Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-01-10
Hawk" the Wind
Ga Met!oE Ql!NQX q
M.N.V. Segvice
~ HELEN T0PNNC MILLER

''Sure, get in. You must have
been out quite q while-you're pref.
~ muddy and tired out, from the
look Of you"
"Slept out" Tom was laconic.
At the Bishop house Tom got out
and went around to the back door.
Jim Bishops wife was . girl from
the village and Bill remembered
that he had heard she was distantly
related to Tom. Any kinship. to the
most remote degree, was important
in the mountains. Bill drove back
to the plant, confident that Tom
would be taken care Of.
An hour later, as he went back
to work after lunch, he saw Tom
Pruitt again. Gun slung over his
shoulder, Tom was slogging down
the muddy road. His shoulders were
slumped and his legs moved heavily
as though he were very weary.
Tom turned Of the road presently
and struck directly across the ridge,
following a dim trail through the
crowding laurel. The path was steep
and tangled, having been made by
game. It crept beneath tall, motty
thickets Of rhododendron, and skirt
ed open places, keeping to the shell
ter of the underground. It had been
trodden out by creatures wishing to
hide, and it suited Tom, for he had
no desire to be seen.
Twice he rested, crouched on
rocks, stretching his legs, his ears
buzzing as his heart strained in the
thin air. On the upward climb he
did not bother to look about him,
but toiled on, STOPPING, the gun
heavy under his arm, his head down.
But once on the crest his manner
changed, turned feral, cautious, his
eyes glinting. He stalked silently,
his old hat jerked down, the pocket
of his overall jacket sagging from 4
double weight Of cartridges.
The opposite slope Of the ridge
was very different from the brushy
way he had just climbed. Ahead,
as far as his eye could carry, was
a great, untouched, majestic ex-
panse of hardwood forest. Trees,
vast and quiet, leafless and magnif.
cent, in their aloof columnar auster-
ity, covered the slow descent and 4
rolling expanse below.
Tom breathed heavily, air whis-
Ting through his teeth as he looked
at them. His eyes, for a moment,
were worshipful.
Taking a downward roundabout
way, he advanced from tree to tree,
carefully finding the moss under
foot, making no sound. A bunch of
wild gooseberry bushes offered am
bush and he dropped into them,
parting the twigs soundlessly, lying
still for long interval, his gaze
fixed on the slope below.
There was an indentation in the
half-frozen ground and into this his
elbow fitted easily, because in that
place for two days it had rested.
The ground was cold and Toms
body ached after a haf-hour in the
cramped place, but he shifted his
limbs, fiexed his hands, and
shrugged his collar up about his
neck, always keeping his eyes on
spot far below between the tall pop
lars.
The light grew cold and thin, the
trees stirred and worried as trees
do when night begins to climb the
mountains. A dry twig fell. . Cross
bill swung across lighter space,
stopped for an instant on the bark
of cedar, turned head down, and
began its angry cry. All the frost
powdered drift of leaves stirred
briefly, in a raw breath of wind,
then was as swiftly still.
Old Tom tensed little. For forty
years he had been woodsman. He
knew all the signs. Something was
abroad in this quiet winter forest.
He had waited two days and a night
and now his waiting was at an end.
He pulled himself up slightly,
dropped his hat and rested his left
arm upon it. The gun came up and
was steady. The cool palm-worn
stock and breech were smooth UNI
der the old mans hand. Its weight
gave him the feeling Of power and
dominance that belongs only to
kings. For q long interval he made
NO move.
Then in fash the crossbill hurled
itself to the top Of the tree, scream
ing. Bark sifted down. And far
down the slope Tom Pruitt saw what
he had been watching for for forty
long hours.
A car had stopped on the woods
road. Two men got out and walked
up the rutty track and presently q
third man followed. Tom was trou-
bled at that. He had not counted On
. third man. But be lay motion
less, watching.
The three began climbing the
slope, stopping at intervals to study
the trees. One was obviously the
conductor At the expedition. max