E-text prepared by David Edwards, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/songofthewolf00mayerich THE SONG OF THE WOLF by FRANK MAYER Copyright, 1910, by Moffat, Yard and Company New York Published, April, 1910 CONTENTS I. A RIFT IN THE LUTE II. THE MARK OF THE BEAST III. AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING IV. IN THE MIDST OF ALARUMS V. "HER HEART WON'T BE BROKE NONE" VI. THE MAN AND THE WOMAN VII. BELSHAZZAR VIII. THE PASSING OF A CLOUD IX. IN PART PAYMENT X. THAT WHICH IS CAESAR'S XI. FRENZIED FINANCE XII. NOT STRICTLY ACCORDING TO PROGRAM XIII. A LAUGH IN THE NIGHT XIV. A FAIR FIELD AND NO FAVORS XV. GREAT EXPECTATIONS XVI. THE SONG OF THE WOLF XVII. THE FROWNING GODDESS SMILES XVIII. IN THE HOUSE OF POTIPHAR XIX. MUTUAL ASSISTANCE XX. A PASSAGE AT ARMS XXI. THE WIDENING CHASM XXII. THE RENUNCIATION XXIII. BELSHAZZAR COMES BACK TO STAY "When a man gets through playin' thu goat he gin'rally feels some obligated to act the sheep foh a spell, so's to even up thu deal." Red McVey THE SONG OF THE WOLF CHAPTER I A RIFT IN THE LUTE Everything else was in harmony. If the sky turquoise was a shade or two paler than the prescribed robin's-egg, it blended perfectly with the unpronounced greens of the sprouting grass and the uncertain olive of the budding sagebrush. On the crest of the distant divide a silver-gray wreath of aspens lay against the tawny cheek of the mountain as daintily as an otter-fur collarette on the neck of a girl. Even the darker girdle of spruce and pine, lower down, lost its harsh individuality, merging insensibly into the faded umbers, sepias, lavenders and tans of the graduating background where the rocks and buckbrush fell away to the open slopes beneath. On the vega below, the alkaline scars, as yet uncalcined by the sun's fires into glaring chalkiness, gave no offense in their moist neutrality, and the coyote slinking dejectedly among the deserted prairie-dog mounds was, in his ash-colored surtout, as inconspicuous as the long wan shadows cast by the weak spring sun. In the hollow of the foothill's arm lay a little lake, fed by a brook born in heights so remote that its purl was deduced rather than heard, and over all lay the soft glow of the fading twilight, accentuated by the subtle incense of the young year's breath.