Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/timberwolf00greg TIMBER-WOLF * * * * * * BY JACKSON GREGORY TIMBER-WOLF THE EVERLASTING WHISPER DESERT VALLEY MAN TO MAN LADYFINGERS THE BELLS OF SAN JUAN JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS * * * * * * TIMBER-WOLF by JACKSON GREGORY Author of The Everlasting Whisper, Desert Valley, etc. Charles Scribner's Sons New York :: :: :: 1923 Copyright, 1923, by Charles Scribner's Sons Copyright, 1923, by Doubleday, Page & Company Printed in the United States of America Published August, 1923 [Illustration: Logo] TO SUE "AS JULIANITO WOULD SAY: 'GOOD FOR PASS THE TIME AWAY!'" TIMBER-WOLF CHAPTER I Big Pine, tiny human outpost set well within the rim of the great southwestern wilderness country, was, like other aloof mountain settlements of its type, a place of infinite and monotonous quiet during most days of most years. Infrequently, however, for one reason or another, and at times seemingly for no reason whatever, came days of excitement. And, as those who knew the place said, when the denizens of Big Pine bestirred themselves into excitement they were never content until they skyrocketed into the seventh heaven of turbulence. The old-timers recalled how, back in '82, a dog fight in front of the Gallup House started a riot; in spite of the dictum that it takes only two dogs to make a fight, the two owners present entered with fine esprit into the thing, and before nightfall men were carrying sawed-off shotguns and some of the oldest and wisest citizens had dug themselves in as for a state of siege. This latest furore in and about Big Pine, however, had for cause an incident which since time was young has electrified both more and less sedate communities. True, it had begun with a fight; men, not dogs; yet it was what chance spilled from the torn coat pocket of one of them that transmuted slumbrous quiet into pandemonium. It was fitting that the Gallup House, centre of local activities, was the scene of the affair.