s
as to be familiarly styled "The Zoo." There were two or three paddocks
of deer, of different North American species--for the society was
inclined to specialize on the wild kindreds of native origin. There
were moose, caribou, a couple of bears, raccoons, foxes, porcupines,
two splendid pumas, a rather flea-bitten and toothless tiger, and the
Gray Master, solitary in his cage!

A sure instinct led Kane straight to that cage, which immediately
adjoined the big double cage of the pumas. As he approached, he caught
sight of a tall, gray shape pacing, pacing, pacing, pacing to and fro
behind the bars with a sort of measured restlessness that spoke an
immeasurable monotony. When he reached the front of the cage, Kane saw
that the great wolf's eyes were noting nothing of what was about him,
but dim with some far-off vision. As he marked the look in them, and
thought of what they must be remembering and aching for, his heart
began to smite him. He felt his first pang of self-reproach, for
having doomed to ignominious exile and imprisonment this splendid
creature who had deserved, at least, to die free. As he mused over
this point, half angrily, the Gray Master suddenly paused, and his
thin nostrils wrinkled. Perhaps there still clung about Kane's clothes
some scent of the spruce woods, some pungent breath of the cedar
swamps. He turned and looked Kane straight in the eyes.

There was unmistakable recognition in that deep stare. There was
also, to Kane's sensitive imagination, a tameless hate and an
unspeakable but dauntless despair. Convicted in his own mind of a
gross and merciless misunderstanding of his wild kindreds, whom he
professed to know so well, he glanced up and saw the painted placard
staring down at him, exactly as he had anticipated----

CANIS OCCIDENTALIS.
EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
PRESENTED BY ARTHUR KANE, ESQ.

The sight sickened him. He had a foolish impulse to tear it down and
to abase himself with a plea for pardon before the silent beast behind
the bars. But when he looked again, the Gray Master had turned away,
and was once more, with indrawn, far-off vision in his eyes, pacing,
pacing, pacing to and fro. Kane felt overwhelmed with the intolerable
weariness of it, as if it had been going on, just like that, ever
since he had pronounced this doom upon his vanquished adversary, and
as if it would go on like that forever. In vain by coax