The Voice of the Pack

e riddle of the universe from the lips of the Sphinx, and how he himself-more in his unconscious self, rather than conscious-had sought the eternal riddle of the wilderness. It had seemed

of his soul-and at last it had responded. The strange rising and falling song w

alking over them. He saw Fear in many guises-in the forest fire, in the landslide, in the lightning cleaving the sky. In the song were centered and made clear all the many lesser voices with which the forest had spoken to him these two months and which he had but dimly understood,-the passion, th

mountains, it always hits me the same. The wolves have just joined together

at they might hear the song again. And then they got up and moved across t

he end of the su

iends will decide it's time to make a little money fighting forest fires. Dan, I'm suspicious of that gang. I believe they've got a regular arson ring, maybe with unscrupulous stockmen behind them, an

ld me someth

maybe has already started to-day, down into the valley to give his evidence. Of course, that is deeply

sounds that are always to be heard, if one listens keenly enough, in the wilderness

ing in these woods that can stand aga

man, of

hem. All the beasts of prey are out to-night. You see, Dan, when the moon shines, the deer feed at night instead of in the twili

He wasn't content yet. "They co

e European peasant, his soul scared out of him by the government he lived under, has always fled from wild beasts. They were tillers of the soil, and they carried hoes instead of guns. They never put the fear of God into the animals and as a result there are quite a number of true stories about tigers and wolves that aren't pleasant to l

at it doesn't pay to hunt their fellow men. The laws o

ay from the idea that the codes of life by which most men lived were forgotten quickly in the shadows

e hills. The forest creatures do not hunt their own species, nor do they normally hunt men. The moon looked down to find Bert Cranston waiting on a certain trail that wound down to the settlements, his rifle loaded and ready for anothe

metimes seem like great, misty ghosts of long-dead cities; trees will turn to silver; phantoms will gather in family groups under the cliffs; plain hills and valleys will become, in an instant, the m

s of ebony. The whole ridge was splotched with patches of moonlight, and the trail, dimming as the eyes followed it, woun

he. It showed in his eyes, narrow and never resting from their watch of the trail; it was in his posture; and it revealed its

him. Only the keenest ear could have heard the sound; and possibly in his madness, Cranston himself was not aware of it. An

face in unsparing detail. It revealed the deep lines, the terrible, drawn lips, the ugly hair long ov

g chance could be taken in this hunting. Cranston had no intention of giving his enemy even the slightest chance to defend himself. If Hildreth got d

of grouse, frightened from their perches by the approaching figure, flew down the trail in front. Cranston pressed back the

e trail. The trail itself went straight through it. And in an instant more,

his mind and nerves held his muscles. But perhaps he had waited too long for Hildreth to come; and the strain had told on him. He had sworn to take no false steps; that every motion he made should be cool and sure. He didn't want to attract Hildreth'

Hildreth. A deer springing up in the trail, or even a lesser creature, might make as pronounced a sound. It was true that even unaccompanied by any other suspicious circumstances, the man would have become i

d the muscles set; and it is more than probable that the sleeping senses would not have interpreted it at all. But Hildreth was looking for trouble. He had dreaded this long walk to the settlements more than any experience of his life. He didn't know why the letter he had written, asking for an armed escort down to the courts, had not brought results. But it was wholly possible that Cranston would have answered this question for him. This same letter had fallen into a certain soiled, deadly pair of h

this final sound, when he saw the glint that might so easily have been a gun-barrel, his nerves and muscles reacted at once. Not even a fraction of a second intervened. His gun fla

expected. And they were not a moment too soon. Even at that instant, his finger was closing down upon the trigger, Hildreth standing clear and revealed through the sights. The nervous response that few

er pressed he had held as accurate a "bead" as at any time in his life. He did not know still another circumstance,-that in the moonlight he had overestimated the distance to the clearing, and instead of on

ht,-a strange picture that he was never entirely to forget. It was

he had a world of confidence in his great, shocking, big-game rifle. Besides, the rifle fire might attract some hunter in the hills; and there would be time in the morning to return to the body and m