Krag, the Kootenay Ram 



our speech is, " Every one for himself now " ; 

 and so the band was scattered. Some went this 

 way and some that, running more or less openly. 



But Scotty's one thought was old Krag : he 

 heeded no other ; and when the Ram made 

 straight away eastward down the hill, Scotty 

 again took up his trail, and cursed and 

 gasped as he followed. 



The Flathead River was only a few miles 

 away. The Ram crossed on the ice, and keep- 

 ing the roughest ground, turning when the wind 

 turned, he travelled all day northeastward, with 

 Scotty steadily behind. On the fifth day they 

 passed near Terry's Lake. Scotty knew the 

 ground. The Ram was going east, and would 

 soon run into a lot of lumber-camps ; then turn 

 he must, for the region was a box canon ; there 

 was only one way out. Scotty quit the trail, 

 and crossing northward to this one defile, down 

 which the Ram must go, he waited. The 

 West— the Chinook— Wind had been rising for 

 an hour or more, the one damp wind of the Rock- 

 ies, the Snow Wind of the Hills ; and as it rose 

 the flakes began to fly. In half an hour more 

 it was a blinding snow-storm. Things twenty 



85 



