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 dangero