instant--even in their fiercest
struggling--he was guarding against a second and more successful lunge
of those powerful jaws.

At last the lunge came, and quicker than the wolf itself Kazan freed
himself and leaped back. His chest dripped blood, but he did not feel
the hurt. They began slowly to circle, and now the watching sledge-dogs
drew a step or two nearer, and their jaws drooled nervously and their
red eyes glared as they waited for the fatal moment. Their eyes were on
the big husky. He became the pivot of Kazan's wider circle now, and he
limped as he turned. His shoulder was broken. His ears were flattened
as he watched Kazan.

Kazan's ears were erect, and his feet touched the snow lightly. All his
fighting cleverness and all his caution had returned to him. The blind
rage of a few moments was gone and he fought now as he had fought his
deadliest enemy, the long-clawed lynx. Five times he circled around the
husky, and then like a shot he was in, sending his whole weight against
the husky's shoulder, with the momentum of a ten-foot leap behind it.
This time he did not try for a hold, but slashed at the husky's jaws. It
was the deadliest of all attacks when that merciless tribunal of death
stood waiting for the first fall of the vanquished. The huge dog was
thrown from his feet. For a fatal moment he rolled upon his side and in
the moment his four sledge-mates were upon him. All of their hatred of
the weeks and months in which the long-fanged leader had bullied them in
the traces was concentrated upon him now and he was literally torn into
pieces.

Kazan pranced to Gray Wolf's side and with a joyful whine she laid her
head over his neck. Twice he had fought the Fight of Death for her.
Twice he had won. And in her blindness Gray Wolf's soul--if soul she
had--rose in exultation to the cold gray sky, and her breast panted
against Kazan's shoulder as she listened to the crunching of fangs in
the flesh and bone of the foe her lord and master had overthrown.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CALL

Followed days of feasting on the frozen flesh of the old bull. In vain
Gray Wolf tried to lure Kazan off into the forests and the swamps. Day
by day the temperature rose. There was hunting now. And Gray Wolf wanted
to be alone--with Kazan. But with Kazan, as with most men, leadership
and power roused new sensations. And he was the leader of the dog-pack,
as he had once been a leader among the wolves. Not only Gray Wolf
followe