thers, the
houses themselves beyond the scope of his vision. The range was taking
on fall shades, the gray of the sage relieved by brown patches of open
grasslands and splotches of color where early frosts had touched the
birch and willow thickets that marked each side-hill spring. Tiny dark
specks moved through it all. Meat! It had been long since Breed had
tasted beef, and his red tongue lolled out and dripped in anticipation
of the coming feast.

But he would not go down until night. Twice during the early evening
Breed howled, and Collins, down in the choppy country below, turned his
glasses toward the spot to see what manner of wolf this was who howled
in the broad light of day. The second time he located Breed. The yellow
wolf stood on the rims half a mile above, looming almost life-size in
the twelve-power lens. Collins noted the yellow fur.

"A breed-wolf," he said. "The most cunning devil that ever made a track.
He'll never take on a feed of poison bait or plant his foot on a trap
pan. He'll come down--and I'll ride him out on the first tracking snow."

Just at dusk Breed howled again and dropped down to the broken country
at the base of the hills, skirting the flats and holding to the roughest
brakes, then swung out across the rolling foothills.

The wind soon brought him the message that coyotes were just ahead and
he traced the scent upwind, anxious for the first sight of his former
running mates. Two coyotes scattered swiftly before his approach, each
carrying his own piece of a jack rabbit which the pair had caught and
torn apart. Breed did not follow but held steadily on in search of more.
The urge for companionship was even stronger than hunger, and he sought
to satisfy the stronger craving first. Twice more he veered into the
wind, and both times the coyotes slipped away as he advanced. He
followed the line of one's retreat and the coyote whirled and fled like
a yellow streak in the moonlight. Breed was puzzled by all this, but the
craving for food had grown so strong as to crowd out all else, and he
abandoned the hunt for friends to hunt for meat instead.

Out in the center of a broad flat bench a mile across Breed made out a
group of slowly moving specks which he knew for cows, and he headed
toward them, taking advantage of the cover afforded by every clump of
sage as he crept up to a yearling steer that lagged behind the rest. He
had hunted heavy game animals with the wolves, animals with every s