eighteen inches long; and he saw one with rainbow colours in his
skin, mostly red. He learned afterward it was a great-chameleon; and
angry. He saw one small scaled thing, rather like a crocodile in
shape, but with a sharp-pointed nose; it waddled by, near enough to
show two little black beads in its face.

When Skag lifted his eyes the earth seemed to have given up a score of
packs of jackals. Their action was not like the wolf nor like the dog;
it was a short, high leap--giving to a running pack the effect of
_bobbing_. They were more perfect wolves than the American coyote, but
smaller; and they looked to have much fuller coats. Searching the
location of these groups of bobbing runners, his eye lifted toward the
southeast.

. . . The grey knife-blade had cut away half the world. It lay
straight across the earth, midway between his feet and where the
horizon line should curve. Without any look of motion, without any
shine or sheen, smooth as a wall of dull-polished granite, it rose to
beyond sight in the sky--the utterly true line of its base upon the
ground.

. . . So this was _the wall of the waters_.

No man dare interpret it to any other man; but Skag found perfect awe.
Then he grew very quiet--his faculties alert as never before.

When he noticed the landscape again, the bobbing packs were gone.
Slender spotted things in pairs and alone, were leopards--leaping long
and low. A great dark creature, going like the wind, was a black
panther.

Then he saw, right before him, the unthinkable. Majesty in miniature.
A perfect East Indian musk buck--the most beautiful of living things.
The wee fellow came on, leaping to the utmost of his strength; his
nostrils wide, his lips apart, his eyes immense. He swayed a little,
wavered and fell.

Skag ran and leaned over him--the little heart was driving out the
little life. It seemed a pity out of all proportion. . . . He held
the tiny breathless thing tenderly, as if it were a dead child. . . .
So he laid it down reluctantly, at last; and straightened--to see a
hunting cheetah coming toward him, not far away.

He glanced down, Nels was not there. He looked all about, Nels was not
in sight. Then the reserves in Skag's nature came up. All his
training flashed across his brain. Every nerve, every muscle in his
body, was instantly adjusted to emergency. There was no failure in
co-ordination.

He stood quietly watching the cheetah. It appeared not to h