Raymond S. Spears

“ White blood is in my veins and this means a struggle for ideals and the longing of ages for better things than we children of civilization have yet attained. I war with myself. My heart challenges my soul. But though you are all white, still you are gifted with the great boon of dissatisfaction. ”

“ It’s the hangout of all the wolves in this country—rabbit hunters and stock killers both. Some go into the timber belt on Singing Bird mountains, but probably the snow’ll drive them back into the Wolf Dens hangout. Anyhow, I saw their tracks in woods and open desert—the same wolves. Bare ground trapping is easier than in the snow. They can’t read a trapper’s tracks so well, in any event. ”

“ But if you make of your temptations the stepping-stones to usefulness according to your opportunities and genius, surely you are blessed. When you have caught the outlaw band of wolves are you going on catching wolves? ”

“ Their tracks covered the revealing page with a thousand tales of their adventures and the tragedies of the necessities of the living and the fates of the victims of the ravenous. And Fortune had played a curious prank on the young woman who had thrown herself upon the mercy of Fate. That year silver and black foxes were at their best. The demand had never been so great in the fur marts. Pretty Shells made cunning lures and contrived deadly engines, which combined the intimate knowledge of the Indian nature student with the ingenuity of the methodical white race. ”

“ Her very tenderness had increased the pain of those who loved her, but in all the world there was not one honest man who had been embittered by her. She could resist without being hard, she could even flirt a little, playfully, and so well that none could misunderstand her good nature. ”

“ When, three days later he was ready to go almost westerly to the Wolf Dens, the headquarters of the outlaw pack, Pretty Shells was also ready to go on her own nearly due north trail toward the Singing Bird mountains. The ranch boys helped both of them load their horses and just after sunrise they waved good-by all around to go their lonely ways. ”

“ The jays, who are all rogues, are still to be respected for their laughter. I may even be able to make the Great Bear listen to me.”
“As long as you are not seen by that fellow Tom Redding, or whatever is his real name, I know you’ll be all right.”
“He is the evil devil of the mountain chain,” she admitted. “He came there when Running Voice and I had built our cabin. He despised an Indian. At the same time he hurried on his way, after Running Voice had told him how to find the passes over the mountains into the more distant Disappearing River basin. ”