Part 22 (1/2)

At all events, the tip of one of the sweeping claws grazed his ear, opening the big vein, and hurting like the very ed frory dog No longer in doubt as to Bruin's intent, he slithered out of reach of the grasping ar speed of a wolf-descended collie of the best sort And, in practically the same fraction of a second, he had flashed back to the attack

Diving in under the other's surprisingly agile arms, he slashed the bear's stomach with one of his razorlike eyeteeth; then spun to one side and was out of reach Down ca forward, he flung his huge bulk at the dog

Lad flashed out of reach, but with less leeway than he would have expected For Bruin, for all his aardness, couldspeed

And, as the bear turned, Lad was at hi the hairy flank, till his teethbody of the foe

It was at this point the Master hove in sight He was just in time to see the flank-bite and to see Lad dance out of reach of the furious counter It was an interesting spectacle, there in the gray dawn and in the pri and a ragingly angry bear If the dog had been other than his own loved chuht have stood there and watched its outcoh of a woodsman to know there could, in all probability, be but one end to such a fight

Lad weighed eighty pounds,--an unusually heavy weight for a collie that carries no loose fat,--and he was theof his size the Master had ever seen Also, when he chose to exert it, Lad had the swiftness of a wildcat and the battling prowess of a tiger

Yet all this would scarce carry hiainst a black bear several times heavier than himself and with the ability to rend with his claws as well as with his teeth Once let Lad's foot slip, in charge or in elusive retreat,--once let hie time or distance--and he must be crushed to a pulp or ripped to ribbons

Wherefore, the Master brought his rifle to his shoulder His finger curled about the trigger But it was no easy thing, by that dihtest assurance that Lad,--dancing in and out and everywhere and nowhere at once,--ht not coe of bears and of their comparative mildness in the plus; and, at the same time, fired into the air

The bluff sufficed Even as Lad jumped back from close quarters and whirled about, at sound of the voice and the shot,--the bear dropped to all fours, with ridiculous haste; and sharowth

Not so far gone in the battle-lust had Bruin been that he cared to risk conflict with an ar life, had he heard at close quarters the snap of a rifle, in the forest stillness, and the whine of a bullet Once, such a bullet had found its nats and mayflies and ”no-see-'ems” and less cleanly pests had made a toroodto defend He was not at bay Nor had the fight-fury possessed hierly, Lad gave chase

But, at the very edge of the bush-raht the collie back, to heel, exceeding gluazed up at thesport Halfheartedly, Lad listened to the Master's rebuke, as he followed back to cahtfully! And, as usual, a hu time; and for no apparent reason Hu one other incident, Lad's teeks at camp were uneventful,--until the very last day That ”one incident” can be passed over, with modest brevity It concerned a black-and-white cat which Lad saw, one evening, sneaking past the caave chase The chase ended in less than ten seconds And, Lad had to be bathed and scoured and rubbed and anointed, for the best part of twenty-four hours, before he was allowed to co tent

On a raw , the car and the truck made their appearance at the foot of the rocky ht; and every cooking utensil and dish had been scoured and put into the crate as soon as it was used Camp was policed and cleaned

The fire was beaten to death; a half-score pails of water were dowsed over its re upon it

In short, the ca spot was not only left as it had been found and as one would want it to be found again, but every trace of fire was destroyed

And all this, be it known, is more than a mere rule for cahgoing sportsh to make his camp-site scrupulously clean, at least there is one detail he should never allow hilect;--a detail whose omission should be punished by a term in prison: Namely, the utter extinction of the campfire

Every year, millions of dollars' worth of splendid trees and of homes are wiped out, by forest fires No forest fire, since the birth of time, ever started of its own accord Each and every one has been due to huuished;--a s cinders of a railroad train,--adry leaves before spark and blaze have both been destroyed,--these be the first and only causes of the average forest fire All are avoidable None is avoided And the loss to property and to life and to natural resources is unbelievably great

Any fool can start a forest fire Indeed, a fool generally does But a hundred s Forest patrols, afoot or in airshi+ps, keep sharp watch But the selfish carelessness ofor in lush summer, but far oftenest in the dry autu black ruin in its wake Scarce an autumn passes that the dirty smoke reek does not creep overout the sunshi+ne for a tier

This particular autumn was no exception On the day before cahts of the knoll, a grim line of haze far to southward; and a lesser sht sky, on two horizons, had been faintly lurid

The campers had noted these phenomena, with sorrow For, each wraithlike smoke-swirl es as distinctly as did they Indeed, to his canine nostrils, the chill autuht the faint reek of wood-smoke; an odor much too elusive, at that distance, for hulance in worried concern at these hu why they took so coolly a manifestation that a thousand-year-old hereditary instinctshrink fron of terror or of rage And, as ever, taking his tone fro to fear So, he tried to give no further heed to the reek

The driver of the truck and his assistant were full of tales of the fire's ravages in other sections And their recital was heard with active interest by the folk who for fourteen days had been out of touch with the world

”It's e're lighting out for civilization,” said the Master, as he superintended the loading of the truck ”The woods are as dry as tinder And if the wind should change and grow a bit fresher, the blaze over near Wildcat Mountain ht come in this direction If ever it does, it'll travel faster than any gang of fire-fighters can block it

This region is dead ripe for such a thing Not a drop of rain in a s, as the collie sought to leap aboard the truck in the wake of a roll of bedding ”No, no You're going with us, in the car”

Now, long usage and an uncanny intelligence had given Lad a e's si with us in the car,” was as comprehensible to him as to any child He had heard it spoken, with few variations, a thousand ti the Master's command, he jumped down from the truck; trotted off to the car, a hundred yards distant; and sprang into his wonted place in the luggage-cluttered tonneau

He chanced to juuide's hobbledehoy son was hoisting a heavy and cu into the tonneau, froy sh in air, preparatory to setting it down between two other sacks As a result, boy and bag rolled backward in a tangled eround