The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1926-07-09
Chapter IX-Continued
y.

1EUm Her open jaws, out at MS pres
ence she brought her fangs together
with snap and skunk from him into
the heart of the wind-run and disap-
pointed pack. The wolves were In an
ugly temper, but Baree did not sense
the fact. Nepeese had trained him to
take to water like an otter, and he
did not understand why this narrow
river should stop them as it had. He
ran down to the water and stood belly
deep In it, facing for an instant the
horde of savage beasts above him,
wondering why they did not follow.
And he was hlack-black! He came
among them again, and for the first
time they noticed him.
The restless movements of the wa
tiers ceased now. A new and wonder
ing interest held them rigid. Fangs
closed sharply. A little in the open
BARGE saw Maheegun, with a big gray
wolf standing near her. He went to
her again, and this time she remained
with fiattened ears until he was sniff
ing her neck And then, with vicious
snarl she snapped at him. Her teeth
sank deep in the soft flesh of his
shoulder, and at the unexpectedness
and pain of her attack, he let out a
yelp. The next instant the big gray
wolf was at him.
Again caught unexpectedly Baree
went down with the VOLTS fangs at
his throat. But in him was the blood
of KaZan, the flesh and bone and
sinew of Kazan, and for the first time
in his life he fought as Kazan fought
on that terrible day at the top of the
Sun rock. He was young, he had yet
to learn the cleverness and the STRAIT
egg of the veteran; but his jaws were
like the iron clamps with which Pier
rot set his bear traps, and in his heart
was sudden and binding rage, desire
to kill that rose above all sense of
pain or fear.
That fight, if it had been fair, would
have been victory for Baree, even in
his youth and inexperience. In fair
ness the pack should have waited it
was law of the pack to wait-until
one was done for. But Baree was
black; he was stranger, an inter-
loper, creature whom they noticed
now in a moment when their blood
was hot with the rage and disappoint-
ment of killers who had missed their
prey. A second wolf sprang in, strik-
ing Baree treacherously from the
flank; and while he was in the snow,
his jaws crushing the foreleg of his
first foe, the pack was on him en-
masse.
Such an attack on the young carl
bOu bull would have meant death in
less than a minute Every fang would
have found it's hold. Baree, by the
fortunate circumstance that he was
under his first two assailants and pro-
tected by their bodies, was saved from
being torn instantly into pieces. He
knew that he was fighting for his life.
Over him the horde of beasts rolled
and twisted and snarled; he felt the
burning pain of teeth sinking into his
flesh; he was smothered; hundred
knives seemed cutting him into pieces;
yet no sound-not whimper or a
cry-came from him now in the horror
and mpelessness of it all.
1t would have ended in another
half-minute had the struggle not been
at the very edge Of the bank. Under
mined by the erosion of the spring
floods, a section of the bank suddenly
gave way, and with it went Baree and
the pack. In a flash Baree thought
of the water and the escaping caribou.
For a bare instant the cavern had
sent him free of the pack, and in that
space he gave single leap over the
gray backs of his enemies into the
deep water of the stream. Close be-
hind him half "a dozen jaws snapped
shut on empty air. AS it had saved
the caribou, so this strip of water SHIN
mering in the glow of the moon and
stars had saved Baree
The stream was not, more than q
hundred feet in width, but it cost Ba-
rec close to losing struggle to get
across it. Until he dragged himself
out on the opposite shore, the extent
of his injuries was not impressed
upon him fully. One hind leg, for the
eiAiiSs "do uoClCoo 1OlWdiQ lCAt
shoulder was laid open to the bone;
his head and body were torn and cut;
and as he dragged himself slowly away
from the stream, the trail he left in
the snow was a red path of blood. 1t
trickled from his painting jaws, be-
tween which his tongue was bleeding
1t ran down his legs and TANKS and
belly, and it dripped from his ears,
one of which was slit clean for two
inches as though cut with knife. His
instincts were dazed his perception
of things clouded as If by a veil drawn
close over his eyes. Half dead, he
dragged himself on until by chance he
came to a clump of dwarf spruce.
Into this he struggled, and then he
dropped exhausted.
All that night and until noon the
next day Baree lay without moving.