business to hurry to her. Though
the season was yet some time ahead they knew its nearness and each
recognized in the other a possible future mate.

Collins thought of Shady more as a pet than as a dog and so had not
troubled to train her. The wild traits in her were as apparent in
maturity as they had been in infancy--even more pronounced--and chief
among these was her natural aptitude for stealing. She pillaged Collins'
stores and even sneaked food from the table when his back was turned, as
her wild ancestors for many generations had stolen his bait. Collins
curbed this propensity, not by judicious training which would eliminate
it, but by the simple process of chaining her to the cabin wall when he
left for a trip and did not wish her to accompany him. So it was not
strange that Shady viewed thieving from the standpoint of expediency.
Those who came to Collins' cabin predicted a bad end for Shady.

That insistent note in her voice was more pronounced as the season
neared and Breed tingled to the sound of it. The frequency of his visits
increased till they were of nightly occurrence instead of semi-monthly.
He used every wolfish inducement to lure her away from the vicinity of
the twinkling lights that marked the abode of man. She longed to follow
him into the wild but could not bring herself to face its terrors. Breed
longed to follow her when she left him but could not bring himself to
face the horrors which must lurk near the haunts of men. These clashing
outlooks upon life held them apart. The wild represented safety for
Breed, its dangers known to him and accepted as a part of it and not to
be greatly feared. Those dangers were the work of man, and by natural
consequence Breed assumed that their numbers and deadliness increased in
proportion as he drew nearer the homes of men, the house itself the most
dangerous of all. Shady's mode of life had taught her the reverse of
this; that complete safety lay in the cabin and its immediate vicinity,
the known and unknown terrors of the wild increasing in ever-widening
circles dependent upon the distance from the refuge of the cabin that
was home to her.

The season had started and some few coyotes had paired, yet Breed could
not induce Shady to follow him. The preceding winter her desire for
motherhood had been thwarted. Collins had chained her to the cabin for a
month. Coyotes are without the wolf suspicion which fills their larger
cousins with fear of human habitati