Evening star., 1924-08-11
CHAPTER Nv.
The Trail Of the Gods

CHAPTER Nv.
The Trail of the Gods
In the fall of the year, when the
days were shortening and the bite of
the frost was coming into the air,
White Fang got his chance for lib
erty. For Severay days there had
6een great hubbub in the village.
SIhe summer camp was being dis
mantled, and the tribe. bag and bag
gage, was preparing to go off to the
Fall hunting. White Fang watched it
all with eager eyes, and when the
tepeeS uegan to come down and the
canoes were loading at the bank, he
understood. Already the canoes were
departing, and some had disappeared
down the river.
Quite deliberately he determined to
stay behind. He waited his oppor-
tunity to stink out of camp to the
woods; Here, in the running stream
where ice was beginning to form, he
ma ma his n trail. Then he crawled into
waited. The time passed by, and he
slept internationally for hours Then
he was aroused by Gray Beavers
voice calling him by name. There
were other voices. White Fang
could hear Gray Beavers squaw TAX
ing part in the, search. and Mit-sah,
who was Gray Beavers son.
White Fang trembled with fear,
and. and. though the impulse came to
crawl ont of his hiding place, he
resisted it. After time the voices
died away, and some time after he
crept out to enjoy the success of
his Undertaking. Darkness was COM
ing on, and. for white he played
about among the trees, pleasuring in
mis- freedom. Then, and quite sud-
denly, he became aware of loneliness
He sat down to consider. listening to
the silence of the forest and per-
turbed by it. That nothing moved
nor sounded seemed ominous. He felt
the lurking of danger, unseen and un-
guessed He was suspicious of the
looming bulks of the trees and of
the dark shadows that might conceal
all manner of perilous things
Then it was cold. Here was no warm
side OF tepee against which to
snuggle: The frost was in his feet.
and he kept lifting first one forefoot
and then the other. He curved his
bushy tail around to cover them, and
at the same time he saw vision.
There was nothing strange about it.
Upon his inward sight was impressed
succession of memory pictures. He
saw the camp again. the tepees, and
the blaze of the fires. He heard the
shrill voices of the women, the gruff
basses of the men. and the snarling
OF the dogs. He was hungry, and he
remembered pieces of meat and fish
that had been thrown him. Here
was no meat, nothing but threaten
ing and inedible silence.
MS bcHodSS udu SOIlSHeO MIN. IT.
responsibility had weakened him. He
had forgotten how to shift for him.
self. The night yawned about him.
HIS senses, accustomed to the hum
continuous impact of sights and
sounds, were now left idle. There
was nothing to do. nothing to see
nor hear. They strained to catch
some interruption of the silence and
immobIlitX of nature. They were ap-
he
of something terrible impending.
He gave a great start of fright. A
colossal and formless something was
rushing across the field of his vision
moon, from whose face the clouds
had been brushed away. Reassured,
he whimpered softly; then he sup
pressed the Whimper for fear that it
might attract the attention of the
lurking dangers.
tree. contracting in the cool of
the night, made d loud noise. 1t was
directly above him. He yelped in his
ran madly toward the village. He
knew an overpowering desire for the
protection and companionship of
man. In his nostrils was the smell
of the camp-smoke. In his ears the
camp sounds and cries were ringing
loud. He passed out of the forest and
into the moonlit open where were
no shadows nor darknesses. But
no village greeted his eyes. He had
forgotten. The village had gone
away.
His wild flight ceased abruptly.
There was no place to which to fee.
He skunk forlornly through the de-
serted camp, smelling the rubbish
tags of the gods. He would have
been glad for the rattle of stones
about him, flung by an angry squaw:
glad for the hand or Gray Beaver de-
him in wrath. while
he would have welcomed with de-
light Lip-lip and the whole snarling,
cowardly pack.
He came to where Gray Beavers
tepee had stood. In the center of the
space it had occupied he sat down.
He pointed his nose at the moon. His
throat was afflicted by rigid spasms,
his mouth opened, and in heart
broken cry bubbled up his loneliness
and fear, his grief for kiche. all his
past sorrows and miseries, as we'll as
his apprehension of sufferings and
dangers to come. 1t was the long
fill, the first howl he had ever ut
tered.
The coming of daylight dispelled
his fears, but increased his loneli-
shortiy before had been so populous,
thrust his loneliness more forcibly
upon him. 1t did not take him long
to make up his mind. he plunged
into the FOREST ana 1OilOWeQ the ElNcI
bank down the stream. An day he
ran. He did not rest. He seemed
made to run on forever. His IRON
like body ignored fatigue. And even
after fatigue came. his heritage of
endurance braced him to endless en-
deavor and enabled him to drive his
complaining body onward.
Where the river swung in against
precipitous bluffs, he climbed the
high mountains behind. Rivers and
streams that entered the main river
he forded or swan. Often he took to
the rim-ice that was. beginning to
form. and more than once he crashed
through and struggled for life in the
lookout for the trail of the gods
where it might leave the river and
proceed inland.
White Fang was Intelligent beyond
the average of his kind; yet his men,
tai vision was not wide enough to
embrace the other bank of the Mac
kenzie. What if the trail of the gods
led out on tEat side? 1t never en-
tered his head. Later on, when he
had travelled more and: grown older
and wiser and come 10 know more of
trails and rivers, it might be that he
could grasp and apprehend such
possibility. But that mental power
was yet in the future. Just now he
Mackenzie alone entering into his
calculations.
All might he ran, blundering in the
darkness into mishaps and obstacles
that delayed, but did not daunt. By
the middle of the second day he had
been running continuously for thirty
hours and the iron of his flesh was