The Voice of the Pack By EDISON MARSHALL Wfiff CHAPTER II Continued. 21 "Father and I are to stay here?" "What else can you do?" He went back to his traces and drew the sled 100 yards farther. He didn't seem to eee the gaunt wolf that backed off Into the shadows as he approached. He refused to notice that the pack seemed to be steadily growing bolder. Human hunters usually had guns that could blast and destroy from a dis tance; but even an animal Intelli gence could perceive that these three seemed to be without this means of Inflicting death. A wolf Is ever so much more Intelli gent than a crow yet a crow shows little fear of an unarmed man and Is wholly unapproachable by a boy with a gun. The ugly truth was simply that In their Increasing madness and ex citement and hunger, they were becom ing less and less fearful of these three strange humans with the sled. It was not a good place for a camp. They worked a long time before they cleared a little patch of ground of Its snow mantle. Dan cut a number of saplings laboriously with his ax and built a tire with the comparatively dry core of a dead tree. True, It was feeble and flickering, but as good as could be hoped for, considering the dllllcultles under which he worked. The dead logs under the snow were soaked with water from the rains and thaws. The green wood that he cut smoked without blazing. ! "No more time to be lost," Dan told Snowbird. "It lies In your hands to keep the Are burning. And don't leave the circle of the fire light without that pistol In your hand." i "You don't mean," she asked, unbe lieving, "that you are going to go out there to fight Cranston unarmed?" "Of course, Snowbird. You must keep the pistol." I "Hut It means death; that's all It means. What chance would you have against a man with a rllle? And as soon as you get away from this fire, the wolves will tear you to pieces." "And what would you and your fa ther do, If I took It? You can't get him Into a tree. You can't build a big enough fire to frighten them. Please don't even talk about this mat ter, Snowbird. My mind's made up. I think the pack will stay here. They usually God knows how know who Is helpless and who Isn't. Maybe with the gun, you will be able to save your lives." "What's the chance of that?" "You might with one cartridge kill one of the devils; and the others but you know how they devour their own dead. That might break their famine enough so that they'd hold oft until I can get back. That's the prize Pin playing for." "And what If you don't get back?" lie took her hand In one of his, and with the other he caressed, for a sin gle moment, (he lovely flesh of her throat. The love he had for her spoke from his eyes such speech as no hu man vision could possibly mistake, lloth of them were tingling and breath less with a great, sweet wonder. "Never let those fangs tear that softness, while you live," he told here gently. "Never let thnt brave old man on the sled go to his death with the pack tearing nt him. Cheat 'etn, Snowbird I Heat 'em the last minute, If no other way remains I Show 'em who's boss, after all of all this for est." "You mean?" Her eyes widened. "I mean that you must only spend one of those three shells In fighting off the wolves. Save that till the mo ment you need It most. The other two must be saved for soniethlug else." She nodded, shuddering an Instant nt a menacing shadow that moved within 00 feet of the fire. "Then goodby, Dan I" she told him. And sho stretched up hor anus. "The thing I said that day on the hillside doesn't hold any more. Ills own anus encircled her, but he made no effort to claim her lips. Len nox watched them quietly; In this moment of crisis not even pretending to look nwny. Dun shook his head to her entreating eyes. "It Isn't Just a kiss, darling," he told her soberly. "It goes deeper than that. It's a symbol. It was your word, too, and mine; and words can't be broken, things being as they are. Can't I make you under stand?" She nodded. Ills eyes burned. Per haps she didn't understand, ns far as actual functioning of the brain was concerned. Hut she reached up to him, as women knowing life In the concreto rather than the abstract have always reached up to tuen; and she dimly caught the gleam of some eternal principle and right behind his words. This strong man of the moun tains had given his word, had been witness to her own promise to him and to herself, and a law that goes down to the roots of life prevented him from claiming the kiss. Jinny times, since the world wns new, comfort happiness life Itself have been contingent on the breaking of law. Yet In spite of what seemed common sense, even though no punish ment would forthcome If It were broken, the law has been kept. It was this way now. It wouldn't have been Just a kiss such as boys and girls have always had in the moonlight. It meant the symbolic renunciation of the debt that Dan owed Cranston a debt that In his mind might possibly go unpaid, which no weight of circumstance could make hlra renounce. His longing for her lips pulled at the roots of hlra. But by the laws of his being he couldn't claim them until the debt Incurred on the hillside, months ago, had been paid; to take them now meant to dull the fine edge of his resolve to carry the Issue through to the end, to dim the star that led him, to weaken him, by bend ing now, for the test to come. He didn't know why. It had its fount In the deep wells of the spirit. Common sense can't reveal how the holy man keeps strong the spirit by denying the flesh. It goes too deep for that. Dan kept to his consecrntion. He did, however, kiss her hands. and he kissed the tears out of her eyes. Then he turned Into the dark ness and broke through the ring of the wolves. CHAPTER III. Dan Falling was never more thank ful for his unerring sense of direction. He struck off at a forty-five-degree angle between their late course and a direct road to the river, and he kept It as If by a surveyor's line. All the old devices of the wilderness the ridge on ridge that looked Just alike. Inclines that to the casual eye looked like downward slopes, streams that vanished beneath the snow, and the snow-mist blowing across the face of the landmarks could not avail against him. A half dozen of the wolves followed him at first. Hut perhaps their fierce eyes marked his long stride and his powerful body, and decided that their better chance was with the helpless man and the girl beside the flickering fire. They turned bnck, one by one. Dan kept straight on and In two hours "Keep the Fire Burning." crossed Cranston's trail. He didn't doubt but that he would find Cran ston In his camp, If he found tha camp at all. The man had certainly re turned to It Immediately after setting fire to the buildings. If for no other reason than for food. It Isn't well to be abroad on the wintry mountains without a supply of food; and Cran ston would certainly know this fact. Dan didn't know when a rllle bullet from some camp In tlio thickets would put an abrupt end to his advance. The brush grew high by the river, the ele vation wns considerably lower, and there might be one hundred camps out of the sight of the casual wayfarer. If Cranston should see him, mushing ncrnss the moonlit snow, It would give him the most savage Joy to open fire upon him with his rllle. Dan's keen eyes searched the thick ets, and particularly they watched the sky line for a faint glare that might mean a camp fire. He tried to walk silently. It wasn't nn easy thing to do with awkward snowshoes; but the river drowned the little noise that he made. Ho tried to take advantage of tho shelter of the thickets and the trees. Then, at the base of a little ridge, he came to a sudden halt. Ho hnd estimated Just right. Not two hundred yards distant, a camp fire flickered and glowed In the shel ter of a great log. Ho saw It, by the most astounding good fortune, through a little rift In the trees. Ten feet on either side, and It wns obscured. He lost nn time. He did not know when the wolves about Snowbird's cump would lose the last of their 6 Copyright, 1920, by Little, Brown A Co. cowardice. Tet he knew he must keep a tight grip on his self-control and not let the necessity of haste cost him his victory. He crept forward, step by step, placing his snowshoes with consummate care. When he was one hundred yards distant he saw that Cranston's camp was situated beside a little stream that flowed into the river and that like the mountaineer he was he had built a large lean-to reinforced with snowbanks. The fire burned at Its opening. Cranston was not In sight; either he was absent from camp or asleep In his lean-to. The latter seemed the more likely. Dan made a wide detour, coming In about thirty yards behind the construc tion. Still he moved with incredible caution. Never in his life had he pos sessed a greater mastery over his own nerves. His heart leaped somewhat fast In his own breast; but this was the only wasted motion. It isn't easy to advance through such thickets with out ever a misstep, without the rustle of a branch or the crack of a twig. Certain of the wild creatures find It easy; but men have forgotten how In too many centuries of cities and farms. It Is hardly a human quality, and a spectator would have found a rather ghastly fascination In watching the lithe motions, the passionless face, the hands that didn't shake at all. But there were no spectators unless the little band of wolves, stragglers from the pack that had gathered on the hills behind watched with lighted eyes. Dan went down at full length upon the snow and softly removed ills snow shoes. They would be only an Impedi ment In the close work that was sure to follow. He slid along the snow crust, clear to the mouth of the lean-to. The moonlight poured through and showed the Interior with rather re markable plainness. Cranston was sprawled, half-sitting, half-lying on a tree-bough pallet near the rear wall. There was not the slightest doubt of the man's wakefulness. Dan heard him stir, and once as if at the mem ory of his deed of the day before he cursed In a savage whisper. Although he was facing the opening of the lean to, he was wholly unaware of Dan's presence. The latter had thrust his head at the side of the opening, and It was In shadow. Cranston seemed to be watching the great, white snow fields that lay In front, and for a mo ment Dan was at loss to explain tills seeming vigil. Then he understood. The white field before him was part of the long ridge that the three of them would pass on their way to the valleys. Cranston had evidently an ticipated that the girl, and the man would attempt to march out een If he hadn't guessed they would try to take the helpless Lennox with them and he wished to be prepared for emergencies. There might be sport to have with Dan, unarmed as he was. And his eye? were full of strange con jectures In regard to Snowbird. Both would be exhausted now and helpless Dan's eyes encompassed the room; the piles of provisions heaped against the wall, the snow shoes beside the pallet, but most of all he wished to locate Cranston's rifle. Success or fullure hung on that. He couldn't find It at first Then he saw the glit ter of Its barrel In the moonlight leaning against a grub box possibly six feet from Cranston and 10 from himself. His heart leaped. The best he had hoped for for the sake of Snowbird, not himself was that he would be nearer to the gun than Cranston and would be able to seize It first. But conditions could be greatly worse than they were. If Cranston had actually had the weapon In his hands, the odds of battle would have been frightfully against Dan. It takes a certain length of time to seize, swing, and aim a ri fle ; and Dan felt that while he would be unable to reach It himself, Cran ston could not procure It either, with out giving Dan an opportunity to lenp upon him. In all his dreams, through the months of preparation, he had pic tured It thus. It was the test at last. The gun might be loaded, and still In these days of safety devices un ready to fire; and the loss of a frac tion of a second might enable Cran ston to reach his knife. Thus Dan felt Justified In Ignoring the gun alto gether and trusting as he had most desired to a battle of hands. And he wanted both hauds free when he made his attack. If Dan had been erect upon his feet, his course would have been an Imme diate toap on the shoulders of his ad versary, running the risk of Cranston reaching his hunting knife In time. But the second that he would require to get to his feet would entirely offset this advantage. Cranston could spring ap, too. So he did the next most dis arming thing. He sprang up and strode Into the lean-to. (TO BK CONTINUED.) Falls Excavate 30-Mlls Chasm. The waters of the grand falls of Labrador have excavated a chasm SO miles long. When Satan needs a good man In the business he picks out t loafer. I ,JL OF THE "M Ill if, j QyJSDTiSQJW ' ' II 1 nmn,.3wiii.iwmpjini iisa mum m imi jthwwip 1 im CHAPTER 111 Continued. 22 "Good evening, Crans'ton," he said pleasantly. Cranston was also upon his feet the same instant. His instincts were en tirely true. He knew if he leaped for his rifle, Dan would be upon his back In nn instant, and he would have no chance to use It. The rifle was now out of the running, as they were at about equal distances from it, and neither-would have time to swing or aim It Dan's sudden appearance had been so utterly unlooked for, that for a mo ment Cranston could find no answer. His eyes moved to the rifle, then to his belt where hung his hunting knife, that still lay on the pallet. "Good evening, Fniling," he replied,' trying his hardest to fall, into that strange spirit of nonchalance with which brave men have so often met their ad versaries, and which Dan had now. "I'm surprised to see you here. What do you want?" Dan's voice when lie replied was no more warm than the snow banks that reinforced the lean to. "I want your rifle also your saow shoes and your supplies of food. And I think I'll take your blankets, too." "And I suppose you mean to fight for them?" Cranston asked. His lips drew up in a smile, but there was no smile In the tone of his words. "You're right," Dan told him, and he stepped nearer. "Not only for that, Cranston. We're face to face at last hands to hands. I've got a knife In my pocket, but I'm not even going to bring It out. It's hands to hands you and I until everything's square between us." "Perhaps you've forgotten that day on the ridge?" Cranston asked. "You haven't any woman to save you this time." "I remember the day, and that's part of the debt The tiling you did yester day Is part of It, too. It's all to be set tled at last Cranston, and I don't be lieve I could spare you If you went to your knees before me. You've got a clearing out by the fire big as a prize ring. We'll go out there side by side. And hands to hands we'll settle all these debts we have between us with no rules of fighting and no mercy In the end 1" They measured each other with their eyes. Once more Cranstop's gaze stole to his rifle, but lunging out, Dnn kicked It three feet farther Into the shadows of the lean-to. Dan saw the dark face drawn with passion, the hands clenching, the shoulder muscles growing Into hard knots. And Cran ston looked and knew that merciless vengeance thnt age old sin and Chrlstless creed by which he lived had followed hlra down and was clutching him at last He saw It In the position of the stal wart form before him, the clear level eyes that the moon light made bright as steel, the hard lines, the slim, pow- "Good Evening, Cranston." erful hands. He could read It In the tones of the voice tones that he him self could not Imitate or pretend. The hour had come for the settling of old debts. He tried to curse his adversary as a weakling and a degenerate, but the ob scene words he sought for would not come to his lips. Here was his fate, and because the darkness always fades before the light and the courage of wickedness always creaks before the courage of righteousness, Cranston was afraid to look It In the face. The fear of defeat of death, of heaven knows what remorselessness with which this grave giant would administer Justice was upon him, and his heart seemed to freeze In his breast. Cravenly he leaped for his knife on the blankets below him. Dan was upon him before he ever reached It He sprang as a cougar splngs, Incredibly fast and with shat tering power. Both went down, and for a long time they writhed and strug gled in each other's arms. The pine boughs rustled strangely. The dark, gaunt, hand reached in vain for the knife. Some resistless power seemed to be holding his wrist and was bending Its bone as an Indian bends a bow. Pain lashed through him. And then tills dark-hearted man, who had never known the meaning of mer cy, opened his lips to scream that this terrible enemy be merciful to him. But the words wouldn't come. A ghastly weight had come at his throat, and his tortured lungs sobbed for breath. Then, for a long time, there was a curious pounuing, lashing sound In the, evergreen boughs. It seemed merciless and endless. But Dan got up at last, in a strange, heavy silence, and swiftly went to work. He took the rifle and tilled it with cartridges from Cranston's belt. Then he put the remaining two boxes of shells Into his shirt pocket. The supplies of food the sack of nutri tious Jerked venison like dried bark, the little package of cheese, the boxes of hard tack and one of the small sacks of prepared flour he tied, with a single kettle, Into his heavy blan kets and flung them with the rifle upon his back. Finally he took the pair of snow shoes from the floor. He worked coldly, swiftly, all the time munching at a piece of Jerked venison. When he hnd finished he walked to the door of the lean-to. It seemed to Dan that Cranston whis pered faintly, from his unconscious ness, as he passed ; but the victor did not turn to look. The snow shoes crunched away Into the darkness. On the hill behind a half dozen wolves stragglers from the pack frisked and leaped about In a curious way. A strange smell had reached them on the wind, and when the loud, fearful steps were out of hearing, It might pay them to creep down, one by one, and investi gate Its cause. The gray circle about the fire was growing impatient Snowbird waited to the last Instant before she admitted this fact. But It Is possible only so long to deny the truth of a thing that all the senses verify, and that moment for her was past. She noticed that when she went to her hands and knes, laboriously to cut a piece of the drier wood from the rnln-soaked, rotted snag that was her principal supply of fuel, every wolf would leap forward, only to draw back when she stood straight again. She worked desperately to keep the fire burning bright. She dared not neglect It for a moment Kxcept for the single pistol ball that she could afford to ex pend on the wolves of the three she had the fire was her Inst defense. But It was a losing fight The rain soaked wood smoked without flame, the comparatively dry core with which Dan had started the fire had burned down, and the green wood, hacked with such heart-breaking difficulty from the saplings thnt Dan had cut, needed the most tireless attention to burn at all. Her nervous vitality was flowing from her In a frightful stream. Too long she had tolled without food In tho constant presence of danger, and she was very near Indeed to utter ex haustion. But at the seme time she knew she must not faint That was one thing she could not do to fall un conscious before the last of her three cartridges was expended In the right way. Again she went forth to the sapling, and this time It seemed to her thnt If she simply tossed the ax through the air, she could fell one of the gray crowd. But when she stooped to pick It up she didn't finish the thought She turned to coax the Are. And then she leaned sobbing over the sled. "What's the use?" she cried. "He won't come back. What's the use of fighting any more?" "There's always use of fighting," her father told her. He seemed to speak with difficulty, and his face looked strange and white. The cold and the exposure were having their effect on his weakened system, and unconscious ness was a neur shadow indeed. "But, dearest If I could only make you do what I want you to" "Whntr "You're able to climb a tree, and If you'd take these coats, you wouldn't freeze by morning. If you'd only have the strength" "And see you torn to pieces 1" "I'm old, dear and very tired and I'd crawl away Into the shadows, where you couldn't see. There's do use minc ing words, Snowbird. You're a brave girl alwavs have been since a little thing, as God Is my Judge nd yi.u know we must face the truth, b ter one of ns die than both. And I prom ise I'll never feel their fangs. And I won't take your pistol with me either." Her thought flashed to the clasp hunting knife that he carried in his pocket. But her eyes lighted, and she bent and kissed him. And the wolves leaped forward even at this. 'We'll stay It nut," she told him. "We'll fight It to the last just as Dan would want us to do. Besides it would only mean the same fate for me, In a little while. I couldn't cling up there forever and Dnn won't come back." She was wholly unable to gain on the fire. Only by dint of the most heart-breaking toil was she able to se cure any dry fuel for It at all. F.very length of wood she cut had to be scraped of bark, and half the time the fire was only a sickly column of white smoke. It became Increasingly diffi cult to swing the ax. The trail was almost at Its end. The after-mldnlght hours drew one by one across the face of the wilder ness, and she thought that the deep ening cold presaged dawn. Her fin gers were numb. Once more she went to one of the saplings, but she stumbled and almost went to her face at the first blow. It was the instant that her gray watch ers had been waiting for. The wolf that stood nearest leaped a gray streak out of the shadow and every wolf in the pack shot forward with a yell. It was a short, expectant cry; but It chopped off short. For with a half-sob, and seemingly without men tal process, she aimed her pistol and fired. A fast-leaping wolf is one of the most difficult pistol targets that can be imagined. It bordered on the miracu- Some Resistless Power Seemed to Be Holding His Wrist. Ions that she did not miss li I in alto gether. Her nerves were torn, their control over her muscles lurgely gone. Yet the bullet coursed down through the lungs, Inflicting a mortal wound. The wolf hnd leaped for her throat; but he fell short. She staggered from a blow, and she heard a curious sound in the region of her hip. Hut she didn't know that the fangs had gone home In her soft flesh. The wolf rolled on the ground ; and if her pistol had possessed the shocking power of a rllle, he would have never got up again. As It was, he shrieked once, then sped off In the darkness to die. Five or six of the nearest wolves, catching the smell of his blood, bayed and sped nfter him. But the remainder of the great pack fully 15 of the gray, gaunt creatures came stealing across the snow to ward her. White fangs hnd gone home; and a new madness was In the air. Strnlnlng Into the silence, a perfect ly straight line between Cranston's camp and Snowbird's, Dan Falling came mushing across the snow. Ills sense of direction had never been obliged lo stand such a test as this before. Snowbird's fire was a single dot on a vast plateau; yet he had gone Btralgbt toward It. (TO BK CONTINUED.) Device Overcomes Sleeplessness. No one need suffer from sleepless ness any longer. A device has heen Invented which, It Is claimed, will send the worst ense of Insomnia to the Innd of nod In a few minutes. The machine, which In appearance Is rather complicated, consists of a num ber of discs which, when the starting handle Is moved, rotate In opposite directions. All that the sufferer has to do Is to keep his eyes on the discs as they turn, until ofter a short spell of watching he gradually sinks Into a sound sleep. Hadn't Wseted Any Time. A younf couple rushed Into a mar riage license bureau recently and an nounced to the clerk that they wished to be married at once. Dan Cupid's executive officer surveyed the couple from under grizzled brows and said severely: "I'm afraid this Is a run away match." "Well, your bono" returned the prospective groom, "I can't exactly say we ran, but w walked pretty fast." 4