Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 113: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Lisbeth 95 The pack was scarcely two hundred yards behind, and his followers, seven in number, more strung along behind. Her flight brought a louder, more exultant note into the pack cry. She fairly dived under the bent-over willow that had sheltered her be- fore. Instantly she spun around and faced her enemies. She had short time to wait. The leader of the pack was wisely skirting the trail she had made and staying on the crust. With- out hesitation he threw himself into the trail and dashed head-long under the willow bush after his victim. Lisbeth squealed in ter- ror, and then her right front foot shot up in the air. The smoothly worn iron shoe glinted in the air like silver and then it came down squarely on top of the wolf’s head, smashing his skull like an egg-shell. The leader lay flattened and harmless before the next wolf arrived and, seeing him thus, confidence came back to the old white mule ina rush. She was better prepared for the next one when he bolted in, but her last blow was only a glancing one. The wolf whined with pain and sprang for her throat. She reared until her ears struck the roof of her willow shed, and both feet drove downward upon the wolf’s back, He went down, crippled and helpless. Again and again she struck, and the other wolves, now aware that they had a battle on their hands, slid to a stop, snarling and snapping, the foam driveling from their slavering jaws. They encircled her and a woil launched an attack from the rear to ham-string her. Lisbeth doubled herself into a knot and lashed out with both hind feet. The wolf was kicked twenty feet, as dead as the two leaders of the pack. Some of them climbed to the top of the willow shed in an attempt to reach her back. At first the thick crust of the snow resisted them, but they began to gnaw through it. Then, suddenly, it gave way and a heavy wolf dropped through the snow onto the sprangled willows, which gave him no footing, nor yet parted enough tolet him through. He gavea startled yelp of fear and fought and clambered until he had got back to safety. His struggies had caused the others to withdraw, and with a sudden rush they all attacked the body of the wolf Lisbeth had kicked out on the snow. It was nearly dark when they returned to the siege of Lisbeth. But their stomachs were full and none of them had the hardi- hood to brave those death-dealing feet. Lisbeth moved constantly so that she could watch both openings. She could hear them for a while snarling and snapping over the remnants of the carcass of the dead wolf on the outside and then the sounds grew more remote. But not once during the long night did her vigilance relax. “Morning came and there was no sign of the wolf packs, With the keen edge of their hunger taken off they had withdrawn to- ward the mountains from which they had been lured by the outlaws. With a disdain- ful sniff at the bodies of the two dead wolves which had been with her all night she stepped from her shelter and gazed around. She sensed at once a change in the weather. It had turned warmer, and soft, fleecy clouds were floating lightly through a sky that was no longer hard as brass. She was thirsty and she went back to the camp-ground and again absorbed snow and scattered grains of oats. At last, feeling well satisfied, she headed her aged body down the trail toward the second-growth willows. The farther toward the lower end of the island she got the more tender were the willow shoots. Finally she found a frozen-over Swamp where the bulrushes were so tall that they stood two feet above the ice. By breaking the crust with her feet and pawing a little she was able to reach the frozen rushes. EARLY in the spring Alex Che- gasse—=> mney came north witha new wagon- seTUwaee «train loaded with freight for Tim- —mer ber City. He had used his last cartridge to shoot a huge snow-shoe rabbit that had lasted him until he struck an In- dian village on the banks of the Snake. Here he had obtained food enough to get him to Fort Hall. There the soldiers had grub-staked him and he reached Salt Lake the thirtieth day of December—in time to save his business. “T left ole Lisbeth on an island some- where off here to the right,” he told his wagon boss as they came back. “I’ve a notion to go over an’ see where she died. It the wolves ain’t eat her I’ll bury her. If ever a mule deserved a decent burial Lis- beth does.” The wagon boss laughed, but Alex was determined, and while the train stopped for dinner the two of them rode over to the island. They found it no hard matter to COMIGDIOOKSEEO