The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-09-18

would clamor at the roof in vain.
He did her work for her tonight.
He skinned the smaller animals she
had brought In, then f1eshed and
stretched all the pelts she had taken.
After preparing his own skins, he
made a hard bed for himself on the
floor of the hut.
1t was with real regret that they
took different ways in the dawn.
Ned's last office was to prepare kind.
ling for her use on her next visit to
the cabin four days hence-hardly
realizing that he was learning a lit
tie trick of the woodsman's trade that
would stand him II good stead in
many dreadful twilight to come.
The trails of these two trappers
/ often crossed, in the weeks to come
They kept close track of each others
schedules, and they soon worked out
a system whereby they could meet
at the Forks cabin at almost every
| circuit
No longer did Ned go about his work
in the f1imsy clothes of the city. Out
{ of the pelts he had dried Bess helped
+
as warm and serviceable as her own.
supplied through an unexpected burst
! of generosity on Doomsdorf's part
soon after their arrival on the island.
They brought their hardest problems
/ TO the Forks cabin and solved them
! together.
| Day after day the snow sifted down,
/ ever laying a deeper covering over the
! island, bending down the limbs Of the
strong trees, obscuring all things un-
/ der this cold inf1nity Of white. The
traps had to be laboriously dug out
and reset again and again.
When the skies cleared, an I'M
/ dreamed degree of cold took posses
sion of the land. The fingers froze
in the instant that the fur gloves
were removed, and the hottest fires
could hardly warm the cabins. And
! on these clear, bitter nights the North
ern Lights were the ineffable glory of
the sky.
Their bodies built up to endure
even such hardship as this. The fact
that the snow at last packed was a
factor, too; they Sere able to skim
ever the white crust at a pace even
faster than the best time they had
made in early fall.
The result was that at last the COM
panionship between Bess and Ned,
forgotten in the dread horror of the
early winter months, was revived.
8gain they had pleasant hours about
the stove at the Forks cabin, some
times working at pelts, sometimes
even enjoying the unheard- of-luxury
of few minutes idleness.
Very naturally, and scarcely aware
of the fact themselves. they had come
to be the best of companions.
Ned's hours with LenOre, however,
gave hirn less satisfaction than they
had at first. She somehow failed to
understand what ne had been through.
Slowly, by the school Of hardship.
and conquest over hardship, Ned
Cornet was winning a new self-mas-
terry, a new self-confidence 20 take the
place Of the self aBnceit that had
brought him to disaster. But the first
real moment of Weakening was also one
Of peril-on the trapping trail one
clear afternoon toward the bitter close
/ of January.
He had been quietly following that
/ portion of the trap line that followed
/ the timber belt between the Twelve
Mile cabin and Forks cabin, and the
/ blazed trail had led him into the
depths Of a heavy thicket of young
| spruce. He had never felt more Sc
cure. The only hint Of danger that
+ the Red Gods afforded him did not
/ half penetrate his consciousness and
did not in the least call him from his
/ pleasant fancies. It was only a
I glimpse of green where the snow had
been shaken from a compact little
/ group of sapIing spruce just beside
one Of his sets. Likely the wind had
/ caught the little trees just right; per
/ maps some unfortunate little fur
! bearer, a narten perhaps, or a flesher.
/ had sprung back and forth among the
| little trees in an effort to free him
| self from the trap. He walked up
/ quietly located the tree to which the
/ trap chain. was attached, bent and
started to draw the trap from the
small, dense thicket whence some
creature had dragged 1t. He was
| only casually interested in what man
ner of poor, frozen creature would
/ We ItNedloO SSIl LIA0 StSoA jaws
The beauty Of the day had wholly
taken his mind from his work.
/ One moment, and the forest was
asleep about him; the little trees
/ locked sadly burdened with their
/ loads of snow The next, and the
man was hurled to the ground by
savage, snarling thing that leaped
/ from the covert like the snow demon
e was; and white, cleaning fangs
were flashing toward his throat.
/ Except for the impediment of the
/ trap on the creatures foot. there
would have been but one blow to
/ that battle in the snow. White fangs
would have gone home where they
were aimed, and all Of Ned Comets
problems would have been simply and
promptly solved.
This was not some little fur-bearer,
helpless in the trap. 1t was no less
creature than that great terror Of
the snow, a fun grown Arctic wolf,
almost as white as the drifts he
hunted through. Only the spruce
trees knew how this fierce and cum
ming hunter came to snare his foot
in the jaws of a narten trap. Nor
could any sensible explanation be
made why the great wolf did not
break the chain with one lunge Of
his powerful body, instead Of stink
ing into the coverts and waiting de-
velopments. The ways of the wild
creatures quite often fail of any kind