Baree Son of Kazan Read online

  CHAPTER 1

  To Baree, for many days after he was born, the world was a vast gloomycavern.

  During these first days of his life his home was in the heart of agreat windfall where Gray Wolf, his blind mother, had found a safe nestfor his babyhood, and to which Kazan, her mate, came only now and then,his eyes gleaming like strange balls of greenish fire in the darkness.It was Kazan's eyes that gave to Baree his first impression ofsomething existing away from his mother's side, and they brought to himalso his discovery of vision. He could feel, he could smell, he couldhear--but in that black pit under the fallen timber he had never seenuntil the eyes came. At first they frightened him; then they puzzledhim, and his fear changed to an immense curiosity. He would be lookingstraight at them, when all at once they would disappear. This was whenKazan turned his head. And then they would flash back at him again outof the darkness with such startling suddenness that Baree wouldinvoluntarily shrink closer to his mother, who always trembled andshivered in a strange sort of way when Kazan came in.

  Baree, of course, would never know their story. He would never knowthat Gray Wolf, his mother, was a full-blooded wolf, and that Kazan,his father, was a dog. In him nature was already beginning itswonderful work, but it would never go beyond certain limitations. Itwould tell him, in time, that his beautiful wolf mother was blind, buthe would never know of that terrible battle between Gray Wolf and thelynx in which his mother's sight had been destroyed. Nature could tellhim nothing of Kazan's merciless vengeance, of the wonderful years oftheir matehood, of their loyalty, their strange adventures in the greatCanadian wilderness--it could make him only a son of Kazan.

  But at first, and for many days, it was all mother. Even after his eyeshad opened wide and he had found his legs so that he could stumbleabout a little in the darkness, nothing existed for Baree but hismother. When he was old enough to be playing with sticks and moss outin the sunlight, he still did not know what she looked like. But to himshe was big and soft and warm, and she licked his face with her tongue,and talked to him in a gentle, whimpering way that at last made himfind his own voice in a faint, squeaky yap.

  And then came that wonderful day when the greenish balls of fire thatwere Kazan's eyes came nearer and nearer, a little at a time, and verycautiously. Heretofore Gray Wolf had warned him back. To be alone wasthe first law of her wild breed during mothering time. A low snarl fromher throat, and Kazan had always stopped. But on this day the snarl didnot come. In Gray Wolf's throat it died away in a low, whimperingsound. A note of loneliness, of gladness, of a great yearning. "It isall right now," she was saying to Kazan; and Kazan--pausing for amoment to make sure--replied with an answering note deep in his throat.

  Still slowly, as if not quite sure of what he would find, Kazan came tothem, and Baree snuggled closer to his mother. He heard Kazan as hedropped down heavily on his belly close to Gray Wolf. He wasunafraid--and mightily curious. And Kazan, too, was curious. Hesniffed. In the gloom his ears were alert. After a little Baree beganto move. An inch at a time he dragged himself away from Gray Wolf'sside. Every muscle in her lithe body tensed. Again her wolf blood waswarning her. There was danger for Baree. Her lips drew back, baring herfangs. Her throat trembled, but the note in it never came. Out of thedarkness two yards away came a soft, puppyish whine, and the caressingsound of Kazan's tongue.

  Baree had felt the thrill of his first great adventure. He haddiscovered his father.

  This all happened in the third week of Baree's life. He was justeighteen days old when Gray Wolf allowed Kazan to make the acquaintanceof his son. If it had not been for Gray Wolf's blindness and the memoryof that day on the Sun Rock when the lynx had destroyed her eyes, shewould have given birth to Baree in the open, and his legs would havebeen quite strong. He would have known the sun and the moon and thestars; he would have realized what the thunder meant, and would haveseen the lightning flashing in the sky. But as it was, there had beennothing for him to do in that black cavern under the windfall butstumble about a little in the darkness, and lick with his tiny redtongue the raw bones that were strewn about them. Many times he hadbeen left alone. He had heard his mother come and go, and nearly alwaysit had been in response to a yelp from Kazan that came to them like adistant echo. He had never felt a very strong desire to follow untilthis day when Kazan's big, cool tongue caressed his face. In thosewonderful seconds nature was at work. His instinct was not quite bornuntil then. And when Kazan went away, leaving them alone in darkness,Baree whimpered for him to come back, just as he had cried for hismother when now and then she had left him in response to her mate'scall.

  The sun was straight above the forest when, an hour or two afterKazan's visit, Gray Wolf slipped away. Between Baree's nest and the topof the windfall were forty feet of jammed and broken timber throughwhich not a ray of light could break. This blackness did not frightenhim, for he had yet to learn the meaning of light. Day, and not night,was to fill him with his first great terror. So quite fearlessly, witha yelp for his mother to wait for him, he began to follow. If Gray Wolfheard him, she paid no attention to his call, and the sound of thescraping of her claws on the dead timber died swiftly away.

  This time Baree did not stop at the eight-inch log which had alwaysshut in his world in that particular direction. He clambered to the topof it and rolled over on the other side. Beyond this was vastadventure, and he plunged into it courageously.

  It took him a long time to make the first twenty yards. Then he came toa log worn smooth by the feet of Gray Wolf and Kazan, and stoppingevery few feet to send out a whimpering call for his mother, he madehis way farther and farther along it. As he went, there grew slowly acurious change in this world of his. He had known nothing butblackness. And now this blackness seemed breaking itself up intostrange shapes and shadows. Once he caught the flash of a fiery streakabove him--a gleam of sunshine--and it startled him so that heflattened himself down upon the log and did not move for half a minute.Then he went on. An ermine squeaked under him. He heard the swiftrustling of a squirrel's feet, and a curious whut-whut-whut that wasnot at all like any sound his mother had ever made. He was off thetrail.

  The log was no longer smooth, and it was leading him upward higher andhigher into the tangle of the windfall, and was growing narrower everyfoot he progressed. He whined. His soft little nose sought vainly forthe warm scent of his mother. The end came suddenly when he lost hisbalance and fell. He let out a piercing cry of terror as he felthimself slipping, and then plunged downward. He must have been high upin the windfall, for to Baree it seemed a tremendous fall. His softlittle body thumped from log to log as he shot this way and that, andwhen at last he stopped, there was scarcely a breath left in him. Buthe stood up quickly on his four trembling legs--and blinked.

  A new terror held Baree rooted there. In an instant the whole world hadchanged. It was a flood of sunlight. Everywhere he looked he could seestrange things. But it was the sun that frightened him most. It was hisfirst impression of fire, and it made his eyes smart. He would haveslunk back into the friendly gloom of the windfall, but at this momentGray Wolf came around the end of a great log, followed by Kazan. Shemuzzled Baree joyously, and Kazan in a most doglike fashion wagged histail. This mark of the dog was to be a part of Baree. Half wolf, hewould always wag his tail. He tried to wag it now. Perhaps Kazan sawthe effort, for he emitted a muffled yelp of approbation as he sat backon his haunches.

  Or he might have been saying to Gray Wolf:

  "Well, we've got the little rascal out of that windfall at last,haven't we?"

  For Baree it had been a great day. He had discovered his father--andthe world.