The Adair County news., 1922-10-17

BY queer pounding or his blood
Bruce knew that he was in the high
attitudes. He had already come six
miles from the cabin. The hour was
about six-thirty; in two hours more
it would be too dark to make his way
at all.
He examined the mud about the
spring, and there was pie hty of evi-
dence that the forest creatures had
passed that way. Here was little
triangle where a buck had stepped,
and further away he found two pairs
of deer 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
1t 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 mOdern-day forest creatures as
being of such proportions. 1t was
very stale and had been almost oblit-
Grated by many days of sun. Perhaps
he had been mistaken in thinking 1t
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. 1t was a
track not greatly different 1from that
of an enormous human foot; and the
separate toes were entirely distinct.
1t was bear track, of course, but
one of such size that the general run
of little black bears that inhabited
I the hills could almost use II, for den
of Information!
He got up and went oh-farther
toward Trails End. He walked more
swiftly now, for he hoped. to reach
the end of Pine-Needle Trail before
nightfaIl, 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 quickly, but
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 a point of keeping in the
! best of physical condition. Besides,
there was something more pftent than
mere physical strength tS sustain
him now. 1t was the realization of
the nearing end of the trail Ia 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 i'm
| patience. ....
1t was quite dark now. and he
could barely see the trail For the
first time he began to despail, feeling
that another night of ovefbowering
impatience must be spent before he
could reach Trails EnN 4 he stars
began to push through the darkening
sky. Then, fainter than the gleam of
a FREELY, he saw the faint light of a
far distant camp fire.
/ His heart bounded. He knew what
was there. 1t was the end of the
trail 1T last. And it guided him the
rest of the way. When he. reached
the top of little rise in the trail, the
whole scene was laid out in Imystery
below him.
The fire had been built at the door
of mountain house-a log structure
of perhaps four rooms The freight
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 a
great pine tree, the largest he had
ever seemingly a great sentinel
over all the land
But the sudden awe that came over
him at the sight of it was cnt short
by the sight of girls figure in the
firelight. He had an instants 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
a lest world had been returned to him,
and it 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.
4 He remembered her as a blond
headed little girl With Irregular fea-