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21 - Kazan by James Oliver Curwood · Kazan

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one is shot on the sand Bar. July
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and August of nineteen eleven were months of great fires
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: in the Northland. The swamp home of Kazan and gray
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  Speaker 1: Wolf and the green valley between the two ridges had
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  Speaker 1: escaped the seas of devastating flame. But now as they
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: set forth on their wandering adventures again, it was not
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  Speaker 1: long before their padded feet came in contact with the
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  Speaker 1: seared and blackened desolation that had followed so closely after
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  Speaker 1: the plague and starvation of the preceding winter. In his
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  Speaker 1: humiliation and defeat after being driven from his swamp home
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  Speaker 1: by the beavers, Kazan led his blind mate first into
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  Speaker 1: the south, twenty miles beyond the ridge they struck the
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  Speaker 1: fire killed forests. Winds from Hudson's Bay had driven the
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  Speaker 1: flames in bus an unbroken sea into the west, and
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  Speaker 1: they had left not a vestige of life or a
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  Speaker 1: patch of green. Blind gray Wolf could not see the
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  Speaker 1: blackened world, but she sensed it. It recalled to her
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  Speaker 1: memory of that other fire after the battle on the
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  Speaker 1: Sun Rock, and all of her wonderful instincts, sharpened and
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  Speaker 1: developed by her blindness, told her that to the north
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  Speaker 1: and not south lay the hunting grounds they were seeking.
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  Speaker 1: The strain of dog that was in Ghazan still pulled
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  Speaker 1: him south. It was not because he sought man, for
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  Speaker 1: to man he had now become as deadly an enemy
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  Speaker 1: as gray Wolf herself. It was simply dog instinct to
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  Speaker 1: travel southward in the face of fire. It was wolf
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: instinct to travel northward. At the end of the third day,
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  Speaker 1: Gray Wolf won. They recrossed the little valley between the
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  Speaker 1: two ridges and swung north and west into the Athabasca country,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: striking a course that would ultimately bring them to the
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  Speaker 1: head waters of the MacFarlane River. Late in the preceding autumn,
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  Speaker 1: a prospector had come up to Fort Smith on the
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  Speaker 1: Slave River with a pickle bottle filled with gold dust
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  Speaker 1: and nuggets. He had made the find on the mac Farlane.
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  Speaker 1: The first males had taken the news to the outside world,
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  Speaker 1: and by midwinter the earliest members of a treasure hunting
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  Speaker 1: horde were rushing into the country by snowshoe and dog sledge.
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  Speaker 1: Other finds came thick and fast. The mac Farlane was
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  Speaker 1: rich in free gold, and miners by the score staked
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  Speaker 1: out their claims along it and began work. Late comers
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  Speaker 1: swung to new fields farther north and east, and to
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  Speaker 1: Fort Smith came rumors of finds richer than those of
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  Speaker 1: the Yukon. A score of men, at first, then a hundred,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred, a thousand, rushed into the new country. Most
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  Speaker 1: of these were from the prairie countries to the south,
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  Speaker 1: and from the placer beds of the Saskatchewan and the
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  Speaker 1: Fraser from the far north. Traveling by way of the
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  Speaker 1: Mackenzie and the Leyard, came a smaller number of seasoned
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  Speaker 1: prospectors and adventurers from the Yukon, men who knew what
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  Speaker 1: it meant to starve and freeze and die by inches.
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  Speaker 1: One of these late comers was Sandy mc trigger. There
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  Speaker 1: were several reasons why Sandy had left the Yukon. He
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  Speaker 1: was in bad with the police who patrolled the country
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  Speaker 1: west of Dawson, and he was broke. In spite of
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  Speaker 1: these facts, he was one of the best prospectors that
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  Speaker 1: had ever followed the shores of the Klondike. He had
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  Speaker 1: made discoveries running up to a million or two, and
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  Speaker 1: had promptly lost them through gambling and drink. He had
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  Speaker 1: no conscience and little fear. Brutality was the chief thing
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  Speaker 1: written in his face. His undershot jaw, his wide eyes,
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  Speaker 1: low forehead, and grizzly mop of red hair proclaimed him
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  Speaker 1: at once as a man not to be trusted beyond
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  Speaker 1: one's own vision or the reach of a bullet. It
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  Speaker 1: was suspected that he had killed a couple of men
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  Speaker 1: and robbed others, but as yet the police had failed
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  Speaker 1: to get anything on him. But along with this bad
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  Speaker 1: side of him, Sanny mac trigger possessed a coolness and
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  Speaker 1: a courage which even his worst enemies could not but admire,
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  Speaker 1: and also certain mental depths which his unpleasant features did
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  Speaker 1: not proclaim. Inside of six months, red Gold City had
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  Speaker 1: sprung up on the mac farlane, a hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: miles from Fort Smith, and Fort Smith was five hundred
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  Speaker 1: miles from civilization. When Sandy came, he looked over the
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  Speaker 1: crude collection of shacks, gambling houses, and saloons in the
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  Speaker 1: new town and made up his mind that the time
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  Speaker 1: was not ripe for any of his inside schemes. Just yet,
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  Speaker 1: he gambled a little, and once sufficient to buy himself
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  Speaker 1: grub and half an outfit. A feature of this outfit
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  Speaker 1: was an old muzzle loading rifle. Sandy, who always carried
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  Speaker 1: the latest savage on the market, laughed at it, but
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  Speaker 1: it was the best his finances would allow of. He
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  Speaker 1: started south up the MacFarlane. Beyond a certain point on
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  Speaker 1: the river, prospectors had found no gold. Sandy pushed confidently
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  Speaker 1: beyond this point. Not until he was in new country
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  Speaker 1: did he begin his search. Slowly, he worked his way
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  Speaker 1: up a small tributary whose head waters were fifty or
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  Speaker 1: sixty miles to the south and east. Here and there
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  Speaker 1: he found fairly good placer gold. He might have panned
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  Speaker 1: six or eight dollars worth a day with this much,
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  Speaker 1: he was disgusted. Week after week he continued to work
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  Speaker 1: his way up stream, and the farther he went, the
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  Speaker 1: poorer his pans became. At last, only occasionally did he
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  Speaker 1: find colors. After such disgusting weeks as these. Sandy was
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  Speaker 1: dangerous when in the company of others. Alone, he was harmless.
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  Speaker 1: One afternoon he ran his canoe ashore on a white
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  Speaker 1: strip of sand. This was at a bend where the
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  Speaker 1: stream had widened and gave promise of at least a
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  Speaker 1: few colors. He had bat down close to the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the water when something caught his attention on the
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  Speaker 1: wet sand. What he saw were the footprints of animals.
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  Speaker 1: Two had come down to drink. They had stood side
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  Speaker 1: by side, and the footprints were fresh made. Not more
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  Speaker 1: than an hour or two before a gleam of interest
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  Speaker 1: shot into Sandy's eyes. He looked behind him and up
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  Speaker 1: and down the stream wolves. He grunted, wish I could
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  Speaker 1: a shot at him with that old minute gun. Back there.
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  Speaker 1: God listen to that, and in broad daylight too. He
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  Speaker 1: jumped to his feet, staring off into the bush. A
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  Speaker 1: quarter of a mile away. Gray Wolf had caught the
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  Speaker 1: dreaded scent of man in the wind and was giving
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  Speaker 1: voice to her warning. It was a long wailing howl,
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  Speaker 1: and not until its last echoes had died away did
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  Speaker 1: Sandy mc trigger move. Then he returned to the canoe,
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  Speaker 1: took out his old gun, put a fresh cap on
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  Speaker 1: the nipple, and disappeared quickly over the edge of the bank.
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  Speaker 1: For a week, Kazan and gray Wolf had been wandering
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  Speaker 1: about the head waters of the mac Farlane, and this
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  Speaker 1: was the first time since the preceding winter that gray
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  Speaker 1: Wolf had caught the scent of man in the air.
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  Speaker 1: When the wind brought the danger signal to her. She
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  Speaker 1: was alone two or three minutes before the scent came
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  Speaker 1: to her. Kazan had left her side in swift pursuit
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  Speaker 1: of a snowshoe rabbit, and she lay flat on her
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  Speaker 1: belly under a bush waiting for him. In these moments
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  Speaker 1: when she was alone, gray Wolf was constantly sniffing the air.
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  Speaker 1: Blindness had developed her scent and hearing until they were
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  Speaker 1: next to infallible. First, she had heard the rattle of
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  Speaker 1: Sandy mc trigger's paddle against the side of his canoe
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  Speaker 1: a quarter of a mile away. Scent had followed swiftly.
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  Speaker 1: Five minutes after her warning howl. Kazan stood at her side,
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  Speaker 1: his head flung up, his jaws open and panting. Sandy
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  Speaker 1: had hunted Arctic foxes, and he was using the Esquimaux tactic,
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  Speaker 1: snow swinging in a half circle until he should come
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  Speaker 1: up in the face of the wind. Kazan caught a
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  Speaker 1: single whiff of the man tainted air, and his spine
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  Speaker 1: grew stiff. But blind gray Wolf was keener than the
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  Speaker 1: little red eyed fox of the north. Her pointed nose
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  Speaker 1: slowly followed Sandy's progress. She heard a dry stick crack
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  Speaker 1: under his feet. Three hundred yards away, she caught the
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  Speaker 1: metallic click of his gun barrel as it struck a
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  Speaker 1: birch sapling. The moment she lost Sandy in the wind,
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  Speaker 1: she whined and rubbed herself against Kazan and trotted a
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  Speaker 1: few steps to the southwest. At times such as this,
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  Speaker 1: Kazan seldom refused to take guidance from her. They trotted
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  Speaker 1: away side by side, and by the time Sandy was
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  Speaker 1: creeping up snakelike with the wind in his face, Kazan
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  Speaker 1: was peering from the fringe of river brushed down upon
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  Speaker 1: the canoe on the white strip of sand. When Sandy
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  Speaker 1: returned after an hour of futile stalking, two fresh tracks
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  Speaker 1: led straight down to the canoe. He looked at them
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  Speaker 1: and amazement, and then a sinister grin wrinkled his ugly face.
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  Speaker 1: He chuckled as he went to his kit and dug
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  Speaker 1: out a small rubber bag. From this he drew a
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  Speaker 1: tightly corked bottle filled with gelatine capsules. In each little
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  Speaker 1: capsule were five grains of strychnine. There were dark hints
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  Speaker 1: that once upon a time Sanny mc trigger had tried
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  Speaker 1: one of these capsules by dropping it in a cup
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  Speaker 1: of coffee and giving it to a man, but the
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  Speaker 1: police had never proved it. He was expert in the
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  Speaker 1: use of poison. Probably he had killed a thousand foxes
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  Speaker 1: in his time. And he chuckled again as he counted
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  Speaker 1: out a dozen of the capsules, and thought how easy
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  Speaker 1: it would be to get this inquisitive pair of wolves.
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  Speaker 1: Two or three days before he had killed a cariboo,
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  Speaker 1: and each of the capsules he now rolled up in
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  Speaker 1: a little ball of deer fat, doing the work with
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  Speaker 1: short sticks in place of his fingers, so that there
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  Speaker 1: would be no man's smell. Clinging to the death baits
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  Speaker 1: before sundown, Sandy set out at right angles over the plain,
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  Speaker 1: planting the bates. Most of them he hung to low bushes.
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  Speaker 1: Others he dropped in worn rabbit and cariboo trails. Then
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  Speaker 1: he returned to the creek and cooked his supper. Then
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  Speaker 1: next morning he was up early and off to the
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  Speaker 1: poison baits. The first bait was untouched, the second was
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  Speaker 1: as he had planted it, the third was gone. A
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  Speaker 1: thrill shot through Sandy as he looked about him. Somewhere
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  Speaker 1: with an a radius of two or three hundred yards
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  Speaker 1: he would find his game. Then his glance fell to
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  Speaker 1: the ground under the bush where he had hung the
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  Speaker 1: poison capsule, and an oath broke from his lips. The
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  Speaker 1: bait had not been eaten. The caribou fat lay scattered
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  Speaker 1: under the bush, and still embedded in the largest portion
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  Speaker 1: of it was the little white capsule, unbroken. It was
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  Speaker 1: Sandy's first experience with a wild creature whose instincts were
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  Speaker 1: sharpened by blindness, and he was puzzled. He had never
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  Speaker 1: known this to happen before. If a fox or a
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  Speaker 1: wolf could be lured to the point of touching a bait,
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  Speaker 1: it followed that the bait was eaten. Sandy went on
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  Speaker 1: to the fourth and the fifth baits. They were untouched.
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  Speaker 1: The sixth was torn to pieces. Like the third. In
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  Speaker 1: this instance, the capsule was broken and the white powder scattered.
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  Speaker 1: Two more poison baits Sandy found pulled down in this manner.
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  Speaker 1: He knew that Kazan and gray Wolf had done the work,
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  Speaker 1: for he found the marks of their feet in a
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  Speaker 1: dozen different places. The accumulated bad humor of weeks of
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  Speaker 1: futile labor found vent in his disappointment and anger. At last,
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  Speaker 1: he had found something tangible to curse. The failure of
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  Speaker 1: his poison baits, he accepted as a sort of climax
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  Speaker 1: to his general bad luck. Everything was against him, he believed,
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  Speaker 1: and he made up his mind to return to Red
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  Speaker 1: Gold City. Early in the afternoon, he launched his canoe
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  Speaker 1: and drifted down stream with the current. He was content
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  Speaker 1: to let the currents do all of the work to day,
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  Speaker 1: and he used his paddle just enough to keep his
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  Speaker 1: slender craft head on. He leaned back comfortably and smoked
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  Speaker 1: his pipe with the old rifle between his knees. The
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  Speaker 1: wind was in his face, and he kept a sharp
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: watch for game. It was late in the afternoon when
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  Speaker 1: Kazan and Gray Wolf came out on a sand bar
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  Speaker 1: five or six miles down stream. Kazan was lapping up
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  Speaker 1: the cool water when Sandy drifted quietly around a bend
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  Speaker 1: a hundred yards above them. If the wind had been right,
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  Speaker 1: or if Sandy had been using his paddle, gray Wolf
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  Speaker 1: would have detected danger. It was the metallic click click
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  Speaker 1: of the old fashioned lock of Sandy's rifle that awakened
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  Speaker 1: her to a sense of peril. Instantly, she was thrilled
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  Speaker 1: by the nearness of it. Kazan heard the sound and
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  Speaker 1: stopped drinking to face it. In that moment, Sandy pressed
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  Speaker 1: the trigger, a belch of smoke, a roar of gunpowder,
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  Speaker 1: and Kazan felt a red hot stream of fire pass
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  Speaker 1: with the swiftness of a lightning flash through his brain.
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  Speaker 1: He stumbled back, His legs gave way under him, and
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  Speaker 1: he crumpled down in a limp. Heap ray Wolf darted
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  Speaker 1: like a streak off into the bush. Blind. She had
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: not seen Kazan wilt down upon the white sand. Not
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: until she was a quarter of a mile away from
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  Speaker 1: the terrifying thunder of the white man's rifle did she
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  Speaker 1: stop and wait for him. Sandy mc trigger grounded his
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  Speaker 1: canoe on the sand bar with an exultant yell. Got you,
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  Speaker 1: you old devil Dendi, he cried, I'd got the other
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  Speaker 1: two if i'd a had something beside this damned old relic.
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  Speaker 1: He turned Zan's head over with the butt of his gun,
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  Speaker 1: and the leer of satisfaction in his face gave place
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  Speaker 1: to a sudden look of amazement. For the first time
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  Speaker 1: he saw the collar about Kazan's neck. My god, it
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  Speaker 1: ain't a wolf, he gasped, it's a dog. Sandimu trigger
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  Speaker 1: a dog. End of chapter twenty one of Kazan by
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: James Oliver Kirkwood. Recording by Leonard Wilson of Springfield, Ohio,