The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1923-12-06

Alone"
Bruce she cried. come back soon
soon Don't leave me to die alone.
I'm not strong enough for that"
He whirled, took two PAGES back,
and his arms went about her. He had
forgotten his injury long since. He
kissed her cool lips and smiled lnro
her eyes. Then at once the nurri.s
hid him.
The girl climbed up into the
branches Of q tir tree. In the thleket
beyond a great gray form tackled back
and forth, trying TO locate a scent that
second before he had caught but
dlmly and had lost II was the Killer,
and his temper was lost long ago In
the whiriing snow.
His anger was upon him, partly from
the discomfort Of the storm, partly
from the constant, gnawing pain Of
three bullet wounds In his powerful
body. Besides, h. realized the pres /
ence Of his old and greatest enemy :
those stall. slight forms that had
crossed him So many times. that had .
stuns him with their bullets. and
whose weakness he had learned
And then all at once he cauzht
the scent plain He lurched forward,
crashed again through the brush. and
walked out into the snow-swspt open.
Linda saw his vague outline. and At
nrst she hung perfectly motionless,
hoping to escape his gaze. She had
been told many rimss that grizzlies
cannot climb. yet she had no desire
to see him raging below her. reaching.
possibly trying to shake her from the
limb
He d'd 500 her. His .vss
were lowered besides. II was never the
grizzly way to search the branches Of
tree. The wind blew the message
that he might have read clearly In the
opposite direction. She saw him wink
slowly across the snow. head low
red, huge gray ghost In the snow
iurries not one hundred feet distant. r
Then she saw him pause, with lowered II
iead. ii
In the little second before the truth II
ame to her, the bear had already II
urned. Bruce's tracks were some II
That dimmed by the snow, but the II
Iiller interpreted them truly. She II
aw too late that he had crossed them, III
cad their message, and nos had
sSned into the clouds Of snow TO trace
hem down.
For nm instant she Razed At him In
peechiess horror; and aireaay IN.
urrfes had almost obscured his fray II
cure. Desperately she tried to call II
- attention from the tracks. She II
'lied. then she rustIed the branches II
loudly as she could But the nois.
the wind obscured what sound she u
ade, and the bear wns already too
'sorbed In the hunt to turn and see -
n. As always, In the nearing pres
ice OF a foe, his rage grew upon him.
sobbing. Linda swung down from
g tree. She had no conscious plan
aid 10 her lover. She only hHd
nd Instinct to GEEK him. TO try to
irn him Of HIS danger. and Mt least
be with him at the death. The great
lcks Of the Killer. seemingly almost
long ~ her own arm, made plain
vi for her to follow. She too struck
into the storm-swept canyon.
And the forest gods who dwell some
ere in the region where the pine
- taper into the sky, and who pull
strings that drop and raise the -
tain and work the puppe that are
players Of the wilderness dramas. Il
chance for q great and tragic II
In this strange chase over the
W. The destlnles Of Bruce, Linda
the Killer were already converg.
on this trail that all three followed
he path that the runaway horse
ie In the snow. Only one Of the
1T forces Of the war that had been
'ed ut Trails End was lacking, and
he came also.
mon Turner had ridden late intn
night and from before dawn: with
orseiess fury he had Roaded on
exhausted horse, he had drir