f note. He
had made a close study of animal sounds and knew them well. He knew
Shady's voice from that of other coyotes. Her variations were less
sharply defined; more sustained than the bewildering staccato of the
coyote and with a slightly coarser tone. Collins knew that he should be
able to detect that peculiarity in Breed's howl,--a difference which he
felt was there but could not place. There were times when the solution
rose to the very surface of his mind and struggled for interpretation
into readable thought, but always it eluded him in the end.

Shady came to listen for Breed's voice among the multitude of other
sounds, and in some small measure she felt acquainted with the yellow
wolf. She missed his voice on those nights when he hunted in some far
corner of his range and the familiar cry failed to reach her.

This sense of familiarity led her at last to wait for a sight of him.
Breed traveled one night toward the howl which always had the power to
draw him, and he suddenly saw Shady fifty yards ahead. She would permit
of no nearer approach, fleeing before him as he came on, stopping when
Breed stopped, but always keeping that fifty-yard gap between. Every
night for a week Breed strove to narrow the breach, but without success;
but Shady's doubts were wearing down before his constant advances and
she found no menace in his actions. She eventually allowed Breed to draw
near and they viewed one another at a distance of ten yards. Their
course through the sage was a series of eccentric loops as each circled
repeatedly downwind to catch the other's scent.

Then their relations were reversed, Breed the retiring one, Shady the
aggressive. There was the scent of the stables, a horsy smell that clung
to Shady and which Breed could not understand. There seemed too some
vague taint of man about her which held him back. Shady grew bolder in
the face of his timidity, and Breed's new-found suspicion eventually
waned before her friendly insistence. Their friendship once established
they romped together night after night.

Shady was puzzled over the fact that this new playmate invariably left
her early in the night. These meetings took place before Breed raised
his voice to summon the coyote pack for the nightly hunt. He would break
off in the middle of a race and send out the call, then leave the
wondering Shady to her own devices for the rest of the night.

His curiosity satisfied, Breed answered her invitations less o