in the hands of the Turner's.
He knew that If he survived this night
he would have TO face death again
He had no hopes Of deliverance alto
gether. But the Turner's were men
and they worked with knife blade and
bullet, not rending fang and claw. He
could face men bravely; but 1t was
hard to keep a strong heart in the face
of this ancient fear of beasts.
The Killer seemed disturbed and
moved slowly along the edge of the
moonlight. Bruce could trace his
movements by the irregularity in the
line Of shadows. He seemed to be
moving more cautiously than ever,
now. Bruce could not hear the slight
est sound.
For an instant he had an exult-
ant hope that the bear would continue
on down the edge of the forest and
leave him; and his heart stood still
as the great beast paused, shifting.
But some smell in the air seemed to
reach him, and he came stealing back.
In reality, the Killer was puzzled.
He had come to this place straight
through the forest with the expecta-
ton that food-fiesh to tear with his
would be waiting for him. And
now. as he waited at the border of
the darkness, he knew that strange
change had taken place And the
Killer did not like strangeness.
The smell that he had expected had
dimmed TO such an extent that 1t pro-
NOTED no muscular impulse. Perhaps