THE STRENGTH OF THE PINES

BY EDISON MARSHALL

WITH FRONTISPIECE BY
W. HERBERT DUNTON

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1921

Copyright, 1921,
By Little, Brown, and Company.

All rights reserved

Published February, 1921

THE COLONIAL PRESS
C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.

TO
LILLE BARTOO MARSHALL
DEAR COMRADE AND GUIDE
WHO GAVE ME LIFE

He marked the little space of gray squarely between the two reddening eyes.

CONTENTS

BOOK ONE The Call of the Blood

I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X

BOOK TWO The Blood Atonement

XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
XXIV
XXV

BOOK THREE The Coming of the Strength

XXVI
XXVII
XXVIII
XXIX
XXX
XXXI
XXXII
XXXIII
XXXIV

By EDISON MARSHALL

THE STRENGTH OF THE PINES

BOOK ONE

THE CALL OF THE BLOOD

I

Bruce was wakened by the sharp ring of his telephone bell. He heard its first note; and its jingle seemed to continue endlessly. There was no period of drowsiness between sleep and wakefulness; instantly he was fully aroused, in complete control of all his faculties. And this is not especially common to men bred in the security of civilization. Rather it is a trait of the wild creatures; a little matter that is quite necessary if they care at all about living. A deer, for instance, that cannot leap out of a mid-afternoon nap, soar a fair ten feet in the air, and come down with legs in the right position for running comes to a sad end, rather soon, in a puma's claws. Frontiersmen learn the trait too; but as Bruce was a dweller of cities it