The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1923-03-01

Bruce" she cried, "cume hack 500
soon Don't leave me To die alone.
Pm 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 tips and smiled into
her eyes Then at once the furries
hid him.
The girl climbed w into the
branches Of u fir tree. In the thicket
| beyond a great gray form tay:;ed back
and forth. trying To locate a scent that
a second before he had caught but
dimly and had lost. IL was the Killer,
and his temper was iosi long ego in
the whirling snow.
His anger was upon him, partly from
the discomfort of the STERN, partly
from the constant, gnawing pain Of
three bulrnt wounds in his powerful
body. Besriel, he realized the pres
ence Of his cid and greatest enemy
those stall, slight forms that had
crossed him so many times. that had
stung him with their bullets, and
whose weakness he had learned.
And then all at once he caught
| the scent plain. lie lurched forward,
crashed again through the brush, and
walked out into the snOw-Swept open.
Linda saw his vague outline, and M
first she hung perfectly motiTnless,
hoping to escape his gaze. She had
been told many times 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 didn't seem TO see her. His eyes
were lowered besides, it was never the
grizzly way to search the branches of
a tree. The wind blew the message
that he might have read clearly In the
opposite direction. She saw him walk
slowly across the snow, head low
cred, a huge gray ghost In the snow
flurries not one hundred feet distant.
Then she saw him pause, with lowered
head.
In the little second before the truth
came. to her, the bear had already
turned. Bruce's tracks were some
what dimmed by the snow, but the
Killer interpreted them truly. She
saw too late that he had crossed them.
read their message, and now had
turned into the clouds of snow to trace
them down.
For an instant she gazed at him In
speechless horror; and already the
fiurries had almost 0bscured his gray
figure. Desperately she tried to call
his attention from the tracks. She
called. then she rustled the branches
as loudly as she could. But the noise
Of the wind obscured what sound she
made, and the bear was already toe
absorbed in the hunt to turn and see
her. As always, In the nearing pres
enee o u foe. his rage grew upon him
Sobbing, Linda swung down from
the tree. She had no conscious plaI
of aid to her lover. Sine only had q
blind instinct to seek him.. to try t.
warn him of his danger. and at leas
to- be with him at the death. The greaf
tracks Of the Killer, seemingly almos
as long as her w arm. made a p'air
trail for her to follow. She too STRUCK
off into the storm-swept canyon.
And the forest gods who dwell some
where in the region where the pin
tops taper into the sky, and who pul
the strings that drop and raise Tin
curtain and work the puppets that ar
the players " the wilderness dramas
saw q chance for q great and tragi
Jest In this strange chase over tn
snow. The destinies of Bruce. Lind
and the Killer were already converl
ng on this trail that ull three followe'
the path that the runaway hors
made in the snow. Only n of tn
great forces of the war that had bee
yaged al Traits End was lacking. an
now he came also.
i, Simon Turner had ridden late int