urled 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 cri