The shadow that Bruce saw at the edge of the forest could not be
mistaken as to identity. The hopes that he had held before--that this
stalking figure might be that of a deer or an elk--could no longer be
entertained. Men as a rule do not love the wild and wailing sobs of a
coyote, as he looks down upon a camp fire from the ridge above. Sleep
does not come easily when a gaunt wolf walks in a slow, inquisitive
circle about the pallet, scarcely a leaf rustling beneath his feet. And
a few times, in the history of the frontier, men have had queer
tinglings and creepings in the scalp when they have happened to glance
over their shoulders and see the eyes of a great, tawny puma, glowing an
odd blue in the firelight. Yet Bruce would have had any one of these, or
all three together, in preference to the Killer.
The reason was extremely simple. No words have ever been capable of
expressing the depths of cowardice of which a coyote is capable. He will
whine and weep about a camp, like a soul lost between two worlds, but if
he is in his right mind he would have each one of his gray hairs plucked
out, one by one, rather than attack a man. The cunning breed to which he
belongs has found out that it doesn't pay. The wolf is sometimes
disquietingly brave when he is fortified by his pack brethren in the
winter, but in such a season as this he is particularly careful to keep
out of the sight of man. And the Tawny One himself, white-fanged and
long-clawed and powerful as he is, never gets farther than certain
dreadful, speculative dreams.
But none of these things was true of the Killer. He had already shown
his scorn of men. His very stride showed that he feared no living
creature that shared the forest with him. In fact, he considered himself
the forest master. The bear is never a particularly timid animal, and
whatever timidity the Killer possessed was as utterly gone as
yesterday's daylight.
Bruce watched him with unwinking eyes. The shadow wavered ever so
slightly, as the Killer turned his head this way and that. But except to
follow it with his eyes, Bruce made no motion. The inner guardians of a
man's life--voices that are more to be relied upon than the promptings
of any conscious knowledge--had already told him what to do. These
monitors had the wisdom of the pines themselves, and they had revealed
to him his one hope. It was just to lie still, without a twitch of a
muscle. It might be that the Killer would fail to discern his outline.
Bruce had no conscious knowledge, as yet, that it is movement rather
than form to which the eyes of the wild creatures are most receptive.
But he acted upon that fact now as if by instinct. He was not lying in
quite the exact spot where the Killer had left his dead the preceding
night, and possibly his outline was not enough like it to attract the
grizzly's attention. Besides, in the intermittent light, it was wholly
possible that the grizzly would try to find the remains of his feast by
smell alone; and if this were lacking, and Bruce made no movements to
attract his attention, he might wander away in search of other game.
For the first time in his life, Bruce knew Fear as it really was. It is
a knowledge that few dwellers in cities can possibly have; and so few
times has it really been experienced in these days of civilization that
men have mostly forgotten what it is like. If they experience it at all,
it is usually only in a dream that arises from the germ-plasm,--a
nightmare to paralyze the muscles and chill the heart and freeze a man
in his bed. The moon was strange and white as it slipped in and out of
the clouds, and the forest, mysterious as Death itself, lightened and
darkened alternately with a strange effect of unreality; but for all
that, Bruce could not make himself believe that this was just a dream.
The dreadful reality remained that the Killer, whose name and works he
knew, was even now investigating him from the shadows one hundred feet
away.
The fear that came to him was that of the young world,--fear without
recompense, direct and primitive fear that grew on him like a sickness.
It was the fear that the deer knew as they crept down their dusky trails
at night; it was the fear of darkness and silence and pain and heaven
knows what cruelty that would be visited upon him by those terrible,
rending fangs and claws. It was the fear that can be heard in the pack
song in the dreadful winter season, and that can be felt in strange
overtones, in the sobbing wail of despair that the coyote utters in the
half-darkness. He had been afraid for his life every moment he was in
the hands of the Turners. He knew that if he survived this night, he
would have to face death again. He had no hopes of deliverance
altogether. But the Turners were men, and they worked with knife blade
and bullet, not rending fang and claw. He could face men bravely; but it
was hard to keep a strong heart in the face of this ancient fear of
beasts.
The Killer seemed disturbed and moved slowly along the edge of the
moonlight. Bruce could trace his movements by the irregularity in the
line of shadows. He seemed to be moving more cautiously than ever, now.
Bruce could not hear the slightest sound.
For an instant Bruce had an exultant hope that the bear would continue
on down the edge of the forest and leave him; and his heart stood still
as the great beast paused, sniffing. But some smell in the air seemed to
reach him, and he came stealing back.
In reality, the Killer was puzzled. He had come to this place straight
through the forest with the expectation that food--flesh to tear with
his fangs--would be waiting for him. Perhaps he had no actual memory of
killing the calf the night before. Possibly it was only instinct, not
conscious intelligence, that brought him back to what was left of his
feast the preceding night. And now, as he waited at the border of the
darkness, he knew that a strange change had taken place. And the Killer
did not like strangeness.
The smell that he had expected had dimmed to such an extent that it
promoted no muscular impulse. Perhaps it was only obliterated by a
stranger smell,--one that was vaguely familiar and wakened a slow,
brooding anger in his great beast's heart.
He was not timid; yet he retained some of his natural caution and
remained in the gloom while he made his investigations. Probably it was
a hunting instinct alone. He crept slowly up and down the border of
moonlight, and his anger seemed to grow and deepen within him. He felt
dimly that he had been cheated out of his meal. And once before he had
been similarly cheated; but there had been singular triumph at the end
of that experience.
All at once a movement, far across the pasture, caught his attention.
Remote as it was, he identified the tall form at once; it was just such
a creature as he had blasted with one blow a day or two before. But it
dimmed quickly in the darkness. It seemed only that some one had come,
taken one glance at the drama at the edge of the forest, and had
departed. Bruce himself had not seen the figure; and perhaps it was the
mercy of Fate--not usually merciful--that he did not. He might have been
caused to hope again, only to know a deeper despair when the man left
him without giving aid. For the tall form had been that of Simon coming,
as Linda had anticipated, for a moment's inspection of his handiwork.
And seeing that it was good, he had departed again.
The grizzly watched him go, then turned back to his questioning regard
of the strange, dark figure that lay so prone in the grass in front. The
darkness dropped over him as the moon went behind a heavy patch of
cloud.
And in that moment of darkness, the Killer understood. He remembered
now. Possibly the upright form of Simon had suggested it to him;
possibly the wind had only blown straighter and thus permitted him to
identify the troubling smells. All at once a memory flashed over
him,--of a scene in a distant glen, and similar tall figures that tried
to drive him from his food. He had charged then, struck once, and one of
the forms had lain very still. He remembered the pungent, maddening odor
that had reached him after his blow had gone home. Most clearly of all,
he remembered how his fangs had struck and sunk.
He knew this strange shadow now. It was just another of that tall breed
he had learned to hate, and it was simply lying prone as his foe had
done after the charge beside Little River. In fact, the still-lying form
recalled the other occasion with particular vividness. The excitement
that he had felt before returned to him now; he remembered his
disappointment when the whistling bullets from the hillside above had
driven him from his dead. But there were no whistling bullets now.
Except for them, there would have been further rapture beside that
stream; but he might have it now.
His fangs had sunk home just once, before, and his blood leaped as he
recalled the passion he had felt. The old hunting madness came back to
him. It was the fair game, this that lay so still in the grass, just as
the body of the calf had been and just as the warm body of Hudson in the
distant glen.
The wound at his side gave him a twinge of pain. It served to make his
memories all the clearer. The lurid lights grew in his eyes. Rage swept
over him.
But he didn't charge blindly. He retained enough of his hunting caution
to know that to stalk was the proper course. It was true that there was
no shrubbery to hide him, yet in his time he had made successful stalks
in the open, even upon deer. He moved farther out from the edge of the
forest.
At that instant the moon came out and revealed him, all too vividly, to
Bruce. The Killer's great gray figure in the silver light was creeping
toward him across the silvered grass.
* * * * *
When Linda left her house, her first realization was the need of
caution. It would not do to let Simon see her. And she knew that only
her long training in the hills, her practice in climbing the winding
trails, would enable her to keep pace with the fast-walking man without
being seen.
In her concern for Bruce, she had completely forgotten the events of the
earlier part of the evening. Wild and stirring though they were, they
now seemed to her as incidents of remote years, nothing to be
remembered in this hour of crisis. But she remembered them vividly when,
two hundred yards from the house, she saw two strange figures coming
toward her between the moonlit tree trunks.
There was very little of reality about either. The foremost figure was
bent and strange, but she knew that it could be no one but Elmira. The
second, however--half-obscured behind her--offered no interpretation of
outline at all at first. But at the turn of the trail she saw both
figures in vivid profile. Elmira was coming homeward, bent over her
cane, and she led a saddled horse by its bridle rein.
Still keeping Simon in sight, Linda ran swiftly toward her. She didn't
understand the deep awe that stole over her,--an emotion that even her
fear for Bruce could not transcend. There was a quality in Elmira's face
and posture that she had never seen before. It was as if she were
walking in her sleep, she came with such a strange heaviness and
languor, her cane creeping through the pine needles of the trail in
front. She did not seem to be aware of Linda's approach until the girl
was only ten feet distant. Then she looked up, and Linda saw the
moonlight on her face.
She saw something else too, but she didn't know what it was. Her own
eyes widened. The thin lips were drooping, the eyes looked as if she
were asleep. The face was a strange net of wrinkles in the soft light.
Terrible emotions had but recently died and left their ashes upon it.
But Linda knew that this was no time to stop and wonder and ask
questions.
"Give me the horse," she commanded. "I'm going to help Bruce."
"You can have it," Elmira answered in an unfamiliar voice. "It's the
horse that--that Dave Turner rode here--and he won't want him any more."
Linda took the rein, passed it over the horse's head, and started to
swing into the saddle. Then she turned with a gasp as the woman slipped
something into her hand.
Linda looked down and saw it was the hilt of the knife that Elmira had
carried with her when the two women had gone with Dave into the woods.
The blade glittered; but Linda was afraid to look at it closely. "You
might need that, too," the old woman said. "It may be wet--I can't
remember. But take it, anyway."
Linda hardly heard. She thrust the blade into the leather of the saddle,
then swung on her horse. Once more she sought Simon's figure. Far away
she saw it, just as it vanished into the heavy timber on top of the
hill.
She rode swiftly until she began to fear that he might hear the hoof
beat of her mount; then she drew up to a walk. And when she had crested
the hill and had followed down its long slope into the glen, the moon
went under the clouds for the first time.
She lost sight of Simon at once. Seemingly her effort to save Bruce had
come to nothing, after all.
But she didn't turn back. There were light patches in the sky, and the
moon might shine forth again.
She followed down the trail toward the cleared lands that the Turners
cultivated. She went to their very edge. It was a rather high point, so
she waited here for the moon to emerge again. Never, it seemed to her,
had it moved so slowly. But all at once its light flowed forth over the
land.
Her eyes searched the distant spaces, but she could catch no glimpse of
Simon between the trees. Evidently he no longer walked in the direction
of the house. Then she looked out over the tilled lands.
Almost a quarter of a mile away she saw the flicker of a miniature
shadow. Only the vivid quality of the moonlight, against which any
shadow was clear-cut and sharp, enabled her to discern it at all. It was
Simon, and evidently his business had taken him into the meadows.
Feeling that she was on the right track at last, she urged her horse
forward again, keeping to the shadow of the timber at first.
Simon walked almost parallel to the dark fringe for nearly a mile; then
turned off into the tilled lands. She rode opposite him and reined in
the horse to watch.
When the distance had almost obscured him, she saw him stop. He waited a
long time, then turned back. The moon went in and out of the clouds.
Then, trusting to the distance to conceal her, Linda rode slowly out
into the clearing.
Simon reentered the timber, his inspection seemingly done, and Linda
still rode in the general direction he had gone. The darkness fell
again, and for the space of perhaps five minutes all the surroundings
were obscured. A curious sense of impending events came over her as she
headed on toward the distant wall of forest beyond.
Then, the clouds slowly dimming under the moon, the light grew with
almost imperceptible encroachments. At first it was only bright enough
to show her own dim shadow on the grass. The utter gloom that was over
the fields lessened and drew away like receding curtains; her vision
reached ever farther, the shadows grew more clearly outlined and
distinct. Then the moon rolled forth into a wholly open patch of sky--a
white sphere with a sprinkling of vivid stars around it--and the silver
radiance poured down.
It was like the breaking of dawn. The fields stretched to incredible
distances about her. The forest beyond emerged in distinct outline; she
could see every irregularity in the plain. And in one instant's glance
she knew that she had found Bruce.
His situation went home to her in one sweep of the eyes. Bruce was not
alone. Even now a great, towering figure was creeping toward him from
the forest. Linda cried out, and with the long strap of her rein lashed
her horse into the fastest pace it knew.
* * * * *
Bruce did not hear her come. He lay in the soft grass, waiting for
death. A great calm had come upon him; a strange, quiet strength that
the pines themselves might have lent to him; and he made no cry. In this
dreadful last moment of despair the worst of his terror had gone and
left his thoughts singularly clear. And but one desire was left to him:
that the Killer might be merciful and end his frail existence with one
blow.
It was not a great deal to ask for; but he knew perfectly that only by
the mercy of the forest gods could it come to pass. They are usually not
so kind to the dying; and it is not the wild-animal way to take pains to
kill at the first blow. Yet his eyes held straight. The Killer crept
slowly toward him; more and more of his vast body was revealed above the
tall heads of the grass. And now all that Bruce knew was a great
wonder,--a strange expectancy and awe of what the opening gates of
darkness would reveal.
The Killer moved with dreadful slowness and deliberation. He was no
longer afraid. It was just as it had been before,--a warm figure lying
still and helpless for his own terrible pleasure. A few more steps and
he would be near enough to see plainly; then--after the grizzly
habit--to fling into the charge. It was his own way of hunting,--to
stalk within a few score of feet, then to make a furious, resistless
rush. He paused, his muscles setting. And then the meadows suddenly rang
with the undulations of his snarl.
Almost unconscious, Bruce did not understand what had caused this
utterance. But strangely, the bear had lifted his head and was staring
straight over him. For the first time Bruce heard the wild beat of
hoofs on the turf behind him.
He didn't have time to turn and look. There was no opportunity even for
a flood of renewed hope. Events followed upon one another with startling
rapidity. The sharp, unmistakable crack of a pistol leaped through the
dusk, and a bullet sung over his body. And then a wild-riding figure
swept up to him.
It was Linda, firing as she came. How she had been able to control her
horse and ride him into that scene of peril no words may reveal.
Perhaps, running wildly beneath the lash, his starting eyes did not
discern or interpret the gray figure scarcely a score of yards distant
from Bruce; and it is true the grizzly's pungent smell--a thing to
terrify much more and to be interpreted more clearly than any kind of
dim form in the moonlight--was blown in the opposite direction. Perhaps
the lashing strap recalled the terrible punishment the horse had
undergone earlier that evening at the hands of Simon and no room was
left for any lesser terror. But most likely of all, just as in the case
of brave soldiers riding their horses into battle, the girl's own
strength and courage went into him. Always it has been the same; the
steed partook of its rider's own spirit.
The bear reared up, snarling with wrath, but for a moment it dared not
charge. The sudden appearance of the girl and the horse held him
momentarily at bay. The girl swung to the ground in one leap, fired
again, thrust her arm through the loop of the bridle rein, then knelt
at Bruce's side. The white blade that she carried in her left hand
slashed at his bonds.
The horse, plunging, seemed to jerk her body back and forth, and endless
seconds seemed to go by before the last of the thongs was severed. In
reality the whole rescue was unbelievably swift. The man helped her all
he could. "Up--up into the saddle," she commanded. The grizzly growled
again, advancing remorselessly toward them, and twice more she fired.
Two of the bullets went home in his great body, but their weight and
shocking power were too slight to affect him. He went down once more on
all fours, preparing to charge.
Bruce, in spite of the fact that his limbs had been nearly paralyzed by
the tight bonds, managed to grasp the saddlehorn. In the strength of
new-born hope he pulled himself half up on it, and he felt Linda's
strong arms behind him pushing up. The horse plunged in deadly fear; and
the Killer leaped toward them. Once more the pistol cracked. Then the
horse broke and ran in a frenzy of terror.
Bruce was full in the saddle by then, and even at the first leap his arm
swept out to the girl on the ground beside him. He swung her towards
him, and at the same time her hands caught at the arching back of the
saddle. Never had her fine young strength been put to a greater test
than when she tried to pull herself up on the speeding animal's back.
For the first fifty feet she was half-dragged, but slowly--with Bruce's
help--she pulled herself up to a position of security.
The Killer's charge had come a few seconds too late. For a moment he
raced behind them in insane fury, but only his savage growl leaped
through the darkness fast enough to catch up with them. And the distance
slowly widened.
The Killer had been cheated again; and by the same token Simon's oath
had been proved untrue. For once the remorseless strength of which he
boasted had been worsted by a greater strength; and love, not hate, was
the power that gave it. For once a girl's courage--a courage greater
than that with which he obeyed the dictates of his cruel will--had cost
him his victory. The war that he and his outlaw band had begun so long
ago had not yet been won.
Indeed, if Simon could have seen what the moon saw as it peered out from
behind the clouds, he would have known that one of the debts of blood
incurred so many years ago had even now been paid. Far away on a distant
hillside there was one who gave no heed to the fast hoof beats of the
speeding horse. It was Dave Turner, and his trail of lust and wickedness
was ended at last. He lay with lifted face, and there were curious dark
stains on the pine needles.
It was the first blood since the reopening of the feud. And the pines,
those tall, dark sentinels of the wilderness, seemed to look down upon
him in passionless contemplation, as if they wondered at the stumbling
ways of men. Their branches rubbed together and made words as the wind
swept through them, but no man may say what those words were.