Evening star., 1937-05-02
THIS WEEK


would have taken more than Thebau,
versed as he was in the ways of the
wild, of the dogs and OF Smoke Eyes
herself, to fathom what was behind
that look
That it was murder itself, stark and
vicious, he could not know.
Smoke Eyes, jealous as only thing
like her, half-wild. half-tame, wholly
devoted, could be, felt her mouth
SLAYER with the bitter tang of it. This
creature that had come between her
and her god - she hated it profoundly.
So she dropped her huge body in her
corner, put her monstrous jaws on her
folded paws, and bided her time, watch
ing. She watched the girl, who went
happily and proudly about the house
hold tasks singing little in sweet,
throaty voice. She sang of tribulatlon
and deliverance and gratitude. and
Smoke Eyes hated the sounds. She
waited for the proper moment.
Thebau must be long gone. without
chance of untoward return. She
wanted no interruption Of this, the
coming kill.
So the morning passed and the noon
came, and the woman made herself a
little plate of food from the stoves
back. She was about to sit to Thebau's
crude table AS she sank gracefully
into his own chair Smoke Eyes began
to rise in her corner. There was. in the
sinister silence and power of the mo-
ton, something to chill the blood, had
there been one to see. There was none.
however, and Thebau's wife, his new
love, his treasure. smiled as she broke
the plain, hard bread, ladled bit Of
caribou meat Smoke Eyes moved to-
ward her from the back Her smoke
blue eyes were black as starless night,
terrible to see. The lips drew up from
her fangs. The hair rose all along her
mighty shoulders, down her back to
the great tail that stood straight out
behind like VOLTS, sure indicator
of the split second before the spring.
But Smoke Eyes did not spring.
At that very moment. just on the
hair-hung instant, the doors latch
lifted smartly, as if hand had been
already upon it, set and ready. and
the door flew inward.
In the opening stood two men, one
with his hand still stretched against
the wood of the door - lie Cant; the
other with a short and heavy gun
trained on the interior of the cabin.
80" lie Cant snapped sharply.
"You steal a march on me. eh? Go in,
m'sieu.'
The girls mouth, opened for her
first mouthful of food, stayed so. The
breath stopped in her throat. Her
heart, too, seemed to stopin her breast.
Her doom had come upon her, there
in the lone cabin, and there was none
to save her.
But destiny itself was present, and
destiny is an unmeasured force. not
charitable nor to be understood.
Destiny was Smoke Eyes.
Still, stiff in every muscle, ready for
the only treacherous deed of her ex-
cellent life, she stood and looked at
theseintruders, and somethingChanged
within her. Changed with the odd
alchemy of love and loyalty and that
half-soul which Thebau had always
visioned in her speaking eyes.
Smoke Eyes knew lie Cant upon
the instant. remembered him from
long back. She knew him for harm and
wickedness incarnate and the saliva
began to flow along her teeth. The
other she knew. also, for danger. The
gun in his hand meant that. The gun
pointed directly at Thebau's treasure.
the pale girl in Thebau's chair. The
girl whom Thebau, the master, had
given to her care to guard. What passed
in her intelligent brain in those few
surcharged moments, who could tell?
What memories of LIE Gant's club, of