WHIPLASH, THE WOLF

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20388, 31 December 1937, Page 18 (Supplement)

WHIPLASH, THE WOLF

(By H. Mortimer Batten)

(Continued from last week) Dan Darado, watching from a distant ridge, quietly rose, and there was triumph in his dark eyes, for he knew that the she-wolf was his. He stood a few moments watching, though the scene was familiar enough to him. Moreover, it was not a pleasant scene, lie saw the she-wolf roll over, clawing at her muzzle —he saw her fling herself in the sand, rolling, snapping at the stones, at the roots; and, because he knew the awfulness of the poison he had used, he called his dog to him and pointed out the dying wolf in the valley far below. “Go fix that wolf!” said Darado, and the dog went, bounding off like a leopard, and roaring and snarling as he ran.

Then the wolver, watching: from the heights above, saw a noble thing, which was one of the many noble things he had seen in the wolf world. You have perhaps been told that wolves are cowards, and so they may be —the skulking European variety, but not the big husky timber wolf of the New World. He is a lighter, and a terrible tighter at that. He has been known to face hopeless odds when, had he been a coward, he would have backed out—to faoe them and win through, simply because he did not know when he was beaten. The she-wolf was sprawling in the sand, the bix, ITeroe hound was fifty yards away fiNMii her, and bounding on, when from behind a cactus clump there rose another wolf —her mate. Did Mayawa hesitate —did his courage waver? No! Straight at the hound he flashed, and they met shoulder to shoulder with a thud that awoke the very echoes. * s Gee, that’s her mate!” muttered Darado. **A good plucked one too!” Thud, their shoulders met, then Mayawa plied that awful weapon of the fighting wolf —the sidelong chop at the forelegs, which has been known to cripple an ox. The dog went over, thrown a dozen paces, and his llank was bleeding, but he too was brave! In an instant he was up, to hurl himself at Mayawa, but Mayawa was not there. He was at his mate’s side, bidding her rise, running round her with ears acock, doing the best he knew to induce her to get up and follow him away from this awful place. She looked at him once, then her head dropped, and the glory of life faded from her eyes. Mayawa did not yet know that she was dead. He only knew that some great misfortune had befallen her, that she could not follow him, and so lie stood over her, braced and ready to meet the most formidable foe that ever yet had crossed his trail. There in the burning sand they fought. Mayawa and the wolver's hound. The wolf looked like a coyote against the great black brute —a little coyote that barred the way between that awful snarling fiend and the crumpled heap of nothingness lying in the sand. And Dan Darado, watching from the ridge, saw that fight. Darado had often boasted to his friends ttiat his hound could kill any wolf between Texas and the Yukon; he had boasted of the scores of wolves Hob bad already killed, and never seemed to deem ii necessary to mention the fact that such wolves as Bob fought had invariably picked up a poisoned bait prior to the encounter. Still, he had faith in bis hound, which certainly knew all the tricks of the fighting wolf, and possessed the strength of a pony to back its knowledge; but now, as Dan stood watching, he began to wonder whether his dog was really getting the better of it. Then suddenly lie mounted his pony. He did not care to risk it, for the dog was valuable. He did not actually own, even to himself, that if he failed to lend a hand,'and that very speedily, there would he a dead ilog in the sand in addition to a dead wolf, hut nevertheless he urged his cayuse into a gallop, and suddenly lie began to yell and discharge his revolver into I lie air. He saw his hound dash in for I he fTfth time? —saw it thing aside by the little grey coyote, then in an instant the latter was on the top. Frantically Darado shouted and yelled, but Hie wolf did not hear. lie rode up tc within forty paces, then very deliberately took aim and fired. The wolf looked up, for the bullet laid open its flank, from ear to tail He looked up—looked into the man's eyes, and there was no fear in the look only contempt and loathing. Then Mayawa snarled, turned, and lopeii into the hollows.' We see only the harsh and savage siele of wild nature, and tier bright and gentler scenes are hidden from us in the gloom of the canyons’ depths or in the cloud wreaths on the mountain tops. The cowboy pictures the wolf as a pair of devilish jaws, wafted hither ami thither through the myste.r\ of the night, and if you tell him that there is anything gentle and lovable ir ttiis fierce raider of the sheep ami cattle ranges tie will think you are n greenhorn. • Wait till you know the wolf as I know him !’* he will say •Wait till you go in the cold grey o the morning, and see what lias happened the uight before!”

Yet in his own life there was a gentle side to Mayawa. Darado did not

carry away the she-wolf, but left her where she lay on the sand, for he thought that Mayawa would come back

to her. So all round in the dust he set liis traps, and to each trap by a length of buried chain was attached a three-pronged anchor.

When the evening breeze had fanned the prairie, and the last orange of

sunset had faded behind the distant buttes, Mayawa stole slowly up wind, sniffing the soft breeze as he crossed the ridges. "No longer now did he appear as the awful, bristling fighting machine. His head hung low, his tail drooped, his huge pointed ears seemed to drag as though weighed down by the heaviness which seemed, indeed, tc retard his very steps. He came up wind, I say, and from the great grey ridge, starred all over with the little yellow prairie flowers, he looked down at Jess, lying trampled and defiled in the dust below. But he did not go to her. He merely looked at her with his big eyes, then he circled to the east and looked at her again. He raised his great gnarled muzzle to the sky- and gave forth the rally call, quietly, softly, almost entreatingly, hut Jess did not stir, and Mayawa knew that she was dead.

Yes, he knew that she was dead, and that never more would they run flank to flank through the golden haze of the glowing clay! For a while he dallied in

Hie offing, calling, staring, looking looking. Then, as though with some llxed goal in view, he turned suddenly away from tho scene of such sorrowful memories.

Mayawa, Mayawa, a big husky bully you may have been, with no gentle trait or lovable characteristics on all your being so far as man could know you, but man knows little of creatures of the wild. In your own life there was gentleness, and a savage inlentness of purpose which took no account of the risks you ran, and the perils ■v.hich hourly beset your way.

Mayawa went back to the' den where Jess’s puppies lay. It is doubtful whether lie had ever seen them before, but he knew that now their mother was £one their lives were dependent upon him. lie was uneasy in his mind as to what to do with them. Puppies were not his department, but in his brain was the wild wolf instinct to

carry them away and hide them some- , where, as a wolf always does when , misfortune falls across the trail of its t little ones. Mayawa caught up the first ; of the little fluffy mites, so young that i they hardly had their eyes open, and • carried it deep into the depths of Dead Man’s Canyon. He' laid it on a narrow • shelf and scraped sand and pebbles i round it. for Ins instincts told him to J hide and bury it, though he scarcely ' | knew how. Then he went back for ij another puppy, and yet a third and a -I fourth and a fifth lie carried that night, i till all were safe in Hie’ security of the - canyon, where no human foot had ever yet trodden. ' How Mayawa kept the puppies alive k ' we do not know. We know only that •I all IhiH summer lie never once relaxed M his efforts. Often Dan Dorado saw '1 through ids spy-glasses a big grey '| husky timber wolf vanishing into the •I canyon mouth with something in his •I jaws. lie did not know that it was '•! Mayawa, till one day he hid himself 1 at Ihe canyon mouth, a high velocity ) rifle in his hands, and watched, and e Mayawa came carrying a plump - gopher in his jaws. He trotted un- - concernedly by and went into the cans yon depths not fifty yards away, and • Dan Darado raised the deadly rifle and • drew a head. J Yet he did not fire. Even as his V finger pressed the trigger, he relaxed l himself, lowered the rifle and stared ’> fixedly at the wolf. 11 is hand trembled l a little and he muttered hoarsely. - Here was Hie bounty easily within his - reach. Here was the king of the I cattle-killers loping lightly by, a dead sure shot in* I lie certain light. Yet e Dan Darado did not lire. Why? Bec cause at that moment lie saw a brown 1 scar stretched like a whip-lash down i the flank of Hie big wolf. It began at e| his left ear and scoured his whole o llank to Hie root of the tail. So Dan - Darado knew Hus wolf; knew that il was Hie fighting wolf whose vixen he t had poisoned! I- Wliv did not Dan Darado fire? Bcs cause Ihe big wolf was carrying sontcU thing in ils jaws, and Dan 'know then "! that alone and unassisted it was <L carrying on Die duties which should have fallen to ils male. He know lliat e Ibis noble beast had hidden away Hie it little whelps somewhere in the oanv.m, • knew now that il was devoting its'life s to keeping the little creatures alive - as Jess would have done had she lived. '• So something seemed to grip Dan Dar•l ado’s trigger hand, and a voice in his >’ ear seemed to call him a murderer. I lie lay staring, staring, till the wolf nl had drifted out of sight, (lien lie cursed 'l himself for being a sentimental fool, a After all, the wolf was a wolf, a orcae ture that g ive no quarter and expected •• none; a creature well able to feud for ■’ itself and to set man’s schemes at

(Continued ia next column)

nought unless the man himself was cunning as a wolf, lie had missed his chance, and now he cursed himself for it! Yet somehow Dan Dorado went home none the sadder for what he had done. (To be Continued.)

iiiiiiiimiimiiimiiimmnmmimimimm and I had about three. We arrived home at ten to 12, so you will know how tired l was next morning:. It Is very hot to-day. I feel like {joins' f °Ye«Ue?dav our school girl friends came to play with us and we thought we would go Tor a walk. We went down past our shed and started down a big- hill to a little creek. This hill was all prickles and we were all bare-Tooted and It took us about hair an hour to pet down. We were all covered with thistles. When we got down we wanted to cross the creek, but it was very muddy, so we gathered some sticks to put across. When we had a good number we started to walk across. Raida walked across Hist but all the sticks sank when she started, but she stilt went on. When she got over to the other side she sank in ihe mud and her legs were covered In rnml. We til burst out laughing. She couldn t get out for laughing. Then the other two Wt* got some more sticks and I started to go over, but 1 got stuck, but 1 soon • got over.. Then we were called to go home and we could not get back. Ralrla and 1 were stuck in the mud. Anyway, we got out and then through the prickles ; we went. Our root were very sore.— , Copper Top (10), Whatawhnta. ’ llow pretty your Trock Tor the ball c must have been. Copper Top; we are so t glad you enjoyed It. Such run you had i on the hill and crossing the creek, didn’t you? reter thinks you must have been very muddy little people when you got | home. Write again soon.—Peter Pan.