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diff --git a/25082.txt b/25082.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bae9f15 --- /dev/null +++ b/25082.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3967 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yellow Horde, by Hal G. Evarts + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Yellow Horde + +Author: Hal G. Evarts + +Illustrator: Charles Livingston Bull + +Release Date: April 17, 2008 [EBook #25082] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW HORDE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sarah Thomson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + ++-------------------------------------------------------------+ +|Transcriber's Note: Variations in hyphenation are preserved. | +|Specifically, "homecoming" vs. "home-coming" and "timberline"| +|vs. "timber-line". | ++-------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +THE YELLOW HORDE + + +[Illustration: When dawn lifted the shadows from the low country, Breed +was prowling along the first rim of the hills. + +FRONTISPIECE. _See page 6._] + + + + + THE YELLOW HORDE + BY HAL G. EVARTS + + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + CHARLES LIVINGSTON BULL + + + TORONTO + McCLELLAND AND STEWART + 1921 + + + + + _Copyright, 1921,_ + BY HAL G. EVARTS. + + + _All rights reserved_ + Published April, 1921 + + + Norwood Press + Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co. + Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + When dawn lifted the shadows from the low + country, Breed was prowling along the first rim + of the hills _Frontispiece_ + + The elk migration had begun PAGE 63 + + As the summer advanced the pups learned to + pack-hunt with Breed 167 + + Breed was compelled to hunt farther from home + as the deer quit the valleys 191 + + + + +THE YELLOW HORDE + +CHAPTER I + + +The wolfer lay in his cabin and listened to the first few night sounds +of the foothills. The clear piping notes of migrating plover floated +softly down to him, punctuated by the rasping cry of a nighthawk. A +coyote raised his voice, a perfect tenor note that swept up to a wild +soprano, then fell again in a whirl of howls which carried amazing +shifts of inflection, tearing up and down the coyote scale. One after +another added his voice to the chorus until it seemed that the swelling +volume could be produced by no less than a full thousand musical prairie +wolves scattered through the foothills for a score of miles. + +Wild music to the ears of most men, the song of flat wastes and deserts +and limitless horizons, freighted with a loneliness which is +communicated to man in a positive ache for companionship,--and which +carries a wealth of companionship in itself for those who have lived so +long under the open skies that the song of the desert choir comes to +them as a lullaby. + +It moved Collins, the wolfer, to quiet mirth. Always it affected him +that way, this first clamorous outburst of the night. He read in it a +note of deep-seated humor, the jeering laughter of the whole coyote +tribe mocking the world of men who had sworn to exterminate their kind. + +"The little devils!" Collins chuckled. "The little yellow devils! Men +can't wipe 'em out. There'll be a million coyotes left to howl when the +last man dies." + +From this oft-repeated prophecy Collins was known to every stockman in +three States as the Coyote Prophet, the title a jeering one at first, +then bestowed with increasing respect as men saw many of his prophecies +fulfilled. The coyote's larger cousin, the wolf, ranged the continent +over while the coyote himself was strictly a prairie dweller. For twenty +years Collins had predicted that wolves would disappear in settled +districts while the coyote would survive; not only survive but increase +his range to include the hills and spread over the continent from the +Arctic to the Gulf. There were rumors of coyotes turning up in Indiana. +Then came the tale that a strange breed of small yellow wolves had +appeared in Michigan. Those sheepmen who summered their sheep in the +high valleys of the western mountains complained that stray coyotes quit +the flats and followed them into the hills to prey upon the flocks. The +buffalo wolves that had once infested the range country were gone and it +was seldom that any of the big gray killers turned up on the open range +except when the pinch of cold and famine drove a few timber wolves down +from the north. Men saw these things and wondered if all of Collins' +sweeping prophecies would come to pass. In the face of conditions that +had placed a value on the coyote's pelt and a bounty on his scalp, there +was no apparent decrease in the numbers of the yellow horde from year to +year. + +Collins listened to the coyote clamor and knew that they had come to +stay. The concert was suddenly hushed as a long-drawn wolf howl, faint +from distance, drifted far out across the range. Collins turned in his +blankets and peered through the window at the black bulk of the +mountains to the north of him, towering clear and distinct in the +brilliant moonlight. + +"If you come down out of those hills I'll stretch your pelt," the wolfer +stated. "I'll pinch your toes in a number four." + +The wolf whose howl had occasioned this assertion was even then +considering the possibilities of which Collins spoke. Men called those +of his kind breed-wolves, half coyote and half wolf. He stood on the +high divide which was the roughly separating line between the haunts of +the two tribes whose blood flowed in his veins,--all wolf except for the +yellow fur that marked him for a breed. The coyote voices lifted to him +and Breed read them as the call of kind; for although he had spent the +past ten months with the wolf tribe of his father his first friendships +had been formed among his mother's people on the open range. The acrid +spice of the sage drifted to his nostrils and combined with the coyote +voices to fill him with a homesick urge to revisit the land of his +birth. + +But he would not go down. Breed knew well the dangers of the open range; +the devilish riders who made life one long gamble for every wolf that +appeared; he had gruesome recollections of the many coyotes he had seen +in traps. But those things gave him small concern. It was still another +menace--the poison baits put out by wolfers--which held him back. Not +that he feared poison for himself, but coyotes writhing in convulsions +and frothing at the mouth had always filled him with a terrible dread. +It was an epidemic of this sort which had driven him to leave the +sagebrush land of the coyotes for the heavily timbered country of the +wolves. The memory of it lingered with him now. Would he find these +stricken, demented creatures there? + +Breed moved down the south slope of the hills at last, the sage scent +luring the coyote in him, but moved slowly and with many halts +occasioned by the wolf suspicion which urged him to turn back. When dawn +lifted the shadows from the low country, Breed was prowling along the +first rim of the hills. + +Two dirt-roofed log cabins showed as toy houses, small from distance, +and he could see the slender threads of smoke ascending from others, the +houses themselves beyond the scope of his vision. The range was taking +on fall shades, the gray of the sage relieved by brown patches of open +grasslands and splotches of color where early frosts had touched the +birch and willow thickets that marked each side-hill spring. Tiny dark +specks moved through it all. Meat! It had been long since Breed had +tasted beef, and his red tongue lolled out and dripped in anticipation +of the coming feast. + +But he would not go down until night. Twice during the early evening +Breed howled, and Collins, down in the choppy country below, turned his +glasses toward the spot to see what manner of wolf this was who howled +in the broad light of day. The second time he located Breed. The yellow +wolf stood on the rims half a mile above, looming almost life-size in +the twelve-power lens. Collins noted the yellow fur. + +"A breed-wolf," he said. "The most cunning devil that ever made a track. +He'll never take on a feed of poison bait or plant his foot on a trap +pan. He'll come down--and I'll ride him out on the first tracking snow." + +Just at dusk Breed howled again and dropped down to the broken country +at the base of the hills, skirting the flats and holding to the roughest +brakes, then swung out across the rolling foothills. + +The wind soon brought him the message that coyotes were just ahead and +he traced the scent upwind, anxious for the first sight of his former +running mates. Two coyotes scattered swiftly before his approach, each +carrying his own piece of a jack rabbit which the pair had caught and +torn apart. Breed did not follow but held steadily on in search of more. +The urge for companionship was even stronger than hunger, and he sought +to satisfy the stronger craving first. Twice more he veered into the +wind, and both times the coyotes slipped away as he advanced. He +followed the line of one's retreat and the coyote whirled and fled like +a yellow streak in the moonlight. Breed was puzzled by all this, but the +craving for food had grown so strong as to crowd out all else, and he +abandoned the hunt for friends to hunt for meat instead. + +Out in the center of a broad flat bench a mile across Breed made out a +group of slowly moving specks which he knew for cows, and he headed +toward them, taking advantage of the cover afforded by every clump of +sage as he crept up to a yearling steer that lagged behind the rest. He +had hunted heavy game animals with the wolves, animals with every sense +alert to detect the approach of the big gray killers, and he fully +expected the steer to break into full flight at the first warning of his +presence. He had almost forgotten the stupidity of the cows on the open +range and the ease with which he had torn them down when hunting them +with his wolf father long before. He made his final rush and drove his +teeth deep into one hind leg before his prey had even quickened his +gait. The steer lurched into an awkward gallop and bawled with fright as +the savage teeth cut through muscles and hide. Breed lunged for the same +spot again; once more and the leg was useless, the hamstrings cut, and +it sagged loosely with every step. He slashed at the other leg. Within a +hundred yards of the start the steer pitched down, bracing his foreparts +off the ground with his two front feet, and even as he fell the yellow +wolf drove for his throat. + +Then Breed circled his kill, looking off in all directions to make sure +that there was no route by which men might approach unseen. He stretched +forth his head and cupped his lips as he sent his tribal call rolling +across the range, the message that here was meat for all of his kind who +would come and feed. A score of coyote voices answered from far and +near. + +Collins heard the dread cry and knew that the wolf had made a kill. He +knew too that whenever the wolf note was heard, all other sounds were +stilled as if every living creature expected to hear an answering cry +and waited for it to come before resuming their own communications. The +fact that the coyotes answered the cry assured Collins that it was the +breed-wolf that had howled; that coyote ears had read a note of their +own kind in the sound, a note which even his experienced ears could not +detect. + +The yellow wolf tore at the warm meat and waited,--waited for his coyote +kinsmen to join him at the feast. He howled again and they answered, +reading invitation to coyote as well as to wolf in the sound, but they +would not come in. An old dog coyote trotted up and down the crest of a +slight rise of ground two hundred yards downwind. Another joined him, +then a third, and in less than an hour there was a half score of coyotes +circling the spot. Breed could see dim shapes moving across the open +places and padding on silent feet over the cow trails that threaded the +sage. Surely they would come in. The shadowy forms were restless, never +still, and prowled round and round him, but they would not join him at +the kill. + +Breed was mystified by this strange thing. Here was meat yet the +meat-eaters would not come in and feed. Coyotes had fed with him long +ago but shunned him now. Breed could not know that then he had been +accepted as one of them, having grown to maturity among them and so +become known to every coyote on his range; that they had forgotten him +as an individual, as he had also forgotten them. If there were any old +friends among those who circled round him now he did not know them as +such, only as a companionable whole; and they knew him for a wolf,--a +wolf at least in size and strength. There was a coyote note in his call +but not one of them would venture in to feed with the great yellow beast +that was tearing the steer. + +At last a grizzled old dog coyote drew up to within ten yards. He had +lived to the limit of all experiences which a coyote can pass through +and still survive. He had even known the crushing grip of a +double-spring trap, a Newhouse four. This misadventure had occurred in +midwinter when the range was gripped by bitter frost. The cold had +numbed the pain and congealed the flesh to solid ice. He had cut through +the meat with his keen-pointed teeth, and one desperate wrench had +snapped the frozen bone and freed him. There were many of his kind so +maimed, and the wolfers, abbreviating the term peg-legs, called these +three-footed ones "pegs." + +A second coyote joined Peg near the steer. He too had lived long and +hard. He had been shot at many times and wounded twice. A shattered +foreleg had healed with an ugly twist, the foot pointing inside and +leaving only the prints of two warped toe pads when it touched the +ground. + +Peg and Cripp circled twice round the steer at a distance of thirty +feet. They had known other breeds and had found that some would share +their kills. Breed went out to greet them and they sidled away as he +advanced, stopping when he stopped and turning to face him. Cripp +allowed him to draw close, his teeth bared in warning against a too +effusive greeting, while Peg drew swiftly in behind the wolf. The +peg-leg coyote stretched forth his nose for one deep sniff, then sprang +ten feet away as Breed whirled. Cripp drew up for a similar sniff as +Breed faced Peg, then leaped away as Peg had done. Nature has endowed +the members of each animal tribe with a different scent, and most +animals identify enemies and friends with nose instead of eyes. That one +deep inhalation had assured the two coyotes that there was a strain of +their own scent mingled with that of the wolf. They grew bolder and +stalked stiffly about him, appraising his qualities with eye and nose. +When Breed returned to the feed they followed a few steps behind. At +first they kept the body of the steer between them, then lost all +restraint and accepted Breed as a brother coyote from whom they had +nothing to fear. + +An hour before dawn Breed left the spot and traveled back to the edge of +the hills where he bedded for the day. He was full fed and satisfied +with life. It was not until night closed down about him that he was +conscious of the single flaw in his content, the one thing lacking to +complete it all. Breed loosed the hunting cry but there was no answering +call. He tried again without success. When with the wolves he had longed +for the smell of the sage, the scent that spoke of home to him, and the +mocking voices of the coyotes. Now that he had all these he missed the +muster cry of the pack, hungered to hear the aching wails coming from +far across the timbered hills, penetrating to the farthest retreats of +the antlered tribes and sounding a warning to all living things that the +hunt-pack was about to take the meat trail. But he knew that coyotes did +not hunt in packs; that they hunted singly or in pairs, killing more by +stealth than strength; clever stalkers and the most intelligent +team-workers and relayers in the world, but lacking the weight and +driving force to tear down a steer,--calves their largest prey. + +Breed howled again and started on the hunt alone. Even then, though he +did not know it, his pack was gathering to him. The two wise old coyotes +who had fed with him the night before knew that wherever they found the +big breed-wolf, there they would also find meat. They had started up at +his first call and Peg was coming swiftly from the south, Cripp from the +west. Breed had not traveled far before he was aware that other hunters +were abroad and running with him, swinging wide on either flank. Here +was his pack! At first he was not sure, but whenever he wheeled or +veered from his course the two coyotes altered their routes to accord +with his. He ran on for miles, thrilled with the knowledge that his +queer pack followed loyally where he led, and when at last he singled +out a steer the two veteran coyotes angled swiftly in and ran but a few +yards on either side of him. + +Then Breed sounded the meat call,--and two jeering coyote voices +launched into full cry and howled with him. And Collins, the Coyote +Prophet, for the first time in all his experience heard wolf and coyote +howl in unison over the same kill. + +Every night thereafter Breed's pack of two ran with him on the hunt and +always there were the dim shapes circling the kill, padding restlessly +through the sage as they waited for the yellow wolf to leave so they +could swarm in and pick the bones. + +At first Breed had retired to the edge of the hills to spend his days, +but his habits were changed through long immunity until his days as well +as nights were spent in the open country; but his caution was never +relaxed and he bedded on the crest of some rise of ground which afforded +a clear field of view for miles in all directions. He frequently saw +some of the devilish riders and occasionally one drew uncomfortably near +his retreat, but always veered away before discovering his presence. His +days were untroubled except by the memories of poisoned coyotes which +persisted in his mind. When he slept his dreams often reverted to these +poisoned horrors, and their death rattles sounded in his ears and his +feet twitched in imaginary flight as he sought to put distance between +himself and these haunting demons. Breed knew that poison was some evil +exercised by man, but its workings were shrouded in mystery. Traps he +could understand,--and rifle shots; for although this latter force was +peculiar, yet there was sound. He understood only those things which to +him were real and actual, things communicated through his physical +senses. Poison seemed some sort of intangible magic, an evil spell +wrought by man, and which transformed sound coyotes into diseased fiends +in the space of seconds. + +Always he waked snarling from these dreams, and always he was vastly +puzzled by the abrupt change from night death scenes to the daylight +calm of the open range. For dreams too were beyond his comprehension. +They were actual scenes and scents and sounds to him,--then vanished. It +was only natural that his greatest waking terror should stalk through +his dreams, two mysteries combined to haunt him. Also it was inevitable +that these dreams should eventually link up with the personal equation. + +Breed slept one day on the crest of a knoll and suddenly it was night +instead of noon, and Cripp and Peg were leaping about him in a frenzy, +their frothing jaws snapping on the empty air in their madness. He faced +them with bared fangs,--and it was noon once more, but the two old +coyotes stood before him in reality, their own noses wrinkled in snarls +which answered his menacing actions and warned him off. The same old +baffling wave which flooded Breed after each of these recurring dreams +engulfed him now. Peg and Cripp were as sane as himself, yet a moment +past they had been stricken before his very eyes. It had been very real, +and Breed started suddenly from the knoll and headed for the base of the +hills five miles away, nor did he stop until he was far back among their +sheltering ridges. + +With the coming of the night he felt the loss of the two old coyotes who +had traveled with him for the past three weeks. They had been normal +when he saw them last and as this latter impression was the stronger he +knew that he would find them untouched by madness; yet the vividness of +the dream lingered with him and held him back from the low country. He +howled once and started on a solitary hunt through the hills. The cry +drifted faintly to the flats below and reached the ears of Cripp and +Peg. They started instantly in the direction from which it came. + +The chain of hills in which Breed hunted was but an outcropping spur, +extending thirty miles eastward at right angles from the main bulk of +the hills, and he found no meat. The elk and deer were high up in the +parent range and would stay there until heavy snows drove them down to +winter in the valleys of the lower hills. Breed worked up the slope +until he reached the crest of the divide. He prowled along the bald +ridge, undecided which course to take, then whirled and faced back in +the direction from which he had come. Five miles below him a coyote had +raised his voice; another answered. By traveling steadily Cripp and Peg +had covered much ground since Breed's first cry of the night had reached +their ears and the two coyotes were ten miles within the first folds of +the hills and still seeking the yellow wolf, the leader of the pack. + +Breed cupped his lips, his head stretched forth and his muzzle depressed +to a line slightly below the peak of his shoulders as he sent forth the +hunting cry to summon his loyal band. An hour later Cripp and Peg were +with him, the three of them swinging west along the divide toward the +rough mass of the main range of hills. Morning found them climbing +through a matted jungle of close-growing spruce and down-timber. + +Breed chose a ridge that lifted above the trees and there curled up for +the day in a clump of stunted sage. Coyotes hunt in the full glare of +the noonday sun as readily as at night and Cripp and Peg slept a bare +two hours before starting once more on the hunt. They found small game +less abundant in the high hills than in the flats and they scoured the +surrounding timber without success, returning at last to bed down near +Breed on the open ridge. Hunger drove Breed from his bed before the sun +had set and he headed deeper into the hills, the two coyotes following, +even though they had small liking for this country which seemed devoid +of meat. + +The yellow wolf sampled the cross currents of air which drifted in from +each branching gulch. He crossed the cold trail scent of several deer +but was in no mood for following a long trail so passed them by. It was +the actual warm body scent he sought. He stopped suddenly with uplifted +nose. The shifting breezes had carried the deer scent to his +nostrils,--one brief flash and it was gone. Breed tacked back and forth +across the wind, caught it again and held it, following the ribbon of +scent upwind as easily as a man would follow a blazed trail through the +timber. Two hundred yards from the start he sighted his prey, a +fork-horn buck grazing slowly along under the trees. Breed turned his +eyes to either side to determine the location of Cripp and Peg but they +had suddenly vanished from sight. + +He crept toward the fork-horn, standing without the moving of a muscle +whenever the young buck lifted his head, advancing swiftly when he +dropped it again to feed. The wind held steadily from the deer to him +and Breed drew up to within fifty feet. The buck lifted his head and +looked off in all directions, not from present uneasiness but from his +never-failing caution, then reached for another bite of grass, and even +as the downward motion was started Breed launched forward in a silent +rush. + +The fork-horn caught one backward slanting glimpse of him and fled just +as the wolf's teeth clashed a bare inch short of his hamstring, and +Breed was off in pursuit of an animal whose speed matched his own. This +prey was no awkwardly galloping steer but a nimble beast that swept +ahead in twenty-foot bounds, and after fifty yards Breed was still ten +feet behind. Then a yellow streak darted over a windfall jam and Peg +flashed at the buck. The deer turned almost at right angles in his +fright, and as he turned Breed's teeth slashed his leg, but not deep +enough to cripple, and the chase was on again. Another fifty yards and +Cripp leaped from behind a spruce trunk and struck gamely for a leg +hold. The flying speed of the buck jerked him clear of the ground, broke +the hold of his teeth and threw him end over end. But he had retarded +the deer for one half-second and the yellow wolf closed his jaws on a +leg with all the force he could throw into the drive. Breed too was +thrown, but the deer was turned again and running with less than half +his former speed, one hind leg powerless. Peg was angling across to turn +him still another time but Breed overhauled him first and slashed at the +other leg, and as the deer rolled downhill the three-legged coyote +dodged the churning hoofs and fastened on his throat. + +Collins had journeyed far into the hills to replenish his supply of +meat. It was scarcely dark under the trees when he heard the breed-wolf +and two coyotes howl together,--thirty miles back in the heart of the +hills! + +"There now!" he exclaimed. "I've been telling 'em right along that the +coyotes would take to the hills some day. Those breed-wolves--they'll +teach 'em to live in the hills." + +When Breed had eaten his fill from the deer he headed back for the low +country. The effect of the mad dream was waning before the fact that Peg +and Cripp were with him in reality, sane and normal in every way. The +three of them were sluggish and heavy with meat and they traveled slowly +with frequent halts for sleep. + +The following night Breed's howl sounded again in the foothills and a +score of coyotes answered him from far and near. The coyote tribe had +learned that when the yellow wolf prowled the range there would be fresh +beef for all. Each night the number of shadowy forms that padded through +the sage round his kills increased, waiting until the wolf should leave +and they could close in and finish it to the last mouthful. They grew +bolder from the fact that two of their own kind fed with Breed, and on +the first night after his return from the hills three others found +courage to come in and feed upon his kill before he left it. Within a +week he was accepted unreservedly as a member of the coyote clan. + +Each succeeding evening Breed found more and more coyotes gathering +swiftly toward him at the first hunting cry of the night, spreading out +over a quarter-mile front and running with him on the chase, knowing +there would be meat in plenty at the end of the run. + +Collins noted a curious change in the coyote signs in his immediate +neighborhood. He still found their tracks singly or in pairs, where they +wandered in all directions through the sage in their hunts for jacks, or +padded thick round some spot where they had killed a calf, but he soon +discovered that whenever he found a track which the breed-wolf had left +the night before he had only to swing out to the right or left to find +the trails of many coyotes pointing in the same direction,--a general +movement of coyotes over a wide front. Collins had heard many tales of +late which accorded with a prophecy he had made long ago; for three +hundred miles north and south men who rode back into the mountains +reported seeing coyotes far back in the very heart of them and of +hearing their howls from among the highest peaks. His prediction that +coyotes would take to the hills and feel as much at home high above +timberline as in the flats had come to pass. + +Collins studied long over the many coyote trails which always paralleled +the tracks of the yellow wolf and made still another prophecy,--that +breed-wolves would teach the coyotes to hunt in packs. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +No man who has lived long in the open and observed the ways of animals +and birds doubts that each tribe has a language of its own,--the +vocabulary of cadence and inflection. A man may watch a marsh teeming +with waterfowl, their contented chuckles filling his ears; then every +wing will lift at once, every bird roused to sudden flight by the change +of a single note so faint that it makes no impression on the ear of the +watching man, yet sufficient to warn the birds as surely as a gunshot. A +widely scattered bunch of range cows will graze placidly for hours, and +suddenly every head will be raised and every cow gaze off in the same +direction. + +Coyotes catch all finely shaded inflections and interpret them as +unerringly as a man notes the difference between a bawling cow and a +blatting sheep. Mate communicates with mate through all the coyote +refrains of the night; half-grown coyotes answer their mother's voice +but are silent when another calls. All that wild outburst in which men +read only an uproar of meaningless savagery is in reality the +intelligent conversation of the coyote nation. + +Breed's range covered fifty miles each way and there were some two +hundred coyotes who used the same strip or whose range overlapped his +own, and of these there were but few who had not at one time or another +profited by some of his kills. Breed knew the voice of every coyote in +the little band that made up his pack. Even when their notes reached him +faintly through a maze of other howls his ears identified their voices +as certainly as the eyes of man pick out the faces of his friends among +a crowd. Those coyotes in whom dog ancestry was less than four +generations removed betrayed that fact to him when they howled. + +There are those who believe that the shepherds and police dogs sprang +originally from the jackal. In any event, there are more dogs that +revert to the wild bunch from these wolfish types than from all other +kinds combined. The gulf between shepherd and coyote is not wide, and +except when raiding coyotes and stock-guarding dogs meet in a clash of +interests they are more apt to mate than to fight. + +Throughout the whole of Breed's range there was but one note which +puzzled him,--and it was not the ancestry but the present habits of the +one who made the sound that baffled him. The parental mixture was +plainly evidenced in the voice. It was the cry of a she-wolf, a +half-blood coyote and dog, and Breed heard her howl night after night +yet could not locate her. He would answer her cry and announce that he +was coming, but always she evaded him. When he picked up her trail and +followed it persistently, it invariably led him toward an isolated +cabin. The wolf in him held him back from too close an approach to the +homes of men. When he stopped she called again from up near the +twinkling windows of the house. There was a lonesome note in her cry, +and it was furtive, carrying both fear and invitation in its tones as if +the she-wolf felt herself an outcast and both longed and dreaded to +break down the bars between her wild relatives and herself. + +And she was an outcast, without doubt. Collins had trailed her mother, a +renegade shepherd, to the den. He had turned in the rest of the pups for +bounty, keeping her for a pet. She was slightly heavier than a coyote +and the fur of her back was dark, the badge of shepherd parentage. The +yellow underfur showed through the black guard hairs of her back-strip +when the wind ruffled it, the black shading to yellow on flanks and +sides, and from this Collins called her Shady. + +Shady's relations with men and beasts were unsatisfactory in the +extreme. Stockmen hate the coyote with an intensity that they show +toward no other animal, and with good reason, for the coyote meets them +on a more equal footing than other beasts, his strategy outrivaling that +of men. He repays their cruelties against his kind by killing their +sheep and calves in broad daylight and executing a well-covered retreat +before the owners can exact the penalty, then returning at night to +raise his jeering laughter almost under the windows of his enemies. + +Collins had no stock, his business being that of killing coyotes, and he +found far more to admire than to despise in the qualities of his prey +and so did not accord coyotes the undying hatred shown them by other +men. In his gruff way he was kind to Shady. Those who came to his cabin +were mainly stockmen and they hated Shady cordially. That she sprang +from a renegade sheep dog, a traitor to her kind, was even more +condemnatory in their eyes than the coyote part of her. + +The coyotes, less averse to the proximity of man, had investigated +Shady's case by drawing nearer to the cabin than Breed would go and so +were no longer curious about her. Breed was almost two years old yet he +knew nothing of dogs. His mother had ranged a limited strip of country +in which only two men made their homes and neither had owned dogs. When +north with the wolves he had met none of his domestic cousins except +those renegades or breeds that were of the wild. He had crossed the +trails of others at rare intervals. Therefore he did not know dogs as +allies of men and so enemies to himself; rather Shady seemed some +extra-shy wolf creature yet with sufficient courage to range in close to +men. She seemed a daring adventurer to Breed. + +It was partly this curiosity which piqued his interest in her. Then too +he recognized in her a freak type,--as he himself was a freak. Each +stood for the first generation of a new breed, the equally divided +parental strains not yet dulled and blended by further crosses, and so +each of them recognized something outstanding and unusual in the other. + +At first their knowledge was confined to what each learned of the other +by ear alone, unaided by the testimony of other senses. Breed never once +caught sight of her, and the trail scent which she left behind told him +little except that she was half coyote and half dog, as he already knew. + +For a month he answered her howls, his curiosity unassuaged. And as +Breed puzzled over Shady's voice, so Collins puzzled over Breed's. +Collins had heard him howl more than a hundred times and knew that there +was some slight difference between his voice and the pure wolf note. He +had made a close study of animal sounds and knew them well. He knew +Shady's voice from that of other coyotes. Her variations were less +sharply defined; more sustained than the bewildering staccato of the +coyote and with a slightly coarser tone. Collins knew that he should be +able to detect that peculiarity in Breed's howl,--a difference which he +felt was there but could not place. There were times when the solution +rose to the very surface of his mind and struggled for interpretation +into readable thought, but always it eluded him in the end. + +Shady came to listen for Breed's voice among the multitude of other +sounds, and in some small measure she felt acquainted with the yellow +wolf. She missed his voice on those nights when he hunted in some far +corner of his range and the familiar cry failed to reach her. + +This sense of familiarity led her at last to wait for a sight of him. +Breed traveled one night toward the howl which always had the power to +draw him, and he suddenly saw Shady fifty yards ahead. She would permit +of no nearer approach, fleeing before him as he came on, stopping when +Breed stopped, but always keeping that fifty-yard gap between. Every +night for a week Breed strove to narrow the breach, but without success; +but Shady's doubts were wearing down before his constant advances and +she found no menace in his actions. She eventually allowed Breed to draw +near and they viewed one another at a distance of ten yards. Their +course through the sage was a series of eccentric loops as each circled +repeatedly downwind to catch the other's scent. + +Then their relations were reversed, Breed the retiring one, Shady the +aggressive. There was the scent of the stables, a horsy smell that clung +to Shady and which Breed could not understand. There seemed too some +vague taint of man about her which held him back. Shady grew bolder in +the face of his timidity, and Breed's new-found suspicion eventually +waned before her friendly insistence. Their friendship once established +they romped together night after night. + +Shady was puzzled over the fact that this new playmate invariably left +her early in the night. These meetings took place before Breed raised +his voice to summon the coyote pack for the nightly hunt. He would break +off in the middle of a race and send out the call, then leave the +wondering Shady to her own devices for the rest of the night. + +His curiosity satisfied, Breed answered her invitations less often and +she saw him only at infrequent intervals; and there was a reason for +this flagging interest. Wolves and coyotes mate for life, or till one or +the other of a pair falls victim to the wiles of man. When once a pair +is broken the survivor will not take unto himself another mate till the +next running time of wolves. There were pairs of coyotes running +together in Breed's pack; there were also single she-coyotes and single +dogs, but while the mated ones were as devoted as ever before, these +single ones had only a general interest in the others, their attitude +uninfluenced by the lure of sex. And Shady, hampered by her relations +with man and so unable to follow Breed's leadership at will, exercised +less influence over him than either Peg or Cripp. + +Breed killed abundantly, the coyotes picking the last morsel of each +victim before dawn. Often he killed twice in one night. Word had spread +that a breed-wolf had turned up on the range and was running with the +coyotes. Private rewards were added to the State bounty till a total of +two hundred dollars was posted as the price on his scalp. Every rider +kept a sharp lookout for the breed; yet so great was his caution that +except for that first day of his return, when Collins had seen him on +the rims, no man had set eyes on the yellow wolf. + +Breed's watchfulness for traps and poison baits had waned from the fact +that he found none of either on the range, and he now gave them scarce a +thought. On the other hand his caution to avoid horsemen was quickened +from seeing many of them and his vigilance in that particular was never +relaxed. He chose his beds with care and he slept so lightly that the +least sound penetrated his consciousness and carried its message to his +brain. The shrill cachinnations of a prairie dog, the shriek of a +burrowing owl or the bawling of a range cow; any of these usual sounds +of the open failed to rouse him; but invariably he knew when a man was +dangerously near. If the menace was upwind and within reasonable +distance, his nose detected it. At times the creak of saddle leather +reached his ears or the sound of the horse's hoofs warned him. + +This hoof reading was a curious thing. Breed could not tell why he knew +when a horse was ridden, but invariably he did. If walking, the feet of +an iron-shod horse struck pebbles and rocks with a metallic sound and +Breed was suspicious of all horses that wore shoes; but usually a rider +traveled at a steady trail trot. It was not the way of loose horses to +strike a steady, regular gait and hold it, and the even vibrations of a +shuffling trail trot beat through all other sounds and warned him that a +horseman was near. + +Men grossly underestimate the keen physical senses of the animal world, +being loath to credit them with finer sense perceptions than those +possessed by man, dulled by countless centuries of disuse. A coyote can +scent the tracks left by a bird long hours past; the smell of fresh +blood is hot in his nostril a full half-mile downwind while the nose of +man could scarce detect it at a distance of two feet. His ears, attuned +to receive the delicately shaded tone inflections of coyote converse, +catch vibrations of sound far too fine to make the least impression on +the ears of man. And it is through these sense impressions that animals +are warned at distances which men believe impossible without the aid of +some subtle intuition or sixth sense. They speak of these things as +animal instinct and let it go at that. + +In addition to this Breed had many other ways of protection at his +command; he usually knew of the approach of man long before the direct +message reached him over the paths of his own physical senses,--this +from his vast knowledge of the ways of animals and birds and his ready +understanding of their widespread systems of communications. Their +actions frequently put him on guard before his own senses apprised him +of the actuality of the danger. + +These things, coupled with his own habits and backed by coyote +intelligence, made Breed an animal most difficult to stalk. + +Collins knew the wolf habit of bedding on a rise of ground. He knew too +that the dog who turns round and round before lying down is not merely +chasing his tail but instead is exhibiting a relic of his wild +ancestors' way of rising frequently from his bed and turning to look off +in all directions before resuming it. Day after day Collins swept the +range with powerful glasses and through his knowledge and persistence he +located Breed at last. + +Breed lay on the crest of a knoll. Peg and Cripp were hunting in the +shallow basin below him and he watched with keen interest the diabolical +cunning of his two chief followers. Peg ranged in the open while Cripp +paralleled his course, moving along just behind the wave of a low ridge. +A long-eared jack rabbit bounced from his bed in front of Peg and fled +swiftly for a hundred yards, then halted to look back as he discovered +that he was not pursued. He reared on his haunches, forefeet clear of +the ground, as he watched the coyote who had veered away from him and +was now questing aimlessly through the stunted sage. Peg turned toward +him again and the jack bounced away toward the ridge, stopping again as +Peg swung away. From his point of vantage Breed could see the cunning +Cripp keeping even with the jack, following closely its every move and +peering at it through the scattered sage that topped the ridge. Peg, +apparently unconscious that there was meat in sight, rambled in erratic +tacks that crowded the rabbit toward the ridge. Breed saw a crouching +shape slip behind a sage within ten feet of the jack, whose eyes were +occupied with Peg. There was a flash of yellow as Cripp struck him and +the dying squall of the big hare floated to Breed's ears. He rose from +his bed in excitement, then paused to sweep the country with his gaze +before resuming his nap. + +Collins had seen! From the point of a commanding ridge five miles away +he had centered his binoculars on the yellow wolf. The wolfer's horse +grazed in the bottom of a gulch, his reins trailing loose, and Collins +moved swiftly down to him and swung to the saddle. He had covered less +than two hundred yards before Breed, five miles away, knew that a man +rode toward him! + +The pronghorn antelope has a most peculiar signal system of his own. He +is furnished with a white patch on his rump, the hair long and stiff, +and when alarmed, instead of bristling his neck roach as do other +animals, the antelope bristles this white rump patch. The sun strikes +light from the glistening hair and every antelope within view follows +suit; the warning is flashed from band to band till every antelope +throughout an area of many miles knows that some man is abroad on the +plains. + +Whenever a band of antelopes sported within view of Breed his eyes +flickered open for frequent glimpses of them. Ten minutes after the two +coyotes had killed the jack Breed opened his eyes for a view of a +pronghorn buck that had taken his stand on a low ridge half a mile away. +Breed caught the danger signal and was instantly alert. For as far as +his eye could reach he could see the glistening points of light which he +knew for antelope flashes. The whole antelope tribe was facing toward +the danger and so pointed out its direction for Breed. It is this sort +of signaling which men will not understand, preferring instead to credit +an animal, warned at a distance of many miles, with some mysterious +occult knowledge. + +A band of antelope joined the buck on the ridge and fled with him toward +Breed, stopped to look back, stamping their feet excitedly, then swept +on past as a rider topped the ridge they had just left. + +Breed flattened in his nest, resting his head between his paws. It was +not his way to rush off in panicky flight across the open at the first +glimpse of man, but rather the coyote way of remaining motionless till +the enemy had passed, or slipping away unseen if he came too close. The +horseman came on at an angle that would take him three hundred yards to +one side, then altered his course and angled the other way. He stopped +to look over a bunch of cows, shifted again to view another bunch and +circled round it; came on again but turned to head a stray steer back +toward the rest. Collins was using the same tactics in approaching Breed +that the two coyotes had so recently used to stalk the jack. He seemed +about to pass two hundred yards away but lifted his horse into a keen +run and whirled him straight for the point of the knoll, then shifted +his course again to round the shoulder of the little hill instead of +over its crest, knowing that Breed was running at top speed down the +opposite slope. He pulled the horse back on his haunches and flung from +the saddle with the first glimpse of the fleeing wolf. + +Breed did not stop to look back as most other animals would have done +but ran with every ounce of his speed. He flinched away from the sharp +crack near his head as a rifle ball passed him and the crash of the +report reached his ears. The next shot struck close behind and the +biting gravel stung him as the ricochet hissed past within an inch of +him. He held straight ahead but resorted to the coyote ruse of flipping +from side to side in sharp tacks, his tail snapping jerkily outward to +balance him on the turns. Bullets ripped through the sage about him as +Collins emptied his gun. Then he was safe on the far side of a swell and +Collins was grinning ruefully at a wolfless landscape. + +"Coyote stuff!" he said. "A man might as well gun up the corkscrew +flight of a jacksnipe as to pour lead through the gaps in a +side-steppin' freak like that. But you, Breed,--you better keep your eye +on me. The Coyote Prophet is out for your scalp--so walk soft, old +boy,--walk soft." + +Breed struck a swift, gliding trot and held it clear to the base of the +hills, stopping only when far up the first slope of them to sweep the +low country for sight of his enemy. That night when he raised his howl +it reached the ears of perhaps a hundred coyotes far out across the +flats and immediately thereafter there was a strange movement in the +coyote tribe. The majority of them rambled in all directions on personal +business or pleasures of their own but through it all, strung out over a +five-mile front, more than a dozen coyotes were running swiftly toward +the hills. They were not to be turned aside but held their course, +gathering to the wolf who had led them to many a kill,--willing to +follow wherever he should lead. An hour later, when Breed raised his +voice from the divide, a wave of coyote answers rose in unison and when +he headed toward the parent range there were fourteen coyotes traveling +with him through the hills. They moved together, but not as man +understands that term, for they did not travel closely grouped. Some +were half a mile to either side and some far behind, and there were gaps +of several hundred yards in the line. Their trails sometimes shifted and +crossed, but noses and ears kept them well informed as to the locality +and actions of the rest. + +They entered the rough mass of the main range and pushed on, traveling +in this loose formation. Toward morning Breed stopped and listened to a +far-off sound which reached him. Every coyote in the pack had also +stopped to listen, their red tongues circling hungrily along their lips +as they caught the significance of the sound. + +There were no sheep on Breed's immediate range. Trouble between the +cowmen and those who grazed sheep had been temporarily adjusted by +apportioning the range. Sheep now grazed far to the south but the cowmen +allowed the privilege of pastoral transportation across the cattle strip +twice a year for those who summered their sheep in the hills. The snows +were late in falling and the flocks had been held correspondingly late +high in the hills. + +Breed had known sheep in the past,--and this was the sound of sheep. Two +herders had combined their bands to work them down to the low country +and the camp tender stayed to help them with the crossing. Breed +listened long to the droning undertone, the maddening blat of five +thousand woollies on the bed ground, its querulous volume persisting +through the sound of water and wind and drifting to him across a +distance of five miles. Then he stretched forth his head and issued his +hunting cry. + +The savage peal ripped through the plaintive chant of the sheep as the +prow of a canoe cuts sluggish water, and traveling against the current +of sound it reached the ears of the camp tender who rolled over in his +blankets and cursed. There was a half-minute cessation of the baa and +blat, and before it was resumed the tender had prodded the two herders +into wakefulness. + +"Better sleep with one eye open," he advised. "There's a wolf in the +hills. Just crossing through, mebbe--but anyhow you better stay awake to +hold the sheep while I fire a shot to scare him off if he comes too +close. He'll put 'em off the bed ground and scatter 'em if he slips past +the dogs." + +The cry sounded again, this time less than a mile away, and a clamor of +coyote howls rose with it. + +"Coyotes!" the tender exclaimed. "Night shooting won't scare those +cunning devils off,--they know a man can't see at night. It sounds like +they was running in a pack, and enough of 'em to make a noise like as if +the whole damn coyote nation had took to the hills. Wonder how come +they're pranking round with a wolf? They'll likely only hang along to +cut out some strays--but if they do come in close in a mob like that, +it's good night, sheep! Them shaller-brained woollies will take to the +peaks." + +The sheep had risen from their beds and were huddled close. The tender +and herders stood with drawn guns and the three dogs bristled savagely +and turned their gaze toward the timbered slope that rose on one side of +the open side-hill bench that served as a bed ground. There was a +movement among the sheep; the fleecy mass buckled and surged as those on +the outer edge turned and sought safety by plowing toward the +close-packed center. The three men stationed themselves in a triangle +three hundred yards apart, hoping to steady the sheep and hold them. The +dogs circled swiftly round the milling horde, driving merciless teeth +into every panic-stricken sheep who sought to quit the flock. The whole +mass suddenly crowded off to one side and all three dogs sped round to +hold them. + +One herder saw a flitting streak leave the timber edge and glide toward +the sheep; another; there was no moon and he could not be sure. His gun +barked twice as a dozen shadowy forms crossed the open, strung out for +two hundred yards. Then hell broke loose on the bed ground. + +The fear-crazed horde streamed past the other herder and the tender. +They shouted and struck out with heavy staffs, trying to stem the tide +and turn it back. The resistless sea of fleece surged on and was +swallowed in the gloom of the heavy timber down the slope. And in the +center of it all Breed and the coyote pack were working. + +They ripped through the mob and split it; drove through again. The sheep +split into a hundred small detachments and blundered on under the trees. +The men stumbled through the down-timber windfalls and their shouts and +the frantic barking of the dogs rose above the clamor of the sheep,--but +there was not a sound from the yellow killers who had started the +stampede. Every coyote knew the location of the men and each one singled +out a stray band for his own and swept ahead with it. The dogs worked +like fiends but the marauders were in too great force for them. Whenever +a dog bore down upon a coyote the raider fled straight away from the +sheep and their blats recalled the dog to duty. The mad wave rolled down +the slope and up the next. + +The first light of dawn revealed each of the three dogs holding a large +band of sheep. The two herders and the camp tender had each rounded up a +smaller bunch. They worked their separate ways back toward the bed +ground, gathering strays along the way. The camp tender held them in the +open while the two herders and the dogs combed the surrounding hills for +stragglers; and as they worked they cursed the coyote and his ways. It +was no unusual thing in their experience for a few coyotes to fly at a +bunch of sheep and scatter them, cutting out a few that straggled away +from the protection of men and dogs, but this savage attack in pack +formation and the harrying of five thousand head of sheep far through +the hills was new to them. + +All through the morning they rounded stragglers toward the flock and +shortly after noon they headed the tired sheep down toward the +foothills, fearing a repetition of the stampede. Just at dusk they +milled the sheep and bedded them on a ridge in the low country, a mile +from the base of the timbered hills. + +The camp tender looked them over with practiced eye and shook his head. + +"There's no chance to make a count now," he said. "But when we do make +one it's dollars to dimes that we'll tally out two hundred short." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Collins had waited till the fur was prime and the flesh side of the +coyote pelt showed flint white before throwing out his trap line. He +made the first set three hundred yards from the cabin, choosing the spot +with care, for he knew that the last place a coyote would enter was the +one where guiding clumps of sage formed an inviting lane across the +traps. He selected an open spot instead and dismounted on a sheep pelt +spread flat upon the ground; with a hand-axe he hewed out a triangular +trap bed a foot across by three inches deep, placing every shred of +fresh earth removed from it in a canvas sack; then he fitted a heavy +Newhouse four in place with both springs bent far to the rear and drove +a slender steel pin out of sight through the swivel ring of the chain. +He smoothed a piece of canvas under the jaws and over the pan and poured +the soft earth over it all, filling it level with the surface and +tamping it firmly with his fingers except that within the six-inch +circle of the jaws. From a second sack he sifted dust over the spot till +it matched the surrounding flat, remounted and leaned from the saddle to +recover the sheep pelt on which he had knelt and used it as a fan to +whip the dust of the flat into curling eddies which settled back so +uniformly as to defy the eyes of any man to detect the location of the +trap. The surplus earth removed from the hole he carried away to be +emptied far from the spot. For Collins knew the qualities of his prey +and a good wolfer leaves no sign. He had used no foolish scent to +disguise his own, knowing that the heat of day and the frost of night +would diffuse his scent and obliterate all trace of it, the same as an +animal's trail grows cold in time, while any foreign odor lingering +longer than his own would only serve as a guide for the cunning prey he +sought. + +The wisdom of the fox has furnished theme for song and legend, and only +those who have followed the trap line for both fox and coyote know that +Reynard's vaunted brain is but a dry sponge when compared to the +knowledge-soaked brain of the prairie wolf. It is the way of the coyote +to live near man, confident that his own cunning will offset that of his +arch enemy and lead him unscathed through all the contrivances men may +employ for his destruction. Collins knew that the fox was only trap-shy +while the coyote was--vast difference between the two--trap-wise; that +he would go to a bait, knowing the traps were there, and risk his life +in an effort to uncover them and so leave evidence behind that he was +keener than his foe. + +At the end of a week Collins had thrown out three pear-shaped loops of +traps, each line with a length of twenty miles, the whole a clover-leaf +effect with his cabin as the base. He had used no bait until his scent +should have been blotted out round his traps, not from fear that coyotes +would not approach the bait while his scent was fresh but from certain +knowledge that they would approach too soon, locate his traps and +uncover them. When the third trap circle was complete he started back +over the first and baited the sets, then commenced the steady routine of +riding one string each day and thus covering his entire line in three +days. + +Shady frequently accompanied Collins on these trips and when he made a +trap set she sat down some distance away and watched him with full +understanding of what he was about; for Shady's past experience with +traps had been large. She had seen Collins take many a coyote from his +traps. Twice she had slipped away to steal the bait from some set near +the cabin and both times had felt the sudden deadly clutch of steel jaws +on her foot, remaining in their grip till Collins had released her. She +had seen coyotes dead and bloated from eating poison baits,--and meat +was now a danger signal to Shady, not a lure. She would touch no food +except that which she obtained at the cabin. + +The trap line had yielded many coyote pelts while Breed was still in the +hills and he knew nothing of the widespread mortality among the coyotes +in his absence or the dangers which lurked in wait for him on his +return. + +There were two hundred sheep scattered for miles through the hills and +Breed and the coyote pack found easy killing. Winter had claimed the +lofty peaks, while but little snow had fallen below timber line. + +Breed sensed the coming storm. The movements of the elk herds told him +it would be a heavy one. It was nearing the end of the elk rutting moon +but the bulls were still bugling. Breed heard the clear bugle note of an +old herd bull, the piercing sound reaching him from many miles back +among the snowy peaks. It was closely followed by others. The elk +migration had begun; the herds were evacuating the lofty basins of their +summer range and boiling out through the high passes of the peaks before +the snowfall of the coming storm should block them in,--coming down to +winter in the lower valleys of the hills. + +[Illustration: The elk migration had begun. _Page 63._] + +The certainty with which animals gauge a coming storm is cited as proof +of that mysterious instinct with which men credit them; yet this +information may reach them through known laws. Breed knew of it from the +elk movements, and it is probable that the elk in turn were warned from +some similarly natural source,--perhaps from atmospheric changes, more +likely from the flight of migratory birds. + +A marshland may be empty of certain species of ducks in the fall; then +suddenly a flock will pitch down out of the blue, followed by another +and another till the whole sky is streaked with the oncoming horde. They +will feed and start on, the belated arrivals not even alighting but +holding straight ahead. The flight ceases as suddenly as it commenced +and inevitably a storm drives down out of the north in the wake of the +flocks. But this is not instinct. The storm strikes those birds that +have remained farthest north and as they scurry ahead of it the more +southerly ones take wing. Many ducks fly at rates of speed that are well +over a hundred miles an hour and so can distance the swiftest storms. +Even the ears of man may detect the difference between the +wing-whistlers of a flock of mallards or other slow-flying ducks and the +humming screech of redhead or canvasback hurtling through the night with +tremendous speed; and animals note such things more readily than man. + +In any event Breed knew of the coming storm many hours before the first +soft flakes fell and melted on his yellow coat. He took shelter under +the low-hanging branches of a stunted spruce and slept. It snowed for +two days and throughout that time there was little sound in the hills. +Each coyote in the pack had sought out a similar shelter, the mated +pairs bedding together, the others singly. No one of them howled during +the storm. The elk and deer held to their beds without a sound. The few +stragglers who had not yet crossed out through the passes were the only +ones that moved, pushing on through the storm, and the herd bulls +traveling with them bugled to hold their cows together; but the +snow-filled air deadened these distant sounds. And for two days Breed +heard nothing but the soft hissing of the snow through the branches or +the groaning of overburdened trees. The third night a big gray owl +hooted gruffly an hour before dawn, and as if dispersed by the sound of +his voice the last gray clouds scudded past and the stars flamed from +the steel-blue sky of night. + +A savage wind sprang up with the sun, shrieking along the exposed ridges +and rippling the valleys of lodgepole pine, hurling its force against +the spruce slopes. For another day Breed heard only the howl of the +gale, the snow sliding from the swaying branches and the sudden crash of +falling trees,--not a sound of life. The fury of the wind abated toward +night and an hour after dark there was a sudden lull followed by one +last rush of wind, leaving the white hills wrapped in a vast silence. + +Breed heard a single bugle note of a young bull, the last he was to hear +for another ten months, for the mating time of the antlered tribes had +been ushered out with the storm. The gray owls hooted the warning that +they would soon set forth on silent wings to strike down any small +creature that moved across the white carpet under the trees. The elk +were working back up to the bald ridges that had been blown free of +snow. All the night-feeders of the wild prowled in search of food after +the fast. + +Breed raised the hunting cry and the coyote pack answered roll call. +They were gaunt and their flanks were pinched up and hollowed from the +three-day famine. They ran silently and with but a single purpose, +spurred on by hunger. A coyote far out on one flank of the pack winded a +bunch of elk and headed for them. The elk accorded him scarcely a glance +as he drew near. In an earlier day, before the white man had invaded the +foothills, the elk herds had wintered there, but the coyotes had not +molested them; of late a few coyotes had invaded the high country, the +summer range, but the elk did not fear them. + +The coyote howled, one short eager blast, and angled in between the herd +and a straggler on the edge of it, a yearling elk, a spike bull, his +first antler growth consisting of two pointed spikes eighteen inches +long. He was not alarmed,--but it was a new kind of coyote that faced +him now, one that had learned pack hunting under the leadership of the +yellow wolf. + +The coyote made a swift lunge and drove his teeth in one hind leg. The +young bull whirled and aimed a sweeping slash of his polished spears, +intent upon impaling his foe; and as he turned a second coyote flashed +from behind a tree and slashed him. The bull whirled again and struck +wickedly with a smashing forefoot. The rest of the elk had stopped to +gaze in amazement at this strange scene,--at coyotes attacking an elk. + +Every coyote in the pack had altered his course at that short howl, +wheeling as at a command. Yellow shapes had appeared as if by magic and +were sliding under the trees on silent feet and circling the bull. There +was something sinister and purposeful in this concerted action and the +rest of the elk milled about uneasily and at last turned and trotted +off. The spike bull fought with hoof and horn, but at every turn a +coyote slashed him from behind, striking always at the hamstring. His +rage turned to fear and he fled. He struck the heavy four-foot drifts +where the wind had scoured the snow from the ridge above and sifted it +deep in the timber. His sharp hoofs and heavier weight let him deep into +the snow while the coyotes padded easily along, their feet sinking in +but a few inches. He tired himself with desperate charges at some coyote +that always eluded him while others drove fangs in him from behind. More +coyotes joined the running fight and he was far gone before Breed drove +through the pack and struck him with all the force of a killing wolf. He +spent the last of his ebbing strength in a whirlwind of furious +fighting, then went down and the yellow horde swarmed over him. They fed +long and when they left the feast they were no longer gaunt. Flanks had +filled out and paunches sagged heavily, nearly touching the snow. The +following night they returned to the kill and finished it. Then Breed +headed back for the open sagebrush foothills. The immediate fear of +being shot had departed, leaving only the lesson as a reminder of his +narrow escape. + +The pack reached the edge of the hills in the first morning light and +many of them kept on, but Breed, more averse to daylight traveling than +they, would not venture down till night. The low country lay spread out +below him, ragged patches of brown alternating with those of dirty +white, the wind having scoured the snow from open grass-country and +piled it to the tops of the sage in the heavier clumps and in long +drifts trailing away downwind behind them, or packed it in the depths of +badland washes and cracks. The powdery snow had been swept from the open +before it had time to melt and the dry air of the hill country had +sucked up what little moisture remained, leaving the flats almost as +dusty as before. + +With nightfall Breed descended to the tongue of the foothills that +reached up into the notch formed by the outcropping spur where it joined +the main range at right angles. Thirty miles east along this Hardpan +Spur was his home territory and he followed along the base of it. Not +till within ten miles of Collins' cabin did he howl. The wolfer heard +it, and again he had the feeling that he could almost name that +peculiarity in Breed's note, but before he could give it expression the +solution was slipping away from him as always before. He could feel the +odd quality but it defied analysis in words. + +Shady too had heard the call and answered it. Breed started toward her +but stopped abruptly and tested the wind. The scent of stale meat played +on his nostrils and he veered aside to investigate. He moved along a cow +trail and peered from the edge of the sage at a ten-pound chunk of meat +that lay in the center of an open flat. He knew what that meant. +Suspicion flooded him and every hair tingled as he realized that this +was the work of man. Traps! No coyote on the range would have found need +to look twice at the tempting morsel to know that it had not come there +by accident but had been placed by some man as a coyote lure. + +Breed, springing as he did from two wise tribes, had been educated in +two schools. His coyote mother had led him to meat, knowing men had put +it there to bait her, and she had taught him to detect the most +cunningly buried trap. Later he had practiced this art himself. The old +dog wolf who was his father had followed one simple rule which served +him well. He killed each meal as he felt the need of it and would touch +no other food, not even returning to previous kills of his own. Breed +was possessed of both traits in moderation, inclining to either for long +periods as his moods varied. Breed moved to within ten feet of the meat +and extended one forepaw, feeling cautiously through the carpet of dust, +then pushed it two inches ahead. For a solid hour that paw was not once +lifted from the ground except when the other was pushed forward to +replace it. He moved ahead an inch at a time, the edging forepaws +feeling through the dust for the least sign of loosened earth beneath. +He knew that the crushing jaws of a trap yawned beneath the surface +somewhere near the meat. His eyes swept every inch of ground for a sign +that differed from the rest and his nose quested for a spot which held +the taint of man. A faint trace of it pervaded the place, coming mainly +from the bait itself and almost blotted by the meat scent. + +Cripp and Peg watched every move from a distance of ten feet. Two young +coyotes had come to the spot and one of them worked in toward the bait +from the opposite side, using the same tactics as those employed by +Breed. At the end of an hour Breed stood within three feet of his goal +and the out-stretched paw suddenly touched yielding earth. He scratched +gently along the edge of this softened spot; a claw scraped some solid +substance and the moonlight glinted on a point of naked steel. Breed +pushed his paw beneath it and gently lifted till half of a deadly +four-pound trap showed above the dust. He looked long at it, then veered +past it to the bait; and the young coyote edged in from the other side. +Breed's feet did not shift an inch as he tore a mouthful from the meat, +but the young coyote across from him strained to drag the whole of it +from the spot. It was wired solidly to a stake and he shifted far to +either side in his vain efforts to dislodge it. There was a hissing +grate of loosened springs and the young coyote felt the bone-shattering +snap of a trap as it closed on his foot. Breed whirled and leaped ten +feet away, from which point he watched the struggles of his ill-fated +friend. In his desperate struggles to free himself the young coyote +leaped clear across the meat and the trap that Breed had unearthed +closed on another foot. Breed circled uneasily round the spot, powerless +to help the coyote that was stretched full length between two traps, yet +he lingered till an hour before dawn. + +This experience quickened old fears in Breed. Memories of past horrors, +long dormant but not forgotten, welled up out of his mind to increase +his caution, and fresh pangs were added by similar discoveries on each +succeeding night. The whole range seemed studded with fearsome traps and +the odor of stale meat was borne on every breeze. There were few nights +when he did not find some animal fast in one of these man-made snares. +Each new victim acted differently, according to the characteristics of +its kind. Breed found a badger in a trap and the animal ceased his +struggle long enough to wrinkle his nose and hiss at Breed with a thick +snakelike sound. The badger's forepaws were more than twice the size of +his hind feet, and were fitted with heavy two-inch claws, while those of +the hind feet measured but half an inch. He was caught by one hind foot, +leaving the powerful spading forks of the forepaws free to work. He had +always found safety by burrowing in the ground and so now, in his last +extremity, he turned to digging and plowed every inch of the surface +within reach. He settled on one spot at last and burrowed from sight. +Breed watched the heaving dirt till it ceased to move as the badger +settled comfortably in fancied security, buried to the full limit of the +trap chain. + +Some nights later Breed passed a cross fox that had strayed down from +the high country and had stepped into one of Collins' traps. The fox was +never still, weaving in and out, looping and turning round the pin that +held the trap; lashed into constant movement by his native nervousness +but making no strenuous efforts to break loose. Later the same night he +found a bobcat. The big cat made no move save a slight creasing of his +facial muscles preparatory to a snarl if the wolf drew near. The first +pain had dulled and he rested quietly, lacking the hardihood to stretch +his own flesh and bones in a struggle against the trap. + +But Breed always found a trapped coyote fighting,--fighting silently and +gamely to the last heartbeat. Coyotes are high in the scale of +intelligence and so each one has an individuality of his own. One would +surge time after time against the chain, driving savagely to the end of +it. Another would grind his teeth against the cold steel till his jaws +dripped blood, while a third would amputate the mangled foot. But +whatever the method, the basic fact was the same,--no coyote waited +submissively for his fate but waged a ceaseless, desperate fight for +freedom. + +All these things heightened Breed's suspicions. He felt the reassertion +of wolfish caution within him, driving out the coyote desire to outwit +man. Three times he unearthed the traps and stole the bait. Then he +refused to go near stale meat. He was nauseated by the smell of it and +merely avoided instead of investigating the spots from which the scent +came to him. And this was not through fear of traps--he retained full +confidence in his ability to detect them--but from the fact that +wherever he had found traps in the past he had also found poison and so +these two were associated together in his mind. + +Throughout a whole month of accustoming himself to these new conditions, +Breed had visited Shady but twice. He had the companionship of coyotes +to fill his time and the lonesome howls of the she-wolf were unanswered. +It is the stock dog without steady occupation that reverts to the wild. +Mere inactivity, even if coupled with kindness, is insufficient to still +his natural restlessness and fill his life; he must have careful +training and active employment to be content,--and Shady was half wild. + +The mating time of wolves was drawing near and Breed caught the new note +in Shady's voice. He dropped all other business to hurry to her. Though +the season was yet some time ahead they knew its nearness and each +recognized in the other a possible future mate. + +Collins thought of Shady more as a pet than as a dog and so had not +troubled to train her. The wild traits in her were as apparent in +maturity as they had been in infancy--even more pronounced--and chief +among these was her natural aptitude for stealing. She pillaged Collins' +stores and even sneaked food from the table when his back was turned, as +her wild ancestors for many generations had stolen his bait. Collins +curbed this propensity, not by judicious training which would eliminate +it, but by the simple process of chaining her to the cabin wall when he +left for a trip and did not wish her to accompany him. So it was not +strange that Shady viewed thieving from the standpoint of expediency. +Those who came to Collins' cabin predicted a bad end for Shady. + +That insistent note in her voice was more pronounced as the season +neared and Breed tingled to the sound of it. The frequency of his visits +increased till they were of nightly occurrence instead of semi-monthly. +He used every wolfish inducement to lure her away from the vicinity of +the twinkling lights that marked the abode of man. She longed to follow +him into the wild but could not bring herself to face its terrors. Breed +longed to follow her when she left him but could not bring himself to +face the horrors which must lurk near the haunts of men. These clashing +outlooks upon life held them apart. The wild represented safety for +Breed, its dangers known to him and accepted as a part of it and not to +be greatly feared. Those dangers were the work of man, and by natural +consequence Breed assumed that their numbers and deadliness increased in +proportion as he drew nearer the homes of men, the house itself the most +dangerous of all. Shady's mode of life had taught her the reverse of +this; that complete safety lay in the cabin and its immediate vicinity, +the known and unknown terrors of the wild increasing in ever-widening +circles dependent upon the distance from the refuge of the cabin that +was home to her. + +The season had started and some few coyotes had paired, yet Breed could +not induce Shady to follow him. The preceding winter her desire for +motherhood had been thwarted. Collins had chained her to the cabin for a +month. Coyotes are without the wolf suspicion which fills their larger +cousins with fear of human habitations, and they are prone to +investigate them at night while a wolf will not approach. Several dog +coyotes had braved the dangers of Collins' cabin in answer to Shady's +howls. Her soft whimpering had roused the wolfer each time this occurred +and every new admirer had been greeted with a charge of buckshot as he +slipped toward the house, three dog coyotes having paid for their +temerity with their lives. + +The Coyote Prophet intended the same imprisonment for Shady the present +season but he neglected it one day too long. He came from the cabin, a +collar and chain in his hand, only to see Shady slip away into the dusk. +A minute later she howled. + +Breed heard it. Every fiber of him quivered to the sound. It was the +mating call! + +Collins whistled in vain. There was no answering whimper from Shady. But +the habit of obedience was strong in her and she lingered within sound +of it. Breed came nearer than ever before, his fears dulled by the +message she had sent him. Collins came from the house again and whistled +shrilly. Breed shrank from the sound and drew back as Shady trotted a +short distance toward the house; she answered the whistle with an uneasy +whine and Collins moved in the direction from which it came, coaxing as +he advanced. + +Fear flooded Breed. It spurred him to sudden rushes of flight which were +halted in a few stiff bounds as the longing for Shady cried out against +his leaving her. Then came the clanking of the chain in Collins' hand. +It was the clank of a trap chain to Breed,--and he was off. That same +sound, its meaning so different for each of them, resulted in flight for +both. Shady ran with him through the night, and once started it was not +so hard to keep on. And as she ran she transferred her trust from +Collins to Breed, giving herself entirely into his keeping to lead her +through the unknown perils which lay ahead,--and she ran close to him, +her nose almost touching his flank. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The exhilarating element of danger in trap robbing, which appeals so +strongly to the coyote, held no fascination for Shady. She was vastly +trap-wise but used her knowledge solely for self-preservation. Every +scrap of meat on the range represented possible pain or death to her and +she found no sport in close investigation with its attendant risks. She +was entirely dependent upon Breed, feeling a sense of security in his +nearness, but weighed down by the vast unknown which seemed to close in +upon her whenever the gap between them exceeded the span of one leap. +She would not touch any food other than that which he provided. + +The coyotes clustered round the steer that Breed pulled down a few hours +after luring Shady from the cabin and she viewed them suspiciously, +warning them off by repeated growls. Peg and Cripp edged in to feed. +Shady's protest rose frenziedly and she raged at them but did not +attack, and the two old coyotes eyed her warily as they ate. She noted +that Breed accepted their presence and she quieted and patterned her +actions according to her mate's. + +The rest of the pack came in. Her uneasiness persisted and for an hour +she ate but little, edging away from physical contact with those who +crowded about her. She pressed close to Breed's side and whirled to snap +at any coyote who attempted to wedge between them, but her suspicions +subsided as she found that these nips were never returned. Whenever a +dog coyote was inclined to make friendly advances to Shady a low growl +from Breed warned him from her side. The sense of strangeness, of having +been catapulted from a sheltered life into the midst of a growling mob, +wore off and Shady rapidly accustomed herself to these new conditions. + +The feast was but half finished when the head of every coyote in the +pack was raised at once and the shuffling feet and grinding jaws were +stilled as a timber wolf howled from the slope of the Hardpan Spur. All +animal sounds were suspended till the last ripples of Breed's answering +cry died away; then lesser beasts, having preserved strict silence while +two mighty hunters spoke, resumed their own interrupted communications. + +The Coyote Prophet heard the two cries, and that baffling quality in +Breed's voice was instantly clear to him, as was the reason why he had +never before been able to give it name. He had quested for the +difference with his ear,--and the difference lay in the feel of the +sound. Collins had felt the crawling of his flesh and the roughening of +his skin at the gray wolf's cry; for a man may hear that note every +night of his life and the wolf shiver will shake his frame the last time +it sounds as surely as it does the first. It is not fear; no man can +name it; but the wolf shiver is as inseparably linked with the wolf howl +as the involuntary gasp is linked with a dash of ice water on the spine. +And Collins knew that that quality was lacking in Breed's cry. The +personality of the gray wolf was marked by absolute savagery, his bleak +outlook on life undiluted by a single ray of that humor which is so +evident in every act of the dog and the prairie wolf; and this +difference of temperament was reflected in his voice, apparent to the +ears of the animal world, apparent to Collins only in the different way +in which his subconscious mind reacted to his howl. Collins, having once +defined Breed's note, its sound so identical with that of the wolf howl +yet so dissimilar in the elusive feeling which accompanied it, had no +further doubt that he could thereafter identify Breed by his howl. + +"You, Breed! I've got your number now," he said. "I could pick you out +from amongst a hundred wolves." This was merely a casual assertion, a +self-congratulation over having solved the puzzle, and the Coyote +Prophet made it without a thought that the day would ever come when he +might have opportunity to file it among prophecies fulfilled. + +The wolf howl affected Shady in a similar way, its stark savagery +clashing discordantly with the dog strain in her. She felt the grating +along her spine, and the hair rose with it. There was an air of +expectancy among the coyotes. Heads were raised between mouthfuls and +all eyes were repeatedly turned toward the hills. It was the first time +that Shady had heard the cry of one of the big gray hunters. She noted +the tension among her new friends without reading its portent. Of them +all, Breed seemed the only one unaffected. One by one the coyotes left +the feast, then the remaining few sidled hurriedly away as a huge dog +wolf moved swiftly across the flat. His pace slowed as he neared the +kill and he halted ten feet away, his quivering nose taking stock of the +two who fed there. + +Shady's long run through the sage had whipped her soft fur full of sage +dust, its sharp scent nearly obliterating the conglomerate smell of the +cabin which usually clung to her. The reek of coyote scent and fresh +blood that permeated the spot still further concealed it, and though the +wolf caught the peculiar odor he could not trace its source to her +without closer inspection. He was hungry and advanced to the meat, +tearing off huge bites and gulping them down till the wire edge of his +hunger was appeased, then sidled cautiously round the steer to nose the +mating she-wolf. As he neared her his eyes peered over her at Breed. +That foreign odor which he had noted he now traced to Shady, but having +once accepted her it did not trouble him. Shady flinched away from him +and Breed's lips writhed up and cupped away from his ivory fangs. There +was no mistaking the snarl that accompanied this baring of his teeth and +the gray wolf moved back to the opposite side of the steer. + +Thereafter both wolves ate sparingly and each watched for the least +hostile move in the other. The coyote pack ringed in close, awaiting the +departure of the timber wolf. He frequently turned his head and favored +the closer ones with a baleful stare, the move always accompanied by a +flattening of his ears, and the ones so fixed by his appraising eye +shrank deeper into the sage. Each time this occurred his head swung +abruptly back toward Breed. + +Shady feared and hated the wolf. If she thought of him in human words +she would have given him the name of Flatear, and with good reason. In +coyote, fox and wolf the ears are even more expressive than the eyes. A +wolf's ears work when he sleeps, one of them inclining toward the least +sound that reaches him. When awake his ears seem to work automatically +in conjunction with nose and eyes, tipping sharply forward and turning +in the direction of any strange object or questionable scent that +excites his curiosity. And the flattening of the ears is indicative of +his mood, preceding even the snarl, their backward angle an accurate +gauge of his intent. It seemed to Shady that the big wolf's ears were +chronically laid as he regarded Breed. She was unversed in the ways of +her wild kinsfolk and could not know that the yellow wolf and the gray +were sparring for the advantage of the first blow in the savage fight +that would soon be waged for the right of proprietorship,--herself as +the prize. + +Both wolves centered their attention on the main issue and waited only +for an opening. Shady and the restless coyotes out in the sage were +forgotten, each wolf conscious only of his foe. Those others mattered +not at all, for there were certain known laws which all past experience +had proved unalterable. She-wolves showed small concern over the clashes +of rival males; coyotes never fought with their big gray cousins, and +there were no other wolves about. The issue was squarely up to them. + +Each time that Breed appeared off guard for a split second the gray wolf +laid his ears, the involuntary betrayal of muscles tensing for the fatal +spring; and Breed's own flattening ears each time evidenced his +readiness to counter. Shady sensed the enmity between them without +knowing the inevitable result. Her mode of fighting was the impulsive +way of the dog, the act almost simultaneous with the desire, and this +protracted, cold-blooded calculation was new to her. + +Breed gave an opening at last, turning and reaching for a bite of meat, +and exposing the unprotected side of his neck. Flatear struck for it +without a sound, driving straight across the steer with all his weight +behind the gleaming rows of teeth. Breed dropped flat and as his enemy +swept over him he swung his head up and sidewise in a terrible slash +that tore an ugly rent in the gray wolf's paunch. They whirled face to +face,--and both were treated to a series of tremendous surprises which +shattered all previous convictions. + +Shady harked back to the ways of her domestic ancestors, to the custom +of dashing into a neighborhood dog fight and mauling the one strange dog +in the lot, regardless of sex,--and Breed had been her friend long +before he had become her mate. Flatear was the one strange dog to Shady, +and he found himself assailed by a screeching fury who fought without +care or caution, her sole aim being to sink her teeth in any available +part of him. As he leaped away from this unnatural she-wolf he was met +by a second surprise. The coyote pack had learned to strike when the +leader struck. Peg flashed round a sage and laid open his flank, and as +he whirled to face this new enemy Cripp slashed him from behind. Three +coyotes darted past Breed and before he had recovered from the shock of +the surprise his enemy had fled. + +Flatear did not flee from fear but from an overwhelming sense of the +whole world gone mad, the shattering of tradition and the overthrow of +natural laws. The chaos in his mind sent him flying from this insane +place within six seconds after his first attack. A mating she-wolf had +been transformed into a she-fiend and in the same second he had been +mobbed by coyotes. No doubt he believed with Collins that strange things +had come to pass of late in the ranks of the coyote tribe. Flatear +headed back for the hills out of which he had come, and as he ran his +bewilderment crystallized into a consuming hatred for the strange yellow +wolf, the hybrid beast who had upset the established order of things. He +did not know that Breed himself had been so nearly paralyzed with sheer +astonishment that he had not joined the attack. + +The coyotes settled once more to the enjoyment of their interrupted +banquet. Breed little realized that he had made a mortal enemy, one who +would not merely attempt to deprive him of his mate during the running +moon as would any other unattached dog wolf, but one whose enmity was +for the individual and who had marked him for the slaughter when next +they met, regardless of time or season. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The number of coyotes in Collins' territory had been cut down by half +and only the wisest were left. As they grew more trap-wise the wolfer +increased the cunning of his sets. Clearly marked cow trails crossed +through every low saddle in the foothills and Collins studded these with +traps. After once his scent was cold the coyotes had nothing to warn +them of these sets, but trail trapping is largely chance and not +productive of great results. + +Breed saw one coyote in a trail trap and he forswore the following of +cow trails. The coyotes soon learned to avoid them. Collins noted the +absence of coyote tracks on trails that had once been padded thick with +them and the wolfer chuckled over this evidence of their +resourcefulness. + +Some of Breed's pack had fallen victims to the trap line but their +places had been filled by new recruits, every one trap-wise to the last +degree. But even these found it increasingly difficult to retain their +lives. + +A new menace hovered over every coyote that ranged near the foot of the +Hardpan Spur, a menace that filled the hardiest prairie wolf with dread. +Many a lone coyote was suddenly startled by a huge shape that leaped for +him and bore him down. None thus attacked lived to spread the warning +and the only knowledge the others had of the lurking fiend was the +finding of old friends, stiff and dead, their throats gashed open by +savage teeth. The tracks and scent round these murder spots identified +the slayer. + +Flatear spent his days high in the hills and at night he dropped to the +low country to perpetrate his unnatural crimes. Coyotes had violated the +customs of centuries and turned their teeth against him. He now wreaked +vengeance for this affront. There were no wolves to answer his call, so +Flatear no longer howled, but prowled the range without a sound to warn +prospective victims, a silent assassin that struck without notice. + +At the end of a week he had left a long trail of victims behind but not +one of Breed's pack was among them. Those that had pack-hunted with the +yellow wolf and learned the advantages of combined attack in killing +heavy game now put that same knowledge to good use for their own +protection, sufficient evidence of the quick adaptability with which +coyotes rise to meet any new emergency. + +Mated pairs now ran close when hunting, sometimes traveling in fours. +Flatear soon discovered that the teamwork of a pair of fighting coyotes +was more than a match for even his great prowess and his kills grew +fewer. + +Cold fear clutched every coyote that caught a fugitive scent of the gray +killer, but Breed did not share this dread. He was Flatear's match in +size and strength and so was not concerned. Breed could not know that +Flatear's hatred had become almost an obsession; that night after night +the slayer was craftily trailing him and that killing coyotes was but a +side line to lighten the hours of a protracted stalk for Breed himself. +Flatear was a veteran warrior and he waited only for an opportunity to +attack when he should find Breed alone. Nose and ears kept him apprised +of the yellow wolf's whereabouts, but usually there were coyotes running +with him and invariably the tracks of the she-fury were mingled with +those of her mate. Breed was untroubled by any thought that sudden death +lurked in wait for him the first time he should run alone through the +sage. + +While Flatear plied his bloody trade and made the nights fearsome for +the coyotes, men found one more method of harrying them by day. + +The first Breed knew of this danger was one day when he lay with Shady +on a high point of ground. There were many things about Shady which he +could not fathom. From the first he had found much of mystery in her. +She insisted on traveling in broad daylight whenever the notion seized +her and she seemed not to share his fear of horsemen, often rising +incautiously from her bed for a better view of them, careless of the +risk of their seeing her. + +Shady cocked her ears alertly at a distant sound, and the same note, +faint as it was, roused Breed from his nap. Somewhere off across the +foothills several men had raised their voices in a wild outburst of +cheers. This sounded again and again, each time from a point nearer to +where Breed lay. A band of antelope sped past without following their +usual custom of stopping to look back. Breed caught the vibrations of +pounding hoofs, the sound of many hard-running horses blended in one. +Through it all he heard an occasional note that was strange to him, a +shrill, sharp note that had something of the wolf in it, yet which he +knew was not made by any beast he had met before. And at this note Shady +laid her ears and growled. + +The cheers and the hammering hoofs came closer and Breed fixed his eyes +on the edge of the flat bench spread out for half a mile before him. A +coyote spurted from the mouth of a draw off to the left of Breed's +position and raced across the flat. He was stretched out and running his +best, but before he had covered two hundred yards five great wolfhounds +poured out of the draw. They were slender and long-coupled, capable of +tremendous speed, and before the coyote passed below Breed the lead dog +was but a few lengths behind. + +For the most part the dogs ran silently and wasted no breath in +senseless clamor, but occasionally one of them loosed an eager yelp, the +sound as thin and keen as his body. A dozen riders streamed across the +flat on furiously running horses, cheering as they came. The coyote +doubled to evade the snapping jaws of the foremost dog, and as he turned +another struck him. He rolled over twice, and when he gained his feet he +faced his enemies. He knew the game was up but he went down +fighting,--fighting against odds without a whine; and Breed watched five +savage dogs mauling a limp dead thing that ten seconds past had been his +valued friend. These strange beasts did not move off as the men rode up, +and Breed realized with a shock that the men did not ride with the +purpose of killing them; that they were leagued together and that the +dogs were the creatures of men the same as sheep and cows were their +property. + +He stole down the far slope, keeping the high ground between himself and +the horsemen. Shady followed him closely, moving furtively and with many +backward glances, her tail tucked almost between her legs, and Breed, +accustomed to Shady's indifference to the approach of riders, wondered +at this sudden reversal of her usual ways. + +But it was not the men that roused Shady's fear; above all other things +she feared and hated dogs. The few that had followed their masters to +Collins' house had always sensed the wild blood in her, and at the first +opportunity they had pounced on her with intent to kill. Shady had found +friends among the coyotes and had found only hostility among dogs. +Savagery is only relative, according to the views of the one who +pronounces upon it, and from Shady's experience she was right in her +judgment that the ultimate limit of savagery was reached only in the +dog. + +The owner of the dog pack lived some ten miles from Collins and the +whole countryside had assembled to witness the first race. There were +fewer riders in each chase as the novelty wore off but the days were few +when the owner failed to take the dogs out for a run. Wolfhounds run +only by sight and coyotes are slippery prey, doubling and twisting on +their trails to throw their pursuers off, so the result was always in +doubt and every chase did not yield a coyote pelt. + +After that first day Breed did not wait for the dogs to draw near but +started off the instant he found that they were coming his way. It was +Shady's habit of daylight traveling that led Breed into grave danger +within a week after the dog pack had made their first run. He followed +Shady down the bed of a gulch which screened their movements from prying +eyes but at the same time served to shut out all the various signs by +which Breed received long-range warnings. As they loitered along the +bottom of the draw the antelope bands were flashing the danger sign; +range cows on the ridges all stood facing the same way; everywhere +coyotes were scurrying for cover, but all these things passed over +Breed's head. A coyote flipped into the gulch and he did not tarry but +passed Breed with merely a sidelong look and vanished round a bend. + +Breed was instantly alert. He darted to the rim of the draw and looked +warily about him. There was not an antelope in sight and no cows grazed +in the little basin that flanked the gulch at the point where he left +it; not a sign to warn him of the source of the danger. He ran for the +crest of a ridge for a better view,--and the next instant he was in full +flight back the way he had come, for as he sky-lined himself on the +ridge five sharp-eyed wolfhounds a quarter of a mile away had darted +toward him. He knew that they had seen him and were coming, that death +was sweeping down on him. + +He turned up the gulch and followed it toward the hills, Shady running +her best to keep up with him. The dogs fanned out to look for him as +they topped the ridge. The upper end of the draw widened to blend into a +broad mesa and the hounds caught sight of the two wolves as they headed +out across the flat. Breed had held his lead but a clean race of over a +mile confronted him, the flat affording not one shred of cover. He swung +his head slightly to one side as he ran, one backward-rolling eye taking +in every detail of what transpired behind him. + +He saw the five specks increase their speed and knew that they had +sighted him again; they angled slightly and he watched them draw +gradually together, their courses converging on the center of his line +of flight till they were once more running well bunched,--and gaining. + +His lead was being steadily cut down, the gap perceptibly lessened; the +specks showed larger with every backward glance till every dog was +clearly visible. Shady was fleet but her speed was no match for Breed's +and he would not leave her. The high-pitched sinister yelps sounded from +behind him as the eager dogs closed up, putting forth every effort to +end the race before the wolves reached the choppy badland breaks at the +far edge of the flat. Shady's pace was lagging, and they gained the +first gulch of the broken country a bare fifty yards ahead of the +leading hound. + +The gulch feathered out into a maze of branching draws and Shady lost +Breed on the first sharp turn and ran on alone while the dogs streamed +past after the yellow wolf. + +Breed slowed his pace, fear for Shady's life surmounting even the fear +for his own, but as the lead dog flashed into view without any sound of +a fight behind him, Breed knew that his mate was safe and he turned on +the reserve speed he had not been free to use while she ran with him. + +The country ahead was a tangle of small flat-tops, crisscrossed by a +network of badland washes and cut-bank draws, and for two miles he +eluded the dog pack by sheer brainwork and cunning. But the hounds +pressed him hard. Their speed was greater than his own and each time +they lost sight of him they spread out both ways. Whenever he crossed a +flat-top bench some one of them always sighted him and bored straight +for the spot, and his team-mates, noting this sudden burst of speed, +wheeled as one and fell in behind him. + +Breed's one aim was to reach the hills, knowing that once among the +trees he could shake them off. His course led him ever nearer to the +base of the spur but he knew at last that he could not make his goal. +His muscles had lost their spring and his breath came in leaky gasps; +the dogs would pull him down on the first sagebrush slopes of the hills +before he could gain the shelter of the trees. + +He broke cover and started up the last long sloping bench that led to +the base of the spur. The mouth of every gulch behind him seemed to +belch forth a dog and they raced across the bench, spread out for two +hundred yards. + +Then Breed sprung one last desperate trick,--a coyote trick. A badland +wash intersected the flat squarely across his route and Breed leaped to +the bed of it and fled fifty yards along its course, then flashed into a +narrow coulee that led straight back toward the dogs. The draw was +shallow, with scarcely sufficient depth to cover him, but the dogs did +not suspect and as they darted on ahead Breed doubled back through the +very center of the pack. He ran with the last of his strength, crept +from the sheltering coulee and leaped into the center of a heavy clump +of sage where he crouched flat and peered out at the puzzled dogs. Of +all the beasts there are but few with the brains to plan such a coup and +the nerve to carry it through when winded and played out,--and with +certain death the penalty for a single slip. The ruse would not have +fooled a trail hound for an instant, but with sight-hunting coursers it +worked. + +Breed watched the dogs swing wide and scour the country off to the right +of him till they appeared as swift-skimming dots in the distance. Then +one of them lined out with increased speed as he topped a ridge. One +after another Breed saw them flash over the skyline and disappear. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Shady's first impression after taking the wrong turn in the coulee was +one of vast relief at having evaded the dogs. The recovery of her breath +was accompanied by a vague sense of loss which rapidly deepened into an +ache of loneliness so oppressive that her whole spirit was weighed down +by it. She started up through the long crescent-shaped neck of badlands +that partially encircled Collins' cabin and extended clear to the foot +of the spur, knowing that this was Breed's favorite route when making +for the hills. She moved slowly and with many halts, cocking her head +sidewise and tilting her ears for some sound of her mate. She came out +into a funnel-shaped basin that sloped down from the first sharp rise of +the spur. The small end of it formed a saddle between two knobs, leading +to Collins' shack as through a natural gateway. + +Shady trotted to the saddle and gazed down at the wolfer's cabin five +hundred yards away, the spot which had meant home to her over the +greatest part of her life. The door stood invitingly open. She turned +and saw the five dogs pouring down the funnel of the basin. The sudden +purposeful increase of speed which Breed had noticed as the dogs left +his field of view had been occasioned by the sight of Shady standing in +the notch. + +Without an instant's hesitation Shady headed straight for that open +door, a haven of refuge which had served her well in the past when +assailed by the dogs of visiting ranchers. The dogs were jaded and Shady +was fresh, and she reached her goal without their gaining an inch. + +Collins sat smoking his pipe when he was startled by the frenzied +entrance of his former pet. Shady failed to pause for greetings but made +one mad leap from the door and slid to the farthest corner under the +wolfer's bunk. + +Collins grunted with surprise and for a space of five seconds his brain +refused to function with its usual snap. Then he rose and crossed to the +door to discover the reason for Shady's headlong home-coming,--and +slammed it shut with but a single second to spare. + +One dog rose on his hind feet, standing higher than a man, and savagely +raked the door from top to bottom with his claws while another opened +his jaws wide and closed them, his teeth splintering across the smooth +surface as he sought to gnaw his way inside. The remaining three circled +the cabin, sniffing explosively at the cracks between the logs. Shady +was seized with a fit of excessive shivering induced by these dread +sounds, and Collins heard her hind leg-joints beating a spasmodic tattoo +on the cabin floor. Then he turned on his ready grin. + +"Just one split second more," he said, "and they'd have surged in here +and wrecked this plant for fair,--and that's a fact!" + +That night when Breed sent out his call for Shady there was no answering +cry. He called again and again, an agony of longing and entreaty in his +tones. A sickening dread entered his soul,--the fear that his mate had +been caught in a trap, shot by some rider or killed in some other way by +man. He little suspected that Shady was at that instant resting her head +on a man's knee and enjoying the feel of his fingers scratching behind +her ears. + +"Good old Shady," Collins said, roughing her head between his hands. +"You're a renegade now, old girl,--a she-outlaw, that's what you are. +You've gone over to the wild bunch, and men will be out after your +scalp; and they'll get it too. You'll go ambling up to some man and +he'll blow you up. You won't stick with me now unless I keep you +chained. You'll go back to 'em,--and if you're lucky you may go right on +living for mebbe a month. You don't know the ropes out there and they'll +pick you up." + +Shady suddenly stiffened at Breed's first cry. + +"Don't need to be afraid of that," Collins assured her. "That's old +Breed. He won't bother you. It must be hell, Shady, to be born astraddle +of a fence like you, afraid of tame dogs and the wild bunch too." + +Breed howled again and Shady moved to the door and whined, scratching +and sniffing along the crack. Her uneasiness increased with every howl. +She clawed so vigorously at the door that it rattled on the hinges; then +her pent-up emotions sought partial relief in action and she ran in +crazy circles about the cabin, weaving in and out among the furniture at +top speed, running over and under the bunk and leaping over chairs, then +brought up in front of Collins and gazed pleadingly up into his face. +The Coyote Prophet regarded her speculatively. + +"I read you wrong, Shady," he said. "You're not afraid of Breed--you +want to go to him, that's what; he's a friend of yours. Surely now, an +old savage like him didn't go and take up with a little misfit like +you." + +Breed's voice sounded again and Shady raised her own, the whole cabin +ringing with her long-drawn howl. Up in the funnel basin Breed had +picked up her trail and was trying to work it out from among the trails +left by the dogs. He stopped abruptly and listened. A strange muffled +sound had reached him, hollow and drumlike, but there was a familiar +chord in it, and Breed swept ahead on Shady's trail, his hope of finding +her alive renewed. + +"You're mated up with that yellow wolf," Collins stated. "Two freaks +paired up! If you track round with Breed you may live longer than I +thought. He'll show you how to beat the game." The Coyote Prophet +crossed to the door and opened it. "Go to it, Pet," he said. "He's +a-calling you." But the last remark was addressed to a streak that +vanished into the night. + +Shady met Breed in the notch and frisked wildly around him. Breed's +delight in this reunion was as deep as hers but he was more dignified +and staid, his emotions less openly apparent. All through the night +Shady held so close to him as to brush against him frequently as they +ran. + +Shady rapidly absorbed much of Breed's caution. Two days after their +race with the dogs Shady had occasion to revise her estimates of +horsemen. Twice in the same day, after imprudently showing herself in +the open, she heard the vicious reports of their guns and the balls +tossed up spurts of earth about her. Thereafter she followed Breed's +lead in all such cases. Breed's way was the wolf way, recognizing no +individuals among men but classing them as a dangerous whole. Shady, +having lived among them, knew them as individuals, but this knowledge +was soon blurred and she too acquired the views of the wild things +toward men and lumped them as a whole. There was but one reservation. +She placed Collins, the one man who had been kind to her, in a class by +himself. + +This eccentricity was the source of much worry to Breed. Shady could see +no good reason why she should not revisit Collins when the mood so moved +her. One night she turned abruptly from her course and headed for the +twinkling lights of the wolfer's cabin. Breed turned with her. Cripp and +Peg, each with his mate, ran on either flank. The coyotes stopped two +hundred yards from the house but Shady held straight ahead. Breed tried +to dissuade her but to no avail. He nipped her sharply, and its only +effect was to cause her to tuck her tail and spurt for the house. + +Breed stopped twenty yards away, every nerve quivering from excitement +over this suicidal move. He heard Shady scratch at the door. It swung +back and a flood of light streamed out into the night. Breed heard a +man's voice booming out a welcome; saw his mate jump up and put her paws +against him, their outlines framed in the lighted doorway. Then the door +closed and his mate was inside with a man, the arch enemy of all wolves. +Breed whirled and fled. He ran blindly and at high-pressure speed as if +he fled before an actual enemy. All his sense of balance was thrown out +of gear, the fitness of things upset, and he felt his reason tottering. +For his ear, attuned to receive the meaning of all animal sounds, could +detect the least tremor of menace in any animal note; when a range bull +bellowed Breed knew whether the tones held invitation to his cows or +husked a warning to some intruder that had strayed over into his chosen +range. In any animal voice the quiver of anger or fear was easily +apparent to him; and there had been no vibrations of anger in the man's +tones, only those of friendliness. + +The coyotes were hard pressed to keep abreast of him, and after a wild +race of some four miles he wheeled abruptly and retraced his course, the +longing for his mate combining with curiosity to draw him irresistibly +back to the spot where this impossible thing had transpired. + +His pace slackened as he neared the house, then increased as he heard +Shady's voice. Shady had met Breed in the notch after her first visit to +the cabin and she naturally assumed that she would find him there again. +She repaired to the spot at once after leaving the cabin and waited for +him to come. + +For three nights in succession Shady made her pilgrimage to meet her one +friend among the world of men. Breed could not unravel the mystery of +these visits. He could only know the actual that reached him over the +trails of his physical senses. Sights, scents and sounds were facts to +him. Those senses combined to show him that the unnatural visits were +real,--that Shady actually entered the lair of a man and came back +smelling strong of him. Yet when she was with him Breed felt a sense of +unreality in his memories of those visits, partaking of the same vague +qualities that dreams possessed for him after waking. + +But he fathomed it at last, evidence that his brain came from his coyote +mother, a brain that is capable of constructive reasoning, of taking two +facts which the physical senses have verified and evolving a third from +them,--the association of ideas. + +His nose told him that there was something in Shady's scent that was +similar to that left by the dog pack. His eyes had proved that those +dogs were the companions of men. Eyes, ears and nose testified that +Shady visited the haunts of men and was accepted as a friend. His nose +further told him that Shady was half coyote, and her voice added proof +of this. From out this fragmentary assortment of facts Breed found a +satisfactory answer. He knew that Shady was of the wild, yet that she +was also linked with the world of men, thus combining two things which +in the past had seemed widely separate, a chasm too wide to span, +dividing the animals of the wild from those belonging to man. + +Each recurring visit confirmed this fact. Shady missed two nights, but +on the third she headed for the cabin with the coming of night. The +comparative warmth of early winter had given way to the gripping, +penetrating cold of January. Breed's appetite increased with a +corresponding drop in temperature and he was hungry. But from Shady's +actions he knew that she was seized with one of those queer lapses which +called her back to former ways and he delayed the hunt until she should +return from this trip. The coyotes had all mated and the season for +pack-hunting was past, yet many of them still rallied to his call; but +on this night he lingered in the notch and waited for Shady to come back +to him before summoning the pack. + +He prowled uneasily about the narrow saddle, and in his nervousness over +Shady's protracted absence he forgot the danger of following cow trails +and padded restlessly up and down those which threaded through the gap. +And as he waited for her a mortal enemy found the chance he had sought +so long and began stalking him from behind. + +Flatear dropped from the hills to follow his ruthless trade and as he +swung down the funnel basin Breed's scent was wafted to his nose. The +breeze held up the slope,--he had the wind on the yellow wolf. He +shifted across the wind but it carried no coyote scent. His victim was +alone. Flatear followed up the drifting current of scent and sighted +Breed at a hundred yards. His feet made no sound and the wind held +right; the breed-wolf was unaware of his approach. + +Breed saw a sudden flow of light from the cabin and knew that Shady was +leaving it to come back to him. He sent forth the rally call to the pack +and turned to trot along a cow trail. He gave a sudden mighty leap into +the air and crashed down four feet away as he struck the end of the +chain swiveled to the trap that had crushed his foot. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Breed's great paw had not squarely centered the trap and the jaws +clamped on but two toes. He fought the trap with all his strength, +backing up to gain slack in the chain, then throwing all his weight and +force into his spring as he launched himself into the air, only to be +jerked violently to the ground at the end of the chain. + +Four times he sprang, and four times the breath was almost jarred from +his body as he smashed down on his side. As he rose from the last spring +he suddenly stiffened, standing rigidly in one spot while every hair +rose along his spine. Twenty feet away a great gray shape loomed in the +sage. Breed knew it was the midnight killer who had left such sinister +evidence of his handiwork scattered along the foot of the hills,--and +there was no doubt of his purpose. The yellow wolf was handicapped and +knew that he had no chance, but he did not storm and rage aloud as a dog +would have done; his was the coyote way. He backed up inch by inch till +he stood above the trap stake, and this move gave him a four-foot +striking range each way. + +Flatear did not fear traps with the full knowledge of their powers and +limitations as the coyotes did, but with the superstitious dread of the +wolf. In common with all his kind he had merely avoided instead of +investigating this danger, and now his understanding could not +distinguish between a trap that was set and one that was sprung and +harmless. + +The clank of the trap chain delayed his attack. He feared that the thing +which clamped his enemy's foot might leap out and seize his own. The +killer circled his victim, and the yellow wolf turned round and round in +the same spot, keeping his bared fangs toward his foe. The trap chain +kinked and twisted till it gave him less than a foot of play. Only his +insane hatred of Breed led Flatear to brave his horror of that sound of +grating steel,--but he came in close at last, crouched and sprang. Breed +leaned sharply to one side and met him with a side slash of teeth but +the weight of his enemy threw him and he felt the killer's teeth cut +cleanly into his shoulder and slide along the bone. Flatear reversed his +snap so swiftly that it seemed but a double swing of his head, yet the +second swing drove his teeth along Breed's neck and laid open a six-inch +gash. As Breed struggled to his feet the wolf's fangs sliced at his +throat and ripped it open but not deep enough to kill. A loop of the +kinked trap chain was tightened on Flatear's toes by Breed's convulsive +backward dodge, and a ghastly fear that he himself was trapped swept +through him, transcending even the lust to kill the yellow wolf. He made +one wild leap for safety,--and the tightening kink cracked his toes and +threw him, the same lurch dragging Breed down with him, and they rolled +into a furious tangle of clashing teeth and rattling steel. + +Out in the night the coyotes were moving in from all directions in +answer to the call Breed had sent out ten seconds before the steel jaws +gripped him. Shady was trotting leisurely up to the saddle to meet her +lord and mate,--the mate whose life was flowing out through a score of +ugly rents. Breed's strength was ebbing fast, and he no longer had the +power to put killing force behind his teeth. Flatear snapped aimlessly, +his mind half crazed by that fearsome pinching of the chain on his toes. +He felt it loosen and slip off, and he leaped clear of the spot. + +A shape moved over the edge of the saddle and the next instant Shady +drove straight at the gray assassin, raging as she came, the dog in her +boiling to the surface. Before she reached him a yellow streak split the +night and Peg's teeth crunched on the wolf's hind leg, the little +coyote's deadly silence contrasting queerly with Shady's fighting +shrieks. + +The big wolf fled from this combined attack, one hind leg sagging as he +ran, the muscle torn raggedly across by Peg's one snap. Once more Breed +was indebted to Shady and his coyote followers. + +But Breed was far gone. He struggled to rise but fell back again and lay +still, the blood oozing from the rents in his tattered pelt. He raised +his head and looked at Shady, and for a single instant his mouth opened +and his red tongue lolled out in friendly greeting, showing his spirit +still intact even though his body was slit in ribbons; then he lowered +it flat between his paws and moved nothing but his eyes. + +Shady crept close to him and licked his wounds. The coyote pack came up +in pairs and circled about their stricken leader, some of them squatting +on their haunches as they regarded his plight, others moving restlessly +about; all of them silent as the grave, the only sound in the notch +being Shady's continuous low wails as she implored her mate to rise and +follow her. + +The bitter frost claimed Breed's swollen foot and stiffened it, numbing +all sense of pain. He felt comfortable and content. Then Peg moved up +and sniffed critically at the trapped foot. He set his teeth in it but +Breed did not flinch. The three-legged coyote crouched beside him and +turned his head sidewise, the right side of his jaws flat on the trap, +his teeth sliding along the cold steel and shearing away the frozen +flesh. The leg was dulled to all sensations and Breed felt no pain. +Shady viewed this amputation closely and whined with anxiety as it +proceeded. Peg sliced the meat from the two toes, set his teeth firmly +across the bones and crunched just once. Then he hooked one forepaw over +the trap and scratched it away from Breed's sprawling hind leg, two +severed toes remaining in the trap. + +Peg's lips and gums along the right side of his face were seared and +burned from contact with the chilled steel of the trap, raw patches of +flesh showing where the skin had adhered to the frosted springs and had +been wrenched loose. He nursed these wounds with his hot tongue, and +fiery twinges of pain racked him but he did not whine. He curled up and +slept for an hour, then rose and nipped Breed's flank. The cold had +stopped the flow of blood from Breed's cuts and the pain of the nip +roused him from the stupor. He struggled to his feet and stood swaying +while Shady bounced around him with joyous yelps. Then he set off for +the hills, moving at a walk, with his head drooping weakly. + +The next morning Collins stood and looked down at the two great toes in +the trap. + +"Pegged him," he said. "Pegged old Breed. He'll be minus two hind toes +from now on out--but he could lose two toes off each foot and still beat +the game. The whole coyote tribe must have been up here to look him over +from the number of tracks." + +When Collins returned to his shack he found six stockmen awaiting him. +The stampede of the sheep and the big kill made by Breed's pack up in +the hills had enraged the sheepmen. They had confidently expected that +some man would collect Breed's scalp on a fresh tracking snow, but while +every rider had scoured the foothills for Breed's tracks after every +storm, no man had cut his trail. After gorging on warm meat at night a +wolf runs sluggishly the following day; his muscles lack snap and his +wind is leaky, and a good horse can wear him down. Twice in his first +year Breed had been harried far across the foothills by hard-running +horses, and now the first spitting flakes of a coming storm brought +recollections of those desperate races and roused his uneasiness to such +a pitch that he set off for the hills and remained there till the wind +had piled the snow and cleared long stretches which made tracking from a +running horse impossible. + +The sheepmen at the cabin informed Collins of the big killing and their +tale was punctuated by every possible epithet applicable to the coyote +tribe. Collins, owning no sheep, was in a position to view the killing +in a more philosophical light than they. + +"You can't rightly blame 'em," he said. "Men raise up sheep to kill 'em +in cold blood; coyotes kill 'em when they're hungry. Two sides to it, +'cording to whether you're a coyote or a man." + +The stockmen stated the purpose of their visit. Their association had +raised the bounties, making it profitable for wolfers to hunt even in +the summer months when pelts were unprime and valueless; the price for +spring pups had been raised to equal the reward posted for adults; and +now the association would furnish free poison for all wolfers and +advocated its use all through the year. They stated their belief that +this system, if followed ruthlessly, would result in the practical +extermination of prairie wolves. They rested their case and anxiously +awaited the Coyote Prophet's verdict on their plan. Collins shook his +head. + +"Part of it's good," he told them, "and part of it's dead wrong. Anyhow +you can't kill 'em all. I've told you so for twenty year and I stand on +what I've said. There'll be a million coyotes left to howl when the last +man dies. The raise on summer bounties is a good move--a man can afford +to kill shedders at that price; and the pup bounty will set men to +digging out their dens. But your main plan was laid out by men that +don't savvy the coyote mind." Collins leaned forward and tapped one +forefinger in the open palm of his other hand to emphasize his point. + +"You let this all-year poison idea slide! You mark me--if you try that +on you'll lose; more ways than one. I know 'em! A coyote will take a +chance on guns and traps, but he's superstitious about these strychnine +baits. After a few turn up on the range with a dose of it the rest will +quit your line. Your traps won't show one catch. There's only one time +to use it and that's after you've bait trapped and trail trapped till +only the wisest are left. Then shoot the whole range full of poison; get +it all out at once and knock off all you can. Then take your poison up +and quit! You hear me,--quit! Then they'll sort of halfway forget before +another year and you can spring it again. But I'm a-telling you the +facts,--if you leave poison scattered round loose for six months you'll +see coyotes increasing fast and there'll be hell to pay amongst your +sheep; you'll break behind two ways at once. There'll be just enough +that forget themselves and take on a poison feed to keep the rest in the +notion of passing up all dead meat. They won't even touch bloats or +winter-killed stock. When they're hungry they'll make a kill,--and +they'll work on your sheep." + +"I've stripped off three times more pelts than any wolfer that's mixed +poison with his traps. Now my trap line is played out and I'm going to +throw poison into 'em for a month,--and quit." + +As Breed lay convalescing from his wounds he reviewed the dangers of his +chosen range, not knowing that the one horror which he feared more than +all else combined was about to sweep through the foothills. His former +attitude toward Flatear had been one of aversion for his gruesome +practices, but with no touch of personal enmity. But the gray wolf had +not only pounced on him at a season when mating was past and dog wolves +at peace, but had almost torn him to shreds while he was helpless in the +grip of a trap. Breed now felt a terrible hatred growing in him, a +desire to kill the slinking gray beast as soon as he gained sufficient +strength to take his trail. + +Breed was too weak to hunt but there was enough of the coyote in Shady +to lead her to rustle food for her mate. For five days Breed lived +wholly upon the chunks of meat which Shady purloined from the frozen +bait piled against Collins' shack,--the meat which he intended to poison +and strew all across the range as soon as he had finished taking up his +traps. On the sixth night Shady found that the whole of the great stack +of meat had entirely vanished and near morning she returned without +food. + +Breed's strength had flowed steadily back to him and he craved meat. By +noon his hunger was a hollow ache. Then suddenly he knew that there was +meat two miles west of him. The wind was square at his back so he could +not possibly have scented it, and any man who had seen him rise from his +bed and head for meat that lay two miles downwind would have charged the +act to that mysterious intuitive knowledge that animals are supposed to +have. + +There is one sure way by which men of the open locate animal carcasses: +the location of winter-killed stock or range cows mired down in an +alkali bog is pointed out to them at a distance of several miles. Game +wardens make use of it to locate the illegal kills of poachers, and +rangers to locate the kills of cougars and wolves. In all countries +there are meat-eating birds and their flights reveal much to practiced +eyes. + +Breed's mysterious information came from seeing an eagle pitch down far +to the west of him. Two minutes later another swooped from another +angle. Ravens and magpies winged toward the spot,--and Breed set off at +once toward the converging lines of their flight. His hunger overcame +his dislike for daylight traveling, but he held to high ground instead +of the valleys. + +He came to the edge of a shallow basin devoid of all vegetation except +an occasional spear of grass, chalk-white patches on the surface of the +earth showing it to be an alkali sink. A hundred yards beyond the last +tongue of sage that reached out into it Breed could see a quarter of +beef, two eagles jealously guarding it. Magpies and ravens flitted +about, waiting for their share of the feast. One of the eagles made +frequent moves to scatter them when they came too close, rushing at them +with a queer hopping run, his wings half spread and trailing back. Breed +could plainly hear the snapping of his powerful beak. + +The larger eagle suddenly took flight, rising with awkwardly flapping +wings and cutting eccentric loops and curves, each dip calling forth a +raucous scream. He fought his way to a height of two hundred yards, then +lost all muscular control and fell loosely to the ground, his mate +taking wing as he smashed down on the flat. + +A vague dread seized Breed. He watched the magpies close in to the feed. +A score of them took the air at half-minute intervals, fluttered wildly +and with a spasmodic jerking of their long tails and pitched down in +death. The rest of them left the meat. Breed's mind again proved capable +of associating ideas, of constructing theories from known facts. The +birds had been alive. There were no clanking traps or sound of gunshots +to account for it,--yet they had died. Their crazy flappings had been in +sharp contrast to their usual grace when in the air. Their actions had +not been normal, and Breed someway thought of the ways of poisoned +coyotes. He had never seen a poisoned horse or cow, or till now a +poisoned bird,--had always believed it an affliction of coyotes alone; +yet he felt the quickening of long dormant fears. He knew that meat was +poisoned and he would not go near. He drew farther back in the sage and +rested till night. + +He started out with Shady at dusk and they were joined by Peg and his +mate, the four of them hunting together. Peg killed a jack and Breed's +share of it partially satisfied the gnawing of his hunger. As he +traveled on he sampled the wind for some sign of the gray killer. It had +narrowed down to a feud between the yellow wolf and the gray, an undying +hatred, and whenever they next met there would be one of them whose +trail the coyotes would never again cross on the range. + +Then all thought of hunger, all thought of his feud with Flatear, +everything but stark horror was suddenly swept from Breed's mind. A +horrid, racheting cough sounded from straight ahead. A coyote whisked +into the open and bounced toward them with bucking leaps, strangling and +gagging as he came, then whirled and snapped at himself, the froth +dripping and foaming from his jaws and the moonlight reflecting from his +set, staring eyes. They drew away from him and he writhed on the ground +in nasty convulsions,--stiffened and stretched out with his eyes bulging +from their sockets and glaring forth in death. + +Breed headed for the hills and Shady and the two coyotes clung close to +his flanks, as if numbers relieved the horror of the thing they had just +seen. + +Three times before they reached the hills they were terrified by the +appearance of former friends who had suddenly been stricken into foaming +maniacs. Breed turned on the first rise of the hills and howled. The +members of the coyote pack read the message. Breed was bidding farewell +to the land of sage. Perhaps he knew that he would never see the gray +foothills again. + +Six pairs of coyotes gathered toward his cry. They had seen much and +lived to pass their knowledge on. Every one of them had run the gauntlet +of rifle fire; they had been hounded by dogs. Most of them had been +maimed by traps,--and now this affliction that turned coyotes mad with a +single bite of meat. + +They followed Breed back into the hills, a wise band, the pick of the +coyote tribe and well able to cope with new conditions and teach their +future pups the work of pioneering in strange countries which lay ahead +of them. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Breed found the hills buried deep under a blanket of snow. In the low +country the drifts lay only in the gulches and the more sheltered spots +but up in the lodgepole valleys and the heavy stands of spruce on the +slopes the white covering seemed endless and unbroken. The dogs killed +the meat for the whole pack, for at this season the she-coyotes were +unfitted for the strenuous work of pulling down heavy game. For the same +reason they were unable to travel long distances in the snow. Breed too +was disinclined to move rapidly. His foot had healed but the swollen leg +was weak and tender. The pack averaged less than twenty miles a day. + +At the end of a week Breed's old home was more than a hundred miles +behind and he was well up in the backbone of the hills. He came out upon +a mighty divide and gazed off across a rolling country extending fifty +miles each way, all of it high but ringed in by still more lofty ranges, +their ragged saw-teeth standing gaunt and grim against the sky. There +were broad, open meadows spread out before him, great areas devoid of +trees, intersected by timbered ridges and rolling parks where the stand +of spruce was dotted. The whole of it lay under a four-foot layer of +snow and gleamed dead white and lusterless, but even so its aspect was +more inviting than the gloomy forest through which they had come. + +The open-loving coyotes elected to remain in this land rather than +penetrate the questionable beyond. As they crossed the open spaces the +racy smell of the sage leaked through the packed drifts underfoot and +they knew that parts of these valleys were carpeted with the same brush +that clothed the foothills of their home land. This was the summer range +of the elk herds and once well down the slope of the divide they found a +country that seemed devoid of game. + +After advancing in loose formation for five miles without any coyote +finding a promising trail, Breed caught a fugitive scent of meat. He +circled and looped, now catching it, then losing it again. The broad +valley stood white and silent, gripped in a dead calm, and the few +vagrant breezes were imperceptible, merely the sluggish drift of local +air pockets that shifted a few feet and settled. + +The yellow specks that moved in pairs far out across the snow fields +slowed and halted, changed their routes and headed toward the leader who +was questing about with uplifted nose. Then Breed dropped his head and +ran with nose close to the snow, twisting and turning in one locality of +less than a hundred yards in extent. The eyes of every advancing coyote +were fastened on Breed. They saw him stop abruptly and shove his nose +into the snow, and the little puff of steam which rose around his head +as he breathed hard into the drift was clearly visible to them all. They +put on more speed as he began to dig, and when the first of them reached +him they saw a tawny expanse of elk hair at the bottom of the +excavation. + +They tore away the snow and uncovered the whole carcass of a +winter-killed elk that had been refrigerating there for months. Breed +lingered near this spot for three days, the coyotes bedding near by in +pairs, and up here where there were no men they fed in the daytime +whenever so inclined. There was not an hour of the day or night when +Breed could not see one or more coyotes tearing at the elk. When the +last scrap of meat, hide and hair had been devoured and the bones gnawed +white and clean, Breed moved on in search of more. + +There were always some few stragglers that lagged behind the elk herds +and failed to start for the winter range till after the passes were +blocked with snow. These turned back and starved when the grass was +buried deep and their feet were cut and worn from pawing through the +crust to reach it; for the elk is strictly a grazing animal and cannot +live entirely by browsing on the twigs and brush as do moose and deer. + +For a month Breed prowled this high basin country, and in all that time +his feet never once touched earth except when crossing some bald ridge +from which the wind had whittled the snow. His menu consisted +exclusively of frozen elk. + +A chinook swept the hills and held for a week, the hot wind melting and +packing the drifts and clearing the more exposed slopes free of snow. +The pack had split up and scattered in pairs, each she-coyote selecting +some likely spot and remaining in that vicinity. + +The first day of the chinook every she-coyote started her den, and the +sites, though widely separated, were identical in many respects. Each +chose a ridge with a southeast exposure while higher ridges behind cut +off the sweep of the north and west winds; and every den was located in +a heavy clump of sage. This latter feature was not for the reason that +sagebrush reminded them of home, but because experience had proven that +the heaviest growths of sage were indicative of deep, soft soil beneath +and so pointed to easy digging, a rule used not only by home-seeking +coyotes but by homesteading men as well, and one that holds good +throughout a half-million square miles of sagebrush country. + +Shady too had settled on an open ridge and now spent much of her time +there, but this seemed more from a disinclination to travel and a +dislike of bedding in snow than from a definite purpose of excavating a +den. This puzzled Breed. Shady leaned more to the casual dog way of +trusting that a suitable spot would present itself on the day when her +pups should arrive; yet there was enough of the coyote in her to cause +her to scratch out a shallow nest in a sunny spot. This act was more for +present comfort, however, than from any intent to make provision for the +future. + +Peg and Cripp had always clung more tenaciously to Breed than had the +others of the pack and Peg had settled on a ridge not more than two +miles away; but Cripp was no longer to be found. It had been long since +his voice had been raised in answer to Breed's call and he had not come +back into the hills with the coyote pack. Breed missed the trusty +follower who had run with him on so many hunts, and day after day he +expected to catch a trace of Cripp in the wind or to hear his friendly +voice at night, but the crippled coyote never came. + +Peg was now Breed's sole companion at night, except when their mates +joined them at the two frozen elk carcasses in the bottoms between their +home ridges, and the two of them explored the surrounding country +together. Peg's lips were scarred along the right side of his face, the +price of Breed's liberty. There are close ties between animals, a myriad +proofs of friendships and enmities, the same as among men, and it may be +that the act which had brought Peg those honorable scars had helped to +cement the bond between himself and the yellow wolf. Whether or not they +had means of discussing Cripp's absence, there can be no doubt that they +missed the genial old rogue that had been their running mate for so many +months and that they wondered at his fate. + +Breed visited Peg's home ridge during the height of the chinook. Peg's +mate was a silky-haired coyote, her fur fluffy and long. Fluff lay +sprawled contentedly in the sunshine while her mate worked on the den. +She growled uneasily at Breed as he peered down the hole. A shower of +dirt greeted him and he drew away as Peg backed from the den and shook +the dirt from his fur. Fluff took her turn at the work but soon tired of +it, and Peg started in as soon as she left off. A she-coyote picks her +own den site and starts the hole, but because she is easily exhausted +near denning time it falls to the dog to complete the den. + +When Breed returned to Shady he found her scratching leisurely at the +nest she had scooped out. It was merely a raking of the surface to +loosen and soften the bed which was smooth and glazed from her having +bedded there when her fur was wet; but Breed read it as a tentative +start toward making a permanent home. + +When Shady ceased her aimless scratching Breed edged her aside and tore +at the soft earth with his paws. He had buried himself to the hips +before he drew back. Shady entered and critically inspected the hole, +then immediately backed out. That was the extent of her interest. It may +have occurred to Breed that his mate's shifts at digging were extremely +brief, but nevertheless he persisted till he had tunneled a curving +entrance eight feet long and hollowed out a nest eighteen inches high by +three feet across. All well-ordered she-coyotes have at least two, and +the majority of them three openings leading from their homes. Shady +failed to indicate the direction which she wished these emergency +tunnels to take so Breed laid them out according to plans of his own. By +the time the den was completed the chinook wind had cooled, and winter +tightened down over the hills once more, freezing the surface dirt so +solidly as to make excavating impossible. + +Breed repaired to the last frozen elk carcass in his neighborhood and +found Peg there before him. An hour later a she-coyote came to the feed. +She sprawled flat in the snow and tore ravenously at the frozen meat. +Her eyes were hollowed from hard journeying and lack of food. Breed knew +her for Cripp's mate and he momentarily expected to see his friend. When +her hunger was appeased she faced back toward the divide over which she +had come and howled; then, as if knowing her cry would go unanswered, +she turned and left them as abruptly as she had come. She had no time to +lose and she could not dig a den, yet she planned the best she knew. +There would be no mate to rustle food for her, and meat would be the +first essential while her pups were young. Five miles beyond Breed's +home ridge she found an elk drifted deep under the snow in the heavy +timber. She crawled into the heart of a windfall jam, choosing one where +the lay of the land would prevent her being drowned out when the drifts +should melt, and stayed there till her five pups were born. + +When Breed returned home near morning he heard queer squeals issuing +from the yawning mouth of the den. Shady's doglike faith that a place +would somehow be provided for the great event had been justified and she +had taken possession of the den which her wild mate had so carefully +prepared. + +Shady wandered no more with Breed, but stayed at home in the den, and +for the first week all that Breed saw of her was a brief glimpse of her +nose as she came to the mouth of the hole, seized the elk meat which he +brought as an offering and backed down out of sight with it. After that +he occasionally saw the whole of her but these views were hasty. +Whenever Shady emerged from the den her tail barely cleared the mouth of +it before she twisted back and dived headlong from sight, panic-stricken +lest some mishap had befallen the pups during her long eight-foot trip +from them to daylight. After two days of hourly excursions of this sort +she spent a few moments outside the den, and thereafter these periods +were lengthened until she remained on the warm slope fully as much as in +the den. + +Night after night Breed heard the howls of the lone she-coyote that had +denned in the windfall. Always she faced toward the land that had been +her home. A she-coyote whose mate is killed after the running moon will +raise her pups alone and refuse to accept another mate; yet the howls +she sent out were calls for a mate, and from this Breed knew that she +did not believe that Cripp was dead. He pondered long over this mystery +of why Cripp still lived but did not join his mate. + +The supply of elk meat rapidly diminished and at last was gone. The only +carcass Breed could locate within ten miles was the one near the +windfall, and the widowed mother defended that furiously against all +comers. The warm days of early March had turned it stale and putrid but +it was all she had. + +Every waking second of Breed's time was spent on the meat trail. An +occasional blue grouse or snowshoe hare was the largest game he found. +That the coyotes were faring as poorly he knew from the signs he crossed +each day in the hills. He found the tracks of dog coyotes many miles +from their dens and always the signs showed that they had been working +out some cold rabbit trail. Breed found the tracks of many bobcats in +the hills and these appeared to have been wandering aimlessly. But Breed +knew that the noses of cat beasts are not keen enough to work out any +but the warmest trails; that this accounted for his seldom finding signs +that a cat had trailed a rabbit, and that their apparently crazy way of +traveling was in reality a systematic shifting across the air currents +in search of the warm body scent of their prey. Several times Breed +picked up a hot cat track and followed it at top speed but the big bobs +held mainly to the heavy timber and always took refuge in a tree. + +When Breed's pups were three weeks old he had his first look at them +when Shady came from the den on a warm afternoon and a swarm of fluffy +little creatures toddled after her. There were eight of them, all with +heavy frames that gave promise of their attaining almost as great size +as their father, and there were strips of dark fur along their backs. +After that first trip they spent much time romping and quarreling on the +sunny side hill. + +A pair of golden eagles had nested on the rough face of a pinnacle that +rose from the floor of the valley near its head, some five miles from +Breed's home ridge. These mighty birds soared far out over the divide +and returned with meat for their fledglings in the nest. Their pealing +screams often split the silence of the valley. Shady paid small heed to +them but Breed often cast a wary eye aloft when the screams sounded from +close at hand. + +Shady was stretched comfortably before the den one day, watching the +pups scattered out along the ridge, when she became aware of a faint +rushing sound such as the first puffs of a fresh wind make when they +strike the trees some distance away. This increased to a humming roar. +She looked up to see a huge shape driving down upon a pup with +incredible velocity, swooping at a sharp angle, the great wings spread +wide and hissing through the air as the big bird tipped dizzily from +side to side. Within two seconds after the first droning sound had +reached Shady's ears she saw the eagle strike his claws through a pup +and start up the valley on lazily flapping wings. Shady raced madly +under him and raged until the valley echoed to her fury. Then she +quieted and watched till he was but a tiny speck off toward the nesting +peak, the dead pup dangling loosely from the talons that had struck +clear through his slender body, the hind claw on each foot meeting and +interlocking with one front claw in a grip which nothing short of the +actual severing of a leg tendon could break. + +Thereafter Shady knew why Breed showed uneasiness when an eagle screamed +near the den. + +The pups knew every note of their mother's voice and obeyed it +implicitly. They would be asleep in the den when a note would summon +them forth to play, every pup tumbling hurriedly out; she would give +another cry when they were playing carelessly in the open, the tone +being so nearly identical with that of the first that a man might hear +it a hundred times and detect no difference, yet every pup would dive +headlong for the nearest hole. + +Shady learned to watch for the eagles. Nearly always it was a shadow +which warned her first. She would see a swiftly moving black speck +gliding over the snow fields or darting along the slopes of the ridges +that flanked the valley and she instantly issued a warning to the pups, +knowing that where there was a shadow there must be a bird above. +Sometimes Breed saw the birds first and called. Shady relayed the danger +signal to her young, and even if she was half a mile away the pups made +a prompt and desperate spurt for the den. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The snow melted slowly in the high country but by mid-April a few bare +spots showed in the more open meadows, the hardy mountain grass sending +forth green shoots. The rabbits were drawn from the timbered ridges to +nibble these first spring dainties. The surface of the drifts showed +thousands of tiny mouse tracks,--the mice that had lived deep under the +snow, subsisting on food previously stored, now coming forth to swarm +into these first cleared patches. + +The pups had grown large and strong and were able to follow their +parents on the meat trail, and they soon learned to catch their own +mice. The drifts in the passes had packed so firmly as to afford good +footing and the game was coming back to the summer range. After the +first few had made the crossing the rest followed their trails and the +main tide of the elk migration set in, great droves of cows boiling +through all the passes and streaming down into the green spots in the +meadows. There was now meat in plenty, and the yelping barks of the cows +sounded in the valleys that had been wrapped in white silence for so +many months; but there was not a sound from the bulls; the antlered +lords whose ringing challenges had filled the whole expanse of the hills +the previous fall seemed voiceless now. These old fellows had remained +up among the high bald ridges, their new antler growth tender in its +velvet sheath, and nothing would be heard from them till after the +porous growth had hardened and their points were polished for the next +rutting time. + +The wolf family returned to the den no more, except perhaps for a casual +inspection when their wanderings chanced to lead them to the +neighborhood. + +The bears had come from their long sleep and left the dens. There were +black and brown bears and monster grizzlies roaming in the meadows. At +first the diet of these huge beasts consisted almost entirely of grass +and twigs but their appetites rapidly increased and it was no unusual +thing for a bear to appropriate one of Breed's kills. + +Breed did not fear bears, knowing that their speed was less than his own +and that they were harmless so long as he did not molest them and come +into too close quarters. He accepted this stealing of his meat as part +of the established order of things and always moved away when a bear +came swaying leisurely up to his kill. + +Shady, on the contrary, had a wholesome fear of bears and was excited at +their approach, but at the same time she could not view their thieving +ways in such a philosophical light and her resentment rankled deeper +with each recurring theft. + +The wolf family returned to a kill to find a great silvertip feeding +there. Shady's rage boiled over and she swept down upon him with a +furious burst of barking. She would have halted short of him but there +was no need. Breed was profoundly amazed to see the mighty baldface flee +down the slope with Shady in full cry behind him. + +Breed knew that bears did not fear him, even though his fighting ability +far surpassed that of his mate, yet a grizzly fled at the first sound of +her voice. This deepened his respect for Shady; the mate who was so +helpless in many respects was surprisingly resourceful in others. + +It was not known to Breed that bears had learned to dread the bellowing +of a pack of trail hounds in the hills through knowledge that men +followed close behind, and that the dog note in Shady's voice stirred up +visions of a man with a magazine gun on their trail. But while the +reason was not clear to Breed, the fact that the mightiest grizzly took +flight before his mate was repeatedly proved to him, and after once +learning her power Shady permitted no bear to deprive her family of its +meat. + +[Illustration: As the summer advanced the pups learned to pack-hunt with +Breed. _Page 167._] + +As the summer advanced the pups learned to pack-hunt with Breed. The +coyote howls at night were now confined to messages between mate and +mate or between mother and pups. The life they led was essentially a +family life and they had no interests outside of the family circle. +Breed's cry to rally a pack was never raised, for his own domestic +duties were many; and if he had sent forth the summons none would have +answered it. He sometimes met Peg and ran with him for a while, but +these visits were infrequent and brief, each having pressing business of +his own. + +Breed one day caught the scent of a coyote upwind from him. This in +itself was nothing unusual but there was something vaguely familiar +about it, something that roused old memories, and suddenly he thought of +Cripp. He traced up the scent and as he topped the ridge he stopped +short and bared his teeth, the hair rising along his spine. A horrid +nightmare of a thing rose from its bed and leered at him. The hair had +slipped from its body, leaving the skin shiny and slate-blue. The ears +and head were furred, and the legs; tufts of hair sprouted from the +shoulders and along the spine, but flanks and sides were bare and the +long tail was rat-like, its joints showing through the tight-stretched +skin. The lips were drawn back and revealed the blue gums receding from +loosened teeth. This was the result of poison that had failed to kill. + +Breed knew this grisly apparition for Cripp. The scent was there, and +the warped foreleg. Cripp did not recognize his friend. His mind was +clouded and the light of insanity gleamed in his sunken eyes. Breed +whirled and fled, and a weird cry sounded behind him,--the eerie howl of +a maniac. + +All through the summer the coyotes shunned the specter of living death +that plodded silently up and down the valleys and the ridges. When it +came suddenly through the trees, drawn by the scent of a fresh kill, +some coyote family scattered swiftly and left the feast. Cripp was as +apt to howl in broad daylight as at night, and the sounds were +meaningless, the unintelligible jargon of an idiot. Every coyote within +hearing bristled with fear whenever Cripp's jabbering reached their +ears. + +In the background of Breed's mind the purpose to slay Flatear still +persisted, but his duties prevented his spending the time to hunt for +him. Occasional wolf howls were heard back here in the hills, the calls +of strays that had drifted down from the north, following the line of +the hills and keeping well back from the dangers of the low country. +Each time he heard the wolf note the urge to kill was strengthened in +Breed. He had heard Flatear's voice but once and so was unable to +identify him by ear alone but must receive added testimony through eyes +or nose. Twice he left his family to investigate the source of these +cries. One came from a lone female; the other from a big gray dog wolf +who had mated with a coyote, and there were five pups trailing after the +oddly assorted pair. These pups were much like Breed's own and they gave +proof that the coyote strain was stronger than the wolf. Their language +was that of their mother. The only trace of wolf parentage was shown in +their greater size and the dark fur of their backs. Breed's search for +his old enemy proved fruitless. Many things of which Breed was unaware +had taken place on his old home range since he had left it, and Flatear, +terrified by the latest of these events, had slunk away to the north. + +Collins' prediction had been verified. The coyotes in the low country +where poison had been strewn broadcast on the range had suddenly turned +from stale meat as from disease. Much of their food supply had come from +bloated sheep, from locoed horses, and from cows that had eaten larkspur +and died, but they would no longer touch these carcasses. Deprived of +this source of food, their kills became more frequent and they grew +bolder in their raids on calves and sheep. + +Then a new and appalling menace reared its ugly head in the foothills, +striking not at coyotes alone but at every living thing. There were many +coyotes such as Cripp, with the hair slipped from their hides,--the ones +that had survived a dose of poison but were unable to shake off its +devastating after effects. Hydrophobia broke out among these and they +ran amuck, striking alike at friends and foes. Sound coyotes were turned +into frothing fiends that helped to spread the wave of madness that +swept across three States. Horses and cows died by hundreds and it was +no unusual thing for one mad coyote to bite fifty head of sheep in a +single night. The five dogs that had harried Breed were themselves +infected when they pulled down a mad coyote, and they drove poisoned +fangs into forty head of stock before the last of the five was run down +and shot. + +There was but one ray of hope in the whole dangerous business and men +seized on that. Mad coyotes lost their cunning and ran stupidly on some +chosen course, biting every living thing that crossed their trails, but +refusing to be turned aside even to avoid an approaching man. Riders +poured through the foothills on fleet horses, shooting down the stricken +ones, all other business suspended till this menace had been stamped +out. And through it all the ravages among the wily coyotes were far less +than among domestic stock. + +The spreading of coyotes over new territory, which had been only gradual +before, was accelerated by the poison and madness that had blighted the +foothills. Thickly settled districts far to the east, where coyotes had +formerly appeared but infrequently, were now invaded by great numbers. +Poison and traps could not be used effectively against them in +localities where there were dogs on every farm, and the coyotes were +safer there than on the open range. Reports that reached Collins showed +that for eight hundred miles south along the base of the hills the +coyotes were quitting the flats and roaming through the fastnesses of +the Rockies. + +Breed noted the steady flow of strange coyotes into the high basins of +his new range. In the late summer his pups dropped one by one from the +family circle, going off on some business of their own. During the +latter part of August Breed was conscious of a vague sense of +loneliness. This grew more pronounced and then suddenly he knew! The +rally call for the pack rolled through the valleys and echoed among the +peaks, and from far and near he heard familiar voices raised in answer. +The parental responsibilities were over for one season, the pups gone +forth on their own, and the members of the pack were free to follow the +yellow wolf. + +As Breed ran through the hills the pack gathered, and each coyote fell +into his old place. Peg and his mate ran close on the right of +Breed,--but the place on the left was vacant. + +Cripp was coming, however. The cry for the pack had penetrated the fog +that obscured his reason and touched a responsive chord buried deep +beneath. That cry was meant for him. The coyotes made a kill and +feasted, but before their hunger had been satisfied a living skeleton +came moving toward them, and they scattered wildly and left the meat to +Cripp. + +Several strange coyotes joined Breed's pack and these new members seemed +possessed of some haunting fear. Breed noted their constant air of +expectancy and the intent regard with which they favored every coyote +that drew near to them. They seemed always suspicious that some friend +would suddenly turn upon them, and whenever some eager coyote clashed +his teeth while feeding, these strangers that had come so recently from +the low country started uneasily at the sound. + +Night after night Cripp followed the pack and came to the kill. The +coyotes all avoided him but the strangers were assailed with a ghastly +dread of his grinning mask, and their fears were communicated to the +rest of the pack. Breed himself caught it. An air of tense watchfulness +pervaded their gatherings, a guarding against some menace as yet unknown +but which the actions of the strangers indicated might be upon them at +any moment. + +After a week of this sort of thing Breed and Shady were bedded on a +ridge slope that flanked a broad meadow when Breed saw a moving speck at +the far edge of it. It proved to be a coyote, though at first its +peculiar gait denied this. He came straight on across the open, and +Breed saw one of his new friends trot from a willow clump in the meadow, +take one look at the advancing stranger and become galvanized into a +flitting streak that left the valley. Even at that distance his deadly +fear was evident, and Breed knew that the unknown danger had become +actual and was embodied in the queer-gaited coyote that was coming +toward him. + +He ran with an automaton-like stiffness, never changing his course, and +occasionally stumbling as if unaware of the character of the ground over +which he passed. His head swung out slightly to either side and he +snapped each time. There was something sinister in every move, as if his +body was driven on without conscious volition, actuated by some +dreadful, unclean force. Breed knew it for some sort of poisoning, and +his muscles bunched for flight. Shady barked angrily as if to drive the +thing away. Then Breed saw a hairless travesty of a coyote move out of a +draw and halt directly in the path of the mad coyote. Cripp stood there +grinning till he felt the other's teeth score his unprotected hide; then +he whirled and snapped back at him. The mad coyote kept straight on and +Cripp followed at his own queer shambling gait. He drew close and ran +alongside, and for a hundred yards they exchanged slashes in a senseless +sort of way. Breed could see the blood oozing from the fur of the mad +coyote's neck, and the blobs of white foam sliding down Cripp's shiny +hide. Then the mad coyote fell and Cripp kept on for another ten yards +before he missed him. He wheeled and returned, stumbled and fell and +crawled back to his foe, and they lay there toothing one another in an +impersonal, detached way, as if it did not matter. + +Breed's soul revolted at this scene and he fled the spot. When he raised +his howl that night he was twenty miles farther north, but the coyote +pack answered from close at hand. Many of them witnessed the same scene +from adjacent slopes of the valley. The others had viewed similar +sights, and there was a general coyote movement north through the +mountains, a widespread exodus ahead of the madness that was creeping up +into the hills. + +Breed had formerly been imbued with the home-loving nature of the +coyote, and this had led him to restrict his wanderings to a +comparatively limited area instead of ranging hundreds of miles in all +directions after the manner of wolves. This love of a permanent home +range now operated in a peculiar way. All ties were severed behind him, +the land he loved bristling with such a wide variety of dangers as to +preclude all possibility of his return. The wanderlust which now seized +him appeared a complete reversal of his former desire to remain in one +vicinity where every topographical feature was to him a familiar +landmark; but in reality this very wanderlust was an expression of home +love; every step he took away from his old range was unconsciously +actuated by the desire to find some new spot which would take the place +of the old. + +For two weeks these wanderings were erratic and uncontrolled by any +conscious purpose. He roamed on the Shoshone and the Thoroughfare, the +Yellowstone and the Buffalo Fork of the Snake, then swung back across +the Sunlight Peaks. Shady had acted queerly of late, frequently leaving +Breed for hours at a time and climbing to some commanding point from +which she would look far off across the hills, as if seeking something +which was always just beyond the range of her vision; but she always +came back to him. Breed found nothing out of the way in this. Mated +coyotes were prone to follow separate trails for hours, even days, and +then meet again. Shady had clung to him persistently, refusing to be out +of his sight except when at the den with her pups, and this new +manifestation seemed a natural one to Breed, an evidence that his mate +had come to trust in her ability to shift for herself in the wild. But +it was not this. Now that her pups had been schooled and sent out to +face the world alone, Shady hungered to see the man who had raised her +from a pup, and to feel his fingers scratching behind her ears. + +As the pack straggled out among the ragged Sunlight Peaks Shady looked +down across the lower slopes; one valley opened into another in an +interminable procession and far down across the spruce tops a rift +between two flanking hills afforded a view of the low country, +shimmering in the sun. Sand Coulee Basin, her old home! And a variegated +mass in the distance marked the Rainbow Buttes, rising isolated and +alone from out the badlands. Shady struck a swift gliding trot and +dropped down the slope, disappearing in the first twisted masses of +timber-line spruce. + +For the first few hours after her departure Breed gave it no thought, +but when she failed to turn up he grew increasingly uneasy. Ten hours +and he called to her and there was no reply, twelve and he circled to +pick up her trail but it had cooled. He prowled the peaks for three days +and nights, disconsolate and lonely, even though in close touch with the +coyote pack, and sending out call after call for his mate. Shady had +spent the first two days in almost continuous travel, put in a single +hour with the Coyote Prophet, reveling in the feel of his exploring +fingers and the friendly sound of his voice; then she departed as +suddenly as she had come and spent two more days in reaching the summit +of the Sunlight Peaks where she had left her mate, for after all his +hold on her was far more gripping than that exercised by the man. + +She heard Breed's lonely cry and answered it, and an hour later she was +frisking about him with doggish enthusiasm. The yellow wolf accepted her +lavish display of affection with dignity; his joy in the reunion was a +match for her own, but the wolf in him was unequal to matching the +effusiveness of the dog in her. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +All through the Yellowstone country the evidence of Breed's teachings +was apparent on every hand. The progeny of the members of his original +band had been taught pack-hunting by their parents, as they themselves +had learned the art from Breed. For a hundred miles each way from Two +Ocean Pass the hills were full of the disciples of the yellow wolf. The +elk now fled from coyotes as once they had fled from wolves. The coyotes +brought all their native trickery and resourcefulness into play and made +pack-hunting a very different affair from that practiced by timber +wolves. They did not hunt bunched, but scattered, saving their own +strength and wearing down that of their prey. When an elk was singled +out the coyotes relayed him and kept him on the move. Whenever he +attempted a straightaway flight some coyote flashed out in front of him +to turn him back, and he was headed through bogs and spongy ground on +the slides at the foot of old snow drifts until his strength was gone. + +Breed's movements now lost their aimlessness, and each day found him a +few miles farther north. The home love in him was working, but he +himself was unconscious of the fact that he was seeking some land that +would answer all requirements. It was not given to him to plan largely +for the future, and each move was occasioned by the dissatisfaction with +the country in which he found himself, rather than from any definite +idea of mapping out a course for a permanent range and there +establishing his home. + +Nevertheless he held steadily to the north and the faithful pack moved +with him. Other coyotes flanked their line of march, urged on by fear of +the madness that lay behind and finding courage for their pioneering in +the fact that every night they heard the howls of the coyote pack ahead. + +The game herds were milling restlessly in high basins. The blacktail +bucks had short new coats of sleek blue-gray; they had shed the long +hair of the previous season,--the season of short blue, the Short Blue +Moon of the Northwest Indian tribes. Broad vistas of the low country +showed through revealing gaps in the hills, marked by the blue-gray +tinge of the sage; a pale haze hung in the hills and turned distant +green spruce slopes to silvery blue; the rivers had long since passed +the flood tide of melting drifts, and were cleared of the roily effects +of late summer rains, and lakes and streams, now free of sediment, +showed blue-green to their very depths; the high peaks were held in +silhouette against a clear blue sky. Everything showed a touch of +blue,--such is the Short Blue Moon. + +And the love-making time of the antlered tribes is ushered in with the +season of short blue. As Breed moved north the whistling snorts of +lovelorn bucks reached his ears day after day. The clarion bugles of +challenging bulls was promise of meat in plenty. Bighorn rams squired +their bands of ewes on the plateaus and pinnacles above timber line. + +Breed's course was by no means a straight line. Hunts drew him to the +east and west and frequently back to the south, but the general trend of +it all was a northward migration for the coyote pack. Some days they +gained twenty miles, some but three or four, and on others they lost +ground. At the end of a month the land of the Yellowstone was a hundred +miles southeast. + +The big gray wolves were more plentiful here, but scattered and not +traveling in packs. At every wolf howl Breed felt the old hatred of +Flatear surge up in him, but though he frequently met wolves none of +them proved to be his enemy. The big grays showed only a casual interest +in coyotes, evidencing neither enmity nor delight at any chance meeting, +indifference the keynote of their attitude. + +Autumn blended into early winter and the gain toward the north was less +apparent, Breed lingering in the vicinity of good hunting grounds as he +found them, moving on when the supply of meat diminished. He held to the +main divide of the Rockies, and when the heavy storms of midwinter set +in, he was well across Montana and nearing the Canadian line. The deep +snowfall had driven the game down out of the peaks to the lower valleys +of the hills and Breed was forced to follow. He moved westward across +the South Fork of the Flathead to the Kootenai Range. There were fewer +elk here than in the Yellowstone, living in scattered bunches and not +congregating in droves of hundreds on the winter feed grounds. Deer +ranged the Kootenai country in plentiful numbers and Breed elected to +stay. Mating was close at hand and the northward movement halted. + +Stray coyotes drifted continually up from the south and joined the ranks +of the pack, and there were stray wolves crossing the range from the +Flathead to Swan River and back. Many of these mated with the unattached +coyotes as they straggled north. Breed's pack was rapidly thinned down, +pairs dropping out to den till at last only Peg and Fluff were left. + +When the chinook set in Fluff chose a den site and stopped. Breed held +on for another five miles, then Shady refused to travel. She picked her +own site and showed a keener interest in home building than she had the +season past, working short shifts to relay Breed on the digging, and the +three tunnels that led to this new nest hole were longer and more +elaborately curved and twisted than those of the old den on the +Yellowstone. The last day of February seven pups came to share the den +with Shady. + +The rest of the pack had denned to the south and few encroached on +Breed's hunting territory. Deer were still plentiful, even after a +winter of hard hunting, and he found little difficulty in supplying +meat. There was but one flaw in his contentment. + +One day when the pups were a month old and had recently been out for +their first romp Breed hunted across the divide and down the western +slope of the Kootenais. He stood on a ridge in the gathering dusk when +he was suddenly aware that other hunters were abroad before him. His eye +caught flashes of white through the green of the spruce on the opposite +slope. He knew that a band of deer had been startled to sudden flight, +that the jerky gleams of white were the brief exposures of the +underparts of their tails as they were upflung in hurdling windfalls. +The wind was wrong and Breed could not catch the scent. He traced their +course through the timber by their white flags and saw three deer break +cover and start out across a long narrow opening on the slope, the path +of a snowslide that had stripped a lane through the trees on the steep +side hill, its trail a clean split in the solid green of the spruce. In +the center of the slide the lead deer suddenly collapsed and the sharp +report of a rifle rolled across the hills. + +At the sound of the shot Breed heard a few deep-chested dog notes half a +mile down the narrow valley. He looked that way and saw a slender tongue +of smoke curling lazily above the trees around a bend. The deep note was +strange to him, but again the association of ideas came to his aid. +Shady's occasional fits of barking and her strange ways; the wolf hounds +that had belonged to men and had chased him in Sand Coulee Basin; this +note that rose in answer to a rifle shot and came from near the smoke +that denoted a cabin. Breed himself was unconscious of assorting these +ideas, but he knew that the hoarse note came from some dog beast that +belonged to man. + +A lone prospector had built his cabin on the west slope of the +Kootenais, and hereafter Breed avoided this vicinity. + +When the pups were six weeks old Shady felt the call to help Breed +rustle food and she hunted by herself in the neighborhood of the den, +but her earnest efforts were unavailing, as there was no small game and +she was unable to stalk a deer. + +[Illustration: Breed was compelled to hunt farther from home as the deer +quit the valleys. _Page 191._] + +Breed was compelled to hunt farther from home as the deer quit the +valleys to descend to the foothills for the first nips of green grass. +One morning, when far south of the den, he heard again the note of the +hound. It rose and fell, an eager bellow that moved slowly through the +hills, and Breed did not like the music. This same baying reached him on +three other days. The reason for all this uproar was beyond his +comprehension, but from the fact that it came from a dog he knew that it +meant no good for the wild things. + +A few days after he first heard this strange sound he came face to face +with a pair of coyotes that had run with his pack. Their air was one of +dejection and there was no springiness in their gait. From their +dispirited manner Breed knew that tragedy had overtaken his friends, +that some calamity had befallen their pups. Later he met a second pair, +a dog coyote and a she-wolf, and they too were traveling aimlessly, +their family torn from them. But Breed had no way of linking these +disasters with the music of the trail hound. The prospector kept a +single hound and when he found a fresh wolf kill in the spring he put +the dog on the tracks that led from it, keeping him in leash, and the +hound led him to the den. He had found good hunting near his cabin this +spring, as the hills were full of the dens of the small yellow wolves +that had turned up in such numbers the preceding winter, but his +activities so far had been confined to the country that lay south of +Breed's range. + +Breed led the pups forth for a few short trips as their strength +increased. In his hunts toward the south he frequently crossed the +trails of other coyotes that had led their offspring out for a ramble. +At least one out of every three families were breeds, and the pups were +uniform. They were heavier than coyotes and their backstrips were dark; +but their language was pure coyote, their voices perhaps slightly deeper +and with fuller volume, but the change was so slight as to escape +detection from the ears of man. These pups were the same sort of hybrids +as Breed, their parental strains identical, yet among them all he found +only one with his own qualities, the coyote fur and the voice of the +wolf. In all others this was reversed. + +Breed's own pups grew strong and active, capable of covering ten miles +of rough hill country in a single night, and the family would soon have +left the den but that Shady indulged in one of her flighty streaks,--a +streak prompted by the dog strain in her rising temporarily above the +wild. + +She had hunted tirelessly but had failed to bring home a scrap of meat. +Her hopes ran high and she ranged continually farther from the den till +she eventually crossed over the divide for a look at the west slope. The +breeze held steadily from the west and Shady caught a whiff of wood +smoke and moved toward it to investigate. She scouted along the edge of +the timber, watching the cabin in the little clearing for signs of life. +It appeared deserted. She crossed to it and sniffed at a crack,--then +fled for her life. At the first sniff there came a deafening bellow and +a great hound surged round the corner of the house. + +As Shady fled she rolled her eyes back, coyote fashion, for a glimpse +behind. She noted that the hound seemed to have trouble in getting +started, and once back in the timber she stopped. She heard the rattle +of a chain,--the hound was anchored! From long experience in the past +Shady knew the futility of striving to break a chain. The dog was +powerless to harm her. Even if he should free himself it would avail him +nothing; these slow running hounds were known to her, and their speed +was no match for her own. + +Shady returned to the cabin and peered round one corner at the raging +hound whose six-foot chain prevented his clearing the next corner by +more than a foot. She moved along the side of the house till within ten +feet of him and sat down, her tongue lolling out contentedly as she +watched the frenzied hound almost strangle himself in his efforts to +reach her. + +A flutter of canvas caught her eye and she rose with her forefeet +against the logs as she stretched her nose up toward it. The prospector +had rolled the cloth round a ten-pound piece of fresh venison to keep +the flies from it. Shady sprang and seized it, swinging clear of the +ground, all four feet braced against the logs, then fell sprawling as +the nail from which it was suspended bent and allowed the cord to slip. +She started off across the open, and the first fold of canvas flapped +loosely under her feet and tripped her. Halfway to the timber the meat +dropped out and she took it, leaving the cloth behind; something over an +hour later she turned up at the den with the first meat she had ever +furnished for her own pups. + +The prospector returned to his cabin and while still a mile away he +heard the bellowing of the dog. The first sight that greeted him was the +canvas, flapping limply in the open, and he found Shady's dust tracks +round the cabin, and swore. He ducked hurriedly into the house and +reappeared with a shotgun, unsnapped the chain from the cabin wall and +resnapped it in his belt, and he was off, with the eager hound tugging +ahead of him on Shady's trail. + +Shady, elated by her first success, had left the den for another hunt. +As she swung back toward home she heard the steady bellow of a hound and +put on full speed ahead. The baying ceased except for an occasional +bark, and when Shady came to the last fringe of trees along the ridge +she saw a man standing at the den. The hound was chained to a single +tree some thirty yards away and she knew there was naught to fear from +him. The man started excavating with a light miner's pick and a +short-handled shovel which he unslung from his back. In half an hour he +had opened one tunnel till he could peer into the den hole. Then he +unwound a strange instrument from about his waist, a wolfer's "feeler", +three strands of wire twisted into a pliable cable ten feet long, the +three ends of the strands extending forklike a bare two inches beyond +the cable braid at one end. This simple invention eliminates much +tedious excavation work, the sensitive tool following the curves of the +branching tunnels which each wolf pup makes for himself as soon as he is +able to dig. Shady prowled along the edge of the timber and viewed these +preparations suspiciously. + +The man inserted the end of the feeler in a hole that led off the main +cavity of the den, and advanced it by gentle thrusts, twisting it as he +pushed to clear the forks. There was not a sound from the den. The +feeler would go no farther. He grasped it flat between the palms of his +hands and twirled the cable rapidly from right to left. There was a +sudden spitting explosion of baby snarls from the depths of the hole. +The man gave one tentative tug and felt resistance, then hauled the +feeler in hand over hand and drew forth a fighting pup, the three tines +twisted firmly into his soft fur. The hound opened up excitedly; the +short pick swept up and down,--and the pup was a lifeless heap. + +Terror and rage flooded Shady in equal parts. She gave one sharp +cry,--and the other two openings disgorged a shower of frightened pups +that scattered toward the timber as so many flushed partridges, fleeing +in response to their mother's sharp command, and Shady raged straight at +the man! + +The prospector was an old hand at rifling wolf dens. Occasionally a pup +would dart from another exit, and the shotgun was an effective weapon +with which to check his flight. But never had he seen such a mad +outpouring of pups as this, and in all his long life in the hills a +she-wolf had never rushed him, even in defense of her pups. Shady's +charge was reversed so suddenly as to appear that she turned a flip in +mid-air when she saw the man's hand stretch forth and lift the shotgun +from the ground, for she knew well its purpose and its power. + +The thunderous roar of black powder sounded behind her and a charge of +heavy shot raked her hips and loins as she gained the trees. Shot +pierced both ears and furrowed along her skull. The man turned and +pulled the second barrel at the rearmost pup and he went down limply, a +puff of fur flung into the air above him, his life snuffed out in a +single instant as the heavy charge pulverized him from end to end. + +A piercing series of yelps issued from the timber as Shady gave voice to +her agony. The prospector nodded. The mystery was cleared; for he knew +that he might shoot a wolf or coyote to mincemeat and neither would make +a sound. + +"A dog," he said. "A renegade. I should have knowed it all along; her +stealing thataway right alongside of Buge; and her bristling up to +me--no wolf would carry on like that." + +He strode to the tree and unleashed the hound. + +"Go to it, Buge!" he said. "Go clean up them pups." + +As the dog sped into the timber a sharp note sounded from far down the +slope. Shady had partially recovered her upset faculties and called the +pups, and they gathered swiftly to her and ran their best. Even in her +crippled state Shady could have outrun the trail hound, for her wounds +had not yet had time to stiffen, but the pups could scarcely hold their +own, and the dog's endurance was far greater. + +Breed was returning to the den with a ragged chunk of venison when he +heard the double roar of the gun and Shady's agonized yelps. Her later +cry to gather the pups indicated the general direction of her flight. +Then the steady tonguing of the hound broke forth. Breed flanked the +dog's route till he drew abreast of him. The baying voice filled the +valley and echoed among the rims till it seemed that the whole breadth +of the hills was filled with dogs, but Breed knew that the sound came +from but one. He could hear no sounds of man, and he dropped swiftly in +behind Buge to decipher the signs of the trail. There were the hot +tracks of Shady and the pups, the hound's tracks on top of theirs, and +no man had come that way. Breed spurted ahead and sighted the dog, and +swung out to flank him and get the wind. + +Buge ran with his nose close to the ground. He was gaining on his prey, +and his mind was so wholly centered on the trail that he was unaware of +the deadly yellow wolf that ran almost abreast of him and forty yards +downwind. Breed was puzzled as to how to handle the situation that +confronted him. He feared the hound, believing that an ally of man might +be endowed with man's strange power for harm. The dog was a slow, +cumbersome animal and Breed knew that Shady was far speedier, yet he +wished the spotted beast would quit her trail. He saw Buge's nose lifted +from the trail as he caught the warm body scent from close at hand. The +dog ran now with head held high, the body scent reeking in his nostrils. +Then Breed saw Shady and the pups running under the trees a hundred +yards ahead. The steady baying rose to a slobbering bellow as the hound +followed his prey by sight. The gap narrowed, and Breed could see his +slavering jaws, the froth drooling stringily back across his shoulders. +The last pup was running desperately a bare twenty yards ahead,--and +then the great hound was suddenly thrown off his feet as a fighting +yellow devil struck him from the side without a sound to announce his +rush. Breed's shoulder had caught him fairly in the middle of a stride +and the shock of the impact slammed him down six feet away; as Buge +landed heavily on his side two flashing rows of teeth closed on his +throat and sliced into it, and his life was torn out with the yellow +wolf's backward wrench. + +Then Breed ran on after Shady and the pups, knowing now that a single +short-haired dog, despite the terrifying volume of his voice, was no +formidable antagonist for a wolf when once caught outside the radius of +man's protection. + +Night settled down over the hills as Breed came to the end of Shady's +trail and found her lying in a half-swoon with the pups crouching near. +Breed felt that he was leaving this country to return no more, and +almost unconsciously he raised the call for the pack, knowing that the +pack season was far in the future, yet longing to hear the voices of his +friends. Far to the south a pair of coyote voices answered him, and +still beyond them, so far that the sound did not reach Breed's ears, a +second pair of coyotes relayed the message that the yellow leader +called. + +Breed urged Shady on, but in three miles the wolf family was forced to +lay over for a rest. Here a pair of coyotes overtook them. The slow +march was resumed with frequent halts for rest, and before morning two +other pairs of coyotes caught up with them, and these were all members +of the original pack that had hunted together in Sand Coulee Basin. Just +at dawn the dog coyote Breed had met some time earlier in the spring +brought his she-wolf mate and joined the band. All of the new arrivals +had lost their pups through the efforts of the hound that Breed had +slain, and they were free to follow where the leader willed. + +Breed moved east across the Flathead and for two days he urged Shady on +relentlessly till they were far up the sheltering slopes of the main +divide. Shady then took shelter in a windfall, and for the next three +days she refused to move. Her wounds stiffened and festered from +imbedded shot, and she was dry and feverish. Three stray coyotes crossed +the Flathead and joined those that prowled within a few miles of Shady's +retreat. + +The third night Breed heard a well-known voice far down the slope and he +threw all the force of his lungs into a welcoming cry. + +A coyote invariably deserts a den that is neared by man. Peg had +discovered Breed's rifled den and his keen nose interpreted the signs. +He had heard the leader's call and wondered why it had been raised so +early in the year. He followed the sign till he found the body of the +hound. It was morning when he reached his own home, and the following +night Peg and Fluff had led their pups off in the general direction +taken by Breed. The trail had cooled, but in moist and sheltered spots +he found sufficient trace to guide him, and in the heavy timber where +the great drifts lingered he could follow it by sight. Then at last he +heard Breed's voice above him and an hour later Peg and Fluff led six +half-grown pups to the windfall. + +When Shady was once more able to travel Breed led the way to the north, +the band not traveling together, but every coyote's course laid out to +accord with Breed's, and within hailing distance so that each might +apprise the others of his whereabouts at night. When the pups were old +enough to shift for themselves Breed had crossed the Canadian line and +was two hundred miles north of it along the great divide that marks the +boundary between British Columbia and Alberta. + +All along this route clear from the Yellowstone there had been coyote +country to the east of him. The prairie wolves had long since populated +the valleys of the Musselshell, and, farther north, the Marias River and +the Breast. There were coyotes east of him now, running the prairies of +Alberta and Saskatchewan, but he had at last arrived at a point west of +the extreme northern limits of the coyote range. All over the continent +to the south and east of him pioneering coyotes were pushing on into new +lands: they had penetrated the hill country of Pennsylvania to the east, +and south almost to Panama; but it had fallen to the lot of the yellow +wolf to lead the way for the horde that was invading the northwest +hills. + +During the first storm of the early fall Breed pulled down a yearling +mountain sheep on a high plateau. A motley crew answered the meat call. +Breed, the yellow hybrid, Shady, the half-blood renegade, and four pairs +of coyotes born in Sand Coulee Basin; the dog coyote with his +timber-wolf mate and several of Breed's and Shady's conglomerate pups; +all were there to feed. And when the bones were picked Breed led his +nondescript band on into the unmapped wilds of the British Columbia +hills. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Wolfing was no longer profitable in the foothills and Collins pulled up +stakes and left. He loaded his belongings on his pack horses and +journeyed far to the north. Later he sold his horses and traveled by +canoe, and after a roundabout course he preempted an old cabin between +the Laird Fork of the Mackenzie and the head of Peace River. The climate +was moist and the underbrush growth was often so dense as to force him +to hack out a trail in spots as he laid out his trap line. The side +hills were matted tangles and the valleys shaking bogs, and Collins had +little love for his new surroundings. There were no cheery sounds at +night, only the howls of wolves. In midwinter of his first season in the +north he was roused out of a sound sleep, certain that somewhere close +at hand a coyote had howled. During the brief gray light of the +following day Collins stopped and gazed long at a small, wolf-like track +in the snow. + +"Coyote!" he announced triumphantly. "It was him that howled." + +Twenty yards farther on he crossed a second coyote track, and for half a +mile there were trails pointing to the north. There was one that showed +evidence of a missing foot, a peg-leg such as those he had often seen on +the open range. Then Collins halted and studied the next two trails that +appeared side by side. One was a wolf track, and there were two toes +missing from one hind foot. The smaller tracks were evenly spaced, and +placed one before the other in a straight line after the manner of +coyote and wolf, but ten feet beyond where Collins stood the trail +showed the wavering gait of the dog with an occasional track out to +either side. A sudden mist blurred Collins' eyes and he dashed it off +with the back of his mitts. + +"It's Shady," he said. "Old Shady and that yellow Breed,--both still +alive and way off up here." Collins threw back his head and sent forth +the clear piercing whistle that he had used to summon Shady in the long +ago. Three times the shrill blast, long and sustained, was sent far out +across the snowy hills. + +Three miles to the north Shady lay curled up with Breed. She suddenly +raised her head. Breed too opened his eyes and cocked one ear to listen. +Shady was conscious of no actual sound. Some faint vibration reached her +ears and seemed to play upon some chord deep within; the impressions +were hazy and indistinct, yet she was aware of a vague sense of loss, a +wave of something akin to homesickness, and she whimpered softly, then +closed her eyes and slept. + +Collins heard more and more coyotes howl, and in the next two months he +had brief glimpses of perhaps a dozen as they moved across some opening. +At least half of these seemed larger than the coyotes he had known, and +they had dark fur on their backs. The Coyote Prophet studied long over +these strange things. The coyote voices roused an ache for the homely +cabin in Sand Coulee Basin a thousand miles to the south; and each time +one howled he said: + +"I'm going back. Once it comes spring I'll make tracks out of here. This +here's no fit country for a white man, and me--I'm going back." + +But Collins did not go back with the opening up of spring. Rumors of a +gold strike sent men stampeding toward the fabled spot, a long journey +to the north and east. Three parties crossed over the old trail past +Collins' shack. The old wolfer caught the fever and followed the last of +them. Before he left he made one last prophecy. + +He predicted that the hill coyotes of the northwest from the Yukon to +the Yellowstone would be larger and have dark fur on their backs from +frequent infusions of wolf blood; that within a dozen years the fur +markets would distinguish between these dark silky-furred ones and the +woolly yellow coyotes of the plains. He scrawled this message on a +wrinkled scrap of paper, signed it, tacked it on the wall, and started +off down the trail. + +A month later a party of five men stopped overnight in the deserted +cabin. One of them deciphered the queer scrawl. + +"Crazy," he announced. "Some old coot went off his nut from being holed +up alone--and this is all he left." + +A tall lean man whose warped legs betrayed his sage-country origin +leaned over and studied the signature. + +"Collins," he mused. "Now whoever would have figured to cut his trail up +here? He maybe was crazy,--but anyway, I'll bet five hundred that scrap +of paper will pan out just like it says." + +A hundred miles beyond the cabin Breed and Shady were educating their +third litter of pups. The nature of the country had prevented the +excavating of a proper den and Shady had taken possession of a windfall. +Breed was vastly disgusted with this new land, heartily sick of being +shut in by the interminable hills and of traveling through swampy +jungles of tall brush, and he was glad when the pups were old enough to +shift for themselves. + +He gathered the pack and started on, his course this time more east than +north, and he covered better than twenty miles each day with a definite +purpose of leaving behind him this country so thickly overlaid with +brush that its effect upon him was almost a feeling of suffocation. He +came out into the lower hills and crossed occasional open spots. Then, +after ten days, he crossed through a rolling country and just at dusk +came out on the shoulder of a hill; before him lay broad stretches of +low plains, open meadows alternating with strips of heavy timber, the +whole a wonderful park-like landscape swimming in the twilight. From +nearby hills he heard the coyotes beginning to tune up, and each one was +facing toward the plains, the first spot they had seen in three years +which reminded them of home. Breed led the way and brought his band out +into the first reaches of the Mackenzie Barrens that stretched back +among the trees. + +Breed found no trap lines here, and there were no mad coyotes or poison +baits. Another two days and the trees were left behind, open country +stretching ahead as far as his eye could reach; the brush was stunted +and reminded him of sage; there were clumps of dwarf spruce much like +the twisted cedars of the badland brakes, and thickets of stunted +willows such as those that sprouted from every side-hill spring in Sand +Coulee Basin. It was like a homecoming after being exiled for three long +years,--and Breed was content at last as he bedded on a knoll. The range +was once more dotted with stock--only these were wild caribou--and old +habits cropped out in Breed; he knew there were no men here, yet all +through the short two-hour day he frequently raised his head and his +eyes swept the range for signs of the devilish riders. When he left his +bed he found fresh evidence that he was home, that Sand Coulee Basin +could not be farther away than over the next tongue of high ground; for +he had not traveled a mile before he smelled coyote blood and traced it +upwind to find an old friend stiffened in death, and with her throat +slit open,--the work of the silent assassin that had terrorized the +foothills of Hardpan Spur. + +Breed's hatred of Flatear had been dulled with time. He had met hundreds +of wolves since the fight in the notch, and at first he had sought for +his enemy, but later this search had been manifested only by a careful +investigation of each new wolf he met, a vague suspicion that the big +gray might be an enemy; but this had become almost a mechanical process +rather than a distinct impression of why he should expect to find an +enemy among wolves. + +Animal memories are a mixture of impressions received through the senses +of hearing, sight and smell, and after a considerable lapse of time it +requires the coordination of all three of these senses to reconstruct +the thought in its entirety. The sight of the slain coyote filled Breed +with rage but lacking a definite object upon which to vent it. The scent +around the spot further enraged him, and the picture of the great gray +beast swam nebulously in his mind. A wolf howl sounded close at hand and +stirred still another long-dormant pool of impressions; the whole +crystallized into a distinct likeness of Flatear,--and Breed was off on +the hunt for his ancient enemy. + +Flatear saw a great yellow wolf rushing down on him and he whirled and +bared his teeth. The gray wolf weighed a hundred pounds, Breed slightly +over ninety. They circled cautiously for an opening, hind parts tensed +and drooping, ears laid flat and lips drawn back to expose the yellow +tusks. Flatear sprang first and Breed met the open mouth with his own. +The clash of teeth sounded far across the barrens and silent shapes +changed their direction and moved toward the sound. Three times Breed +took the force of the drive on his teeth and the jaws of both wolves +dripped blood. A wolf came slipping up to watch, and two breeds of the +yellow wolf's pack stationed themselves ten yards away. Three more +wolves appeared; then Peg and Fluff came to the scene and Peg moved +behind Flatear and crouched. + +Breed's snarl warned him off. The three-legged coyote was old and hoary, +in his fifteenth year and with but a short span of life ahead; his teeth +were rounded and worn down but his spirit was stout, and he longed to +mix it with the wolf. His leader's order held him back, but he remained +the nearest of the lot, watching every move of the combat as if +appointed judge of it. + +Flatear rushed time and again, using his greater weight to batter down +his antagonist's guard, but Breed gave back each time and Flatear's +driving shoulder never reached its mark and his teeth were met with +teeth. Breed was losing ground and Flatear pressed him hard. The yellow +wolf seemed to have but one style of defense and no heart for attack. +The fight was a mere procession of retreats before Flatear's heavy +drives, and the gray wolf grew accustomed to this monotonous defense, +and his attacks were unconsciously conformed to it, becoming equally +mechanical, his one purpose to wear his enemy down by sheer strength and +weight. + +And when Breed, instead of cringing away, struck at him with every ounce +of his ninety pounds, Flatear was unprepared. He had started his spring +and Breed's counter drive was aimed so low that his chest skimmed the +ground. Flatear slashed savagely downward but the yellow wolf's head was +well under him, and even as Flatear's teeth grazed Breed's shoulder his +forward sweep was checked in mid-air as powerful jaws closed on a +foreleg with a sickening crunch of bones. The opposing weights of both +wolves pivoted on that one leg, and in addition to the fracture +Flatear's whole side and shoulder were wrenched clear to his spine. + +There was an uneasy movement among the spectators, now numbering more +than a score, wolves and coyotes for the first time in history mingling +to witness the settling of a personal feud. Peg now sat down +contentedly, his tongue lolling out in a satisfied grin. + +Breed's tactics changed and he wheeled round his disabled enemy with +lightning feints; then his shoulder struck Flatear with a solid smash +that crumpled him and he went down with Breed's teeth at his windpipe. +His end was of the sort which he himself had handed to so many +others,--and the new range was safe for coyotes. + +The silent spectators were startled by a faint whining sound. This +whimpering grew louder and the wolves slunk away but the coyote pack +remained. Breed's sudden hunt for Flatear had caught Shady unprepared, +but she had finally cut his trail and was following it to the spot. + +For three months Breed saw no more of wolves, and when next he did see +them the beasts were white. He had led the pack to the basin of the +Copper River at the edge of the Arctic Circle. Their travels were over, +and they now ranged a limited area of less than a hundred miles in +extent. Except that no high hills flanked their new home, its features +were much like the old. There were no longer any days and nights, but a +seemingly endless period of varying degrees of twilight, and the rolling +hills were deep with snow. + +Breed had met many new animals since leaving the land of the +Yellowstone; he had known moose and goats in British Columbia, caribou +on the barrens and the iron-gray sheep at the head of the Nelson. Now +there were strange shaggy beasts with hair that hung nearly to the +ground, and they came out of the north in small droves, the white wolves +traveling on the flanks of the herds. He found musk ox easy prey and +there was no lack of meat. + +A few days after the first of these appeared Breed and Shady topped a +ridge and saw the one thing necessary to make the image of the old home +complete. A light twinkled some half a mile away, as Breed and Shady had +so often seen the lights of Collins' cabin. Shady whined as she looked +at it and Breed raised his voice and howled. As if in answer to the howl +a shrill whistle floated to them and Shady at once slipped from Breed's +side and headed for the fire. + +Collins had turned back from the fabled gold fields, heartsick for the +sight of his native foothills, disgusted with the Arctic night and a +flat white world, and with two companions he had braved the terrors of a +winter journey and headed into the south. They traveled light, supplies +for three packed on a single sled, drawn by six dogs. Food had run low +and for a week they had been forced to subsist on starvation rations; +one more day and they would have killed a dog,--and then they crossed +the trail of a musk ox herd. There was now food in plenty but Collins' +mental exhaustion did not vanish with returning physical strength. He +was obsessed with the idea that he would never see the sagebrush hills +again and his companions could not rouse him. + +They fastened the dogs in a clump of dwarfed spruce and built a small +fire on the downwind side of the trees. + +The old wolfer sat huddled in his furs before the fire, dreading to +enter the little tent to crawl into his sleeping bag alone with his +thoughts; for the white madness was driving its iron into his soul and +striking at his reason. His mind coined queer white couplets; the white +wolf pack and the white ice pack,--a whole world shrouded in white +night. + +His companions had looked upon the white madness before; had seen men +die from the deadly monotony of it all. It was conceivable that a book +of bright pictures, anything with warm colors might penetrate the pall +of white fog that clouded his brain and shatter the obsession, +reinstating reason on its tottering throne. But there was only the +howling of white wolves out across the white snow fields. Then a wolf +howl sounded from close at hand. + +It seemed to pierce Collins' stupor and strike some memory filed long +ago in his subconscious mind, and he suddenly straightened and glared at +them. + +"I can pick him out from amongst a thousand wolves," he stated. "There's +no wolf shiver to that howl. It's a yellow wolf! As yellow as gold, not +a damned white hair on him anywheres! It's Breed, the yellow wolf of +Sand Coulee Basin--there's color come into this white hell hole at +last!" + +A shrill whistle pealed from his lips and his companions shook their +heads. Then the wolf howled again and they stiffened with surprise as a +score of wild voices answered. The sounds were new to them and the snowy +waste was filled with bewilderingly different inflections that ripped +back and forth through opposing waves of sound till it seemed that +jeering cachinnations rose from a thousand fiends. + +They read the gleam in Collins' eyes and his disjointed utterances as a +sign of hopeless madness,--but in reality it was returning sanity. A new +warmth stole over him, and the certainty that he would win through. + +"Here they come," he said. "The little yellow devils! They've spread +from the Arctic to the Neck, like I always knowed they would. There's +music a white man can listen to--the music of the little yellow wolves." + +Then the two men sat silent and wondered if they themselves were mad. +For the dogs were snarling and straining at their leashes in the scrub +spruce, and a strange yellow she-wolf with a strip of dark fur along her +back came creeping toward the fire. Her eyes regarded the two men +suspiciously and one ear tipped toward the dogs beyond. She slipped up +and rested her head on Collins' knee, enjoyed his friendly voice and +rubbing fingers for a single minute, then vanished in the night as the +yellow breed-wolf called his pack. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yellow Horde, by Hal G. 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