fourth _cache_? The meat would be gone of a certainty. Why had he
slept so soundly? Why had he hidden the meat at all? Oh! but he
_was_ stupid; as silly as a calf Musk Ox.

And the other meat up at the Pound, such as was left, would be
full of Death Powder, put there for the Gray Runners. How he
hoped they might eat it all--the thieves! It seemed such
unnecessary looting, too, to steal his food when there was so
much at the Pound; it was like the persecution that had kept him
an Outcast from the Wolf Pack.

"There is nothing meaner in the world than a Wolf," he muttered;
"nothing; and already I am hungry again."

At his fourth _cache_ he scratched indifferently. But the long
nails of his paw touched something soft and yielding--it was
flesh. How had it escaped the Gray Stealers?

"See, Shag," he said, bringing his joint close to the Bull, and
laying it down lovingly, "last night I laid in a grub stake, as
my old Master would say, that would have landed me in fair
condition in the Northland. Those accursed Wolves, of whose kind
I am not, being a Dog, have stolen it--all but this piece. It was
out of consideration for you, my friend, knowing your dread of
the blood smell, that made me _cache_ it a little apart. How I
wish I had lain on it--made my bed on its soft, sweet sides. Such
meat I have not eaten for many a day."

"I'm sorry," lamented Shag; "it's too bad. Here is nothing but
sorrow for every one. See how still and quiet the old Range is;
only those slayers of Redmen up by the Pound. Years ago, A'tim,
perhaps when you were a Pup, all this prairie that is so
beautiful with its short Buffalo grass, was just covered with
people of my kind; and Antelope--though they were not of our
kind, still we liked to see them--there was no harm in them,
being, like ourselves, Grass Feeders; and to the South-West,
Dog-Wolf----"

"I am no Wolf," interrupted A'tim, thinking of his stolen meat;
"I am a Dog!"

"Well, well, Dog, to the South-West--from here we can even see
Chief Mountain where is that land--there were beautiful
big-horned Elk, also Grass Feeders, and of a sweet temper."

"I know," ejaculated A'tim, licking at his flesh food; "in the
North it was just the same with the Caribou, the whole land alive
with them--and Mooswa, too."

"But now, A'tim, since the coming of the Palefaces we are
slaughtered by them and by the Redmen. L-o-u-g-h--h-o-o! I shall
leave this old Range to-day forever; my heart is sad."