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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Wolf Pack, by Dan Beard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Black Wolf Pack
+
+Author: Dan Beard
+
+Release Date: July 19, 2007 [EBook #22109]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK WOLF PACK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Irma Spehar, Markus Brenner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+                            BLACK WOLF PACK
+
+                                  BY
+
+                              DAN BEARD
+
+                  NATIONAL SCOUT COMMISSIONER, B.S.A.
+
+
+                              ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+                        CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+                               NEW YORK
+
+
+
+[Illustration: It was a shadowy figure yet it moved]
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY BOYS' LIFE
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+_All rights reserved. No part of this book
+may be reproduced in any form without
+the permission of Charles Scribner's Sons_
+
+
+
+                             DEDICATED TO
+
+                           BELMORE AND FRED
+             (BELMORE BROWNE)      (FREDERICK K. VREELAND)
+
+                     NO BETTER WILDERNESS MEN EVER
+                            WORE MOCCASINS
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+After numerous visits to a number of remote and unfrequented places in
+the Rocky Mountains, from Wyoming to Alberta, the writer was deeply
+impressed with the awesome mystery of the wilderness and the weird
+legends he heard around the camp fires, while the bigness of the things
+he saw was photographed on his brain so distinctly and permanently as to
+act as a compelling force causing him, aye, almost forcing him to write
+about it.
+
+When the spell came upon him, like the Ancient Mariner, he needs must
+tell the story, and thus the tale of the Black Wolf Pack was written
+with no thought, at the time, of publishing the narrative, but primarily
+for the real enjoyment the author derived from writing it, and also for
+the entertainment of the author's family and intimate friends.
+
+The tale, however, pleased the members of the Editorial Board of the Boy
+Scouts of America, and Mr. Franklin K. Mathiews, Chief Scout Librarian,
+asked permission to have it edited for the Scout Magazine, which request
+was cheerfully granted.
+
+The author hereby freely and cheerfully acknowledges the useful changes
+and practical suggestions injected into the story by his friend and
+associate, Mr. Irving Crump, Editor of Boys' Life, in which magazine the
+Black Wolf Pack, in somewhat abbreviated form, first appeared.
+
+DAN BEARD.
+
+Flushing,
+June 1st, 1922.
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+It was a shadowy figure yet it moved          _Frontispiece_
+                                                 FACING PAGE
+The eagle screamed, descended like a thunderbolt
+... and struck the bull                                   36
+
+More than once while I clung to the chance projection
+... I regretted making the fool-hardy attempt             92
+
+"I think the name 'Pluto' fits his character to a
+nicety"                                                  192
+
+
+
+
+The Black Wolf Pack
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+It was a terrible shock to me (said the Scoutmaster as he fingered a
+beaded buckskin bag). Old Blink Broosmore was responsible. It was a
+malicious thing for him to do. He meant it to be mean, too,--wanted to
+hurt me,--to wound my feelings and make me ashamed. And all because he
+nursed a grudge against dad--I mean Mr. Crawford.
+
+It started because of that defective spark-plug in the engine of the
+roadster. Strange what a tiny thing such as a crack in a porcelain
+jacket around an old spark-plug can do in the way of changing the course
+of a fellow's whole life.
+
+My last period in the afternoon at high school was a study period and I
+cut it because I had several things to do down town. I hurried home and
+took the roadster, and on my way out mother--I mean Mrs. Crawford--gave
+me an armful of books to return to the library and a list of errands she
+wanted me to do. While motoring down town I noticed that one cylinder
+was missing occasionally and I told myself I would change that
+spark-plug as soon as I got home.
+
+I made all the stops I had planned and even drove around to the church
+because I wanted to look in at the parish house where some of my scouts
+(I was the assistant scoutmaster of Troop 6, of Marlborough) were
+putting up decorations for the very first Fathers and Sons dinner ever
+given which we were to have on Washington's birthday. That was in 1911.
+
+As I was leaving I looked at my new wrist watch and discovered that it
+was a quarter of five.
+
+"Just in time to catch dad and drive him home from the office," I said
+to myself, for I knew that he left the office of his big paper-mill
+down at the docks at five o'clock.
+
+I jumped into the car and bowled along down Spring Street and the Front
+Street hill and arrived at the mill office at exactly five. Dad wasn't
+in sight so I decided to turn around and wait for him at the curb. That
+is how the trouble started. I got part way around on the hill when that
+cylinder began missing a lot and next thing I knew the motor stalled and
+there was I with my car crosswise on the hill, blocking traffic--and
+traffic is heavy on Front Street hill about five o'clock, because all
+the mills are rushing their trucks down to the piers with the last loads
+of merchandise before the down-river boats leave, at six o'clock.
+
+In about two minutes I was holding up a line of trucks a block long and
+those drivers were saying a lot of things that were not very
+complimentary to me and not printed in Sunday-school papers. And old
+Blink Broosmore was right up at the head of the line with a truck load
+of cases from the box factory and the look on his face was about as ugly
+as a mud turtle's. Then, to make matters worse, my starter wouldn't work
+at the critical moment, and I had to get out to crank the engine. What a
+howl of indignation went up from those stalled truck drivers! I felt
+like a bad two-cent piece in a drawer full of five-dollar gold pieces.
+Guess my face was red behind my ears.
+
+And then old Blink made the unkindest remark of all--no, he didn't make
+it to me; he just yelled it out to a couple of other truck-drivers.
+
+"That's what happens with these make-believe dudes," he shouted. "That's
+the kid old Skin Flint Crawford took out of an orphan asylum. He's a kid
+that old Crawford took up with because he was too mean t' have t' Lord
+bless him with one o' his own. That's straight, fellers. I was
+Crawford's gardener when it happened an'--"
+
+Old Blink stopped and got red and then white, and I could see the other
+truck men looking uncomfortable. I looked up and there was Dad Crawford
+on the curb boring holes into Blink with those cold gray eyes of his and
+looking as white as marble. No one said a word. It seemed as if the
+whole street became hushed and silent. I got the car around to the curb
+somehow and dad got in and the line of trucks trundled by with every
+driver looking straight ahead and some of them grinning nervously and
+apparently feeling mighty uncomfortable.
+
+But that wasn't a patch to the way I felt, and I could see by the lack
+of color and set expression of dad's face and the way he stared straight
+ahead of him without saying a word that he was feeling very unhappy
+about it too. There was something behind it all--something that raised
+in my mind vague doubts and very unpleasant thoughts.
+
+Dad never spoke a word all the way home, and, needless to say, I did not
+either--I couldn't; my whole world seemed to have been turned upside
+down in the space of half an hour. Was it true that I was not Donald
+Crawford? Was it possible that Alexander Crawford, this fine, big,
+broad-shouldered, kindly man beside me was not my real father? Was it a
+fact that that noble, generous, happy woman whom I called mamma was not
+my mother at all? Each of those questions took shape in my mind and each
+was like a stab in the heart, for Blink Broosmore had answered them all,
+and Alexander Crawford, though he must know how anxious I was to have
+Blink denied, did not speak to refute him.
+
+We rolled up the drive and dad stepped out, still silent, but he did
+smile wistfully at me as he closed the car door.
+
+"Put it away, Don, and hurry in for dinner," he said and I felt certain
+I detected a break in his voice. I felt sorry--sorry for him and sorry
+for myself, and as I put the car in the garage, I had a hard time trying
+to see things clearly; my eyes would get blurred and a lump would get
+into my throat in spite of me.
+
+As I dressed for dinner I felt half dazed. I hardly realized what I was
+doing, and I had to stop and pull myself together before I started
+downstairs to the dining room, for I knew if I did not have myself well
+in hand I would blubber like a big chump.
+
+Mother and dad were waiting for me and I could see by mother's sad
+expression and the troubled look in her eyes that dad had told her of
+the whole occurrence. And that only added to my unhappiness because I
+felt for a certainty that all that Blink Broosmore had shouted must be
+true.
+
+For the first time in my memory dad forgot to say grace, and none of us
+ate with any apparent relish and none of us tried to make conversation.
+It was a painful sort of a meal and I wanted to have it over with as
+soon as I could. It seemed hours before Nora cleared the table and
+served dad's demi-tasse.
+
+I guess I then looked him full in the eyes for the first time since the
+occurrence on Front Street.
+
+"That was a very unkind thing for Blink Broosmore to do," said dad, and
+I knew by the firmness and evenness of his voice that he had gained full
+control of his feelings.
+
+"Is--is--oh, did he tell the truth, dad?" I gulped helplessly and for
+the life of me I could not keep back the tears.
+
+"Unfortunately, Donald, there is just enough truth in it to make it
+hurt," said dad and I could see mother wince as if she had been struck,
+and turn away her face.
+
+"They why--why? Oh! who am I?" I cried, for the whole thing had
+completely unnerved me.
+
+"Don dear, we do not know to a certainty," said mother struggling with
+her emotions.
+
+"But now that you are partly aware of the situation, I think there is a
+way you can find out, at least as much as we know," said dad, getting up
+and going into the library.
+
+Through the doorway I could see him fumbling at the safe that he kept
+there beside the desk. Presently he drew out a battered and dented red
+tin box and a bundle of papers. These he brought into the dining room
+and laid on the table. Then he drew up a chair, cleared his throat,
+rather loudly it seemed to me, and began.
+
+"Don, we always wanted a child, and why the Lord never blessed us with
+one of our own we do not know. Anyway, we wanted one so badly that we
+decided to adopt one. That was seventeen years ago, wasn't it, mother?"
+
+Mother nodded.
+
+"Doctor Raymond, the physician at the county institution, knew our
+desires and, being an old friend of the family, he volunteered to find
+us a good healthy baby that we could adopt and call our own. Not a week
+later you appeared on the scene. Dr. Raymond told us that a wagon drawn
+by a raw-boned horse, and loaded with household goods, drew up to the
+orphanage and a tired and worn-out looking old lady got out with a lusty
+year old child in one arm and this box and these papers under the
+other.
+
+"At the office of the asylum she explained how she and her husband were
+moving from a Connecticut town to a little farm they had bought in
+Pennsylvania. Somewhere at a crossroad near Derby, Connecticut, they had
+found the baby and this box and bundle of papers in a basket under a
+bush with a card attached to the basket requesting that the finder adopt
+and take care of the baby.
+
+"Of course, they could not pass the infant by, but the woman explained
+that they were too poor and too old to adopt the child so they had gone
+miles out of their way to find an orphanage and leave the baby there,
+along with the box and papers.
+
+"When Dr. Raymond heard the story and saw you, for you were the baby, he
+got me on the telephone and told me all about you. And that night he
+brought you here, and you were such a chubby, bright, interesting little
+fellow that mother and I fell in love with you immediately and decided
+to adopt you, which we did according to law. So you are our legal
+child, Don, and all that, although we are not your real parents."
+
+Somehow that made me feel a little happier. Dad and mother did have a
+claim on me at least. That was something.
+
+"It was not until after Dr. Raymond had left," went on father, "that
+mother and I examined the box and papers that had come with you. Here
+they are."
+
+Dad took up a worn and age-yellowed envelope addressed in a bold hand:
+
+    To the Finder
+
+Inside was the following brief message:
+
+    TO THE FINDER:--
+
+    The mother of this child, Donald Mullen, is dead. I, his father,
+    cannot give him the care he should have. Will you, the finder,
+    adopt him, care for him, and bring him up to be an honest,
+    trustworthy man, and win the eternal gratitude of his dead
+    mother and
+
+    DONALD MULLEN,
+    his father.
+
+"Then my name is--or was Mullen," I exclaimed.
+
+"According to that," said dad softly, "but when you became our son we
+kept your first name and discarded the family name of course."
+
+"But--but what has become of my father, Donald Mullen?" I asked.
+
+"My boy, we have tried both for your sake and for our own to find out.
+We have followed up and searched every possible clue and--but wait, here
+are other papers of interest and after you have read them I will tell
+you all we have done to locate your real father and afterwards we will
+talk the whole situation over." As dad was speaking he passed over the
+battered tin box. On the lid was inscribed the simple lines--
+
+    The contents of this box belong to the boy. If you are honest
+    you will see that it comes into his hands at the proper time. If
+    you are dishonest, then God help the boy and God help you!
+
+    D. MULLEN.
+
+It was some time before I could make up my mind to force the lid. When I
+did the first thing that my eyes fell upon was this buckskin bag of
+unmistakable Indian design, beautifully decorated with bead work and
+highly colored porcupine quills cunningly worked into a good luck
+design. As I picked up the bag I saw that it was sealed with wax and to
+it was attached a card on which was penned:
+
+    To my son:--
+
+    Here is all the wealth I possess. It isn't much. The bag with
+    its contents was sent to me by my brother, Fay, who is out in
+    the Rockies. He gave it to me to pay my expenses out there to
+    join him. I am leaving it for you. It may help you over some
+    rocky places if it ever gets into your hands, and I trust the
+    good Lord that it does.
+
+    Lovingly,
+    YOUR FATHER.
+
+The bag gave forth the unmistakable clink of gold coins as I dropped it
+on the table.
+
+That message from my father, whom I had never seen, made my heart heavy
+and again that lump gathered in my throat, for I could feel the
+heartaches that the writing of that note must have caused him. I had not
+the courage to break the seal of the bag and examine its contents. I
+pushed it aside and took from the box another time-yellowed envelope
+addressed to
+
+    MY SON DONALD
+
+Inside I found the following:
+
+    Dear Boy:--
+
+    I cannot determine whether I am giving you a mean deal or
+    whether this is all for your good. Your mother, Barbara Parker
+    Mullen, is dead, God bless her! She has been dead now six
+    months. It seems to me like eternity. I have tried to take care
+    of you as she would have cared for you but I am afraid I have
+    lost heart, and my courage, and I am afraid my faith has slipped
+    from me. I fear that I am a broken-spirited failure. The passing
+    of your mother has taken everything from me. I am no longer fit
+    or able to care for you and I must pass you on to someone else
+    and trust your welfare to God. For neither your mother nor I
+    have any relatives left who are able to take care of you.
+
+    What will become of you I cannot guess. I can only hope for the
+    best. But by the time you are old enough to read and understand
+    this message you will, I hope, have forgiven me or praised me
+    for my effort to find you a home.
+
+    What will become of me I do not know. I have one brother left in
+    the world, Fay Mullen, and he is out in Piute Pass in the
+    Rockies grubbing for gold. I am going out to join him for I know
+    the only way I can forget my grief and get hold of myself once
+    more is to bury myself in the wilderness.
+
+    Fay has sent me a bag of double eagles to pay my expenses west.
+    That is all the money I have in the world. I am not going to use
+    it. I will work my way west and leave the gold for you. It is
+    the least and probably the last that I can do for you.
+
+    If, when you read this you have any desires to know who you
+    really are, I will leave you the following information:
+
+    Your mother, a wonderful woman, was Barbara Parker of
+    Litchfield, Connecticut, daughter of Judge Arnold Parker of
+    Litchfield, now deceased. I am Donald Mullen, the eldest of
+    three brothers; Fay Mullen is the next of age and Patrick
+    Mullen, the gunsmith of Maiden Lane, New York, is the youngest.
+    We were born in Byron Bridge, Ireland, and we three came to this
+    country after our parents died. You come of an honest,
+    worthwhile people on my side, and of the best American blood on
+    your mother's, Donald, and I ask only that you live an honest,
+    honorable life and have faith in your country and your God, and
+    He will be with you to the end.
+
+    Good-bye, boy.
+
+    Lovingly,
+    YOUR FATHER.
+
+I read the letter aloud but I confess that my voice broke toward the end
+and I choked up until reading was difficult.
+
+For some time after I finished, we three sat in silence. The thoughts
+and mental pictures of that broken man parting with his baby son
+seventeen years before made me most unhappy.
+
+Dad broke the silence.
+
+"Well, now you are acquainted with the whole situation, what do you
+think?"
+
+"I scarcely know what to think," said I. "It does not appear natural for
+a man to abandon his own son in the manner he did. It seems heartless
+and cruel. I cannot understand it; yet I wish I could see my poor
+father. I wonder if he is still alive. Certainly with the information at
+hand it should not be impossible for me to trace him or some relatives
+of my mother. Don't you think so?"
+
+"That is what I thought, Don, for when you were three years old I began
+to wonder about your father's whereabouts. I wanted to meet him and
+perhaps help him if I could. Do not think that your poor father was
+cruel, for it is evident that the man was suffering from a nervous
+breakdown and consequently more or less irresponsible; I think he acted
+wonderfully well under the circumstances. In order to help him I began a
+search and for ten years I have had detectives and private individuals
+following up every possible lead. Yet, with all my efforts, the search
+has amounted to nothing. Your father's trail ended at a Spokane
+outfitting store. I could not locate anyone nearer to you than an old
+maiden great-aunt of your mother's although I have had every clue
+investigated.
+
+"The only relative of your father's that I could get any information
+about was his youngest brother, Patrick Mullen, your uncle and a famous
+gunsmith of Maiden Lane, New York. He is dead now but his reputation for
+making an exceptionally fine hand-forged gun lives on even to-day.
+Patrick Mullen died just before I began my search for your father, but
+in digging around for facts about him, I learned that he had made a
+limited number of very fine guns, on each of which he had stamped his
+full name, 'Patrick Mullen.' Other guns of an inferior quality that he
+made bore the simple stamp of 'P. Mullen.' The old man was very proud of
+each 'Patrick Mullen' that he turned out and like the true artist that
+he was he kept track of each one, sold them only to men he knew and when
+the owner died he bought the gun back himself so that he always knew its
+whereabouts.
+
+"In that way all of the 101 'Patrick Mullen's' he made came back to him,
+save one. There is one of the complete number still missing and no one
+seems to know where it is. This is more remarkable because the missing
+gun is a flint-lock rifle of the style of seventy years ago. That gun
+has always struck me as being a valuable clue in our search, because it
+is the only rifle ever made by the old gunsmith and I have a feeling
+that that missing 'Patrick Mullen' may have been given to your father by
+the brother, and that may account for the fact that among the papers of
+Patrick Mullen there is no record of its whereabouts; this is in a
+measure confirmed by the report that the man outfitting at Spokane had a
+long old-fashioned rifle, and collectors say there used to be an expert
+in antique arms by the name of Mullen."
+
+The suggestion made me tremendously excited. Beyond a doubt in my mind
+that missing "Patrick Mullen" was my father's gun. I imagined him
+parting with everything else save the unique gun his famous brother had
+made for him. Why he should wish for a flint-lock rifle was an
+unanswerable question, but someone wanted that sort of a gun or it would
+not have been made, and my father's letters showed him to be a man of
+sentiment, and impractical, just the sort of fellow to use a flint-lock
+when he might just as well have had a modern breech-loading high-power
+rifle.
+
+"I believe you've hit it, dad. Hot dog!" I exclaimed. "Bet a cookie that
+that gun does belong to my father and if we can find it we will probably
+find him too--would not that be bully?"
+
+"I feel the same way too, Don. But finding that missing gun will be as
+difficult as finding your father. I have searched the country over for
+it and made a wonderful collection of flint-lock guns, as you see by
+looking at yonder gun-rack; I have had dozens of arms collectors and
+detectives looking for guns of that description, but no Patrick Mullen
+rifle has turned up anywhere. There have, of course, been many false
+clues and many queer rifles offered to me and I have put a great many
+thousands of dollars into the search, and my collection of flint-locks
+is the best in the land, Don. But so far nothing but failures seem to
+have rewarded my search--no, I'm wrong, there is one man out west--out
+in the little jerk-water town of Grave Stone, who insists that there is
+a wild man living in a lonely, almost inaccessible valley in the
+mountains, who shoots a gun which looks like the one for which I am
+searching. For a number of years this man of mystery, it seems, has been
+appearing and reappearing, according to Big Pete Darlinkel, my
+informant, but even Pete has never got in personal touch with this
+eccentric hermit. Neither have several detectives I have sent out there
+for that purpose. The detectives seem to be all right in towns or cities
+and are undoubtedly brave men, but something out there appears to
+frighten them and they lose interest the moment they cut the trail of
+the wild hunter. I begin to think this wild man is a myth, too.
+Strange, though, that just a week ago I received another letter from
+Pete Darlinkel. Wait, I'll find it."
+
+He returned from the library presently with a letter which he opened and
+passed over to me. It read:
+
+    DEAR MR. CRAWFORD:--
+
+    Maybe you hain't interested no more but thet tha' ole Dopped
+    ganger, the Wild Hunter, the spooky old critter, has been seen
+    agin. i wuz on the top of the painted Butte yesterday squinten
+    one i in the valley look'n for elk and look'n up with tother i
+    for Big horn on the mountain, when i staged the old duffer
+    snoop'en along in one of the parks an' he had the same long hair
+    and long rifle he uster have. He sure is a ghost or else he's a
+    nut or an old timer gone locoed. He sends the chills down my
+    backbone every time i sots my eyes on him.
+
+    Your obedients sarvent,
+    BIG PETE.
+
+There was something about that crude letter that stirred me deeply.
+
+Could this strange freak that Big Pete saw from the top of the painted
+Butte possess that Patrick Mullen rifle? If so did he know anything
+about the whereabouts of my father? It is not uncommon for people
+suffering from a mental breakdown to flee to the country or wilderness
+and there live the life of a recluse, and from my father's last letter
+it was evident that he had had a nervous breakdown from anxiety and
+brooding over the loss of my mother, to whom he evidently was devotedly
+attached. It might, therefore, be possible that this strange, wild man
+himself was my father, an unpleasant possibility. At any rate, I felt
+that I could not rest, at least until I discovered to a certainty the
+name of the maker of the long rifle said to be carried by the wild
+hunter and I told dad just how I felt about it.
+
+"I knew you would feel that way, son," said he. "I have often wanted to
+go west for the very same purpose and I knew that when I told you
+everything you would want to go too. I intended to lay all the facts
+before you when you were twenty-one but now that Blink Broosmore has
+taken it upon himself to inform you and his truck-driving friends of the
+mystery surrounding your real parentage, I guess it is best you know all
+there is to be known about the situation. The rest I'll leave to you. In
+fact, it would please me a great deal if you would run down this last
+vague clue to see if your father really is still alive. Go, Donald, and
+God bless you, and take that bag of gold with you, unopened, for it may
+now stand your father in good stead, and if you do find him, bring him
+here and I promise you he will never want for a thing, nor will you, my
+son, for you are still my boy whatever your real parentage may be."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The stage pulled up in front of a typical western saloon, post office
+and general store. There was the usual crowd of prospectors, gamblers,
+cow punchers and trappers assembled to meet the incoming stage. When I
+scrambled off the top of the old-fashioned coach, and before I had time
+to shake the alkali dust from my clothes, or moisten my dry and cracked
+lips, a typical western bully approached me roaring the verses of a song
+with which he evidently intended to terrify me,
+
+    "He blowed into Lanigan swinging a gun
+    A new one,
+    A blue one,
+    A colt's forty-one,
+    An' swearing
+    Declaring
+    Red Rivers 'ud run
+    Down Alkali Valley,
+    An' oceans of gore
+    'ud wash sudden death
+    On the sage brush shore,
+    An' he shot a big hole--"
+
+He got no further with the song. Another man stepped out from the crowd,
+a very tall, powerful man who would have attracted attention in any garb
+in any place by his distinguished appearance, who with little ceremony
+rudely brushed the roughneck to one side, and my instinct told me the
+handsome stranger could be no other than Big Pete Darlinkel.
+
+My! my! what a man he was! Looked as if he just stepped out of one of
+Fred Remington's pictures, or Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, or slipped
+from between the leaves of a volume of Captain Mayne Reid's "Scalp
+Hunters"--Big Pete was evidently a hold-over from another age. He would
+have fitted perfectly and with nicety in a picture of Davy Crockett's
+men down in old Texas. He seemed, however, perfectly at home in this
+border town, and I noted that the most hard-boiled and toughest men in
+the crowd treated him with marked respect and deference.
+
+Pete was a wilderness fop and a dandy, and evidently was as careful of
+his clothes as a West Point cadet. In dress he affected the
+old-fashioned picturesque garb of the mountains. His appearance filled
+me with wonder and admiration; he stood six feet two or three inches in
+his moccasins, straight as an arrow and lithe as a cat.
+
+His costume consisted of a tunic of dressed deer skin, smoked to the
+softness of the finest flannels. He wore it belted in at the waist, but
+open at the breast and throat where it fell back like a sailor's collar
+into a short cape covering the shoulders. Underneath was the undershirt
+of dressed fawn skin; his leggins and moccasins were of the same
+material as his hunting shirt, and on his head he wore a fox skin cap;
+the fox's head adorned with glass eyes ornamented the front and the tail
+hung like a drooping plume over the left shoulder.
+
+Big Pete Darlinkel was a blonde, and his golden hair hung in sunny curls
+upon his massive shoulders; a light mustache, soft yellow beard, with a
+pair of the deepest, clearest, most innocent baby-like blue eyes, all
+made a face such as an angel might have after years of exposure to sun
+and wind.
+
+Not only are Big Pete's revolvers gold mounted, but the shaft of his
+keen-edged knife is rich with figures, rings, and stars filed from gold
+coins and set in the horn. The very stock of his long, single-barreled
+rifle is inlaid like an Arab's gun, and, as for his buckskin hunting
+suit, it is a mass of embroidery and colored quills from his beaded
+moccasins to the fringed cape of his shirt.
+
+Big Pete was a dandy, fond of color, fond of display; yet in spite of
+all this he wore absolutely nothing for decoration alone, but every
+article of use about his person was ornamented to an oriental degree.
+Gaudy and rich as his costume was when viewed in detail, as a whole it
+harmonized not only with Pete, his hair, his complexion, his weapons,
+but with whatever natural objects surrounded him.
+
+Big Pete also seemed to know me instinctively and approached with a
+graceful and swinging step; holding out his hand he greeted me in a low,
+soft, well-modulated voice with, "Howdy, kid; yes, I'm Big Pete and
+allow you are the tenderfoot dude from New York what wants to shoot big
+game, an' reckon you'd like to meet the wild mountain man? Well, he's a
+queer one, I tell you. He's got us all buffaloed out this-a-way, most of
+us don't care to meet him close up and we give him wide range when we
+cut his trail."
+
+That was Big Pete's greeting. Of course, I had not told him of my real
+interest in this mysterious man of the mountains, only suggesting that I
+would like to do some big game shooting and see the spooky hunter.
+
+"Well," I answered, "I would like to get a record elk head to take home
+to dad. As for the mountain wildman, I wish you'd tell me more about
+him, he is awfully interesting."
+
+"Tell you more? Well, sho, I reckon I can tell you more than most people
+round these parts for he makes my game park his stampin' grounds every
+onct in a while, an' let me tell you he hunts some peculiar, he do, he's
+half man and half wolf--but shucks, I won't spoil the show, you will see
+how he hunts for yourself if you stay here long. Glory be, but he's got
+me some bashful and shy. But mosey along and I'll hist yore stuff on
+this here cayuse while you let them tha' dogs out of their chicken coop
+boxes. You can cache your dude duds in the Emporium general store over
+yonder next to Squinty Quinn's saloon, an' then we're off for the hills.
+I'll yarn about this Wild Hunter while we hit the trail."
+
+An hour spent in Grave Stone gave me an opportunity to wash myself and
+change my clothes for some that would be more substantial for
+out-of-door wear, start several letters east telling of my safe arrival,
+buy the things I had overlooked, store my surplus clothes with the
+postmaster at the general store, and repack my kit for pony travel.
+Then, after watching Big Pete skilfully throw the diamond hitch, we were
+off for the hills and our first camp. I hoped that I was on my way to
+find my real father and unravel the mystery that surrounded my strange
+babyhood. But I little guessed what adventures I was to have or the
+strange things I was to see before my quest was ended.
+
+We traveled fast all the remaining portion of the afternoon and toward
+evening we made camp and for the first time in my life I slept under the
+sky. At the end of the fifth day we reached the secret and narrow
+opening of a big valley or "park" in the midst of a wild tumble of
+mountains. Big Pete said we would pitch our tent in the park.
+
+"Tha's plenty of signs 'round too an' if we loosen t' dogs p'raps we kin
+stir up a mountain lion or collar some fresh meat t' start camp with,"
+said he as he slid off his horse and took the leashes off the dogs.
+
+It took us but a short time to arrange our camp, then Big Pete followed
+by the frisking dogs slipped silently into the woods. He was gone
+scarcely a quarter of an hour when he reappeared again without the dogs,
+motioned for me to get my gun and follow him.
+
+"Tha's elk signs all bout," he said, "an' the muts broke away on a fresh
+trail. Now you an' me'll climb through that draw yonder and hide out on
+the runway till they drive an elk in gun shot. Come along."
+
+I followed eagerly and presently we had climbed through a thickly grown
+poplar grove and found a suitable hiding place among the small poplars.
+We had the wind right and a clear view of most of the open park. Big
+Pete stooped down and motioned for me to do likewise.
+
+I quietly crouched beside him and waited--waited until my legs were
+cramped, waited until the dampness from the moss struck through the
+heavy soles of my tenderfoot shoes and chilled my feet; waited until my
+arm was so numb that it felt like a piece of lead--then, in spite of the
+danger of incurring Big Pete's displeasure and in spite of my dread of
+being thought a dude tenderfoot, I changed my position, rubbed life into
+my arm and assumed an easier pose.
+
+In front of us was a small lake, deep, dark and unruffled. All around
+the edge was a natural wharf formed from the gigantic trunks of trees
+which had fallen for ages into the lake and been washed by wind and
+waves and forced by winter ice into such regular order and position
+along the shore that their arrangement looked like the work of men. Back
+of this wharf and all about was the wilderness of silent wood; a
+wilderness enclosed by a wall of mountains, whose lofty heads were
+uplifted far above the soft white clouds that floated in the blue sky
+overhead and were mirrored in the lake below. An eagle, on apparently
+immovable wings, soared over the lake in spiral course. As I watched the
+bird its wings seemed suddenly endowed with life. At the same instant my
+guide gave a low grunt of warning.
+
+"What is it?" I asked in a whisper, for there was a strange expression
+in my companion's eyes.
+
+"It's--it's him, so help me!--Keep yer ears open and yer meat-trap
+shut!" growled Pete.
+
+I did so. The trained ear of the hunter had detected the sound of
+crackling twigs and swishing branches made by some animals in rapid
+motion.
+
+"Ah!" I exclaimed, "the dogs. You startled me; I thought it was
+Indians."
+
+"I wish it was nothing wuss," muttered my guide, as he examined his
+weapons with a critical eye and loosened the cartridges for his
+revolvers in his belt to make sure that they would be easy to pluck out.
+
+"Those hain't our dogs, mister," he remarked after he had examined his
+whole arsenal.
+
+As I again fixed my attention on the noise, in place of the resonant
+voice of the hounds, I heard nothing but the crackling of branches, with
+an occasional half-suppressed wolf-like yelp.
+
+Big Pete turned pale and muttered, "It's them for sartin; it's them
+agin! And I hain't been drinkin', nuther!"
+
+Big Pete Darlinkel remained crouching in exactly the same pose he had
+first assumed, but his face looked sallow and worn. I marveled. Was this
+big westerner really awed by the situation we were facing? What disaster
+impended?
+
+My guide's eyes were fixed upon an opening in the woods and I knew that
+something would soon bound from that spot. I could hear the crashing of
+brush and half-suppressed wolf-like yelps, followed by a pause, then a
+rushing noise, and out leaped as beautiful a bull elk as I had ever
+seen--in fact the first I had ever seen at close range in his native
+wilderness. I had only time to take note of his muscular neck, clean cut
+limbs, his grand branching antlers, and--not my dogs but a pack of
+_immense black wolves_ at his heels before I instinctively brought my
+gun to my shoulder. But before I could draw a bead Big Pete struck it,
+knocking the muzzle up.
+
+"Hist!" he exclaimed, pointing to the bird.
+
+The eagle screamed, descended like a thunderbolt and skilfully avoiding
+the branching antlers, struck the bull, driving one talon into the neck
+and the other into the back, flapping its huge wings as it tore with its
+beak at the body of the elk like a trained "_bear coote_."
+
+I was thunderstruck. The evident partnership of the wolves and bird
+needed explanation and it was not long in coming. A shrill whistle
+pierced the air, the black wolves immediately ceased to worry the elk,
+the eagle soared overhead, and for an instant the elk stood confused,
+then leaped high in the air and fell dead. The next moment I heard the
+crack of a rifle and saw a puff of blue smoke across the lake.
+
+"That's no ghost," I said, when partly recovered from my astonishment.
+
+"Wait," said Pete laconically.
+
+[Illustration: The eagle screamed, descended like a thunderbolt ... and
+struck the bull]
+
+Not long afterward there was a movement among the wolves and,
+noiselessly as a panther the figure of a man lithe and youthful in every
+movement slipped to the side of the dead elk. He made no noise, uttered
+no word to the fierce black animals that sat with their red tongues
+hanging from their panting jaws, but without a moment's hesitation
+whipped out a knife and with a dexterity and skill that brought the
+color to Big Pete's face, proceeded to take the coat off the wapiti,
+while the great eagle perched upon the branching antlers. The skin was
+removed and with equal dexterity all the best parts of the meat were
+skilfully detached and packed in the green hide, after which, removing a
+large slice of red flesh, the strange hunter held up one finger. One of
+the wolves gravely walked up to him, received the morsel, gulped it down
+and retired. Each in turn was fed, then the great bird flopped on his
+shoulder and was fed from his hand, and before I could realize what had
+happened the man, the wolves and the eagle had disappeared, leaving
+nothing but the dismembered carcass of the elk to remind us of the
+strange episode.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+To say that the whole spectacle that I had just witnessed startled me
+would be stating it mildly indeed. The strange appearance of this big,
+powerful, smooth shaven man in a buckskin hunting costume with a retinue
+of black wolves and a trained eagle, the mysterious manner of his
+hunting and his coming and going, aroused in me great interest and
+curiosity and I could realize the effect it evidently had upon Big
+Pete's superstitious mind in spite of the fact that the big fellow was
+accustomed to facing almost any sort of danger. As for me, I could not
+myself prevent the creeping chills from running down my spine whenever I
+thought of the wild man.
+
+Could it be possible that this strange, half-wild man of the mountains,
+this killer, this master of a wolf pack, could be in any way connected
+with my father? I wondered, and as I wondered I found that a vague fear
+of this mad man who despite his reputed age seemed as youthful and as
+agile as a man in his thirties, was gripping me. Perhaps the strangeness
+of the wilderness park added to my awe, for certainly one could expect
+almost anything supernatural to happen in the twilight of the forest of
+giant trees, whose interlacing branches overhead shut out the light of
+heaven.
+
+Recovering somewhat from my astonishment and surprise, I realized that
+what I had witnessed, strange though it appeared, was not a supernatural
+occurrence. I knew that it was a real gun I had heard, real smoke I had
+seen, real man, real bird, real elk, and real wolves.
+
+"But, Pete," I exclaimed, as a sudden thought struck me, "what's become
+of our dogs?"
+
+"Better ask them black fiends up the mountains. I reckon you won't see
+them tha' hounds of yours agin."
+
+And I never did, but having hunted the wolf with cowboys and having been
+a witness to their extraordinary biting power, I knew the fate that must
+necessarily befall a couple of ordinary hounds when overtaken by half a
+dozen full-grown wolves. On such occasions we do not spend much time in
+grief over a loss of any kind, "it taint according to mountain law,"
+Pete would say.
+
+"Reckon we had better swipe some of that elk before the coyotes get at
+it," growled Pete. "The wild mountainman knows the good parts, but an
+elk is an elk, and one wild man, even if he is a giant, can't carry off
+all the good meat, not by a long shot."
+
+"He may come back," I suggested.
+
+"Not he," said Pete. "He's too stuck up for that. When he wants more,
+them tha' black demons and that voodoo bird of his'n will get 'em for
+him, and he's a hanging his long legs off'ner a rock some whar smoking a
+long cigar."
+
+"Dod rot him," growled Pete. "Why couldn't he leave a piece of hide to
+carry the meat in and the stomach to cook it in? That's the fust time I
+ever stayed long 'nough to see him collar his meat, though they say he
+do eat the game raw, but I reckon that's a lie, leastwise he didn't do't
+this time."
+
+With a good square meal of the locoed hunter's elk under our belts and a
+rousing camp fire before which to toast our shins, both the big
+westerner and I felt a little more natural and comfortable, but our
+conversation turned again to this wild hunter of the mountains.
+
+I could see that the mysterious old man with his wolf pack and eagle
+aroused almost every possible form of superstition in Big Pete and I
+confess that I was not free from some of it myself. The guide was
+certain that the man was either a ghost or a reincarnated devil, and he
+displayed no uncertain signs of awe.
+
+"I tell you," said Pete, "he's a devil. He's over a hundred years old,
+for my dad says he seed him, an' an Injun before dad's time told him
+about him. They are all skeered t' death o' him. An' I don't blame 'em.
+He's a shore enough hant and them tha' houn's o' his'n is devils in wolf
+skins. Jumping Gehoosaphats, ef they shed ever cut my trail I reckon I'd
+just lay right down an' die," and Big Pete actually shuddered at the
+possibility.
+
+"Why, young feller," he went on, "that ol' man shoots gold bullets out
+o' a real Patrick Mullen gun."
+
+"A Mullen gun, Pete?" I cried, "how do you know, man; speak for goodness
+sake!"
+
+"I don't know it's a Patrick Mullen and guess it tain't one 'cause a
+Patrick Mullen rifle would cost a thousand or more. But the old Injun,
+Beaver Tail, says, someone told his father and his father told him that
+et is a Patrick Mullen gun an' is a special make inlaid with gold and
+silver, an' all ornamented up, an' built for an ol' muzzle-loadin'
+flint-lock. Now Mullen never made no flint-lock rifles that I hear'n
+tell of, his specialty be shotguns an' if he made this rifle I'm
+ganderplucked if I cud tell how this spook got it."
+
+"Unless the wild Hunter might be a relative of old Patrick Mullen," I
+said, thinking aloud, and gasping at the thought, for the description of
+the rifle somehow impressed me again with the possibility that this wild
+man of the mountains might himself be Donald Mullen, and _my own
+father!_
+
+"Why do you say that, kid?" asked Big Pete with a queer look in his
+eyes.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, I was just wondering to myself. But what makes you
+think he's a supernatural being, and, Pete, does this wild loony hunter
+look at all like me?"
+
+"Super what? Say when did you swallow a dictionary?--Oh, you mean what
+makes me think he's a devil. No, he don't favor you none," he added with
+a grin, "he's a _handsome_ devil, although he's done terrified every
+white man, an' Injun, in these parts half t' death, so most of 'ems
+afeared to come back here at all. Men have gone in the park jest to get
+this wild man's scalp, but they've done come back scared yaller an' they
+ain't opened their trap much about him since nuther. They do say he
+spits fire an' chaws his meat offen the bone an' then cracks the bones
+like a dog an' swallers it all. They do say, too, that he roars like
+forty devils with their tails cut off when he gits mad an' some say as
+when he wants t' git som wha' in a hurry he jest grabs aholt o' the feet
+o' tha' there thunder bird and she flies off with him and draps him
+anywha' he asks her to--Nope, I hain't seen none of these things myself
+but others say they has, an' believe me, I'm plumb cautious when
+travelin' these parts alone. Howsomever, he hain't yet skeered me 'nough
+to make my ha'r come out by the roots," said Pete with a yawn. "There,
+kick that back log over so's the fire can lick at t'other side; now
+let's turn in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Big Pete and I spent several weeks in our charming little camp at the
+lower end of the park, for my guide decided that despite the recent
+presence of the wild hunter, here would be a good place to get a shot at
+some black-tail deer. In fact we saw signs of those animals all about
+and my guide was only looking for fresh indication to start out on our
+last hunt before we made our way deeper into the wilderness.
+
+On the third day of our stay I was returning to camp with my shotgun
+over my shoulder and a brace of sage grouse in my hand, when I came upon
+Big Pete in a swail about a mile from camp. He was bending low and
+examining fresh signs when he saw me.
+
+"Howdy, kid, here's some doin's. Shall we foller him?"
+
+"Of course, Pete; what are we here for, the mountain air?" I answered.
+
+"No," answered Pete, in his deep, low voice, "we're here for game," and
+off he started, but slowly and with great caution. I felt impatient, but
+restrained myself, saying nothing and continued to follow my big guide
+who now moved with the most painstaking care. Not a twig broke beneath
+his moccasins as with panther-like step and crouching form he led me
+through a lot of young trees over a rocky place until we struck a small
+spring with a soft muddy margin. Here Pete came to a sudden halt. I
+asked him why he did not go on, and he pointed to a ledge of rock that
+ran up the mountain side diagonally with a flat, natural roadbed on top,
+graded like a stage road but unlike a traveled road, ending in a bunch
+of underwood and brush about a hundred yards ahead.
+
+Above the ledge of the rocks was a steep declivity of loose shale
+sprinkled over with large and small boulders of radically different
+formations, and in no manner resembling the friable, uncertain bed upon
+which they rested.
+
+These boulders undoubtedly showed the result of the grinding and
+polishing of an ancient, slow-moving glacier, but some other force had
+deposited them in the present position.
+
+"He's in tha'," whispered Pete.
+
+"Who, the wild mountain man?" I asked.
+
+"No," answered my guide, "th' grizzly."
+
+"The what?" I almost shouted.
+
+"Th' grizzly," answered Pete; "what do you think we've been following?"
+
+"Black-tailed deer," I said softly, with my eyes glued on the thicket.
+
+"Well, tenderfoot, here's the trail of that tha' _deer_, and he hain't
+been gone by here mor'n nor a week ago, nuther."
+
+I looked and there in the soft mud was the print of a foot, a
+human-looking foot, but for the evenness in the length of the toes and
+the sharpness and length of the toe nails. Yes, there was another
+difference, and that was the size. It was the footprint of a savage
+Hercules, the track of an enormous grizzly bear, and the soft mud that
+had dripped from the big foot was still undried on the leaves and grass
+when Pete pointed it out to me.
+
+"Well, Pete, don't forget your promise that I am to have first shot at
+all big game," I whispered with my best effort at coolness, but my heart
+was thumping against my ribs at a terrific rate.
+
+"But--why, bless you old man!" I whispered excitedly as I looked at my
+gun, "I am armed only with a shotgun."
+
+"Tha's all right," replied the big trapper complacently; then, with a
+quick motion, he whipped out his keen-edged knife and snatching one of
+my cartridges he severed the shell neatly between the two wads which
+separated the powder and shot; that is, a wad in each piece of the
+cartridge was exposed by the cut.
+
+Guided by the faint longitudinal seam where the edges of the colored
+paper join on the shell, Big Pete carefully fitted the two parts of the
+cartridge together exactly as they were before being cut apart. Breaking
+my gun, he slipped the mutilated ammunition into the unchoked barrel.
+
+"Tha'," he grunted, "tha's better than a bullet at short range, an'll
+tar a hole in old Ephraim big enough to put your arm through."
+
+He cut two more in the same manner, saying, "Be darned kerful not to get
+excited and put them in your choke barl, or tha' may be trouble."
+
+Hunting a grizzly with a shotgun and bird shot was not my idea of safe
+sport, but I was too much of a moral coward to acknowledge to Pete that
+I was frightened. Pete examined his gun, ran his finger over the
+cartridges in his belt, and went through all the familiar motions which
+to him were unconscious but always foretold danger ahead.
+
+"You drap on your prayer hinges behind that tha' nigger head," said
+Pete, "and you will have a dead shot at the brute, an' I'll go up and
+roll a stone down the mountain side and follow it as fast as I kin, so
+as to be ready to help you if you need it; but you ought to drap him at
+first shot at short range. Yer must drap him, yer must or I allow tha'll
+be a right smart of a scrap here, and don't yer forget it!"
+
+"This is no Christmas turkey shooting, young feller, so look sharp," and
+with a noiseless tread Pete vanished in the wood, while I with beating
+heart and bulging eyes watched the thicket at the end of the ledge. I
+had not long to wait before I heard a blood-curdling yell and then
+crash! crash! crash! came a big boulder tearing down the mountain side.
+It reached a point just over the thicket, struck a small pine tree,
+broke the tree and leaped high into the air, then crashed into the
+middle of the brush.
+
+Following with giant leaps came Big Pete Darlinkel down the rocky
+declivity, but I only looked that way for one instant, then my eyes were
+again fixed on the thicket, and in my excitement I arose to a standing
+position. There was but a momentary silence after the fall of the
+boulder before I heard the rustling of sticks and leaves, saw the top of
+the bushes sway as some heavy body moved beneath, then there appeared a
+head, and what a head it was! Bigger than all outdoors! I aimed my gun,
+but my body swayed and the end of my shotgun described a large circle in
+the air. I knew that my position was serious, but my nerves played me
+false.
+
+I had never before faced a grizzly. I heard Big Pete's voice calling to
+me to drop behind the rock, but I only stood there with a dogged
+stupidity, trying to aim my gun at a mark which seemed to me as big
+almost as a barn-door.
+
+I heard Pete give a sudden cry then there was a rattle of stones and
+dirt on the ledge in front of the mountain of brownish hair that was
+advancing in sort of side leaps or bounds like a big ball.
+
+The bear came to a sudden stop, and to my horror I saw the form of my
+friend shoot over the edge of the overhanging rock right in the path of
+the grizzly. It all flashed through my mind in a moment. Pete in his
+haste to reach me had lost control of himself and slid with the rolling
+stones and dirt over the mountain side, a fall of at least twenty-five
+feet!
+
+Instantly my nerve returned and I rushed madly up the incline to rescue
+my companion. I bounded between the branches of some stout saplings,
+they parted as my body struck them but sprung together again before my
+leg had cleared the V-shaped opening.
+
+My foot was imprisoned and I fell with a heavy thud on my face. For an
+instant I was dazed, but even in my dazed state I was fully conscious of
+Pete's impending peril, and I kicked and struggled blindly to free
+myself. My gun had been flung from my hand in my fall and was out of my
+reach. Then to my horror I heard the howl the wolf gives when game is in
+sight, and even half blind as I was I saw dark, dog-like forms sweep by
+me; I heard the scream of an eagle; I heard a snarling and yelping, the
+sounds of a struggle--I ceased to kick, wiped the blood from my eyes and
+looked ahead.
+
+There lay Big Pete Darlinkel, dead or unconscious, and within ten feet
+of him stood the giant bear surrounded by a vicious pack of gaunt
+red-mouthed wolves. The bear made a rush and a shadow passed over the
+ground; I heard the sound of a large body rushing swiftly through the
+air, and an immense eagle struck the bear like a thunderbolt; at the
+same instant the wolves attacked him from all sides; then there was a
+whistle keen and clear; the wolves retreated; the bird again soared
+aloft; the bear made several passes in the air in search of the bird,
+fell forward again on all fours, rose on its hind legs and killed a wolf
+with one sweep of its great paw.
+
+The bear now made a dash at the giant leader of the pack, only to fall
+forward, dead, with its ugly nose across Big Pete's chest.
+
+Then I remembered hearing the crack of a rifle, and knew that the Wild
+Mountain Man had saved our lives. I tried to rise but found my ankle so
+badly sprained that I could not stand on it.
+
+Suddenly a low voice with a hint of an Irish accent said, "Sit down,
+stranger, while I look to your mate," and I saw the tall lithe figure of
+a man clothed in buckskin bending over Pete.
+
+"Only stunned, friend," said he, and I heard no more. The blow on my
+head, combined with the pain from my ankle was too much for me, and now
+that the danger was over it was a good time to faint, and I took
+advantage of it.
+
+How long I remained unconscious I do not know, but when my eyes opened
+again it was night; through the interlacing boughs overhead the stars
+were shining brightly, my head was neatly bandaged and so was my foot
+and ankle. I could hear our horses cropping grass near by. I raised my
+head and there lay Pete; he was alive I knew by his snores that issued
+from his nose, and we were in our own camp; but--what are those animals
+by our camp fire? Wolves! gaunt, shaggy wolves!
+
+I hastily arose to a sitting posture, but my alarm subsided when in the
+dim light of the fire I could trace the outline of another man's figure,
+and on a stick close to the stranger's head roosted a giant bird.
+
+Could it be that this wild man of the mountain--possibly my own
+father--was camping with us?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+"Moseyed, by gum! I'll be tarnally tarnashuned if that terri-fa-ca-cious
+spook hain't pulled out!" was the exclamation that awakened me the
+morning after our adventure with the bear.
+
+Lazily opening my eyes I gazed a moment at the sun just peeping over the
+mountain, then closed them again; but when I attempted to change my
+position a sharp pain in my ankle thoroughly awakened me. Still I lay
+quiet because it was some time before I could collect my scattered
+senses and separate in my mind the real incident and the dream
+phantasms.
+
+The pain in my ankle, the swelled and irritated condition of my nose
+plainly proved to me that there was no dream about my injuries, but I
+discovered that my head and leg were neatly bandaged with strips of fine
+linen. I sat for a while busily collecting the incidents of the past
+twenty-four hours, arranging them in my mind in their proper order and
+place. I cut out the dream portion from the realities with very little
+trouble until I reached the part where I had awakened in the night and
+had seen the wolves, the eagle and the Wild Hunter. I could not be sure
+whether that was a dream or reality. Had I seen this strange old man
+with his eagle and his wolf pack beside our camp fire or had I dreamed
+it? Had this hobgoblin man, who might be my own father, rescued me from
+death at the claws of the grizzly and bound my wounds for me, or was
+that but a dream too? Had not Big Pete saved me perhaps and cared for me
+afterward?
+
+"Pete, old fellow," I said presently, rising to my elbow, "who brought
+me to camp? Who killed that bear? Who saved our lives?"
+
+"The Wild Hunter," replied Pete gravely. "He bathed my head with some
+sort of good smelling stuff and, though I am as heavy as a dead
+buffaler, toted me to camp; he 'lowed that I was all sort of shuk up and
+a little hazy; he fixed my blanket, then he fotched you in on his
+shoulders just as if you was a dead antelope, fixed you up with bandages
+torn from handkerchiefs in your pocket, gave you a drink which you
+didn't seem to appreciate, but just swallowed like you were asleep, then
+he laid you out. I had my eye peeled on him but he said nary a word, an'
+when we wuz both all comfortable he pulled out a long cigar, sot down by
+the fire and was smoking tha' with his bird and his wolves around him
+when I went to sleep.
+
+"He cut his bullets out, as he allus does," muttered Pete a little while
+later.
+
+"Who cut what bullets?" I asked.
+
+"Whomsoever cud I mean but th' Wild Hunter, and wha's tha' been any
+bullets lately but in th' b'ar?" queried my companion.
+
+"Yes, of course," I admitted, "but why do you suppose he cut out the
+bullets?"
+
+"Wal, I reckon tha' might be right scarce and he haster be kinder
+sparing with them. I calculate you'd like to have a hatful of them
+balls, leastwise most folks would; cause the Wild Hunter don't use no
+common low-flung lead for his bullets, no-sir-ree bob-horsefly! Tain't
+good 'nuff for a high-cock-alorum like him--_he shoots balls of virgin
+gold!_"
+
+But I was more interested in what had become of this strange man than in
+the sort of projectiles rumor said that he used in his gun and so
+dismissed the subject with a request for further information about our
+rescuer.
+
+"This morning when I opened my peepers," Pete continued, "I t'ought
+maybe the Wild Hunter had only gone off on a tramp; but he's done clared
+out for good, and tuk his wolves and bird with him. I'm some glad he
+took th' wolves, I don't sorter like the look of their mean eyes; they
+do say that he is a wolf himself and the head of the pack."
+
+"What's that, Pete? Steady, old man, now let's go slow."
+
+"All right; tha's wha' I mean ter do. 'Cause it hain't a varmint natur'
+to help men folks, and he done helped us, and no mistake, and left us
+the bulk of the b'ar too,--only took the claws, teeth and tenderloin or
+two for himself and pack; that is, if he be a wolf. But we will settle
+that if your foot will let you walk a bit."
+
+"How far?" I asked.
+
+"Only over yan way to the first piece of wet ground, and the trail leads
+down to tha' spring tha', and tha' is quite a right smart bit of muddy
+swail beyont."
+
+"All right, I'll try it," I exclaimed. But I could not touch my foot on
+the ground, and it was not until my guide had made me a crutch of a
+forked branch, padded with a piece of fur, that I was able to go limping
+along after Big Pete.
+
+We followed the trail left by the Wild Hunter to the spring. The trail
+after that was plain, even to my inexperienced eyes; and when we reached
+the muddy spot the print of the moccasined feet and the dog-like tracks
+of the wolves were distinctly visible.
+
+But look at Big Pete!
+
+As motionless as a statue, with a solemn face he stoops with a rigid
+figure pointing to the trail! I hastened to his side and saw that the
+moccasin prints ceased in the middle of an open, bare, muddy place and
+beyond were nothing but the dog-like tracks of the wolves.
+
+I looked up and all around; there were no overhanging branches that a
+man could swing himself upon, no stones that he could leap upon--nothing
+but the straggling bunches of ferns; but here in this open spot the Wild
+Hunter vanished.
+
+We walked back in silence, for I had nothing to say, and Pete did not
+volunteer any further information.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+To have one's nose all but broken, both eyes blackened and a twisted
+ankle is a sad misfortune wherever it occurs, but when such a thing
+happens to a fellow many weary miles from the nearest human habitation
+and in a howling wilderness it might be considered anything but
+pleasant. Yet, strange as it may appear, among the most pleasant and
+precious memories I have stored away in my mind, only to be tapped upon
+special occasions, is the memory of the glorious days spent nursing my
+bruises and lolling around that far-away camp. Sometimes I listened to
+the quaint yarns of my unique and interesting guide or idly watched the
+changing colors and effects which the sun and the atmosphere produced on
+the snow-capped mountains of Darlinkel's Park. I made friends with our
+little neighbors the rock-chuck, whose home was in the base of the cliff
+back of the spring, and became intimate with the golden chipmunk and its
+pretty little black and white cousin, the four-striped chipmunk, both of
+which were common and remarkably tame about camp.
+
+Back of the camp in the dark shade of the evergreens there was a bark
+mound composed entirely of the fragments of the conifera cones, which
+Pete said was the squirrel's dining room. This mound contained at least
+four good cart-loads of fragments and all of it was the work of the
+impudent little blunt-nosed red squirrels, which were plentiful in the
+woods.
+
+How long it took these small rodents to heap such a mass of material
+together I was unable to calculate, but the mound was as large as some
+of the shell heaps made by the ancient oyster-eating men and left by
+them along our coast from Florida to Maine.
+
+The numerous magpies seemed to be conscious of my admiration of their
+beautiful piebald plumage and to take every opportunity to show off its
+iridescent hues to the best advantage in the sunlight.
+
+Pete evidently thought I was a chap of very low taste, with a great lack
+of discrimination in the choice of my friends among the forest folk, and
+he could see no reason for my intimacy with "all th' outlaws and most
+rascally varmints of the park."
+
+Truth compels me to admit that the pranks of some of my little friends
+were often mischievous and annoying, but they were also humorous and
+entertaining and I laughed when the "tallow-head" jay swooped down and
+snatched a tid-bit from Pete's plate just as he was about to eat it, and
+when the irate trapper threw his plate at the camp robber it was a
+charming sight to see a number of birds flutter down to feast upon the
+scattered food.
+
+The loud-mouthed, self-asserting fly-catcher in the cottonwood tree
+learned to know my whistle, and whenever I attempted to mimic him he
+would send back a ringing answer. The charming little lazulii buntings
+were tamer than the irritating dirty English sparrows at home.
+
+It was interesting to notice how quickly all our little wild neighbors
+learned to know that the sound produced by banging on a tin plate meant
+dough-god and other good things at our camp, and as they came rustling
+among the grasses or fluttering from bush and trees they showed more
+fear of each other than they did of Pete and me.
+
+When the myriads of bright stars would twinkle in the blue black sky or
+the great round-faced moon climb over the mountain tops to see what was
+doing in the park, the birds and chipmunks were quiet, but then the big
+pack-rats, with squirrel-like tails, would troop out from their secret
+caves and invade the camp.
+
+In the gray dawn, while sleeping in a tent, I often awakened to hear
+something scamper up its steep side and then laughed to see the shadow
+of a comical little body toboggan down the canvas. Our pocket-knives,
+compasses and all other small objects were never safe unless securely
+packed away out of reach of these nocturnal marauders.
+
+Our conversations around the camp fire evenings were highly interesting
+too, for Big Pete was a fluent talker with a wealth of stories of the
+Great West at his tongue's end. Indeed, the story of his family and
+their migration west was one that fascinated me. His father had been a
+trapper in the old days; he had done his share of roaming the mountains,
+prospecting and making his strikes, small and large, fighting Indians
+and living the strenuous life of the border pioneer. He had found the
+woman he afterward married unconscious under an overturned wagon of an
+emigrant train that had been raided by the Indians, and after nursing
+her back to health in his mining shack, had married her. With money he
+had worked from the "diggin's" he had acquired, by grants from the
+government, the beautiful and expansive mountain park where he had
+planned to develop a ranch. He never went very far with his project,
+however, for a raiding party of Indians caught him alone in the
+mountains and his wife found his body pinned to the ground with arrows.
+The shock of his tragedy killed Big Pete's mother soon after, and the
+young Peter Darlinkel, then three years old, went to a nearby settlement
+to be brought up by an uncle and a squaw aunt. Pete became prospector,
+scout, trapper and hunter, using this beautiful park that became his as
+a result of the passing of his father, as a private game preserve, so to
+speak. That is, it was private except for the intrusion of the Wild
+Hunter and his black wolf pack.
+
+In a fragmentary way Big Pete told me this story and other interesting
+tales of this wild western country, but mostly our conversation turned
+to this old man of the mountains who was such a mystery to everyone,
+even to Big Pete, but who, despite the lugubrious reputation, had
+proved a kindly gentleman and a good friend to me.
+
+There were no visible signs of a change in the weather which had been
+clear for weeks, and the sky was otherwise clear blue save where the
+white mares' tails swept across the heavens. But when we sat down to
+supper that evening I could hear the rumbling of distant thunder. I knew
+it was thunder for, although the fall of avalanches makes the same
+noise, avalanches choose the noon time to fall when the sun is hottest
+and the snows softest. Soon I could see the heads of some dark clouds
+peering at us over the mountains and before dark the clouds crept over
+the mountain tops and overcast our sky.
+
+It rained all that night in a fitful manner and came to a stop about
+four A. M. The wind went down and the air seemed to have lost its
+vivacity and life; it was a dead atmosphere; we arose from our blankets
+feeling tired and listless.
+
+While we were eating our breakfast dark clouds again suddenly obscured
+the heavens and before we had finished the meal big drops of rain set
+the camp fire spluttering and drove us to the shelter of our tent; then
+it rained! Lord help us! the water came down in such torrents that on
+account of the spray we could not see thirty feet; then came hailstones
+as large as hen's eggs. There was some lightning and thunder, but either
+the splashing of the water drowned the rumbling or the electric fluid
+was so far distant that the reports were not loud when they reached us.
+Suddenly there was a ripping noise, followed by a sort of subdued roar
+which stampeded our horses from their shelter under a projecting rock
+and made the earth shudder.
+
+"Earthquake!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Wuss," said Pete, "hit's a landslide."
+
+Instantly a thought went through my brain like a hot bullet and made me
+shudder.
+
+"Pete," I shouted.
+
+"I'm right hyer, tenderfut, you needn't holler so loud," he answered,
+and calmly filled his pipe.
+
+I flung myself impulsively on my companion, grasped his big brawny
+shoulders, and with my face close to his I whispered, "Pete, I believe
+the slide occurred at the gate."
+
+"Well, hit did sound that-a-way," admitted Pete composedly.
+
+"Pete," I continued, "that butte has caved in on our trail!"
+
+"Wull, tenderfut, we ain't hurt, be we? Tha's plenty of game here fur
+the tak'n of it and plenty of water, as fine as ever spouted from old
+Moses' rock, right at hand. If the Mesa's cut our trail we can live well
+here for a hundred years and not have to chew wolf mutton neither. I
+don't reckon I can go to York with you just yet," drawled my comrade in
+a most provokingly imperturbable manner, as he slowly freed himself from
+my grasp and made for the camp fire, which being to a great extent
+sheltered by an overhanging rock, was still smouldering in spite of the
+drenching rain. Raking the ashes until he found a red glowing coal, Pete
+deftly picked it up and by juggling it from one hand to the other, he
+conducted the live ember to his pipe-bowl, then he puffed away as calmly
+as if there was nothing in this world to trouble him.
+
+"If the gate be shut," he resumed, "it will keep out prospectors, tramps
+and Injuns." With that he went to smoking his red-willow[1] bark again.
+
+  [Footnote 1: The trappers and Indians made Kil-i-ki-nic, or
+  Kinnikinick, by mixing tobacco with the inside bark of red
+  willow, which is the common name for the red osier of the
+  dogwood family. EDITOR.]
+
+But I could not view the situation so complacently, and when the rain
+had ceased as suddenly as it began, with some difficulty I caught my
+horse and made my way to the gate, to discover that my worst fears were
+realized; a large section of the cliff had split off the Mesa and slid
+down into the narrow gateway completely filling the space and leaving a
+wall of over one hundred feet of sheer precipice for us to climb before
+we could escape from our Eden-like prison.
+
+Again a wave of superstitious dread swept over me as I viewed the
+tightly closed exit, a dread that perhaps after all there was more to
+Big Pete's superstitions about the Wild Hunter than I dared to admit,
+else why should that cliff which had stood for thousands of years take
+this opportunity to split off and choke up the ancient trail?
+
+The longer I questioned myself, the less was my ability to answer. I sat
+on a stone and for some time was lost in thought. When at length I
+looked up it was to see Big Pete with folded arms silently gazing at the
+barricaded exit and the muddy pool of water extending for some distance
+back of the gateway into the park.
+
+"Well, tenderfut, you was dead right in your judication. The gate air
+shut sure 'nuff. Our horses ain't likely to take the back trail and
+leave us, that's sartin."
+
+"Oh, Pete," I exclaimed, "how will we ever get out? Must we spend the
+remainder of our lives here?"
+
+"It do look as if we'd stop hyer a right smart bit," he admitted, "maybe
+till this hyer holler between the mountains all fills with water agin
+like it was onct before, I reckon. Don't you think that we'd better get
+busy and build a Noah's Ark?"
+
+"Pete, you'd joke if the world came to an end. But seriously I think we
+might move our camp back to the far end of your park."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+One day after we had selected our new camp, I took my rod along and
+wandered into the wonderful forest of ancient trees. There I seated
+myself on a log to think over my experience. Somehow my own trials and
+ambitions seemed small, trivial and not worth while when I looked upon
+those grand trees standing silently on guard as they were standing when
+Columbus was busy smashing a hard-boiled egg to make it stand on end.
+Yes, naturalists tell us some of these same trees were standing before
+the New Testament was written and then as now their branches concealed
+their lofty tops and formed a screen through which the powerful rays of
+the noon-day sun are filtered, refined and subdued to a dreamy twilight
+below, a twilight in which the soft green mosses and lace-like ferns
+thrive into luxuriant growth.
+
+It was so still and quiet in that forest that the silence seemed to hurt
+my ears and I found myself listening to see if I could not hear the deep
+dark blue blossoms of the fringed gentians whispering scandals about the
+flaming Indian paint brushes that flourished in the opening in the woods
+where the sun's ray could reach and warm the dark earth. As I listened I
+could not help but speculate a great deal as to the possibilities of the
+odd old man of this forest being in some way connected with my father's
+history, but the story of the wolf-man as given to me by my big
+companion was so varied and so mixed with the superstitions of the
+Indians and trappers who had come in contact with him, or had seen him
+and his weird wolf pack roaming the mountains, that I could not in any
+way take it as the basis for a solution of the problem.
+
+Indeed, the more Big Pete told me the less I believed that this strange
+and probably mad man could be my father. In truth, the only real clue
+or even faint reason I had for believing that he owned the missing
+"Patrick Mullen" was because this gun at a distance seemed to correspond
+with the description of the Mullen's gun. It was a faint clue indeed and
+sometimes seemed not worth investigation. Yet when I began to doubt the
+possibility an unexplained impulse or force kept urging me on to believe
+that if I but persisted and found an opportunity to examine this gun it
+would prove to be the one I sought, and if I had a chance to talk to
+this strange Wild Hunter much of the mystery that surrounded my own
+babyhood would be cleared up, so I found myself earnestly longing for a
+real interview with this mysterious creature.
+
+The more I thought of it the more I was inclined to believe that I was
+on the right track, until at last convinced that this was so, I cried
+aloud, "I have found him!"
+
+"Who! Who!" queried a startled owl, as it peered down at me from its
+hiding place in the dense foliage of a cedar far above.
+
+"Never mind who, you old rascal," I laughingly replied, and picking up
+my fishing-rod I parted the underbrush to start on my way through the
+wood for some trout, but suddenly halted when I found myself staring
+into the face of a huge timber wolf. The beast's lips were drawn back
+displaying its gleaming fangs, its back hair was as erect as the cropped
+mane of a pony, its mongolian eyes shone green through their narrow
+slits and its whole attitude seemed to say, "Well, now that you have
+found me, what do you propose to do?"
+
+Now, boys, do not make any mistake about me, I am not a hero and never
+posed as one; in truth my timidity at times amounts to cowardice, a fact
+which I usually keep to myself, but I never was afraid of wolves until I
+so unexpectedly met this one. It is needless to say that I have no hair
+on my back, it is as bare as that of any other fellow's, nevertheless,
+on this occasion I could distinctly feel my bristles rise from the nape
+of my neck to the end of my spine, just the same as those on the
+oblique-eyed, shaggy monster whose snapping teeth were so near my face.
+
+Everybody is familiar with the fact that people who have had limbs
+amputated often complain of pains or itching in the missing members. My
+missing back hair, the hair which my ancestors lost by the slow process
+of evolution, the hair which grew on the back of the "missing link,"
+stood on end at the sight of this wolf. However, this fear was but
+momentary and when my courage returned I lifted my rod case in a
+threatening manner, and the wolf slunk away as noiselessly as a shadow,
+and like a shadow faded out of sight in the dim twilight of the ancient
+forest. When I reached the open land beyond the forest another surprise
+awaited me.
+
+Surely this is heaven, I thought as I waded knee-deep among the
+beautiful flowers of the prairie, starting the sharp pin-tailed grouse,
+prairie chickens and sage grouse from their retreats and sending the
+meadow-larks skimming away over flowering billows. Reaching an
+elevation where I could peer beyond the crests of one of the "ground
+swells" which furrowed the sea of nodding blossoms, I saw through the
+stems of the plants, a part of the prairie at first concealed from view,
+and there appeared to be numerous irregular boulders of dark brown stone
+scattered around among the vegetation, and the boulders were moving!
+
+Careful scrutiny, however, proved them to be not stones but live
+buffalo. Big Pete had often told me that these animals lived unmolested
+by him in the park; but when I realized that I was looking at between
+three and four hundred real buffalo my heart gave a great jump of joy. I
+tried to view them so as to take in their details, but the apparently
+shapeless masses of dark reddish brown wool appeared to have none,
+unless indeed the comical fur trousers with frayed bottoms on their
+front legs might be called detail.
+
+Even the faces of the beasts were so concealed by masks of knotted wool
+that at first I could distinguish neither eyes, noses, horns or ears;
+but in spite of their ragged trousers and their masked faces, the bison
+are sublime in their mighty strength and ponderous proportions, and as
+this was the first wild herd I had ever seen and one of the very few, if
+not the only one, then extant, I viewed them with the keenest interest.
+
+But the scattered bunches of antelope, which I now noticed were dotting
+the plains around the buffalo, appealed to my love of the beautiful.
+Knowing that in other localities these charming little creatures are
+rapidly being slaughtered and steadily decreasing in numbers and that
+all attempts to breed them in captivity have so far failed, they at once
+absorbed my attention to the exclusion of their larger neighbors.
+
+When we moved our camp to the far side of the lake, Big Pete told me
+that I could find plenty of trout streams beyond the timber belt, and he
+also informed me that I could there see the walls of the park and
+satisfy myself that there was but one trail leading into the preserve.
+
+I do not now recall the sort of walls that were pictured in my mind or
+know what I really expected to see enclosing Darlinkel's Park, but I do
+know that when I suddenly emerged from the dark forests into the sunlit
+prairie, the scene which greeted my vision was not the one painted by my
+imagination.
+
+Before me stretched an open plain surrounded by mountains arising
+abruptly from a bed of many colored flowers; they were the same ranges
+whose snow-covered peaks formed a feature of the landscape at the lake
+and at our first camp.
+
+Here, however, their appearance was different, as different as the dark
+forest from the open sunlit prairie. The scene at first did not seem
+real, it had a sort of a drop-curtain effect that was as familiar to me
+as the row of footlights and gilded boxes, but never did I expect to see
+those delicate tints, that blue atmosphere, the fresco colored rocks and
+all the theatrical properties of a drop-curtain duplicated in nature,
+yet here it was before me, not a detail wanting, even the impossible
+mammoth bed of gaudy flowers at the foot of the mountain was here and
+the numerous cascades had not been forgotten. Well, it does seem
+wonderful to me that unknown theatrical daubers should know so much more
+of nature than the public for whom they paint.
+
+But, nature is a bolder artist than even the daring scenic painters; in
+front of me was a prairie of flowers, acres and acres of waving,
+undulating masses of color; thousands of Arizona wyetha (wild
+sunflowers) mingled with the brilliant tips of the fire-weed and clumps
+of odorous and delicately colored horsemint. There were other flowers
+unfamiliar to me and hundreds of big blossoms of what I took to be a
+member of the primrose family. It was in this garden that the buffalo
+and antelope were grazing.
+
+An old buck antelope saw me and I instantly dropped to the ground and
+was concealed by the flowering vegetation. I wanted to see the home
+life of these animals, but was disappointed because of the attention I
+had attracted. When first discovered the does were browsing with heads
+down and the kids were playing tag with one another, every once in a
+while spreading the white hair on their rumps and then lowering the
+"white flag" again, they apparently used it as a Morse signal system of
+their own. But now they were all alert and facing me; the bucks had seen
+something and that something had suddenly disappeared. This must be
+investigated, so they circled round hesitatingly; the apparition might
+be a foe but still they _must_ satisfy their curiosity and discover what
+it was of which they had had a moment's glimpse and thus they approached
+nearer and ever nearer to my place of concealment.
+
+Soon, however, I became aware of the fact that the antelope had
+unaccountably lost all thought of me and were deeply interested in
+something else which from their actions I concluded to be recognized as
+an enemy. It was now apparent that if Big Pete did not hunt the
+prong-horns someone or something else _did_ hunt them.
+
+As a bunch broke away from the scattered groups and came in my
+direction, making great leaps over the prairie, I detected the cause of
+their panic in the form of a huge eagle which was keeping pace with and
+flying over the fleeing prong-horns.
+
+The bird was not more than a dozen feet above the animals' backs and in
+vain did the poor creatures try to distance their pursuer. At length
+they scattered, each one taking a course of his own. Then the bird did a
+strange thing. It singled out the largest buck and persistently
+following him, it came directly towards me and passed within ten feet of
+my ambush, the broad wings of the antelope's relentless foe casting a
+dark shadow over the straining muscles of the beautiful animal's back. I
+was tempted to drive the bird away or shoot at it with my revolver, but
+the thought that I had seen that bird before restrained me and the fact
+that it pursued a strong, healthy buck instead of selecting a weaker and
+more easy prey convinced me that this eagle had been trained to the hunt
+and was not a wild[2] bird, for the immutable law that "labor follows
+the line of least resistance" holds good with all wild creatures. It was
+not long before I had to use my field glasses to follow the chase and
+then I discovered that the poor prong-horn was showing signs of fatigue.
+It had made a grave error in dashing up an incline and the eagle from
+his position above knew that the time had come to strike and, like a
+thunderbolt, it fell, striking its hooked talons in the graceful neck of
+the terror-stricken antelope.
+
+  [Footnote 2: The late Howard Eaton of Wolf, Wyoming, watched an
+  eagle hunt down a prong-horned buck.--EDITOR.]
+
+Hoping to get a nearer view of the last tragedy, I hastened towards the
+spot and before I was aware of my position, found myself close to the
+herd of buffalo. I then saw that these beasts being unaccustomed to
+man, did not fear him, but on the contrary meant to show fight. As I
+came to a sudden halt the old bulls began to paw the earth, throwing the
+dirt up over their backs and bellowing with a low vibrating roar that
+was terror-inspiring. Then they dropped to their knees, rolled on their
+backs, got up, shook themselves, licked their noses, "rolled up their
+tails" into stiff curves, put down their heads and came at me. The cows
+with their hair standing on end like angry elks and bellowing loudly
+were not behind their lords in aggressiveness and the comical little
+calves came bouncing along after their dame.
+
+Was I frightened? That depends upon one's definition of the word. I was
+not panic-stricken, but to say that I was not _excited_ when I saw those
+animated masses of dark brown wool come roaring and thundering at me
+would be to make boast that no one who has had a similar experience
+would believe.
+
+Fortunately, not far behind me was the hollow or gully already
+mentioned and I bolted over the edge of it. As soon as the bank
+concealed my person I ran as I never ran before taking a course at right
+angles to my original one and leeward of the herd, and at last, out of
+breath, I rolled over in the weeds and lay there panting and straining
+my ears to hear the snorting beasts.
+
+My chest felt dry, hot and oppressed from forced and labored breathing,
+and had the buffalo discovered me I do not think I could have run
+another step. But the big brutes halted at the edge of the bank and
+seeing no one in sight walked around pawing and throwing up great clouds
+of dust and in their rage apparently daring me to come forth. Like a
+small boy when he hears a challenge from a gang of toughs, I decided
+that I did not want to fight and lay as quiet as possible among the
+sunflowers until I had regained my breath. When the buffalo wandered
+back to their original pasture land I, like a coyote, slunk away and
+consoled myself with the thought that although I had had my run for my
+money, at least, I had seen the death of the antelope even if I did miss
+again seeing the Wild Hunter "collar his game," as Big Pete would have
+called the act of securing it. Besides this I had a real exciting
+adventure with good red-blooded American animals and learned the lesson
+that large horned beasts which have not been taught to fear man are
+exceedingly dangerous to man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Rising abruptly from the prairie was a frowning precipice a thousand or
+more feet high and above and beyond the top of this cliff, the
+mountains.
+
+When Big Pete told me that his park was "walled in" he told me the
+mildest sort of truth; the prairie is the bottom of a wide canyon, in
+fact everything seems to indicate that the whole park had settled,
+sunk--"taken a drop" of a thousand or more feet; forming what miners
+would call a fault.
+
+From the glaciers up among the clouds numerous streams of melted ice
+came dashing down the sides of the mountain range, fanciful cascades
+leaping without fear from most stupendous heights spreading out in long
+horse-tail falls over the face of the cliff, doing everything but
+looking real. At the foot of each of the falls there was a pool of deep
+water, in one or two instances the pools were smooth basins hollowed out
+of solid rock in which the water was as transparent as air and but for
+the millions of air bubbles caused by the falling water every inch of
+bottom could be plainly seen by an observer at the brink of the pool.
+
+The trout in these basins were almost as colorless as the water itself
+(the light color of the fish is due to their chameleon-like power of
+modifying their hue to imitate their surroundings)--this mimicry is so
+perfect that after looking into one of these stone basins, the rounded
+smooth sides of which offered no shade or nook where a trout might hide,
+I was ready to declare the waters uninhabited but no sooner had my brown
+hackel or professor settled lightly on the surface of the pool than out
+from among the air bubbles a fish appeared and seized the fly.
+
+My sprained ankle was now so much improved that upon discovering a
+diagonal fracture in the face of the cliff, which looked as if offering
+a foot hold, and feeling reckless, I determined to make the effort to
+scale the wall at this point.
+
+If the giant "fault" is of comparatively recent occurrence, geologically
+speaking, it seemed reasonable that there would be trout in the streams
+above the cliff and the memory of the fact that Pete had reported that
+both Rocky Mountain sheep and goats were up there decided me to attempt
+to scale the wall by the fracture. It was a long, hard climb and more
+than once while I clung to the chance projections or dug my fingers into
+small cracks and looked down upon the backs of some golden eagle sailing
+in spirals below me, I regretted making the fool-hardy attempt, but when
+the top was reached and I saw signs of sheep and had a peep at a white
+object I took to be a goat, I felt repaid for my arduous climb.
+
+The elevated prairie or table-land on which I found myself corresponded
+in every important particular with the park below; there were the same
+natural divisions of prairie and forests, the same erratic boulders, but
+on account of the difference in elevation there was a corresponding
+difference in plant life, and most interesting of all to me, there were
+the trout streams. The tablelands above the park were comparatively
+level in places where the stream ran almost as quietly as a meadow
+brook, but these level stretches were interrupted at short distance by
+foaming rapids, jagged rocks and roaring falls.
+
+My angler's instinct told me that the biggest fish lurked in the deep
+pools, to reach which it was necessary to creep and worm myself over the
+open flats of sharp stones and patches of heather, but once on the
+vantage ground the swish of a trout rod sounded there for the first time
+since the dawn of Creation.
+
+[Illustration: More than once while I clung to the chance projection
+... I regretted making the fool-hardy attempt]
+
+There was an audible splash at my first cast. My, how that reel did
+sing! Before I realized it, my fish had reached rapid water and taken
+out a dangerous amount of line; still I dared not check him too severely
+among the sharp rocks and swift waters, so I ran along the bank,
+stumbling over stones, but managing to avail myself of every opportunity
+to wind in the line until I had the satisfaction of seeing enough line
+on my reel to prepare me for possible sudden dashes and emergencies.
+
+Ah! that was a glorious fight, and when at last I was able to steer my
+tired fish into shallow water I saw there were three of them, one lusty
+trout on each of my three flies. I had no landing net so I gently slid
+the almost exhausted fish onto a gravel bar and as I did so I
+experienced one of those delightful thrills which comes to a fellow's
+lot but once or twice in a life-time. But it was not because I had
+captured three at a strike, for I have done that before and since, but I
+thrilled because they were not only a new and strange kind of trout, but
+they were of the color and sheen of newly minted gold. Never before had
+any man seen such trout.
+
+I have since been informed that I had blundered on to water inhabited by
+the rarest of all game fish, the so-called golden trout, which has since
+been discovered and which scientists declare to be pre-glacier fish left
+by some accident of nature to exist in a new world in which all their
+original contemporaries have long been extinct.
+
+Think of it! Fish which had never seen an artificial fly nor had any
+family traditions of experiences with them. It is little wonder that
+they would jump at a brown hackle, a professor or even a gaudy salmon
+fly. Why they would jump at a chicken feather! They were ready and eager
+to bite at any sort of bunco game I saw fit to play upon them. They were
+veritable hayseeds of the trout family, but when they felt the hook in
+their lips, the wisest trout in the world could not show a craftier nor
+half as plucky a fight. They would leap from the water like
+small-mouthed bass and by shaking their heads, try to throw off the
+hateful hook.
+
+The constant vigorous exercise of leaping water-falls and forging up
+boiling rapids had developed these sturdy mountaineer trout into
+prodigies of strength and endurance. Even now my nerves tingle to the
+tips of my toes as in fancy I hear my reel hum or see the tip of my five
+ounce split bamboo bend so as to almost form a circle.
+
+I fished that stream with hands trembling with excitement and had filled
+my creel with the rare fish before I began to notice other objects of
+interest. Suddenly I became aware of the presence of two birds hovering
+over and diving under the cold water. They were evidently feeding on
+some aquatic creature which my duller senses could not discern.
+
+Although they were the first of the kind that I had ever seen alive, I
+at once recognized the feathered visitors to be water ouzels. The birds
+preceded me on my way along the water course towards camp, and were
+never quiet a minute. They would hop on a rock in mid-stream and bob up
+and down in a most solemn but comical manner for a moment before
+plunging fearlessly into the cold white spray of the falls or the swift
+dashing current, where they would disappear below the surface only to
+reappear once more on another rock to bob again.
+
+A ducking did not trouble the ouzels, for as they came out of the water
+the liquid rolled in crystal drops from their feathers and their plumage
+was as dry as if it had never been submerged. The wilder and swifter the
+cold glacier water ran the more the birds seemed to enjoy it.
+
+The nearer I approached the edge of the precipitous walls, enclosing the
+valley comprising Big Pete's park, the rougher grew the trail, and as I
+was picking my way I paused to gaze at the distant purple peaks and
+watch the sun set in that lonely land as if I was witnessing it for the
+first time. As my eyes roamed over the stupendous distance and unnamed
+mountains I felt my own puny insignificance, as who has not when
+confronted with the vastness of nature.
+
+I turned from my view of the sunset to retrace my steps to the valley,
+and peeping over the top of a large boulder, saw seated upon an
+inaccessible crag directly in front of me, a gigantic figure of a man
+clad in a hunter's garb, and he was smoking a long cigar!
+
+When I thought of Big Pete's description of how the Wild Hunter was wont
+to sit with his long legs dangling from some rock while he smoked one of
+those unprocurable cigars, and when I realized that the figure before me
+was fully sixty feet tall, I must confess to experiencing a queer
+sensation.
+
+It was a shadowy figure yet it moved, arose, held out one hand, and a
+bird as large as the fabled roc alighted on the wrist of the
+outstretched hand.
+
+A slight breeze sprang up, the white mists from the valley rolled up the
+mountainside and drifted away and the man and bird disappeared from
+view.
+
+It was long after dark when I reached camp and was greeted by my friend
+and guide with "Gol durn your pictur tenderfut, if it hain't tuk you
+longer to get a pesky mess of yaller fish than it orter to kill a bar."
+
+"Little wonder," thought I, "that the Wild Hunter used golden bullets in
+a land where even the fish's scales seemed to be of the same precious
+metal"; but I said nothing as I sat down to clean my "yaller trout."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+It was always interesting to me when I could get Pete's theories and his
+brand of philosophy on almost any subject and it was my intention that
+night at supper to lead up to the apparition I had seen on the cliffs
+that day. With a substantial supper tucked away I was in a better frame
+of mind to realize that the illusion I had seen was not uncommon in
+mountain districts. I recalled that I had read of, and seen pictures of,
+a particular illusion of this nature that is often present in the Hartz
+Mountains in Germany and I knew full well that the setting sun, the mist
+and the atmospheric condition had all contributed to throwing a greatly
+enlarged shadow of the real Wild Hunter onto the screen made by the mist
+very much as today a motion picture increases the size of the small film
+image when it is thrown on the movie screen.
+
+I intended to get Big Pete's idea on the subject but I never did for I
+was not adroit enough to steer the conversation in that direction, for
+Big Pete seized my first statement and made it a subject for a veritable
+lecture.
+
+"There was a smashing lot of those trout up there, Pete. Bet I could
+have brought home all I could have carried if I had been a game hog," I
+said, as I stirred the fire with a stick and set the coffee pot nearer
+the flames to warm a second cup.
+
+"You see, tenderfut, it's like this," he said, "when a man goes out to
+kill a deer for the fun of blood-spilling or to get th' poor critter's
+head to hang in his shack, he's nothing more than a wolf or butcher;
+hain't half as good a man as the one who never shot a deer, but goes
+back home and lies about it. The liar hain't harmed nothin' with his
+lies. His fairy stories don't hurt game an' they be interesting to the
+tenderfuts in the States. The real sportsman is the pot-hunter. Yes,
+that's jist what I mean, a pot-hunter--he's out 'cause the camp kettle
+is empty, and it's up agin him to fill it or starve. Now then, this
+fellow is not after blood; nor trophies, nor is he hunting for the
+market. It's self-preservation with him, that's what it is. He's an
+animal along with the rest of 'em and he knows he's got jest as much a
+right to live as tha' have and no more! He's hustling for his living
+along with the bunch, forcing it from savage nature, and I tell you boy,
+there is no greater physical pleasure in life than holding old Mother
+Nature up and just saying to her, 'You've got a living for me, ole' gal,
+and I'm going to get it.'
+
+"Such talk pleases the old lady, makes her your friend 'cause she likes
+your spunk, and because of it she'll give you the wind of a grey wolf,
+the step of the panther, the strength of the buffalo and the courage of
+a lion. She is always generous with her favorites. Ah! lad, she kin make
+your blood dance in your veins, make fire flash from your eyes and give
+you the steady nerve necessary to face a she-grizzly when she is
+fightin' for her cubs."
+
+"Why? 'cause you see, you are a grizzly yourself when the camp kettle is
+empty!" And Big Pete relapsed into silence, turned his attention to his
+tin platter, examining it carefully, and then with a piece of dough-god,
+carefully wiped the platter clean and contentedly munched the savory
+bit.
+
+The reason, that being locked into Big Pete's park in the mountains
+struck me as being very serious, was because I realized that although
+the park was extensive it was completely surrounded by a practically
+unsurmountable barrier of rugged cliffs and mountains negotiable, as far
+as I knew, not even by the sure-footed mountain sheep and goats which we
+could occasionally see on the cliffs from the valley floor, but never
+saw in the park itself. I questioned Big Pete and found that he did not
+know of a trail up the cliffs.
+
+"Though," he said, "there must be some sort of a one for that tha' Wild
+Hunter gits in an' out and brings his wolf pack along too. He knows a
+trail all right an' ef he knows it why it's up to us to find it, too."
+
+"Maybe we can trail him," I suggested.
+
+"Trail him! Me? With that wolf pack clingin' to his heels? Not while I'm
+alive!"
+
+That was the last that was said about trailing the Wild Hunter for some
+time to come, but meanwhile we built a more or less open faced permanent
+camp and Big Pete initiated me into mysteries of real woodcraft, for it
+was up to us now to live on the land, so to speak.
+
+Although hard usage had made havoc with my tailormade clothes, neither
+time nor the elements seemed to affect the personal appearance of my big
+companion; his buckskin suit was apparently as clean and fresh as it was
+on the day I first met him. There was no magic in this. Big Pete knew
+how to clamber all day through a windfall without leaving the greater
+part of his clothes on the branches, a feat few hunters and no
+tenderfoot have yet been able to accomplish.
+
+As I have already said, Pete was a dude, but he was what might be called
+a self-perpetuating dude, who never ran to seed no matter how long he
+might be separated from the city tailor shops, for Pete was his own
+tailor, barber and valet, and the wilderness supplied the material for
+his costume.
+
+In the camp he was as busy as an old housewife, and occupied his leisure
+time mending, stitching and darning. Many a morning my own toilet
+consisted of a face wash at the spring, but my guide seldom failed to
+spend as much time prinking as if he expected distinguished visitors!
+
+Instead of "Tenderfoot," Big Pete now called me "Le-loo," which I
+understand is Chinook for wolf and I took so much pride in my promotion
+that I would not have changed clothes with the Prince of Wales; I
+gloried in my wild, unkempt appearance!
+
+Nevertheless, Big Pete announced that he was the Hy-as-ty-ee (big boss)
+and he forthwith declared that my costume was unsuitable for the
+approaching cold weather. There was no disputing that Big Pete was
+Hy-as-ty-ee and I agreed to wear whatever clothes he should make for me,
+and can say with no fear of dispute that if that ancient chump, Robinson
+Crusoe, had had a Big Pete for a partner in place of a man Friday, he
+would have never made himself his outlandish goatskin clothes and a
+clumsy umbrella.
+
+From a cache in the rocks Pete brought forth a miscellaneous lot of
+trappers' stores, bone needles made from the splints of deer's legs,
+elk's teeth with holes bored through them, and odds and ends of all
+kinds.
+
+Among his stuff was a supply of salt-petre and alum, and this was
+evidently the material for which he was searching for he at once
+preceeded to make a mixture of two parts salt-petre to one of alum and
+applied the pulverized compound to the fleshy side of the skins, then
+doubling the raw side of the hides together he rolled them closely and
+placed the hides in a cool place where they were allowed to remain for
+several days; when at length unrolled, the skins were still moist.
+
+"Just right, by Gosh," he exclaimed, as he took a dull knife and
+carefully removed all particles of fat or flesh which here and there
+adhered to the hide. After this was done to his satisfaction we both
+took hold and rubbed, and mauled and worked the skins with our hands
+until the hides were as soft and as pliable as flannel. Thus was the
+material for my winter clothing prepared.
+
+It took four whole deer-skins to furnish stuff for my buckskin shirt
+with the beautiful long fringes at the seams; but the whole garment was
+cut, sewed and finished in a day's time. It was sewed with thread made
+of sinew.
+
+When it came to making the coat and trousers Big Pete spent a long time
+in solemn thought before he was ready to begin work on these garments;
+at length he looked up with a broad smile and cried:
+
+"See here, Le-loo, I have taken a fancy to them 'ere tenderfut pants o'
+your'n. Off with 'em now an' I'll jist cut out the new ones from the old
+uns." In vain I pleaded with him to make my trousers like his own; he
+would not listen to me, he insisted upon having my ragged but stylish
+knickerbockers to use as a pattern.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Big Pete was an expert backwoods tailor, shoemaker and shirtmaker, but
+these were but few of his accomplishments, not his trade; he was first,
+last and aways a hunter and scout. No matter what occupation seemed to
+engage his attention for the time it never interfered with his ability
+to hear, see or smell.
+
+It was while I was going around camp minus my lower garments that I saw
+Pete suddenly throw up his head and suspiciously sniff the air, at the
+same time sharply scanning the windward side of our camp. Living so long
+with this strange man made me familiar with his actions and quick to
+detect anything unusual and I now knew that something of interest had
+happened. To the windward and close by us was a mound thickly covered
+with bullberry bushes and underbrush, and so far as could be seen there
+was nothing suspicious in the appearance of the thicket. Fixing my eyes
+on Big Pete, I saw a peculiar expression spread over his face which
+seemed to be half of mirth and half of wonderment, and I immediately
+knew that his wonderful nose had warned him of the presence of something
+to the windward.
+
+Slowly and quietly he laid aside my almost finished breeches and
+silently stole away. It was only a few minutes before he returned with a
+very solemn face.
+
+"Doggone my corn shucked bones, Le-loo, we've had a visitor but it got
+away mighty slick and quick. I hain't determint yit whether it wa' man
+er beast er both, er jist a thing wha' might change into 'tother. We'll
+hafter investigate later. Here git these duds on."
+
+When I put on my new elk-hide knickerbockers with cuffs of dressed
+buckskin laced around my calves, and my beautiful soft buckskin shirt
+tucked in at the waist I began to feel like a real Nimrod, but after I
+added my "Moo-loch-Capo," the shooting jacket with elk-teeth buttons,
+pulled a pair of shank moccasins over my feet and donned a cap made of
+lynx skin, I was as happy as a child with its Christmas stocking. It was
+a really wonderful suit of clothing; the hair of the elk hide was on the
+outside, and not only made the coat and breeches warmer, but helped to
+shed the rain. The buttons of the elk-teeth were fastened on with thongs
+run through holes in their centers, and my coat could be laced up after
+the fashion of a military overcoat. The elk's teeth served as frogs and
+loops of rawhide answered for the braid that is used on military coats.
+
+My shank moccasins were made by first making a cut around each of the
+hind legs of an elk, at a sufficient distance above the heels to leave
+hide enough for boot legs and making another cut far enough below the
+heels to make room for one's feet. The fresh skins when peeled off
+looked like rude stockings with holes at the toes. The skins were
+turned wrong side out, and the open toes closed by bringing the lower
+part, or sole, up over the opening and sewing it there after the manner
+of a tip to the modern shoe. When this novel foot-gear was dry enough
+for the purpose, Big Pete ornamented the legs with quaint colored
+designs made with split porcupine quills colored with dyes which Pete
+himself had manufactured of roots and barks.
+
+Dressed in my unique and picturesque costume I stood upright while Pete
+surveyed me with the pride and satisfaction of one who had done a fine
+piece of work. I had now little fear of being called a tenderfoot and
+when I viewed my reflection in the spring I felt quite proud of my
+appearance.
+
+"Come along now old scout," said Pete viewing me with the pride of an
+artist, "come along and let me test you on a real trail. I want to see
+what my teaching has done for you."
+
+Pete led me through the underbrush to a point among the rocks.
+
+"Tha'. A trail begins right under yore nose; let's see what you make of
+it," he said crisply.
+
+Down on all fours I crept over the ground and, to my surprise and joy, I
+found that I could here and there detect a turned leaf the twist of
+which indicated the direction taken by the party who made the trail. I
+noticed that the bits of wood, pine cones and sticks scattered around
+were darker on the parts next to the ground, and it only required simple
+reasoning for me to conclude that when the dark side was uppermost the
+object had been recently disturbed and rolled over.
+
+It was a day of great discoveries. I found that what is true of the
+sticks is equally true of the pebbles and a displaced fragment of stone
+immediately caught my eyes. With the tenacity of a bloodhound I stuck to
+my task until I suddenly found myself at the base of the park wall, at
+the foot of the diagonal fracture in the face of the cliff where I had
+climbed when I discovered the golden trout. As I have said, the
+fracture led diagonally up the towering face of the beetling precipice.
+
+For fear that I might have made some mistake I carefully retraced my
+steps backward toward the bullberry bushes near the camp. On the back
+trail I came upon some distinct and obvious footprints in a dusty place,
+but so deeply interested was I in hidden signs, the slight but tell-tale
+disturbances of leaf and soil, that I once passed these plainly marked
+tracks with only a glance and would have done so the second time had not
+their marked peculiarities accidentally caught my attention.
+
+When examining the trail of this mysterious camp visitor I suddenly
+realized that in place of moccasin footprints I was following bear
+tracks, my heart ceased to beat for a moment or two before I could pull
+myself together and smother the prehensile footed superstitious old
+savage in me with the practical philosophy of the up-to-date man of
+today.
+
+Taking a short cut I ran back to the foot of the pass and there, on
+hands and knees, ascended for a hundred feet or more--the bear steps led
+up the pass, and yet at the beginning of the trail the feet wore
+moccasins. This I knew because at one place the foot-mark showed plainly
+in the gray alkali dust which had accumulated upon a projecting stone a
+few feet below the ledge. Obviously whoever the visitor was, he had
+entered and left by this pass. Returning to camp I sat down on a log
+lost in thought. My reverie was at last broken by the voice of my guide
+quietly remarking. "Well, Le-loo, what's your judication?"
+
+"Pete," I said, "that bear walks on its hind-legs; there is not the sign
+of a forefoot anywhere along the trail. Now this could not be caused by
+the hind feet obliterating the tracks of the front feet, because in many
+places the pass is so steep that the forefeet in reaching out for
+support would make tracks not overlapped by the hind ones."
+
+"That's true, Le-loo; sartin true. If you live to be a hundred years
+you'll make as good a trailer as the great Greaser trailer of New
+Mexico, Dolores Sanchez, or my old friend Bill Hassler, who could follow
+a six-month-old trail," replied my guide. "But," he continued, "maybe
+witch-bears do walk on their hind legs same as people."
+
+"Witch be blamed!" I cried impatiently; "this is no four-legged witch
+nor bear either. That was a man and when he thought he would be followed
+he put on moccasins made from bears' paws to leave a disguised trail.
+And moreover I believe that man is none other than the Wild Hunter
+without his wolf pack. And that pass is the pathway he takes in and out
+of this park. I'm going to trail him whether you want to or not. Goodbye
+Pete, I'll come back for you," and picking up my gun and other necessary
+traps, I prepared to start immediately upon my journey, for I felt that
+to follow this trail would not only get us out of our park prison but
+would lead me to the abode of the Wild Hunter, where perhaps I could
+talk with him and learn some of the things I was so eager to know about
+my parents.
+
+Big Pete looked at me solemnly for a while, ran over the cartridges in
+his belt and went through all those familiar unconscious motions which
+betokened danger ahead, and said, "Le-loo, you are a quare critter;
+you're not afraid of all the werwolves, medicine ba'rs and ghosts in
+this world or the next, but tarnally afeared of live varmints like
+grizzly bars--one would think you had no religion, but, gosh all
+hemlock! If you can face a bear-man or a werwolf, even though all the
+Hy-as Ecutocks of the mountains show fight, I'll be cornfed if I don't
+stand by ye! Barring the Wild Hunter, I don't know as I ever ran agin a
+Ecutock yit; that is if he be a Ecutock. Maybe he's a Econe? Yes, I
+reckon that's what he is," continued Pete reflectively.
+
+"Maybe he is a pine cone," I laughed. Then added, "Whatever he is, he
+knows the way out of this park of yours and I am going to follow him," I
+emphatically answered.
+
+"That's howsomever!" exclaimed my guide approvingly; "but," he
+continued, "the mountains are kivered with snow, while it is still
+summer down here, so I reckon 'twould be the proper wrinkle for us to
+pull our things together, have a good feed and a good sleep before we
+start. White men start off hot-headed and I kinder like their grit, but
+Injuns stop and sot by the fire an' smoke an' think afore they start on
+a raid an' I kinder think they be wiser in this than we 'uns, so let's
+do as the Injuns would do. We can cache most of our stuff and turn the
+horses loose. Bighorn's mutton is powerful good, but tarnally shy and
+hung mighty high, an' billygoat is doggoned strong 'nless you know how
+to cook 'em. Yes, we'll eat an sleep fust an' then his for the land
+where the Bighorn pasture, the woolywhite goats sleep on the rocks, the
+whistling marmot blows his danger signal an' the pretty white ptarmigan
+hides hisself in the snow-banks, the home of the Ecutocks.
+
+"What the thunder is a Ecutock, Pete?" I asked.
+
+"An Injun devil, I reckon you'd call it; it's bad medicine," he answered
+soberly, and continuing in his former strain, he exclaimed:
+
+"Whar critters like goats, sheeps and rock-chucks kin live, you bet your
+Hy-as muck-a-muck we kin live too!"
+
+That night I rolled up into my blanket, filled with strange
+presentiments. Again the question came up: What is the source of the
+influence that this madman of the mountains, this wild hunter, this
+leader of the black wolf pack, had on me to impel me to trail him over
+the mountains? Was it mental telepathy? Could he really be my father?
+Somehow I felt convinced that soon I would be face to face with the
+riddle, soon I would know the facts and the truth about my parents. It
+seemed unthinkable that all these weeks of wilderness travel had been
+for naught and that the Wild Hunter was nothing but a strange, eccentric
+old fellow living alone in the mountains and of no interest to me
+whatsoever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+We made our start at daylight, loaded with all the necessities for a
+climb over the mountains. The rest of our supplies and equipment we
+cached, and Big Pete turned our horses loose assuring me that in the
+spring he would come back and rope them.
+
+The lower trail of the pass was quite well defined and we made famous
+progress, but the higher we climbed the more difficult the going became
+and more than once we were forced to pause on a ledge to rest and regain
+our breath.
+
+On one ledge I got my first really close view of a bighorn sheep, and I
+became so excited that nothing would do but I must stalk him, despite
+Big Pete's assurance that the wily old ram would not let me get within
+gun shot of him in such an exposed area.
+
+I crawled, and wriggled, and twisted over rock and boulders for what to
+me seemed miles, but always the sheep kept just out of accurate shooting
+distance ahead of me. It was an exasperating chase, but one cannot live
+in the mountains for any length of time without paying more or less
+attention to geology; the mountaineer soon learns that stratified rock,
+that is rock arranged like layer cake, resting in a horizontal position
+on its natural bed, makes travel over its top comparatively easy, but
+when by the subsidence or upheaval of the earth's crust huge masses of
+stone have been tilted up edgewise, it is an entirely different
+proposition.
+
+In this latter case the erosion, or the wearing away, caused by
+trickling water, frost and snow, sharpens the edge of the rock, as a
+grindstone does the edge of an ax, and traveling along one of these
+ridges presents almost the same difficulties that travel along the edge
+of an upturned ax would do to a microscopic man.
+
+But when a sportsman, for the first time in his life, has succeeded in
+creeping within range of a grand bighorn ram, and his bullet, speeding
+true, has badly wounded the game, hardships are forgotten, and if, on
+account of the miraculous vitality of the mountain sheep, there is
+danger of losing the quarry, all the inborn instinct of the predaceous
+beast in man's nature is aroused, and danger is a consideration not to
+be taken in account.
+
+A hawk in pursuit of a barnyard fowl will follow it into the open door
+of the farmhouse; the hound in pursuit of the fox cares not for the
+approaching locomotive--being possessed by the instinct to kill--nothing
+is of importance to them but the capture of the game in sight. A man
+following a buck is governed by a like singleness of purpose.
+
+For this reason I was scrambling along the knife-like edge of the ridge,
+with death in the steep treacherous slide rock on one side, death in the
+steep green glacier ice on the other side, and torture and wounds under
+my feet.
+
+But the fever of the chase had possession of me. I had tasted blood and
+felt the fierce joy of the puma and the wild intoxication of a hunting
+wolf!
+
+The cruel wounds inflicted by the sharp stones under my feet were
+unnoticed. Away ahead of me was a moving object; it could use but three
+legs, but that was one leg more than I had, and the ram had distanced
+me. After an age of time I reached the rugged, broader footing of the
+mountain side, and creeping up behind some sheltering rocks again fired
+at the fleeing ram. With the impact of the bullet the sheep fell
+headlong down a cliff to a projecting rock thirty feet below, where it
+lay apparently dead. A moment later it again arose, seemingly as able as
+ever, and ran along the face of the beetling rock where my eyes, aided
+by powerful field glasses, could perceive no foothold; then it gave a
+magnificent leap to a ledge on the opposite side of the narrow canyon
+and fell dead, out of my reach.
+
+Spent with my long, rough run, I naturally selected the most
+comfortable seat in which to rest; this chanced to be a cushion of
+heather-like plants along the side of a fragment of rock which
+effectually concealed my body from view from the other side of the
+chasm. Here, on the verge of that impassable canyon, I sat panting and
+looking at the poor dead creature upon the opposite side; its right
+front leg was shattered at the shoulder, a bullet had pierced its lungs.
+Yet, with two fatal wounds and a useless leg, the plucky creature had
+scaled the face of a cliff which one would think a squirrel would find
+impossible to traverse and made leaps which might well be considered
+improbable for a perfectly sound animal. The ram was dead and food for
+the ravens, and a reaction had taken place in my mind; I felt like a
+bloody murderer, and hung my head with a sense of guilt.
+
+Presently, becoming conscious of that peculiar guttural noise, used by
+Big Pete when desiring caution, and looking up I was amazed to see a
+splendid Indian youth climb down the face of the opposite cliff, throw
+his arms around the dead ram's neck and burst into deep but subdued
+lamentation. For the first time I now saw that what I had mistaken for a
+blood stain on the bighorn's neck was a red collar.
+
+Cautiously producing my field glasses I examined the collar and
+discovered it to be made of stained porcupine quills cleverly worked on
+a buckskin band. The field glasses also told me that the boy's shirt was
+trimmed with the same material, while a duplicate of the sheep's collar
+formed a band which encircled his head, confining the long black hair
+and preventing it from falling over his face, but leaving it free to
+hang down his back to a point below the waist line.
+
+So absorbed was I in this unique spectacle that I carelessly allowed my
+elbow to dislodge a loose fragment of stone which went clattering down
+the face of the precipice. This proved to be almost fatal carelessness,
+for, with a movement as quick as the stroke of a rattlesnake, the lad
+placed an arrow to the string of a bow and sent the barbed shaft with
+such force, promptitude and precision that it went through my fur cap,
+the arrow entangling a bunch of my hair, taking it along with it.
+
+"Squat lower, Le-loo; arrows has been the death of many a man afore
+you," whispered Big Pete in my ear, but even as he spoke another arrow
+sang over our crouching bodies, shaving the protecting rock so closely
+that their plumed tips brushed the dust on our backs.
+
+"Waugh! Good shootin', by gum! I never seed it beat; if he onct sots
+them black eyes on our hulking carcasses he'll get us yit," muttered my
+guide, enthusiastically. "He's mighty slender, quick and purty--but so
+also be a rattlesnake!" he exclaimed, as another arrow slit the sleeve
+of his wamus as cleanly as if it were cut with a knife.
+
+"For God's sake, stop!" I shouted, in real alarm. The boy paused, but
+with an arrow still drawn to its head. His eyes flashing, head erect,
+one moccasined foot on the ram's body, the other braced against the
+cliff; his short fawn-colored skin shirt clung to his lithe body, and
+the fringed edges hung over the dreadful black chasm in front of him. It
+was a picture to take away one's breath. "Put down your weapon, and we
+will stand with our hands up," I cried. Slowly the bow was lowered and
+as slowly Big Pete and I arose, holding our empty hands aloft. "Now,
+young fellow, tell us your pleasure."
+
+There are a few gray hairs showing at my temples which first made their
+appearance while I was crouching behind that stone on the edge of the
+chasm.
+
+To my polite inquiry asking his pleasure, the wild boy made no reply but
+glanced at us with the utmost contempt when Big Pete went through some
+gestures in Indian sign language. The lad mutely pointed to the dead
+sheep, the sight of which seemed to enrage him again, for insensibly his
+fingers tightened on the bow and the wood began to curve after a manner
+which sent me ducking behind the sheltering stone again; but Big Pete
+only folded his arms across his broad chest and looked the boy straight
+in the eyes.
+
+Never will I forget that picture, the cold, bleak, snow-covered
+mountains towering above them, the black abyss of Sheol between them;
+neither would hesitate to take life, neither possessed a fear of death;
+but with every muscle alert and every nerve alive these two wild things
+stood facing each other, mutually observing a truce because of--what?
+Because, in spite of the fighting instinct or, maybe, because of it they
+both secretly admired each other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+The black chasm which separated us from the trail of the wild hunter was
+not as formidable a barrier as the unfathomable abyss which separates
+the reader from what he thinks he would have done had he been in my
+place, and what really would have been his plan of action.
+
+There were a lot of burning questions which I had privately made up in
+my mind to propound to the Wild Hunter, or the even wilder medicine
+bear, upon the occasion of our next meeting. But when the lad was
+standing before me, with bended bow and flashing eyes, the burning
+importance of those questions did not appeal to me as forcibly as did
+the urgent necessity of sheltering my body behind the friendly stone. To
+be truthful, it must be admitted that the proposed inquiries were, for
+the time, entirely forgotten, and I even breathed a sigh of relief when
+the boy suddenly clambered up the face of the cliff, turned, gave us a
+fierce look of defiance, made some quick energetic gestures with his
+hand and disappeared.
+
+He scaled that precipitous rock with the rapidity and self-confidence of
+a gray squirrel running up the trunk of a hickory tree, squirrel-like,
+taking advantage of every crack, cranny and projection that could be
+grasped by fingers or moccasin-covered toes.
+
+Not until the Indian had disappeared down a dry coulee did I venture
+from the shelter of the protecting rock, or realize that my carefully
+planned interview must be indefinitely postponed.
+
+With his arms folded across his chest, his blond hair sweeping his
+shoulders, his blue eyes fixed upon a rocky rib of the mountain behind
+which the boy had disappeared, Big Pete still stood like a statue. But
+gradually the statuesque pose resolved itself into a more commonplace
+posture, and the muscles of the face relaxed until the familiar twinkle
+hovered around the corners of his eyes. "What did he say when he made
+those motions, Pete?"
+
+"Waugh! he said he was not afraid of any whitefaced coyote like us." And
+bringing forth his pipe, Pete filled it from the beaded tobacco pouch
+which hung on his breast, and by means of a horn of punk, a flint and
+steel, he soon had the pipe aglow and was puffing away as calmly as if
+nothing unusual had occurred. Presently he exclaimed, "Gol durn his
+daguerrotype, what good did it do him to throw that sheep down the
+gulch? Reckon Le-loo and me could find a better grave for mutton chops
+than that canyon bottom. The mountains didn't need the sheep an' we did.
+But, I reckon it was his own sheep you killed, 'cause it had a porcupine
+collar same pattern as the trimmings of his shirt."
+
+Turning his great blue eyes full upon me, he suddenly shot this inquiry,
+"Be he bar, ecutock or werwolf?"
+
+"He is the finest adjusted, easiest running, most exquisitely balanced,
+highest geared bit of human machinery I ever saw," I answered
+enthusiastically.
+
+"Wall, maybe ye are right, Le-loo, an' maybe ye hain't; which is
+catamount to saying, maybe it is a man and maybe it tain't."
+
+"Steady, Pete, old fellow, let us go slow; now tell me at what you're
+driving?" I pleaded.
+
+"It looks to me this hea'-a-way," he explained. "I've seed his trail
+onct or twice, an' I've seed him onct, but I never yet seed his trail
+and the Wild Hunter's trail at the same time and place. 'Pears to me
+that a man who, when it's convenient, kin make a wolf of hisself, might
+likewise make a boy of hisself whenever he felt that way. Never heared
+tell on enny real laid who cud climb like a squtton and shoot a bow
+better nor a Robin Hood or Injun, and that's howsomever!"
+
+"Well, it does look 'howsomever,' and no mistake," I admitted, "and what
+makes it worse, our dinner is at the bottom of this infernal gulch.
+Come, let us be moving; the breeze from the snowfields chills me. Let us
+hit his trail now while it is fresh."
+
+This was a simple proposition to make, but a difficult one to carry into
+execution; for to all appearances that trail began upon the other side
+of the chasm, and there was no bridge in sight by which we could cross.
+Big Pete carefully put a cork-stopper in his pipe, extinguishing the
+fire without wasting the unconsumed contents; he then carefully put his
+briarwood away and began to uncoil a lariat from around his middle. As
+he loosened the braided rawhide from his waist his gaze was roaming over
+the opposite rocks. Presently he fixed his attention upon a pinnacle
+which reared its cube-like form above the top of the opposite side of
+the chasm; the latter was of itself much higher than the brink upon
+which we stood. Swinging the loop around his head he sent it whistling
+across the chasm, where it settled and encircled the projecting stone,
+the honda striking the face of the cliff with a sullen thud. The rope
+tightened, but when we both threw our weight on our end of the lariat to
+try it, the cube-like pinnacle moved on its base.
+
+"I oughter knowed better than to try to lasso a piece of slide rock,"
+said Pete in disgusted tones, as he cast the end of the braided rawhide
+loose and watched it for a moment dangling down the opposite side of the
+canyon.
+
+"Now, Le-loo, we must get over this hole or lose the best lariat in the
+Rocky Mountains. We kin look for that boy's trail on this side, for even
+if he be an Ecutock, I'll bet my crooker bone 'gainst a lock of his hair
+that he can't jump th' hole, an' I'll wager my left ear that he's got a
+trail an' a bridge somewhar--'nless he turns bird and flops over things
+like this," he added, with a troubled look.
+
+"Pete," said I, "never mind the bird business. I'll admit that there is
+a lot of explanation due us before we can rightly judge on the events of
+the past few weeks; still I think it may all be explained in a rational
+manner; but what if it cannot? We have but one trip to make through this
+world, and the more we see the more we will know at the end of the
+journey. I am as curious as a prong-horned antelope when there is a
+mystery, so put your nose to the ground, my good friend, and find the
+spot where this Mr. Werwolf, witch, or bear flies the canyon, and maybe,
+like the husband of 'The Witch of Fife,' we may find the 'black crook
+shell,' and with its aid fly out of this 'lum."
+
+"I believe your judication is sound, Le-loo; stay where you be an' if he
+hain't a witch I'll bet my front tooth agin the string of his moccasin
+that I'll find the bridge, and I'll swear by my grandmother's hind leg
+that that little imp will pay for our sheep yit."
+
+As Pete finished these remarks there was a sudden and astonishing change
+in his appearance. His head fell forward, his shoulders drooped, his
+back bowed and his knee bent. It was no longer the upright statuesque
+Pete the Mountaineer, but Peter the Trailer, all of whose faculties were
+concentrated upon the ground. With a swinging gait the human bloodhound
+traveled swiftly and silently along the edge of the crevasse, noting
+every bunch of moss, fragment of stone, drift of snow or bit of moist
+earth, reading the shorthand notes of Nature with facility which far
+excelled the ability of my own stenographer to read her own notes when
+the latter are a few hours old. But a short time had elapsed before I
+heard a shout, and, hurrying to the place where my big friend was
+seated, I inquired, "Any luck?"
+
+"Tha's as you may call it. Here is wha' tha' boy jumped," he replied,
+pointing to some marks on the stone which were imperceptible to me, "an'
+tha's wha' he landed," he continued, pointing to a slight ledge upon the
+face of the opposite cliff at least twenty feet distant. "He's a jumper,
+an' no mistake--guess I might as well have my front tooth pulled, fur
+I've lost my bet," soliloquized the trailer, as he sat on the edge of
+the cliff, with his legs hanging over the frightful chasm.
+
+The ledge indicated by Big Pete as the landing place of the phenomenal
+jumper might possibly have offered a foothold for a bighorn or goat, but
+I could not believe that any human being could jump twenty feet to a
+crumbling trifle of a ledge on the face of a precipice, and not only
+retain a foothold there, but run up the face of the rock like a fly on a
+window-pane. Yet I could see that something had worn the ledge at the
+point indicated and when I stood a little distance away from the trail I
+could plainly note a difference in color marking the course of the trail
+where it led over the flinty rocks to the jumping place.
+
+"Wull, Le-loo! What's your opinion of the Ecutock now? Do he use wings
+or ride a barleycorn broom?" asked Pete, with a triumphant smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Apparently there was no possible way by which we might hope to cross the
+canyon, and I threw myself prone upon the top of the stony brink of the
+chasm and peered down the awful abyss at the silver thread, shining in
+the gloom of the shadows, which marked the course of a stream, and
+wondered what the Boy Scouts of Troop 6 of Marlborough would do under
+the circumstances.
+
+I studied the face of the opposite cliff in a vain search for some hint
+to the solution of the problem before us, looking up and down from side
+to side as far as allowed by the range of my vision. At length my
+attention wandered to the perpendicular face of the cliff, on the top of
+which my body was sprawled; there was an upright crack in the face of
+the stone wall, and as I examined the fracture I saw that a piece of
+wood had lodged in the crack; a piece of wood in a crevice in a rock is
+not so unusual an occurrence as to excite remark; but when it occurred
+to me that we were then far above the timber line, my interest and
+curiosity were at once aroused.
+
+The end of the stick was within a short distance from my hand, and
+reaching down I grasped the wood and brought forth, not a short club or
+stick, as I thought to be concealed there, but a very long pole. The
+result of my investigations was so unexpected that I came dangerously
+near allowing the thing to slide through my fingers and fall to the
+bottom of the canyon. It was a neatly-smoothed, slender piece of
+lodge-pole pine which was brought to view, and it had a crooked root
+nicely spliced to one end and bound tightly in place with rawhide
+thongs. Big Pete was wholly absorbed in the trail, the study of which he
+had resumed, and when I looked up he was down on all fours, minutely
+studying the ground. Presently he cried, "Le-loo, tha' pesky lad ha'
+been over wha' you be after sompen and he took it back tha' again afore
+he made his jump! If you're any good you'll find what the lad was
+after."
+
+"He was after his barleycorn broomstick," I replied, proudly, "and here
+it is, although I must confess it is a pretty long one for a fellow of
+his size, and it looks more like a giant Bo-Peep's crook than a witch's
+broom."
+
+Big Pete eagerly snatched the pole from my hands and examined it
+carefully. At length he said, "This hyer is the end used for the handle;
+one can see by the finger marks, an' this crook is used to scrape stone
+with, one kin see, with half an eye, by the way the end is sandpapered
+off. Over tha' air some marks on the stone which look almighty like as
+if they'd been made by the end of this yer hook slipping down the face
+of the rock.
+
+"Now, I wonder wha' cud be up tha' on the top of the rock that the boy
+wanted," mused Big Pete, and for a moment or so he stood in silent
+thought; at length he exclaimed, "Why, bless my corn-shucking soul, if I
+don't believe he's got a lariat staked out tha' an' crosses this ditch
+same as we-uns aimed to do!" With that he began raking and scraping the
+top of the opposite rock with the shepherd's crook, and presently there
+came tumbling and twisting like a snake down the face of the cliff, a
+long braided rawhide rope with a loop at the bottom end.
+
+"Waugh, Le-loo! tha's no witchcraft 'bout this 'cep the magic of
+common-sense; but we hain't through with him yit!" By this time Pete had
+the end of the rawhide rope in his hands and was testing the strength of
+its anchorage upon the opposite cliff. The point where it was fastened
+projected some distance over the ledge, where the supposed landing-place
+was located, thus making it possible for one to swing at the end of the
+rope from our side without danger of coming into too violent contact
+with the opposite cliff.
+
+As soon as my big friend was satisfied that the rope was safe he
+grasped it with his two hands, and with one foot in the loop and the
+other free to use as a fender, he sailed across the abyss and landed
+safely upon the crumbling ledge opposite.
+
+Holding fast to the rawhide rope with his hands and bracing his feet
+against the rock, Pete could walk up the face of the cliff by going
+hand-over-hand up the cable at the same time. He had almost reached the
+top when I was horror-stricken to see a small hand and brown arm reach
+over the precipice; but it was neither the grace nor the beauty of this
+shapely bit of anatomy which sent the blood surging to my heart, but the
+fact that the cold gray glint of a long-bladed knife caught my eyes and
+fascinated me with the fabled "charm" of a serpent. The power of speech
+forsook me, but with great effort I succeeded in giving utterance to the
+inarticulate noise people gurgle when confronted in their sleep by a
+shapeless horror. Big Pete heard the noise, but he was not unnerved
+when he saw the knife, neither did he show any nightmare symptoms,
+although he was dangling over the terrible abyss with a full knowledge
+that it needed but a touch of the keen blade of that knife to sever the
+straining lariat and dash him, a mangled mass, on the rocks below. The
+danger was too real to give Pete the nightmare; there was nothing spooky
+to him in the glittering knife blade, and only ghosts and the
+supernatural could give Big Pete the nightmare. Calmly he looked at the
+hand grasping the power of death with its strong tapering fingers.
+Suddenly and in a firm, commanding voice he gave the order, "Drap tha'
+knife!"
+
+Ever since I had been in the company of this masterful forest companion
+I had obeyed his commands as a matter of course, and so was not
+surprised to see the fingers instantly relax their grasp and the knife
+go gyrating to the mysterious depths. In a few moments Big Pete was up
+and over the edge of the rock and hidden from my view.
+
+Seizing the long-handled shepherd's crook, I caught the dangling end of
+the lariat, and was soon scrambling up the face of the cliff, leaving a
+trail which the veriest novice would not fail to notice and sending
+showers of the crumbling stones down the path taken by the knife; it was
+several minutes before I had clambered over the face of the projecting
+crag and was safe across the black chasm which lay athwart our trail.
+
+If the Wild Hunter was indeed my father, he certainly was a woodcrafter
+and scout to bring pride to a fellow's heart, for I doubted not that the
+Indian boy was his retainer because the porcupine quill decorations on
+his buckskin shirt had the same peculiar pattern as that on the wamus of
+the Wild Hunter himself as well as on the collar of the pet sheep I had
+killed, and also on the buckskin bag of gold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Only those persons who have made solitary trips over snow-capped
+mountain ridges can appreciate the overwhelming feeling of solitude that
+I felt on looking about me. To whatever point of view I turned my eyes
+were greeted with a tumbled sea composed of stupendous petrified
+billows.
+
+The occasional fields of snow were the white froth of the stony waves
+and the turquoise colored glacial lakes between the crags rather added
+to the effect of an angry ocean than detracted from it.
+
+On a closer examination, some of the rocks appeared to be rough bits of
+unfinished worlds still retaining the form they had when poured from the
+mighty blast furnaces of the Creator. It was God's workshop strewn with
+huge fragments, still bearing the marks of His mallet and chisel; yet
+these cold barren wastes were the pasture lands of the shaggy-coated
+white goats and the lithe-limbed bighorned sheep.
+
+Suddenly a shrill whistle pierced the air and with a jump I
+instinctively looked for a vision of the Wild Hunter, but a moment later
+realized that the sound I heard was but the warning cry of a whistling
+marmot. Again the silence was broken, this time by a low rumbling sound
+which increased in volume until it roared like a broadside from an old
+forty-four-gun man-of-war, each crag and peak taking up the sound and
+hurling it against its neighbor, until the reverberating noise seemed to
+come from all points of the compass.
+
+Away in the distance I could see a white stream pouring from the
+precipitous edge of an elevated glacier; this seeming mountain torrent I
+knew was not water, but ice, thousands of tons of which having cracked
+and broken from the edge of the glacier, were now being dashed over the
+hard face of the rock into minute fragments.
+
+The white stream could be seen to decrease perceptibly in size, from a
+broad sheet to a wide band, a narrow ribbon, a line, a hair and then
+disappear altogether. While the distant mountains were still growling,
+mumbling and playing shuttlecock with the echoes a timid chief hare went
+hopping across a green half-acre of grass at the damp edge of a melting
+snow patch in my path. Overhead a golden eagle sailed with a small
+mammal in its talons; strange reddish-colored bumblebees busied
+themselves in a bunch of flowers growing in a crevice in the rocks at my
+feet.
+
+But my eye could discern no larger creatures in this Alpine pasture
+land; not only could I see no sheep or goats, but not a sign of my
+friend. He had vanished from the face of the picture as completely as if
+the master artist had erased him with one mighty sweep of his paint
+brush.
+
+When I viewed the lonely landscape with no human being in sight, I
+confess to experiencing a creepy sensation and a strong inclination to
+flee, but I knew not in what direction to run. I was in a rough
+basin-shaped depression among the mountain peaks, and I sat on a large
+rock with my back to a black chasm. From my elevated position I could
+see a long distance. Strange fancies creep into one's head on such
+occasions and play havoc with previous well-founded beliefs. To me, poor
+fool of a tenderfoot, Big Pete had melted into the thinnest of thin air,
+such as is only found in high altitudes, and somehow I wondered whether
+the Wild Hunter had had anything to do with it.
+
+How could I tell that I myself was not invisible?
+
+I hauled myself up short there for I realized that such folly was not
+good to have tumbling around in my brain. I figuratively pulled myself
+back to earth, and to steady my nerves reached into my pack and brought
+out several hard bits of bannock that I had stored there. I was
+dreadfully hungry and I munched these with enthusiasm, meanwhile
+keeping a sharp eye out for Big Pete, and between times making the
+acquaintance of the little chief hare who, as he scuttled about among
+the rocks, looked me over curiously.
+
+A short distance to my left was a huge obsidian cliff, the glassy walls
+of which rose in a precipice to a considerable height. On account of its
+peculiar formation, this crag of natural glass had several times
+attracted my attention, and on any other occasion I would have been
+curious enough to give it closer inspection. Once, as I turned my head
+in that direction, I thought I heard a wild laugh and later concluded
+that it was only imagination on my part, but now, as I again faced the
+cliff, I unmistakably heard a shout and was considerably relieved to see
+silhouetted against the sky the figure of Big Pete.
+
+"Hello, Le-loo," he shouted. "Through chasin' that 'ere spook Indian kid
+be you? It's about time. Gosh-all-hemlocks! I been breakin' my neck
+tryin' to keep up with you, doggone yore hide," shouted the big guide as
+he started to climb down toward me.
+
+"Hello, Pete! You bet I'm through and I'm blamed near all in. Where are
+we, do you know?" I called to him.
+
+"Top o' the world, my boy. Top o' the world, that's whar we be," he said
+with a grin.
+
+I had seen no game since I had lost the bighorn, and the sunball was now
+hung low in the heavens. It appeared to me that there was every prospect
+for a supperless night, too. But Big Pete evidently had no such idea,
+and he "'lowed" that he would "mosey" 'round a bit and kill some
+varmints for grub.
+
+There seemed to be plenty of mountain lion signs, and I was surprised
+that they should frequent such high altitudes, but Pete told me that
+they were up here after marmots, and were all sleek and fat on that
+diet. I would not have been surprised if my wild comrade had proposed a
+feast on these cats. But it was not long before Pete's revolvers could
+be heard barking and in a short time he returned with two braces of
+white ptarmigan, each with its head shattered by a pistol ball, and I
+confess these birds were more to my liking than cat meat. Up there 'mid
+the snow fields the ptarmigan apparently kept their winter plumage all
+year round, and their natural camouflage made them utterly invisible to
+me, but to Pete, a white ptarmigan on a white snowfield seemed to be as
+easy to detect as if the same bird had been perched on a heap of coal. I
+had not seen one of these grouse since we had been in the mountains and
+was not aware of their presence until my companion returned with the
+four dead birds.
+
+Without wasting time, Pete began to prepare them for cooking. He soon
+built a fire of some sticks which he gleaned from one or two twisted and
+gnarled evergreens that had wandered above timber line and cooked the
+birds over the embers. He gave a brace to me, and sitting on a boulder
+with our feet hanging over the edge we ate our evening meal without salt
+or pepper, and then each of us curled up like a grey wolf under the
+shelter of a stone and slept as safely as if we were in our bed rolls
+down in the genial atmosphere of the park in place of being in the
+bitingly cold air of the bleak mountain tops.
+
+I, at least, slept soundly, and, thanks to the clothes Pete had so
+kindly made for me, I do not remember feeling cold. When I awoke again
+it was daylight and I could scarcely believe that I had been asleep more
+than five minutes since my friend bade me good-night. Big Pete was up
+before me, of course, and when I opened my eyes I found him cooking
+breakfast and making tea in a tin cup over those economical fires he so
+loved to build even when we were in the park where there was fuel enough
+for a roaring bonfire. It's queer how difficult it is to make water boil
+on a mountain top.
+
+"Well, now fer the witch-b'ar track agin," said Big Pete, wiping his
+mouth.
+
+"Witch-bear!" I exclaimed. "Oh--yes--you don't mean to tell me you kept
+following the track of that two-legged bear this far, Pete?" I
+exclaimed, suddenly recalling that we had started out following a
+mysterious moccasin trail that had later turned into bear tracks.
+
+"Sartin' sure. Didn't you figger out that that tha' b'ar war the Injun
+or tha' Wild Hunter who put on moccasins made o' b'ar feet when he
+thought we'd foller him?" asked Pete.
+
+"Yes, I did, but I forgot--maybe that ram was the Wild Hunter
+himself--blame it. Nothing will astonish me in this country."
+
+"Yes, you fergot everything, even yore head when you started to foller
+that tha' ram yesterday. But I didn't. I jest kept peggin' away at them
+tha' rumswattel b'ar tracks and I followed 'em right up to yonder cliff.
+They go on from tha', but I left 'em last night to come over by you.
+Come on, we'll pick 'em up agin." And off he started.
+
+It was soon evident that it was an exceedingly active bear which we were
+following for it could climb over green glacier ice like a Swiss guide
+and over rocks like a goat. It led us a wild, wild chase over crevasses,
+friable and treacherous stones covered with "verglass," over dangerous
+couloirs and all the other things talked of in the Alps but forgotten in
+the Rockies, to high elevations, where frozen snow combed over the
+beetling crags, and the avalanches roared and thundered down the rocks,
+dashing the fragments of stone over the lower ice fields. We were not
+roped together like mountain climbers in the Swiss or Tyrolean Alps; we
+got the real thrills by using our own hands and feet without ice pick,
+staff or hobnailed shoes.
+
+But Big Pete never hesitated and I followed him without a word, and when
+the trail led along the edge of a dizzy height I could look at the
+middle of Big Pete's broad back and then my head would not swim. It
+required quick and good judgment to tell just how much of a slant made a
+loose stone unsafe to step upon. It was exciting and exhilarating work,
+and the violent exercise kept me so warm that I carried most of my
+clothes in a bundle on my back. Presently our path led us into a goat
+trail, one of those century old paths made by shaggy white Alpine
+animals, and used by them as regular highways. There were plenty of
+fresh goat signs, and the broad path led us over a saddle mountain to
+the verge of a cliff, beyond which it seemed impossible for anything but
+birds to pursue the trail. Here we sat down to rest and to make a cup of
+tea over a tiny fire, although wood was plentiful at this place, it
+being in the timber line.
+
+Below us lay a valley, into which numerous small glaciers emptied their
+everlasting supply of ice and blocks of stone, and horse-tail falls
+poured from the melting snow fields. It might have presented enchanting
+prospects to an iceman or a bighorn, or a Rocky Mountain goat, but for
+two tired men it was a gloomy, dangerous and desolate place and I felt
+certain that even a witch-bear would not choose such a dangerous place
+as a camping ground. We had finished our tea and I was feeling somewhat
+refreshed when I noticed a peculiar stinging sensation about my face; I
+felt as if I had been attacked by some peculiar form of insect. But
+there were none in sight.
+
+Pete, at this time, was some distance away prospecting the "lay of the
+land." I saw him suddenly pull the cape of his wamus over his face, and
+reasoned that he also had been attacked by these invisible insects.
+
+To my surprise, the big fellow seemed very much alarmed, and every time
+I shouted to him it greatly excited him. As he was hurrying to me as
+rapidly as possible, I desisted from further inquiry. When Big Pete
+reached my side he pulled a handkerchief from around my neck and put it
+over my mouth, making signs which I did not comprehend. At last he put
+his muffled mouth to my ear and shouted through the cape of his wamus.
+"Shut yer meat-trap or you're food for the coyotes. It is the WHITE
+DEATH!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Clothes and stage trappings can neither add nor detract from our respect
+for death. He is the same grim old gentleman, be his mouldy bones naked,
+or clothed in robes of the most gaudy or brilliant hues. A blue death, a
+red death or a yellow death is just as grizzly and awe-inspiring as one
+of any shade of gray. Even a black death excites no emotions not touched
+by the first name, for it is the dread messenger himself whom we respect
+and not his fanciful robes of office.
+
+As far as I am personally concerned, I confess that Big Pete's painful
+suggestion about the coyotes had more to do with keeping my mouth shut
+than any terror inspired by the lily-like purity of the garments of the
+white death; what made my bones ache was the thought of the wolves
+gnawing them.
+
+Overhead the sun shone with an unusual brilliancy, and the atmosphere
+had that peculiar crystalline transparency which kills space and brings
+distant objects close to one's feet. Where then was the terrible white
+messenger? Why must my head be muffled like a mummy? Why must I keep my
+mouth shut, while the curiosity mill within me was working overtime
+grinding out questions I should dearly love to ask?
+
+Again and again I looked around me to see where this ghostly white
+terror might lurk, and now, as I gazed at the mountains, I was surprised
+and annoyed to discover that the distant peaks were gradually
+disappearing, being blotted out of the landscape before my eyes; a
+ghost-like mantle was creeping over and enshrouding the mountains.
+
+Like Big Pete, the witch-bear, the ptarmigan and the stinging insects,
+the mountains themselves had joined in the weird game and were donning
+their fernseed caps of invisibility. Now the air around and about me
+seemed to be filled with powdered dust of mica that glinted, sparkled
+and scintillated in the sunshine. The breeze which was tossing about the
+bright atoms loosened the handkerchief which swathed my nose and mouth,
+and I was seized with a violent fit of coughing.
+
+It was no gentle hand which Big Pete laid on my shoulder before he again
+bound the handkerchief around my face and motioned for me to follow him.
+
+Evidently my guide had been making good use of his time while I was
+engaged in idle speculation, for he led me to a point about fifty yards
+from the goat trail where there was a possible place to descend the
+cliff to a ledge fifty feet below. By this time I had become enough of a
+mountaineer to follow my guide over trails which a few weeks previous
+would have seemed to me impossible to traverse, and after a hasty and
+daring descent we reached the ledge, where I discovered the black mouth
+of a cavern; into this hole Pete thrust me and led me back some twenty
+yards into the darkness, ordered me to disrobe to the waist, then he
+began a most vigorous and irritating slapping and rubbing of my chest;
+so insistent and persevering was he that I really thought my skin would
+be peeled from shoulders to waist. At last he desisted and ordered me to
+put on all my clothes.
+
+"Are you mad, Pete? Has the rarefied air of the mountains upset your
+brain? If not, will you kindly tell me what on earth all this means and
+why we are hiding in this gloomy hole?" I asked as soon as I got the
+breath back in my body.
+
+"Le-loo, you be a baby, and need a keeper to prevent you from committing
+susancide several times a day. Tenderfoot? Well, I should say so. No one
+but a short-horn from the East would keep his mouth open gulping in the
+frozen fog, filling his warm lungs with quarts of fine ice. I reckon it
+would be healthier to breathe pounded glass, fur it hain't sharper nor
+half as cold. Why, Le-loo, tha' be a dose of fever and lung inflammation
+in every mouthful of this frozen fog."
+
+He held my face between his two strong hands so that the faint light
+that filtered through the murky darkness from the cavern's mouth dimly
+illuminated my countenance, and as he watched the streams of
+perspiration falling in drops from the end of my nose his frown relaxed
+and a broad grin spread over his handsome features.
+
+"You're all right this time," he added "I calculate that I've melted all
+the ice in your bellows, so just creep up tha' and sweat a bit more to
+make it slick and sartin that we've beat the White Death this trip." I
+did as he said, not because I wanted to sweat but because habit made me
+obey the commands of my guide.
+
+Evidently this cavern had been in constant use by some sort of animals
+as a sort of stable for many, many years, and I have had sweeter
+couches, but by this time my rough life had transformed me into
+something of a wild animal myself, and it was not long before I was
+comfortably dozing. During the time that I slept I was dimly conscious
+of being surrounded by a crowd of people; as the absurdity of this
+forced itself through my sleep-befuddled brain and I opened wide my
+eyes, what I saw made me open my eyes still wider.
+
+I was about to start to my feet when I felt Big Pete's restraining hand
+on my shoulder, and not until then did I realize that the cave was
+crowded with the shaggy white Rocky Mountain goats, and not weird,
+white-bearded old men. Few persons can truly say that they have been
+within arm's length of a flock of these timid and almost unapproachable
+animals; but we had invaded their secret place of refuge, and they had
+not, as yet, taken alarm at our presence in their castle. It may be that
+the frozen fog had driven the goats to the cavern for shelter, and it is
+possible that never having been hunted by man, these animals feared the
+White Death more than they did human beings, and did not realize the
+dangerous character of their present visitors; whatever the cause of
+their temerity, the fact remains that men and goats slept that night in
+the cavern together.
+
+I did not awake next morning until after the departure of the goats and
+opened my eyes to find myself alone in the cavern.
+
+Having all my clothes on, no time was wasted at my toilet, but I made my
+way directly to the doorway and was gratified to discover that Big Pete
+was roasting some kid chops over the hot embers of a fire.
+
+After breakfasting on the remains of the kid, Big Pete arose and scanned
+the sky, the horizon and the mountain tops, and turning to me said,
+"Now, Le-loo, that Wild Hunter-b'ar-wolf man has fooled us by doubling
+on his trail an' as it hain't him we're after now but the trail out of
+the mountains, I mean to go by sens-see-ation, but you must keep yer
+meat-trap shut and not speak, 'cause soon as I know I'm a man I hain't
+got no more sense than a man. I must say to myself, 'Now, Pete, you're a
+varmint and varmints know their way even in a new country.' Then I just
+sense things and trots along 'til I come out all right."
+
+I had often heard of this wonderful instinct of direction, the homing
+instinct of the pigeon, which some Indians, Africans, Australian black
+boys and a few white men still possess; I say still possess because it
+is evident that it was once our common heritage, a sort of sixth sense
+which has been lost by disuse. That Big Pete possessed this sixth sense
+I little doubted, and it was with absorbing interest that I watched the
+man work himself into the proper state of mind.
+
+For quite a time he stood sniffing the air and looking around him while
+his body swayed with a slow motion. Then suddenly, as if he had seen
+something or as if answering the call of something, he started off
+almost at right angles to our trail, acting very much like a hound on an
+old scent, but keeping up a pace that tried my endurance.
+
+It was truly wonderful the way this man, in a trance-like state, was
+guided by an invisible power over the most dangerous ground, but no one,
+after a careful survey, could have selected a better trail than that
+chosen by Big Pete. On and on we went, scrambling over rock-skirting
+precipices and crumbling ledges. A dense fog settled around us, making
+each step hazardous, but with an instinct as true and apparently
+identical with that of our four-footed brothers, my guide kept the same
+rapid pace for hours, and then, all of a sudden, came to an abrupt stop.
+
+For several seconds he stood in his tracks, his body keeping the same
+swaying motion, but after a short while he crept cautiously forward in
+the fog, with me at his heels, and we found ourselves at the edge of a
+giant fault, similar to the one in Darlinkel Park, but there was
+apparently no pass to let us down the towering precipices to the valley
+below.
+
+"Well, that was a wonderful trip," I cried.
+
+"Shut up!" shouted Pete savagely, but I had spoken and the spell was
+broken; reason, not instinct, must now lead us.
+
+Vapor and clouds concealed the low grounds from our view; however, we
+were determined not to spend another night in the mountains, so while I
+rested and regained my breath, Big Pete went on to explore the ledges.
+
+Presently my guide hove in sight and motioned me to follow him; he led
+me to a place where another goat trail went over the edge of the
+precipice, this time not in ten and fifteen feet jumps, but by a steep
+diagonal path. Down the treacherous trail we slipped and slid with a
+wall of rocks on one side and death in the form of a bluish white space
+on the other side.
+
+As we were clambering carefully around the face of a big rock Pete
+suddenly whispered that he smelt a "Painter," and upon peering around
+the corner we found ourselves face to face with a large cat; the animal
+was crouching upon a flat-topped projecting stone immediately in our
+path. That it was not the puma of the low-lands, its reddish-colored
+coat and great size proclaimed. It was a so-called mountain lion and a
+grand specimen of its kind.
+
+The cat's small head lay between its muscular forepaws, its hair adhered
+closely to its body, its long tail was full and round and waved slowly
+from side to side, while its eyes gleamed like electric sparks.
+
+We were in a most awkward position; our guns were swung by straps over
+our backs, so that we might use our hands, and we were clinging to the
+face of the big rock while our toes were seeking foothold in the
+treacherous shale of the trail. To loosen our hands was to fall
+backwards into the bluish white sea of unknown depths, and to retrace
+our steps was out of the question.
+
+Pete often expressed the opinion that no predaceous creature, from a
+spider up to a cougar, will attack its prey while the latter is
+immovable.
+
+As a corollary to this proposition he said that when a person is
+suddenly confronted by a dangerous wild beast, the safest plan to pursue
+is to remain perfectly quiet, or, as he quaintly put it, "to peetrify
+yourself in the wink of an eye."
+
+Truth to tell, on this occasion I found no difficulty in following his
+directions. I was "peetrified" by fear; my feet were cold and numb,
+chills in wavelets washed up and down my spine, a sudden rash seemed to
+be breaking out all over my body and the skin on my back felt as if it
+had been converted into goose-flesh.
+
+Had we been able to travel a few feet further we would have both found a
+comparatively safe footing and had our arms free and a fighting chance
+with the big catamount in place of hanging suspended to the face of the
+rock like two big, helpless, terrified bats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+With an imperceptible movement, as steady and almost as slow as that of
+a glacier, my guide twisted his neck until his face was turned from the
+puma and the side of the mouth pressed against the flat surface of his
+rock. I was crowded up against Big Pete, who occupied a position but
+slightly in advance and a little above me. My agony of fear having
+somewhat subsided I ventured to steal a momentary glance at my comrade's
+face. To my unutterable surprise I discovered a whimsical twinkling at
+the corners of his eyes and a mirthful expression of mischief in his
+countenance. This was incomprehensible to me, for I could imagine no
+more awe-inspiring position than the one we then occupied.
+
+While my thoughts were still busy trying to fathom the cause of Pete's
+untimely mirth, the long-drawn howl of the big timber wolf floated over
+the valley and sent a new lot of shivers down my back. It was the
+rallying call used by the wolves to call the band together when game is
+in sight. The sound increased in volume until it reverberated among the
+crags like the voice of a winter's storm, and then it gradually died
+away. Big Pete was not only a good mimic but he proved himself to be a
+ventriloquist of no mean ability; by the help of the rock against which
+his cheek was pressed he had been able to throw his voice off into space
+in such a manner that it baffled me for several moments.
+
+The gray wolves are old and inveterate enemies of the panther or cougar,
+hunting the cats on all occasions. Consequently all panthers know the
+meaning of that wild lonesome howl, the assembling call, as well as the
+oldest wolf in the pack, and its effect upon the lion in our path was
+instantaneous. The hair, which had a moment before been as slick as if
+it were oiled, now rose upright until the fuzzy hide gave the animal's
+body the appearance of being twice its original size.
+
+Scarcely had the big cat vacated the path before we scrambled to the
+firm foothold and I breathed a great sigh of relief when it was reached.
+But Big Pete was convulsed with suppressed laughter at the practical
+joke he had played on the mountain lion.
+
+"Gosh darn my magnolia breath! That painter went as if he had a ball of
+hot rorrum tied to his tail," cried my guide.
+
+It was difficult for me to realize that it was Big Pete himself who had
+given vent to that shuddering howl, and now the danger was over I
+pleaded with him to give another exhibition of his skill in wolf calls.
+
+The good-natured fellow at first seemed reluctant to repeat his
+performance, but at length consented and put his hands to his mouth,
+forming a trumpet, then bent forward his body, stooping so low that his
+face was was below his waist, after which he began again that wild cry
+which so closely resembles in sentiment and tone the shriek of the wind.
+As the sound increased in volume the man waved his head from side to
+side; continuing the movement he gradually assumed an upright pose, and
+ended by making a low obeisance as the sound died away.
+
+The imitation was perfect and I was expressing my delight and
+appreciation when my ear caught a distant sound which put a sudden stop
+to our conversation.
+
+Was it the wind which I now heard? No! there was not a breath of air
+stirring, neither was it an echo. There could be no doubt about it, the
+long-drawn sepulchral howl which filled and permeated the shivering air
+was an answering cry to Big Pete's call.
+
+Scarcely had the sound waves faded away when in the mysterious distance
+came another and another answer, until it seemed as if a troop of lost
+souls were vocalizing their misery. I unslung my gun and loosened my
+revolvers in their fringed holsters, but Big Pete only shrugged his
+shoulders and said,
+
+"Come, let's be moseying. 'Taint nothin' but wolves." A fact of which I
+was as well aware of as Pete, but I, tenderfoot that I was, could not
+treat howling of wolves with the same unconcern as did my guide.
+
+We soon reached a point where the goat trail turned again up the
+mountain and we forsook that ancient path for a diagonal fracture very
+similar to the one by which we had ascended, which led down the face of
+the precipice "slantendicularwise," Big Pete said, and soon plunged into
+the bluish gray sea which filled the valley. We were now enveloped in a
+dense fog, which added materially to the dangers of the journey. I had
+had so many thrills in the last few moments that my nerves were becoming
+dull and failed to vibrate on this occasion, so that descending the
+cliff in a fog by a diagonal fracture in the rock became only an
+incident of our journey; this trail, however, was wider than the one by
+which we ascended.
+
+The Rocky Mountains are full of new sensations and I got a new one when
+I discovered that the fog through which we had been traveling was in
+reality a cloud, and, all unexpectedly, we emerged into the clear mellow
+light below the floating vapor. It was an enchanting scene which met our
+eyes; below us stretched a beautiful valley.
+
+For the first time in months I saw a human habitation. The blue smoke
+from the chimney ascended slowly in a tall column and then floated
+horizontally in stratified layers. There were fields of ripe grain,
+orchards, groves, pasture lands and a winding stream fringed with
+poplars, which flowed in a tortuous course across the valley. As I
+feasted my eyes on the peaceful scene a great longing took possession of
+my soul.
+
+Big Pete, too, was lost in thought, conjured up by the scene below us.
+He stood leaning on his rifle with his eyes fixed on the enchanting
+picture; so full of unconscious dignity was his pose, so immovable stood
+the mountain man that he looked like a grand statue done by a master
+hand.
+
+But what thoughts were conjured up in the guide's brain by the
+unexpected sight of this ranch could not be interpreted from the
+expression of his countenance, for that showed no more trace of emotion
+than an American Indian at the torture stake, or the marble face of a
+Greek god. Presently he shifted his pose, threw back his head, and Big
+Pete's eyes were fixed on the valley in front of us, as with distended
+nostrils he sniffed the mountain air, his brows contracted to a frown,
+his eyes lost their gentle angelic look and seemed to change from China
+blue to a cold steel color, and his tightly closed mouth had a stern
+expression about the corners which appeared altogether out of keeping
+with the occasion.
+
+"Rot my hide!" he exclaimed, "if I hain't had a neighbor all these years
+and never knowed it. Waugh! Some emigrant--terrification seize him!--has
+found another park an' squatted, t'ain't more'n eight miles as a crow
+flies from mine, nuther, Le-loo." He looked at the sun and muttered.
+"Hang me, but 'tis t'other end of my own park," then he paused a moment
+and added fiercely, "if these geysers know when they are well off,
+they'll steer shy of Darlinkel Park. If I catch 'em scoutin' 'round my
+claim, I'll send 'em a-hoppin'."
+
+"Bless me, you are neighborly," exclaimed a voice in smooth, even tones.
+
+"What!" said Pete, looking sternly at me. "Did you speak?"
+
+"I said nothing," I replied.
+
+Big Pete's countenance changed and he ran his hands over the cartridges
+in his belt in the old familiar manner, and with a motion quicker than I
+can describe it, whipped out his revolvers and wheeled about face, at
+the same time snapping out the words, "Throw up your hands!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+We were standing on the surface of a flat table-rock, which jutted out
+from the face of the towering cliff and overhung the valley that was
+spread out like a map beneath us. About twenty feet back from the edge
+of the rock was a pile of debris heaped up against the face of the
+cliff; but the remaining surface of the stone was clean bare and
+weather-beaten. The talus against the cliff was composed of loose
+fragments of stone and other products of wash and erosion. This was
+overgrown with a thicket of stunted shrubs, wry-necked goblin thistles
+and murderous devil's clubs. These bludgeon-shaped plants, thickly
+covered with sharp thorns, reared aloft their weapons as if in menace to
+all living things; the unstable ground and thorny thicket formed the
+only shelter where we could be ambushed in the rear, and it was not a
+likely spot to be chosen for such a purpose by man or beast.
+
+When Big Pete wheeled about face with his trusty revolvers in hand, I
+quickly followed his example, and our mutual surprise may be imagined
+when we found ourselves gazing in the faces of a semicircle of gigantic
+wolves. The animals were squatting on their haunches at the foot of the
+talus, their wicked slant eyes fixed upon us and their red tongues
+lolling out from their cavernous mouths.
+
+I cannot tell why, whether it was the state of my nerves or the effect
+of the rare air of the high altitude, or what, but I felt no fear at
+facing this strange wolf pack. Indeed, to me they appeared all to be
+laughing and their red tongues lolled from their open mouths in a very
+humorous fashion.
+
+The whole scene appeared to me to be exceedingly funny and, in a spirit
+of utter reckless bravado, I doffed my fur cap, with exaggerated
+politeness made a low bow, and, addressing the largest and most
+devilish-looking wolf in the pack, exclaimed,
+
+"Ah! this is Monsieur Loup-Garou, I believe. Pardon me, Monsieur, but
+did you speak a moment since?"
+
+But Big Pete Darlinkel looked at the wolves, and great beads of sweat
+stood on his forehead. It was his turn to have the shivers. There was no
+more color in his face than in a peeled turnip. His gun shook in his
+left hand like a aspen, while the spangled gun in his right hand dropped
+its muzzle towards earth and there was scarcely strength enough in his
+nerveless fingers to have pulled a hair-trigger.
+
+Pete's great baby-blue eyes turned helplessly to me; but it was now my
+innings, and with a cheery voice I cried,
+
+"Why, Pete, old fellow, what ails you?" Then meanly quoting his own
+words, I added, "They hain't nothing but wolves!"
+
+There is not a shadow of a doubt that Pete expected the wolves to answer
+me with human voice, and I am willing to confess that, even to me,
+there seemed to be no other alternative for the slant-eyed bandits to
+pursue. But for the present they appeared to prefer to maintain a solemn
+silence.
+
+The middle wolf had been looking intently at us for some time before a
+well-modulated voice said,
+
+"I have answered your call, gentlemen; how can I serve you?"
+
+I was more than half expecting some such answer, but if it had not been
+so evident that Big Pete was badly frightened and had lost all his
+self-possession, I should have thought he was again practising his art
+as ventriloquist.
+
+Of course I deceived myself. The wolves had no more power of speech than
+a house-dog. But I really thought the wolves were doing the talking
+until I caught sight of a tall man of handsome and distinguished
+appearance seated among the weird goblin-thistles just above the wolves.
+The stranger appeared to be a man of almost any age; he might be young
+but, if old, he was wonderfully well preserved. He was clad in a
+light-colored buckskin suit of clothes, edged and trimmed with fur, a
+fur cap on his head and moccasins on his feet. And I noticed, with a
+start, that he had that same red porcupine quill ornament on his hunting
+shirt that the young Indian wore.
+
+When I saw how his dress blended perfectly with his surroundings I
+excused myself for not sooner detecting him. I could not help but admire
+his easy grace and the sense of reserved strength in his strong figure.
+The calmness and repose forcibly reminded me of the mountain lion we had
+lately encountered.
+
+"You kin hackle me and card my sinews, if it hain't the Wild Hunter
+himself an' his pack," said Big Pete under his breath.
+
+The color now began to return to his face and at the recollection of his
+late rude words the big fellow blushed like a school girl. Gradually he
+recovered his self-possession, and, doffing his cap, made a low bow as
+graceful and as courtly as that of any polished courtier. This was an
+entirely new side to my friend's character and I listened with interest
+when he said,
+
+"Sir, whether you be loup-garou, werwolf, witch-b'ar or all them to
+onct, I do not care. What I want ter say is ef that tha' ranch yander be
+your'n, you may hamstring me ef I hain't proud to have such a man for a
+neighbor. Whatever else you be yore no shavetail or shorthorn, an'
+that's howsomever. I don't mind sayin' that yore a better shot an' all
+around hunter an' mountain man than Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Davy
+Crockett, Kit Carson, Bison McClean and Jim Baker all rolled in one.
+Yore the slickest woodsman on the divide. I'm powerful proud of you as a
+neighbor and would be still prouder ef I might call you my friend."
+
+Our strange visitor displayed a beautiful white set of teeth as a frank
+smile played over his smooth face. But his only answer at that moment
+was an inclination of his head and a muttered command to the wolves,
+which they instantly obeyed by silently disappearing in the underbrush.
+
+After a pause the tall stranger came forward, and, removing his own cap,
+made a bow even more courtly than that of Big Pete, as he thus replied:
+"Sir, I feel highly honored at this flattering expression of
+commendation. I can honestly say that it is the greatest compliment I
+have ever received from a stranger, and," he added with another winning
+smile, "you are the first stranger with whom I have held converse in
+nearly twenty years. That I am not unfriendly I have already proved by
+some trifling services, but the honor of the acquaintance is mine."
+
+After the formalities of our meeting were over the stranger stood for a
+few moments with his chin resting on his breast. He was evidently
+thinking over some serious subject. His head was bare, his fur cap being
+in his hands, and his hands locked behind his back. A mass of light
+colored hair fell over his forehead and shoulders.
+
+Presently he looked at us again, with that same grave smile on his face,
+and said that if we would consent to be blindfolded and trust ourselves
+implicitly to his care, he would be glad to take us to his home and
+would feel honored if we should choose to visit him.
+
+"You can proceed no further on this trail for it ends here, and not even
+a goat can go beyond the rock on which we stand, therefore we must
+retrace our steps a few hundred yards," he explained, as he apologized
+for his strange proposition. He securely bandaged our eyes with our own
+handkerchiefs, and after turning us around until I at least had lost all
+sense of direction, he placed thongs in our hands, and then we
+discovered that we were to be led by some sort of animals, presumably
+wolves. Whatever else they were, they proved to be careful and sagacious
+leaders.
+
+After a short distance of rough climbing where we constantly needed the
+personal help of our mysterious host, we began to descend and soon our
+feet told us that we were traveling on a comparatively smooth though
+steep trail. Now and again our guide would speak to warn us of stones or
+other obstructions in our path, but, with the exception of these
+necessary words of caution and brief words expressing approval or
+reproof to the animals, we made the journey in silence and in due time
+reached the bottom, and our feet told us that we were walking on a level
+shale-covered path.
+
+At this point the creatures leading us were dismissed and we could hear
+them scrambling back over the trail. We heard the bleating of sheep, the
+lowing of cattle and all the multiplicity of noises so familiar on a
+well-stocked farm, and we could easily detect the different odors as
+familiar and characteristic as the noises. We enjoyed to its fullest
+extent the novelty of the homely sensations aroused by the smell of
+new-mown hay and the familiar medley of sounds peculiar to the farm.
+
+In due time we found ourselves at the foot of a couple of wooden steps,
+which we ascended, and, crossing a broad veranda, entered a doorway.
+Here we stood awaiting further commands in utter ignorance of our
+surroundings. Of course, we surmised we were in the ranch house which we
+saw from the table rock, but this was only a surmise.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the strange old man, "you are welcome to my home, and
+allow me to add that you are the only white men who have ever crossed
+the threshold of this house."
+
+As he ceased speaking he removed the bandages from our eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+It was a strange place, indeed, in which I found myself. Our eyes were
+unbandaged after we entered the portal of the ranch house, and when Big
+Pete and I turned toward our guide, we were facing in a direction that
+gave us a sweeping view of the entire ranch. And what we saw made us
+marvel.
+
+This farm, between the towering, almost insurmountable mountains, had
+evidently been wrenched from what two decades before had been as much of
+a wilderness as the Darlinkel Park across the divide. Timber clothed the
+mountains on either hand but the fertile valley bottom was as rural as a
+district of the middle west. On one hand stretched acres and acres of
+ripened grain. Beyond was pasture land dotted with strange whitefaced
+animals, which later proved to be hybrid buffalos, a strange cross
+between wild and domestic cattle.[3] In other pastures and on the
+hillsides I could see goats and sheep, and these too were evidently a
+cross breed of wild and domestic stock, the goats having a very strange
+resemblance to the fleet-footed shaggy old fellows we had seen on the
+mountains, while the sheep closely resembled usual domestic sheep.
+
+  [Footnote 3: Since that time the late Buffalo Jones has bred
+  buffalo and domestic cattle and called the offspring "catelow."]
+
+There were stables, too, and corrals, all made of logs, as was the ranch
+house, but what seemed very strange to me was the fact that there were
+no horses in sight. All of the animals at work in the fields were those
+strange hybrid buffalo-oxen, all save one, a single, lame and apparently
+almost blind burro that I saw lying in the sun. From his grayness about
+the head I had little doubt that he was of great age.
+
+There were hordes of strange poultry too,--strange to me at least, for
+never had I expected to find flocking together wild turkeys, Canadian
+geese, black ducks, wood ducks, and mallards (all with wings clipped so
+that they never again could fly), sage hens, quail, spruce-grouse,
+partridge, ptarmigan and western mountain quail. All seemed perfectly at
+home and comfortably domesticated.
+
+Beyond the poultry houses was still another outhouse, a long, low, log
+building before which was a lawn. On the lawn were all manner of perches
+and roosts and on these, sunning themselves and preening their feathers,
+were several types of predaceous birds, ranging from huge and powerful
+female eagles to smaller hawks and true falcons. This evidently was the
+Wild Hunter's falconry.
+
+Another thing that made an instant impression upon me was the number of
+men at work about the place. The workmen were all, without an exception,
+Indians, and as they moved about silently, their stoic, almost
+expressionless faces held a decided look of contentment, a few of them
+turned toward the porch with a frank, honest stare. There was no
+evidence of fear or restraint in their actions but they always gave the
+wolf dogs plenty of room as they passed them. These black beasts were
+ugly, snarling things that showed no love for anyone; on the least
+provocation menacing growls rumbled in their throats.
+
+What manner of place was this that we had permitted ourselves to be led
+into? Indeed, what manner of man was this strange host of ours? I shot a
+sidelong glance at him and it seemed to me as if I caught a strange,
+hunted look in his eyes, and a sad smile on his handsome but grim
+countenance. A slight feeling of fear crept into my heart. Could this
+strange man be my father? For some reason he certainly did attract me
+and excite my sympathy, yet I stood in awe of him. The strangeness of my
+surroundings, too, settled upon me. I turned toward Pete and I had a
+premonition of evil. I could see that he too was affected the same way.
+The valley was an earthly paradise, the Wild Hunter a kindly gentleman,
+what then was it that gave me an uncomfortable and uneasy feeling? I
+was eager to be alone with Pete for I knew that he would have some
+interesting observations to make.
+
+"I am disappointed, gentlemen, you say nothing. Isn't my ranch
+interesting to you?" demanded the Wild Hunter, with a smile. In a low
+smooth voice he gave some orders to a young Indian who was walking
+toward the stables. The Indian instantly snapped into action and hurried
+away as if one of the black wolf dogs were snapping at his heels, and I
+felt certain that it was the youth whom we had been trailing.
+
+A hurried and very unpleasant thought flashed through my mind: What was
+the source of the power the Wild Hunter held over these Indians? They
+were not slaves in this mountain-surrounded prison; this grim, forceful
+but kindly wild man did not hold them through fear. He always smiled
+when he greeted them, but he never smiled at his wolves; when giving
+them orders or even looking at them, the expression of his face was
+stern and almost fierce. But the man had asked a question. He was
+expecting an answer.
+
+"It is a wonderful place," I managed to stammer; "who could conceive of
+such a remarkable ranch buried here in the heart of the wilderness?"
+
+"It's a ring-tailed snorter, hamstring me if it hain't," said Big Pete
+in an attempt to be enthusiastic.
+
+The man's face glowed with pleasure.
+
+"You are the first white men to see it. I think I have achieved
+something here in the wilds, thanks a great deal to Pluto and his
+strain."
+
+"Eh, what?" exclaimed Big Pete in alarm.
+
+"To--to--whom," I gasped, for to have the man actually confess an
+alliance with Satan rather startled me also.
+
+The Wild Hunter chuckled in an amused manner.
+
+"Thanks to Pluto, I said. But Pluto is that black wolf-dog over there,
+nevertheless. I think that the name 'Pluto' fits his character to a
+nicety."
+
+He pointed to the massive, deep-chested, long-haired, long-limbed,
+vicious looking leader of his black wolf pack where it was chained to a
+post. The great animal glared at his master when his name was mentioned.
+He crouched twenty feet away with his slanting green eyes fixed
+constantly on his master's face and in them ever flared a fierce, wicked
+fire.
+
+"Yes, you son of Satan, you and your hybrid whelps have helped me do all
+this in spite of the fact that you hate me, and would love to tear me
+limb from limb. You splendid, ugly brute, you are insensible to
+kindness!"
+
+I noticed that whenever he looked the wolf in the face his own
+countenance became grim and his eyes exceedingly fierce and not unlike
+the wolf itself in expression.
+
+[Illustration: "I think the name 'Pluto' fits his character to a
+nicety"]
+
+"He hates me," he continued, turning to us, "because of his ancestors.
+In him is the blood of a Great Dane noted for its strength, size and
+ferocity, a fierce brute which I brought over the mountains with me many
+years ago. Pluto's mother was a pure black wolf of a mean disposition,
+and his father the half-breed son of a Great Dane and a she-wolf. He is
+the fiercest and most bloodthirsty beast in the whole pack, he hates me
+with the intense hatred of his wolfish nature, he hates me because he
+knows that I am the master of the pack, the real leader, and he is
+jealous. Since his puppy days he has watched for a chance to kill me;
+twice he nearly succeeded--the time will no doubt come when it will be
+his life or mine. Yet because of his wonderful strength, endurance and
+sagacity, I could almost love him.
+
+"His breed does not want to recognize any master. But _I am_ his
+master!" cried the Wild Hunter as his eyes flashed and he struck himself
+on his chest, "and he knows it. The only way, however, that I keep my
+power over him and his pack is by forcing myself to think every time I
+speak to them, now I am going to _kill you_, and brutes though they are
+they can read my mind and fear me. Besides which self-interest helps a
+little towards their loyalty. With me for a leader there is always a
+kill at the end of the hunt, and they know that they come in for a share
+of the food.
+
+"Sometimes I fear the wolves will break loose and attack my Indians,
+which I would very much regret, for the Redmen are faithful fellows and
+we form a happy community. The Indians look upon me as Big Medicine
+because I can control these medicine wolves."
+
+Big Pete looked at the man with open admiration, a man who by the sheer
+power of his will could control a band of wolves, any one of which was
+powerful enough to kill an ox, certainly was a man to please the wild
+nature of Big Pete. "But," said Pete, "you say Pluto has helped you.
+How?" he asked.
+
+"How," exclaimed the Wild Hunter, "why, gentlemen, by governing the pack
+as savage as himself. The pack is the secret of my whole success; my
+power over them first won the allegiance of the Indians, won their
+admiration and their respect. They know that I could turn those wolves
+upon them at any moment, but they also know that I would not think of
+doing such an act and they are human and love me; the wolves are brutes
+and not susceptible to kindness. The wolves hate the Redmen as they hate
+me, but they supplied us all with food, they secured for us our winter
+meat while the men worked to build houses and clear the land, and thus
+made it possible for us to start this settlement. They even acted as
+pack animals for us, each of them carrying as much as seventy pounds in
+weight on their backs. But be on your guard, gentlemen, be on your
+guard! Remember that you are strangers to the wolves and they will not
+hesitate, if the opportunity offers, to rend you and even devour you."
+
+A moment later his expression changed.
+
+"Enough of this," he exclaimed in pleasanter tones, "come, dinner is
+served," and turning, he led the way through the broad doorway of the
+log ranch house into an almost sumptuously furnished dining room where
+two silent, soft-footed Indians began immediately to serve a truly
+remarkable meal.
+
+"He may be lo-coed," whispered Pete to me as we took our places at the
+table, "but I'll tell the folks, he is a master looney alright. He knows
+how to make Injuns love him and varmints fear him, he kin pack all his
+duffle in my bag, he need not cough up eny money when he's with me.
+Reckon we be alright here, but waugh! we've gotter watch tha' black wolf
+pack!--yes and also that young Indian whose ram you shot; it seems he
+looks after the wolves and sees to it that they are fastened up in their
+corral. I wouldn't want him to be sort of careless, you know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+What a dining room that was! All of logs, high ceilinged, with smoked
+rafters stained like an old meerschaum pipe. It reminded me of a wealthy
+man's hunting lodge in Maine, perhaps, rather than the abode of a wild
+man. There was a huge yawning fireplace at one end, above which was the
+finest specimen of an elk's head I have ever seen. There were other
+heads, too, prong-horned antelope, beautiful bison heads, remarkable
+specimens of bighorn sheep and mountain goats, there were buffalo robes
+and wolf robes strewn over the floor, and there were abundant well
+stocked gun cases on every hand.
+
+But conspicuous among the collection of firearms was one, kept apart,
+polished and cleaned, and on a rack made of elk horns handily placed
+just above the big mantle. It was beautifully though not elaborately
+made, with a fine damascus barrel of tremendous length, a lock and set
+trigger that showed expert handicraft, and stock of beautifully polished
+birds-eye maple. An expert would have known immediately that it was a
+first-water product of an expert gunsmith.
+
+Big Pete noticed it as soon as I did and he could not keep his eyes from
+roving to it occasionally during the meal.
+
+"You may scalp me, stranger, fer sayin' it, but I'd like mightily well
+to heft that tha' shooting iron o' your'n and examine it when we git
+through with chuck," he said.
+
+Our strange host looked up at the rifle, then searchingly at Big Pete.
+
+"I don't mind showing it to you, but you must not touch it," he said
+finally.
+
+"I reckon I wouldn't hurt it none. I've handled guns before," said Big
+Pete shortly, and I could see that he was piqued at the man's attitude.
+
+"Guess you wouldn't, but I've made it a rule never to let strange hands
+touch that rifle," said the strange man, and there was a grimness about
+his tone that forbade quibbling.
+
+"Huh, well I can't say as perhaps yore not right about yore shootin'
+hardware at that," said Pete. Then after glancing at it again, he added,
+"a hunter's gun and a woodsman's ax should never be trusted in strange
+hands. Bet a ten spot it's a Patrick Mullen. Hain't it?"
+
+The name of my kinsman, the famous gunsmith, brought a sudden
+realization that Mullen was my own family name.
+
+The mention of the gunsmith seemed also to have a curious effect on the
+old man. His face grew red under the tan and his brow wrinkled and I
+could see his cold blue eyes scrutinizing Big Pete closely. Finally he
+said bluntly,
+
+"It is, and it's worth a thousand dollars."
+
+"A thousand dollars!" I exclaimed, "a thousand dollars?"
+
+"Yes," cried the old man almost fiercely, "yes, yes, and it is my gun.
+He gave it to me, he did--to me and not to Donald. He--"
+
+He stood up suddenly as if he intended to stride over and seize the gun,
+to protect it from us but as quickly sat down again and buried his face
+in his hands, and I could see him biting his lips as if he were
+attempting to control his feeling.
+
+As for me, quite suddenly a great light seemed to dawn. This strange old
+man was mentioning names that were familiar--that meant worlds to me. I
+leaned toward him eagerly. Big Pete stood quietly listening, a silent
+but interested spectator.
+
+"Did you know Donald Mullen, a brother to the famous gunsmith? Tell me,
+did you know him? I have come all the way--"
+
+I stopped in wonder. Never in all my life do I ever expect to witness
+such a pitiful expression of anguish pictured so vividly on the human
+countenance as it was on the face of the Wild Hunter.
+
+"What," he whispered, "did you know him?"
+
+"He was my father," I answered simply.
+
+For a moment the Wild Hunter looked at me intently, then said, "I
+believe you, you favor him somewhat." He then came forward as if to
+shake my hand, but changed his mind and sat down with a forced and wan
+smile.
+
+"Did I know Don Mullen? Did I? He was my partner, my bunkee for many
+years and on many prospecting trips, a better bunkee no man ever had,
+but he is dead now, dead! dead! dead! been dead for a dozen years. He
+was killed by an avalanche. A better partner no man ever had," he
+murmured and relaxed into silence.
+
+My efforts to get more information of my parents were of no avail. The
+Wild Hunter turned the conversation in other directions.
+
+Of course, the knowledge that my real father was dead, had been dead a
+long time, caused me a feeling of sadness, yet strangely enough the
+little knowledge that I had gleaned from this strange old man brought a
+sense of relief to me. I think that it must have been a certain sense
+of satisfaction to know that this queer man was not my father.
+
+But if he was not Donald Mullen, who was he? That question kept me
+pondering and for the rest of the meal I was silent, speculating on this
+strange situation, nor did I have an opportunity to note, as Big Pete
+did, the tearful, kindly glances that the Wild Hunter shot at me now and
+then.
+
+Still, for all, he was sociable, extremely sociable, and talkative, too,
+but I fancy now as I recall it, he was simply keeping the conversation
+in safe channels, for it was very apparent that the rifle and his former
+mining partner were painful subjects.
+
+Dinner over, we all went out onto the porch of the ranch house, where we
+talked while the twilight lasted. At least Big Pete and the Wild Hunter
+talked as they smoked two of those mysterious long cigars, but I was
+still silent because of the many strange thoughts that were romping
+through my mind.
+
+Soon darkness settled down and Big Pete began to yawn. I also was
+heavy-eyed, and presently the Wild Hunter clapped his hands and summoned
+a leather-skinned old Indian to whom he gave brief low command in the
+Mewan Indian tongue, as I was afterwards informed by Big Pete, then
+turning to us he said in his fascinating soft voice:
+
+"It will probably be a novelty for both of you gentlemen to again sleep
+in a bed between sheets and under a roof. I doubt whether you will enjoy
+it even though the sheets are clean linen which were spun and woven by
+my noble Indians. Moose Ear, here, will conduct you to your rooms and I
+will take a turn about the place before retiring to see that all is
+well, and also to see that my black wolf pack is securely confined
+within the wolf corral. This is a precaution, gentlemen, which I take
+every night, because a wolf is a wolf no matter how well trained he may
+be upon the surface, and night is the time wolves delight to run. These
+beasts are especially dangerous to strangers and it is for that reason I
+am putting you in the house in place of allowing you to camp outdoors,
+as I know you would prefer to do. Good-night, gentlemen, see that the
+doors are closed. Pleasant dreams."
+
+As we said good-night to him I wondered vaguely if the wolf pen was
+securely built, for it seemed to me that I detected a suggestion of
+doubt in the mind of the Wild Hunter himself. I little realized,
+however, the horrors the darkness had in store for us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Moose Ear, the silent, wrinkled old Indian, with lighted candles made of
+buffalo tallow, guided Big Pete and me up the broad skilfully built
+puncheon stairway to the upper story of the surprisingly large ranch
+house, where he showed us to our rooms, rooms which were a joy to look
+upon. Each was furnished with a heavy, hand-made four-posted bedstead,
+which in spite of the massiveness was beautifully made, and I wondered
+at the patience of the Wild Hunter in teaching the Indians their
+craftmanship.
+
+The other furniture in the room was also hand wrought, as were the fiber
+rugs on the floor and the checked homespun blankets on the beds. There
+was a harmonious and pleasing effect; the rooms were cheerful, abounding
+in evidences of Indian handicraft. Beadwork and embroidery of dyed
+porcupine quills were prevalent, even the tester which roofed the
+four-post bedstead was ornamented with fringes of buckskin and designs
+made of beads and porcupine quills. The chairs and floors were
+plentifully supplied with fur rugs, and the quaint, old-fashioned
+appearance of the room in nowise detracted from its comfort or even
+luxury.
+
+If it had not been for the uncomfortable thought of that pack of black
+wolves outside, I am sure I would have been supremely happy at the
+prospect of once more spending a night between clean and cool sheets and
+a real feather pillow on which to rest my head. Eagerly and almost
+excitedly I threw off my clothes and donned the long, linen nightshirt
+with which old Moose Ear had provided me. Then I put the buckhorn
+extinguisher over the candle and dove into the feather bed as gleefully
+as a child on Christmas Eve.
+
+I expected to immediately fall asleep, but there is where I made a
+mistake; my mind would not cease working, the wheels in my head kept
+buzzing and would not stop. I was as wide awake as a codfish; the bed
+was comfortable, too comfortable, but tired though I was I felt no
+inclination to sleep. I thought it was the strangeness of my
+surroundings which kept me tossing from side to side, but I soon
+realized that the trouble was to be found in the fact that for months I
+had only had the sky for my roof, never using our tents or open faced
+shack except in bad weather; but here, the ornamented tester of the bed
+and the ceiling itself seemed to be resting on my chest; in spite of the
+wide open windows the room seemed stuffy and oppressive. I felt as if I
+would suffocate.
+
+Twice I got up and sat by the open window and gazed out at the black
+landscape. The sky was cloudy and there were no stars; this combined
+with the pine trees about the ranch house made the darkness so black and
+thick that it seemed as if one might cut it in chunks, with a knife. The
+air felt good to breathe but I did not propose to sit by the window all
+night so at last I arose, put moccasins on my feet and, taking my
+blankets with me, stole stealthily down the stairs, opened the front
+door and made my bed on the floor of the broad piazza. I had not
+forgotten the warning to keep indoors, but I thought I would rather risk
+the wolves than to smother all night.
+
+In the darkness I discovered another occupant of the piazza also rolled
+up in a blanket taken from a bed in the house. Feeling with my hands I
+discovered that it was Big Pete. Comfortably settling myself in my
+blanket I felt the breeze from the mountain blowing over my face and
+through my hair, and it soothed me until I dropped off into gentle
+slumber; but during the months I had been sleeping in the open I had
+learned the art, as the saying is, of sleeping with one eye open. In
+this case, however, if the eye had really been wide open it could have
+seen nothing because of the darkness, but the darkness did not interfere
+with my ability to hear, and after I had been sleeping awhile I found
+myself suddenly sitting bolt upright in my blankets with beads of
+perspiration on my forehead and that terrible sensation of horror which
+one experiences in a nightmare. I knew that I had heard something, but
+what?
+
+The oppressive silence of the wilderness made the valley appear as if
+Nature was holding her breath for a moment before giving voice to an
+explosion of sound. I sensed impending disaster of some sort. What it
+was I could not guess, but was convinced that something was about to
+happen.
+
+As I held my breath and listened, the ranch house was silent; even Pete
+had not, apparently, awakened, but I could not hear his regular
+breathing. Now I thought I could detect a soft and very faint noise as
+of some large body creeping over the puncheon steps. I also imagined I
+detected the noise of padded feet and the scraping noise of claws on the
+wood. A shudder ran through me. Was a panther, a mountain lion, about to
+spring upon me? No, I abandoned the thought and instinctively I knew
+that it must be one of the black wolf pack. Then I remembered hearing
+the cracking and breaking of sticks or timber while I was trying to
+sleep in the bedroom, and I felt that Pluto had broken out of the pen
+and was creeping up on us slowly and stealthily as I have seen a fox
+creep up on a covey of quail.
+
+Would the beast presently hurl its terrible form upon me, or on Big
+Pete? I attempted to warn my friend, but my tongue clung to the roof of
+my mouth and for the moment I was powerless and speechless, subdued by a
+combination of fear of the real beast and superstitious fear of the
+fabulous werwolf or loup-garou,[4] but the next moment I pulled myself
+together, mastered my trembling limbs, rolled softly out of my blankets,
+and gun in hand wormed my way toward the spot where Big Pete lay,
+determined to sell my life dearly. With Big Pete beside me, now that I
+was thoroughly awake, I would fight all the werwolves of the old world
+and all the loup-garous of Canada. I reached out and felt for Pete but
+he was not there, the blankets were empty; once or twice I thought I
+detected the glint of the wolves' eyes, but the night was very dark and
+in the shadow of the roof I could really see nothing.
+
+  [Footnote 4: A werwolf, or loup-garou, is a legendary man who,
+  it was formerly believed, could at will take on the form and
+  nature of a wolf.]
+
+Closer and closer sounded the stealthy, dragging noise, and I heard a
+hand feel softly for the latch of the front door and could hear fingers
+scraping ever so softly over the wood surface of the other side. A
+slight rattle told me that the hand had found the latch and that
+presently the door would be flung open. With my revolver ready I waited
+developments and braced myself for the attack.
+
+The door flew open wide, and the voice of the Wild Hunter cried,
+
+"Pluto, you fiend, down! down! I say!"
+
+But this time the huge brute did not obey and the command was answered
+by a low rebellious growl, a scratching of feet on the puncheons, and a
+heavy thud of someone falling told me that the final struggle for the
+leadership of the black wolf pack had begun.
+
+Then burst upon the stillness of the night such an uproar that for a
+moment I thought the whole pack was mixed in the fight, but at length I
+heard Pluto's snarling, rumbling growl, answered by the distant howl of
+the wolf pack, followed immediately by a close-by yell that chilled my
+blood; after this came Big Pete's war cry, then the crash of falling
+objects, shrieks and growls and savage yells.
+
+I had flung myself forward, and there in the pitch darkness of the
+doorway of the hall I felt and heard rather than saw the lean twisting
+bodies of the Wild Hunter and Pluto clasped in a life and death struggle
+on the floor. I feared to use my revolver, as it would have been
+impossible to tell whether I was shooting the hunter or the wolf.
+
+Suddenly a light burst upon the scene. Big Pete's absence was
+explained; he had secured a lantern and holding it aloft with his left
+hand, with a six-shooter in his right, he paused a moment over the
+struggling figures. By the light of the lantern one could see that the
+Wild Hunter was on his back struggling with the giant beast which he was
+trying to choke with his two hands, while the wolf's teeth were seeking
+the throat of the man. It was a terrible scene but it was no time to
+waste in horror. The efforts of the hunter to free himself from his
+terrible assailant would have been of little avail but for the
+assistance of Big Pete, for the wolf was shaking the wild man from side
+to side with terrific force, very much the same as a bull-terrier might
+shake a cat.
+
+Pete wasted no time but placing the muzzle of his gun against the wolf's
+head he fired, then shouted to me, "Look behind you."
+
+As I wheeled about I found that I was facing the rest of the pack. Pluto
+reared upon his hind legs, clawed the air frantically in his death
+struggle, and fell with a thud across his master's body, but Pete and I
+were now concentrating our fire on the snarling, leaping bodies of the
+wolf pack. Fortunately the death of Pluto and the silence of the Wild
+Hunter seemed to discourage the pack, they evidently missed their
+leaders and this gave us the advantage, for if they had rushed us we
+undoubtedly would have fallen victims to their savage teeth.
+
+In the melee the lantern was upset and the struggle ended in darkness as
+it began, but when things quieted down and Pete relit the lantern there
+were only two wolves which were alive and they were fiercely attacking
+each other. We soon dispatched them, however, and then devoted our
+attention to the Wild Hunter over whose body Big Pete was now bending.
+
+"By the great horn spoon, Le-loo!" cried he, looking up for a moment,
+"we've wiped out the pack, and now that the scrap is over here comes the
+Injuns. I calculate our friend here is a dead one; Pluto has chewed him
+to pieces. Come, lend a hand and we will see what we can do for the poor
+old man; he certainly did put up a glorious fight."
+
+Reaching down I gathered the old man's legs in my arms, and with Big
+Pete supporting his head and shoulders, we carried him into my room and
+laid him on the feather bed under the savagely ornamented tester.
+
+Big Pete was all action then, and I helped as best I could. The Scout
+ripped one of the homespun sheets into ribbons and with these made
+bandages and proceeded to stay the flow of blood from the old man's
+lacerated throat. He worked hard and long and now and then he would
+shake his head dubiously. Presently he muttered, "'Taint much use, Ol'
+Timer, I guess yore a goner. Yore goneta pass over t' Divide this time,
+I guess. That tha' Pluto fiend done chewed you up fer further orders."
+
+At this the old man opened his eyes, and a grim smile wrinkled his now
+ashen face.
+
+"I knew he'd do it some day, and I think he got me this time. The Mewan
+Indians call the giant wolf "Too-le-ze" and that is also the name they
+gave me, but I am not a werwolf, a loup-garou or a Too-le-ze. I was only
+their master but now their victim.
+
+"I feared that Pluto, as I call him, or Too-le-ze, was strong and
+treacherous and that is why I ruled him with an iron hand. He's got me
+this time. I guess it had to end this way--give me a cup of water."
+
+He then fixed his gaze on me and I noticed that he no longer had that
+worried, haunted look which had heretofore characterized him.
+
+"So you are Donald's son--well, when I heard Pluto stalking you I knew
+that it was you or your uncle that the beast would get; it was fate that
+made me slip and fall, and once down the wolf saw his long-looked-for
+opportunity and instantly availed himself of it. But the good Lord was
+not going to allow me to bring bad luck to both you and your father,
+boy. Yes, I am Fay Mullen and I caused the death of your father, and my
+brother. I bear the brand of Cain.
+
+"We were crossing a steep bank of snow at the foot of a cliff, and being
+both tired and hungry we were bickering and quarreling over nothing. I
+should have remembered that your father was but just recovering from an
+attack of nervous prostration, but I did not; we had been months in the
+mountains prospecting and the unprofitable toil and loneliness must have
+got on my nerves. At any rate, after some hot, unbrotherly language, we
+agreed to part company.
+
+"We sat down on the snow and divided our outfit by lot. I got the
+flint-lock Patrick Mullen, the fierce Great Dane and the gentle little
+donkey; your father got the packhorse and the Winchester rifle.
+
+"We--we--parted without saying good-bye, and just then an elk came out
+on the snow bank. Instantly your father fired and I fired, the elk fell,
+but the simultaneous concussion of the reports of the two rifles started
+the snow to moving. The Great Dane and the donkey sensed the danger and
+fled to the right. I turned to warn your father and motioned him back,
+but he came on a run toward me and I fled at the heels of my outfit. The
+burro and dog escaped to safety, I was caught in the edge of the slide,
+knocked unconscious and buried in snow, from which the dog rescued me.
+
+"A fragment of stone struck me on the head and I have never been the
+same since then. Your father and his outfit are buried under five
+hundred feet of snow and rocks. I camped nearby for days but could find
+no trace of my brother and all the time a voice seemed to cry, 'You
+killed your brother; you are marked with the brand of Cain.'
+
+"This thought has haunted me night and day and I have never quarreled
+with a man since then; for fear that I might do so, I have avoided white
+men ever since and buried myself in these mountains. I found this valley
+and I hid here and with the aid of the Great Dane and the wolf dogs I
+bred, as beasts of burden, I built this ranch. I--I--was afraid--all the
+time, though--afraid someone would--find out about--Donald's death and
+blame it on me. When you--said--you--were--Donald's son I was
+frightened--I thought you'd come to get me--for killing your--father
+and--I--I--I was going to kill myself. But Pluto got--me--and saved me
+from further guilt. I--"
+
+He said more, but neither Big Pete nor I could understand him. Indeed,
+he kept mumbling incoherently for an hour or more while we watched over
+him and did all that we could to make him comfortable until the death
+rattle in his throat put an end to his mumbling. But despite our
+efforts, he passed on at dawn. Just as the first warm light of the sun
+glowed above the mountains, he breathed his last.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now you know why my private den is just cram full of the things you
+fellows like. You may also guess where I procured the black wolfskin
+rugs and the rare bead and porcupine quill decorations. Yes, that
+long-barrelled rifle hanging on the buckhorn rack is the famous Patrick
+Mullen gun. It is a rifle that Washington, Boone or Crockett would have
+almost given their scalps to possess, because it is the same pattern as
+the ones they themselves used but more scientifically and skillfully
+made. It's a flint-lock, too, and that is the funny part about it that
+interests all the Scouts of our Troop. It is my good-turn mascot, for as
+long as it hangs there I am under the influence of my wild uncle and can
+quarrel with no man.
+
+Now you know why the gun is preserved as a trophy for my old Scouts and
+is an object of veneration upon which they love to gaze when they sit
+cross-legged on the skins of the black wolf pack before the crackling
+fire of their Scoutmaster's private den.
+
+Big Pete? Oh, he now runs the Pluto Ranch in Paradise Valley.
+
+
+
+    THE BEARD BOOKS FOR BOYS
+
+    _By_ DAN C. BEARD
+
+
+    THE AMERICAN BOY'S HANDY BOOK. Or, What to Do and How to Do It
+    _Illustrated by the author_
+
+    Gives sports adapted to all seasons of the year, tells boys how
+    to make all kinds of things--boats, traps, toys, puzzles,
+    aquariums, fishing-tackle; how to tie knots, splice ropes, to
+    make bird calls, sleds, blow-guns, balloons; how to rear wild
+    birds, to train dogs, and do the thousand and one things that
+    boys take delight in.
+
+
+    THE OUTDOOR HANDY BOOK. For Playground, Field, and Forest
+    _Illustrated by the author_
+
+    "How to play all sorts of games with marbles, how to make and
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+    Tribune._
+
+
+    THE FIELD AND FOREST HANDY BOOK. Or, New Ideas for Out of Doors
+    _Illustrated by the author_
+
+    "Instructions as to ways to build boats and fire-engines, make
+    aquariums, rafts, and sleds, to camp in a back-yard, etc. No
+    better book of the kind exists."--_Chicago Record-Herald._
+
+
+    SHELTERS, SHACKS, AND SHANTIES _Illustrated by the author_
+
+    Easily workable directions, accompanied by very full
+    illustration, for over fifty shelters, shacks, and shanties.
+
+
+    BOAT-BUILDING AND BOATING. A Handy Book for Beginners
+    _Illustrated by the author_
+
+    All that Dan Beard knows and has written about the building of
+    every simple kind of boat, from a raft to a cheap motor-boat, is
+    brought together in this book.
+
+
+    THE JACK OF ALL TRADES. Or, New Ideas for American Boys
+    _Illustrated by the author_
+
+    "This book is a capital one to give any boy for a present at
+    Christmas, on a birthday, or indeed at any time."--_The
+    Outlook._
+
+
+    THE BOY PIONEERS. Sons of Daniel Boone _Illustrated by the
+    author_
+
+    "How to become a member of the 'Sons of Daniel Boone' and take
+    part in all the old pioneer games, and many other things in
+    which boys are interested."--_Philadelphia Press._
+
+
+    THE BLACK WOLF-PACK
+
+    "A genuine thriller of mystery and red-blooded conflicts, well
+    calculated to hold the mind and the heart of its boy and, for
+    that matter, its adult reader."--_Philadelphia North American._
+
+
+
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+    THE BEARD BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+    _By_ LINA BEARD _and_ ADELIA B. BEARD
+
+
+    THE AMERICAN GIRL'S HANDY BOOK. How to Amuse Yourself and Others
+
+    _With nearly 500 illustrations_
+
+    "It is a treasure which, once possessed, no practical girl would
+    willingly part with."--GRACE GREENWOOD.
+
+
+    THINGS WORTH DOING AND HOW TO DO THEM
+
+    _With some 600 drawings by the authors that show exactly how
+    they should be done_
+
+    "The book will tell you how to do nearly anything that any live
+    girl really wants to do."--_The World To-day._
+
+
+    HANDICRAFT AND RECREATION FOR GIRLS
+
+    _With over 700 illustrations by the authors_
+
+    "It teaches how to make serviceable and useful things of all
+    kinds out of every kind of material. It also tells how to play
+    and how to make things to play with."--_Chicago Evening Post._
+
+
+    WHAT A GIRL CAN MAKE AND DO. New Ideas for Work and Play
+
+    _With more than 300 illustrations by the authors_
+
+    "It would be a dull girl who could not make herself busy and
+    happy following its precepts.... A most inspiring book for an
+    active-minded girl."--_Chicago Record-Herald._
+
+
+    ON THE TRAIL
+
+    _Illustrated by the authors_
+
+    This volume tells how a girl can live outdoors, camping in the
+    woods, and learning to know its wild inhabitants.
+
+
+    MOTHER NATURE'S TOY SHOP
+
+    _Profusely illustrated by the authors_
+
+    How children can make toys easily and economically from wild
+    flowers, grasses, green leaves, seed-vessels, fruits, etc.
+
+
+    LITTLE FOLKS' HANDY BOOK
+
+    _With many illustrations_
+
+    Contains a wealth of devices for entertaining children by means
+    of paper building-cards, wooden berry-baskets, straw and paper
+    furniture, paper jewelry, etc.
+
+
+    CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Wolf Pack, by Dan Beard
+
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