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About Independence enterprise. (Independence, Or.) 1908-1969 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1917)
it PAGE" THE INDEPENDENCE I r II I E y ' Ti By James Oliver Curwood Copyright by the Bobba-Merrill Company. CHAPTER XVI. 16 Professor McGIII. Red Gold City was ripe for a night of relaxation. There had been some gambling, a few fights and enough liquor to create excitement now and then, but the presence of the mounted police had served to keep things un usually tame compared with events a few hundred miles farther north, in the Dawson country. The entertainment proposed by Sandy McTrigger and Jan Harker met with excited favor. The news spread for twenty miles about Red; Gold City and there had never been' greater excitement In the town than on the afternoon and night of the !big fight This was largely because Kazan and the huge Dane had been placed on exhibition, each dog In a specially made cage of his own, and a fever of betting began. Three hundred 'men, each of whom was paying five dollars to see the battle, viewed the gladiators through the bars of their cages. Harket'S dog was a combina tion of Great Dane and mastiff, born in the north, and bred to the traces. Bet ting favored him by the odds of two to one. Occasionally it ran three to one. At these odds there was plenty of Ka zan money. Those who were risking their money on him were the older wilderness men men who had spent their lives among dogs, and who knew what the red light in Kazan's eyes meant An old Kootenay miner spoke low In another's ear: Td bet on 'im even. Td give odds if I had to. He'll fight all around the Dane. The Dane won't have no method." "But he's got the weight," said the other dubiously. "Look at his jaws, an' his shoulders" "An' his big feet, an' his soft throat, an the clumsy thickness of his belly," interrupted the Kootenay man. "For heaven's sake, man .take my word for it an don't put your money on the Dane!" Others thrust themselves between them. At first Kazan had gnarled at all these faces about him. But now he lay back against the boarded side of the cage and eyed them sullenly from between his forepaws. The fight was to be pulled off in Har ker's place, a combination of saloon and cafe. The benches and tables had been cleared out and in the center of the one big room a cage ten feet square rested on a platform three and a half feet from the floor. Seats for the three hundred spectators were drawn closely around this. Suspended just above the open top of the cage were two big oil lamps with glass reflectors. It was eight o'clock when Harker, McTrigger and two other men bore Ka zan to the arena by means of the wood en bars that projected from the bottom of his mere. The hie Dane was already in the fighting cage. He stood blinking his eyes in the brilliant light or tne reflecting lamps. He pricked up his ears when he saw Kazan. Kazan did not show his fangs. Neither revealed the expected animosity. It was the first they had seen of each other, and a mur mur of disappointment swept the ranks of the three hundred men. The Dane remained as motionless as a rock when Kazan was prodded from his own cage into the fighting cage. He did not leap or snarl. He regarded Kazan with a dubious questioning poise to his splen did head, and then looked again to the expectant and excited faces of the wait ing men. For a few moments Kazan Stood stiff-legged, facing the Dane. Then his shoulders dropped, and he, too, coolly faced the crowd that had ex pected a fight to the death. A laugh of derision swept through the closely seat ed rows. Catcalls, jeering, taunts flung at McTrigger and Harker, and angry voices demanding their money back mingled with a tumult of growing dis content. Sandy's face was red with mortification and rage. The blue veins In Harker's forehead had swollen twice their normal size. He shook his fist In the face of the crowd, and shouted : "Walt! Give 'em a chance, you fools l" At his words every voice was stilled. Kazan had turned. He was facing the Dane. The Dane had turned his eyes to Kazan. Cautiously, prepared for a lunge or a sidestep, Kazan advanced a little. The Dane's shoulders bristled. He, too, advanced upon Kazan. Four feet apart they stood rigid. One could havp heard a whisper in the room now. Sandy and Harker, standing close to the cage, scarcely breathed. Splendid in every limb and muscle, warriors of a hundred fights, and fearless to tho point of death, the two half-wolf vic tims . of man stood facing each other. None could see the questioning look in their brute eyes. None knew that in this thrilling moment the unseen hand of the wonderful Spirit God of the wil derness hovered between them, and that one of its miracles was descending upon them. It was understanding. Meeting in the open rivals in the traces they would have been rolling In the final moment, when only a step separated them, and when men ex tn ism the first mini lunge, the splendid Pane slowly raised his head and looked over Kazan's oncu tnrougn the glare of the lights. Harker trem bled, and under his breath he cursed. The Dune's throat was open to Kazan. Hut between the beasts had passea me voiceless pledge of peace. Kazan did not leap. He turned. Anil snouiuer 10 shoulder splendid In their contempt of man they stood and looked through tho bars of their prison Into the one 01 human faces. A roar burst from the crowd a roar of auger, of demand, of threat In his race Harker drew a revolver ana leveled it at the Dane. Above the tu mult of tho crowd a single voice stopped him. "Hold !" it demanded, "iioiu m me name of the law !" For a moment there was silence. Every face turned In the direction of the voice. Two men stood on cnaira behind the last row. One was Sergeant Brokaw of the Royal Northwest Mounted. It was he who had spoken. He was holding up a hand, command ing silence and attention. On the chair beside him stood another man. He was thin, with drooping shoulders, and a pale smooth face a little man, whose physique and hollow cneens torn nom ing of the years he had spent close up along the raw edge of the Arctic. It was he who spoke now, while the ser geant held up his hand. His voice was low and quiet: "I'll give the owners five hundred dollars for those dogs," he said. Every man in the room heard the of fer. Harker looked at Sandy. For an Instant their heads were close together. "They won't fight, and they'll make good team-mates," the little man went on. "I'll give the owners five hundred dollars." Harker raised a hand. "Make it six," he said. "Make it six and they're yours." The little man hesitated. Then he nodded. 'Til give you six hundred," he agreed. Murmurs of discontent rose through out the crowd. Harker climbed to the edge of the platform. "We ain't to blame because they wouldn't fight," he shouted, "but if there's any of you small enough to - . night. Then she made uerseii a m-m under a Imnsklan shrub, and waited tffe She Had Faith That He Would Come, want your money back you can git it as you go out. The dogs Mid down on ns. that's all. We ain't to blame." The little man was edging his way between the chairs, accompanied by the sergeant of police. With his pale fuce close to the sapling bars of the cage he looked at Kazan and the big Dane. "I guess we'll be good friends," he said, and he spoke so low that only the dogs heard his voice. "It's a big price, but we'll charire it to the Smithsonian, in ils. I'm iroinfir to need a couple of four-footed friends of your moral cali ber" And no one knew why Kazan and the Dane drew nearer to the little scien tist's sirlA of the case as he nulled out n hii? roll of hills and counted out six hundred dollars for Harker and Sandy McTrigger CHAPTER XVII. Alone In Darkness. Never had the terror and loneliness of blindness fallen upon Gray Wolf as in the days that followed the shoot ing of Kazan and his capture by Sandy McTrigger. For hours after the shot she crouched In the bush back from the river, waiting for him to come to her. She had faith that he would come, as he had come a thousand times before, and she lay close on her belly, sniffing the air, and whining when it brought no scent of her mate. Day and night were alike an endless chaos of darkness to her now, but she knew when the sun went down. She sensed the first deepening shadows of evening, and she knew that the stars were out, and that the river lay In moonlight It was a night to roam, and after a time she moved restless ly about in a small circle on the plain, and sent out her first Inquiring call for Kazan. Up from the1 river came the pungent odor of smoke, and in stinctively she knew that it was this smoke, and the nearness of man, that was keeping Kazan from her, But she went no nearer than that first cir cle made by her padded feet. Blind ness had taught her to wait Since the day of the battle on the Sun Rock, when the lynx had destroyed her eyes, ir... noirnr fgaprl her. Xhree ' until dawn. . I Just how she knew when night Dior.-, ted out the last glow of the sun, bo without seeing she knew when dny( came. Not until she folt the warmth of the sun on her back did her anxiety j overcome her caution. Slowly ehi moved toward the river, unlfllng tne. air and whining. There was no iuurv the smell of smoke In the air, and sne; could not catch the scent of man. She followed her own trail buck to the sand-bar, and In the frlngo or thick hush overhanging tne wane shore of the stream she stopped and listened. After a little she scramliieu down and weut straight to the spot where she and Kazan were drinking when the shot came. And thero her noso struck the sand still wet and thick with Kazan's blood. She knew it was the blood of her mate, for the scent or. nun was " about her in the sand, mingled with. the man-smell of Sandy Mel rigger. Sh sniffed the trail of his body to the edge of the stream, where Sandy had drugged htm to the canoe. She found the fallen tree to which he had been tied. And then she came upon one of the two clubs that Sandy had used to beat wounded Kazan into sub mlsslveness. It was covered with blood and hair, and all at once Gray, won lay back on her haunches and turned her blind face to the sky, and there rose from her throat a cry for Kazan that drifted for miles on the wings of the south wind. Never had uray Wolf given quite that cry before, it was not the "call" that comes with the moonlit nights, and neither was it the hunt-cry, nor ine siie-wum yearning for matehood. It carried with it the lament or aeatn. Ana aiier that one cry Gray Wolf slunk back to the fringe of bush over the river, and lay with her face turned to the stream. A strange terror fell upon her. She had grown accustomed to aamness, but never before had she been alone in that darkness. Always there had been the guardianship of Kazan's pres ence. She heard the clucking sound of a spruce hen In the bush a few yards away, and now that sound came to her as If from out or anotner worm. A ground-mouse rustiea mrougn mo grass close to her forepaws, and she snapped at it, and closed her teeth on a rock. The muscles of her shoul ders twitched tremulously and she shivered as if stricken by Intense cold. She was terrified by the darkness that shut out the world from her, and she pawed at her closed eyes, as if she might open them to light. Early In the afternoon she wandered; back on the plain. It was different, It frightened her, and soon she re turned to the beach, and snuggled down under the tree where Kazan had lain. She was not so frightened here. The smell of Kazan was strong about her. For an hour she lay motionless, with her head resting on the club clot ted with his hair and blood. Mght found her still there. And when the moon and the stars came out she crawled back into t!ie pit in the white sand that Kazan's body had made un der the tree. With dawn she went down to the edge of the stream to drink. She could not see that the day was almost as dark as night, and that the gray black sky was a chaos of slumbering storm. But she could smell the pres ence of It In the thick air, and could feel the forked flashes of lightning that rolled up with the dense pall from the south and west. The distant rumbling of thunder grew louder, and she huddled herself again under the tree. For hours tho storm crashed over her, and the rain fell in a deluge. When it had finished she slunk out from her shelter like a thing beaten. Vainly she sought for one last scent of Kazan. The club was washed clean. Again the sand was white where Kazan's blood had reddened It. Even under the tree there was no sign of him left. Until now only the terror of being alone in the pit of darkness that en veloped her had oppressed Gray Wolf. With afternoon came hunger. It was this hunger that drew her from the sand-bar, and she wandered back Into the plain. A dozen times she scented game, and each time it evaded her. Even a ground-mouse that she cor nered under a root, and dug out with her paws, escaped her fangs. Thirty-six hours before this Kazan and Gray Wolf had left a half of their last kill a mile or two farther back on the plain. The kill was one of the big barren rabbits, and Gray Wolf turned in Its direction. She did not require sight to find it In her was developed to its finest point that sixth sense of the animal kingdom, the sense of orientation, and as straight as a pigeon might have winged Its flight she cut through the bush to che spot, where they had cached the rabbit A white fox had been there ahead of, her, and she found only scattered bits of hair and fur. What tho fox had left the moose birds and bush jays had carried away. Hungrily Gray Wolf turned back to the river. (TO BE CONTINUED.) ENTERPRISE, INDEPENDENCE, OREGON. ft GJlf Sraittlfnl J f llftljlrlirm Sfilfl g $ f J Over the roar of the vltlver W the hills ' ...ft S With a message of J"'1"' X. $ nations, ring the beauUfulU 2? Bethlehem bells, ft lf Bringing jay to the soul, that - ft are sighing in the hovels ft tehee poverty urH M K There is life-there s !. 1" f the dying, in the dutiful J ft Bethlehem bells. S Far oft in a land that Is lovely. ft lr for the tender wet story ft Vjf it tells, K ftr the light of a glorious morn-W ft ing rang the beautiful SJ Bethlehem bells; ft fc,tf a -a .tin in ih hearts of crea- Sf ft Hon an anthem exultingly U ft i M I? At that memory s-eeet of the W ringing of the beautiful If They ran o'er the hills and the Sj valleys, they summoned the , ft glad' world that day, f ft From regions of night to thefy radiant light of the eot ft gf where the Beautiful lay, If M And forever and ever and ever Jjf Sfr a wonderful melody dtcells ,f tne lenatr uit EIGHT FAQs, Vf g CCIiriutmaii OJiftn flf if a (Lruutnj Aya it mi ten the--' r-. IP -"-V! mj (r rTitri' inl..lt O'lltlTl'il II VV timt I'M. "rH in Wil'!" .llmirrl.'th.'s, lvmi:m ft nmn- ..it t 11- i.l. .if .J U HI' at IMhU iit'iu: i it were intorcsti'il id's pro pli1 It limy lie luvy at Naming Cities for Dates. What is, perhaps, the oddest of all ways to select a name for a city or street is to name it for a certain date, andyet this has been done in Brazil for hundreds of years. It was on January 1, 1531, '.Uat a Portuguese captain, Alphonso de Souza by name, entered the mouth of that marvelously beautiful bay, on the shores of which now stands the capital of tho vast re public of Brazil. Thinking that he was sailing into a great river, he darned the stream Rio de Janiero, or January lver and all through the centuries i .i.,i.i nt the tirauti- W ful tsethlehem bells. K For they ling of a love that is ft Sf deathless a love that tttll If W friii mj'ft in loss; M M They sing of the love that is ft ft leading the world to the ft Sf Calvary cross; W Ring sweet o'er the sound of f 4 the cities ring areet o'er ft ft the hills and the dells ft Ana touei pifie, with tenderesl V vities, oh, beautiful Bethte- J ft hem bells! ft Frank L. Stanton, hoard a voice announcinc iu utrui of Christ a clad tidinpt Ur all 'o- CHRISTMAS CHILDHOOD. : Christmas Is, perforce, a winter fes tival, a family and fraternal reunion. "Suffer little children to come." Lo, they have come. And the music of their child voices ! The concert of the morning sturs, what were they to the natural untrained melody of Innocent childhood in Its Joyous expectations? A brief, bright morning picture with fervid expectant fancy attuned to "peace and good will to men," a sacred, solemn, confident, Joyous, "peace," a "good will" and fraternal friendship that shall (fill and fructify and sanctify the yearflto come. Ah, childhood, Christmas childhood! See how for one day it mocks the poet's lines, "Sonif faces of Eden ye stll! inherit, bur the trail of the ser pent Is over Ukm nil. Its own gift Is always the I.t-st, and it rejoices that Bill and Jim and T.i.;-i and S-ira fared a well. "PeiK-e n c-rth." hut .lot of earth; "goo2 will" tint .'-hull Inform the coming year snd mold ilie man and woman of the f atui e. First Christmas Celebration. The birth of Christ was cot original ly observed at this tlnic of the yenr. It was not until nearly 100 yecsn after his death th'it there w.ia any attempt at a ceiebrut.'e" of the event at all, and then for 3j0 yetm or more It vas celebrated ni vurlovifi ti:nis In tho year by the C'lirNliiv.H lu liifTer'-nt parts of the world. Som chse r.c 1st and some the (itii if J'Uniary, others the 29th of Mar"l,, t!ie ti:n of the Jewish passover, while o.ln rs V.isenpd the day on the 20th of V-pteir.hcr, the feast of the tiibi-m.-jfien. The 10th of April and the 0i.!i of May were also kept as the birthday of Christ. By the fifth century, however the 2fith of December was tho day generally adopt ed. Pittsburgh Dispatch. I'er tho n& luiveWn most .Itvidy in- i itTvmonitioil. ' l": piTIUIl'a - I ; invent v weeks of I'll!'" .J,.,t folt'llll'l riu ni'v" . it f thrtt verv time they w.to talking ol tho coming of Christ. c...i.i...,iv their attention wan ar- -.,..1 ufranir litL'ht 111 t!' ,tviilld It imyw brik'hter and t the form of an onpd, and tl n th v .i,,t tn the Jews oniv. i nru .mhl.n.lv the air wn filled with nn L'els singing a.t if they uu nunc rii'ht out from the air. We know not their wonderful song, but part came to mortal cum, "lilory to uoii iu ute ingm-M, ru., We know not who those ongcl. were but we fancy they were the tvdoem e,l Adam was there, r.vc wait there. Kve. who in her inuterna earncistnoss declared ut the birth her firstborn, "I have got a man from the Ixrd," hoping that that was he who should bruise the ser pent's head. Now, in the fullness of time (die had come to witness the birth of the babo who was to bo the Saviour of her race. David, Klijiih, Moses, the patriarchs, wo believe were with the heavenly host. This pong reveals three things: First. The glorification of tV through the incarnation. Una ha glory through his vast work in im ture, his providence building up an easting down nations, etc. In the incarnation there was spe cial glory. It was glory to Cod in tho highest highest, in that it wiif above all other glory, in that it ev- tended to all time and in that it w rought such wondrous good. Second. The great results to the earth. It would result in prai'O. Strifes, thorns and thistle!- were abounding. The earth was torn and bleeding by constant content ion. With Christ came pence. The result would be universal peace, Third. The elTect. on the individ ual man. '"(iood will toward men," from one another, from Co,. Out of this jrood will would finally ppritiR pence on earth and pb.ry to" ( Jod in the highest. Dr. .Matthew Simpson. In a New York ne u$pnper 0i ,-( t htistmat aiftt urr, ti, vrttned (II oJIomi; "An assortment of j. If irrll calculate fur the amH t. tL mrnt iml instruction of yWno! f t'eisont, among uhi.h r V jl llaiton I Lectures on t(m, F.tiuemn ana manurrt; fu, ; feets; Hassclua Chatnhlin t)V if Salute, an ejteetient lmiM ,i book, price a.; liurjrrt, ViJ. Cj &lage Hermans; mil CAiipont'if .i t trie vn the mprurrmrriltjf tjf the Mind." f i "A. T. OooiMcV h'o. IH& J"- HrtHtttuHiu, comer of Mtif, S." itrrct, has just rrerli ri a m if tf tenstee assortment of fancy tg.f ticiet, hiom, I'Miuf, jtiiai i lion. I.andnapc$ ami lnin'l yf hook fur children, that a f well adapted for purrhatt or If gift, at this season of runpii e4 mrntary presents. " "Hit the Uut arrival fro 1 Europe, were alto reeeivtif J texeral of the (afrit and tmJV r'f Savcls, I'oemt and ATtwrlb ft ?r nrnuM Workt: y V I Ijf 'Ftne letterpaper; fditiiijW i cards; I.adU$ and (irntttmniu I'ucket llooki; Wallrtt 94 j if Memorandum Hooks; tint fn l jf knicrs; Cases of Best ndwV l Fyed Srtdles; Opera Okmy jand Snuff Hotel." ,. jii mi if ni' f- - Cbc Christmas Story To Make a True Chrletmas. Don't for-t the lonely, the siiiT.-rliu;, the poor, on Cliri.-'tniiis. Itcmi-mluT tliat tile first and wiitest ( "Ijri -tsmis Kift WHS sent not to th,. ,-eli ihhI poie. en'ul, hut to tin- jmor mid n,v. ;VI, , 1 1.... 1. . . oioM- uno nre near anil ilrar to v hut somewhere, somehow, lii your ordi nary an. una some ono who Is iilul (Icur t no one else UIi ClirhstinuH for him or .-. An Old Angio-Ncrrva". Carol. Lordlings, listen to o-ir lay We have wnie from fc.ruay To seen Christmas; In this wrcmo.t ire are told He Ms yearly fcnit doth, hold: 'lis tofiaut May joy come from (lod above Tq all thost who Chrisiniaa lovet Lordlings, I now tell you true, unnstmas iringeth unto you Only mirth; His house he flu with many a dish Of bread and meat and also fish To grace the day. May joy come frinn God above To all those ip?,o Christmas lovct Lordlings, through our army's band They say. Who spucdx with open hand Free cud ful. And oft regaled his many friends Ood gives him com He hat he spends To grace the day. May joy come from God above To all those -who Christmas lovet Lordlings, wicked men eschew, In them, never shall you view Anght that's good; Cowards ore the rabble rout, Kick and Icai ihi grumblers out To grace Iko day. May joy com frov, Ood above To all those who Christmas lovet Lords, by Christmas and the host Of this mansion hear my toast ' Brink it well. Each must drain his cup of wine And I the first will toss off mine; Thus I advise, Here, then, I bid you all wassail Cursed le he whv tuill rvjt say brink hMhWk . t&rgrrjFtJ'v&tmyi&iaiiii jf &0itu (rSlirtetntafl There is a Ilfmnlnn l,o,i k,' 11,-. .1 . w in,; nun imps in the. hew- M '.ns umi inn mars ilnnrn . , m A great pnwe comes steal- X; g doivn over mountain n,i fetf forest. The mil .,1 ....... . !L rf straight and yr,:,:n on the hill- tL A lide. The ornss is bcflowercd K wtth blossoms, and the Ur,ia $ W sing on the. mountain tops in &rf U thanks to U,d. Jn Poland the & heavens open and Jacob's lad- ff I'h , " " oeiween earth and Sf M sky. In Austria the candles arc t m set in the window that f,L if -.- --.nun mill inr. t,m m rut Child may not stumble. Sf wt en ne eom.es to bleu the P W homo. In north Germany the W Mt i arc,Hvrma the lights E & le i l burning for the ine.omin0 W f of the Virgin Mary and her at- Vf V? tending angel. if tf The English superstition isE MS rtmxrali,, voiced by the myriad V Shakespeare in uam. iSome say that ever 'caW Hm: "son comoa ealnst at Ef & birth 1, cel- Sf The bird of ;h,wr, .. . rf ., niBht long, - all w. Ana zA-y no Sn,rlt rnn m W.-lllf ni t The nlKhts are wholoso nor wlteh lio.i. ....lii "o Planet, .TrikT""- Then K spirit car Then - j lunttN. Ijf c. , Power to charm" u naiiowecl and 8o"erac,. jgji -o Lime. M 7UF.RB was peace on t ml dean hills. And the shepherds utiH their flocks by night, When there came from the ilff,ii ry sky A burst of glory, a do.: 1 01 a lt;H And the angel choir from far awi Bang "Peace on earfi, good triii men," And ve hear the song o'er IflfKlf years As it echoes in our hearts jfto They sang in notes of heavenli In: They brought a message from GA men, ror the Prince of Peace had row k earth And a c M Id was born at Bethlehem, the Christ had come, the King of kings, That we might Ood in Ms beauty see And hearts be light in blcsseiW That death should be swallovti victory. And they left their flocks and ed on b To the city of David to see mm The Haviour of men and the Snl Uod, The humble child in a manger m And they marvel at that whk W come to pass . And return with glory and praw Uod, , Whil th. rhnnit erhaeS Wlthl IW hearts u As back to the lonely hilts MV As the shepherds of old, let us ' Ths Chrlstmr.1 clay to .'" tovn, To be tow"" through "! ip h 0 1 1 life, r hear cross gain crown. y0 more we find lowly cAM But there forever with Ood aW He watches and guides our feeble Till he bears us home with " finite love. How sweetly, how gladly to oil world . Uf There comes a message ( today, For Christ is born and man r And pain and sorrow away, .. k How sweetly and silently w hcart .1,1. The Christ Child comes n,'"'tt . (ft To make us noble and good ana For the light o the world 0 drous light. Dear Christ, may we follow wl"1 ing hearts The path of duty, where tnv l('d, . ttb That '. nnA ihamn maV h0V 0 And that joy may fin our souls in stead, And on this thy glorious natal day We shall catch the sound as the glad bells Till we hear thy summons to i J- sM ol 4 rai 1 Sit 1 away And in heaven above 1. m -Rev. Norman Tan Pelt Lews adelphia Publio Ledger, 'i