he kill, while the upper lip, curled back, uncovered the
long fangs, clear white in the furry dusk of its face.

As the lynx crouched defiant on its prey, measuring its foe with its
furious eyes, it gave a harsh, rasping snarl. But if the sound was
intended to frighten Kiopo, it failed completely. Instead, this rasping
challenge merely served to exasperate him still further. Without an
instant's warning, his eyes blazing with fury, he leaped.

This swift attack took the big cat utterly by surprise. It set at
defiance all lynx etiquette of warfare, which consisted in a good deal
of growling, snarling, and hissing, coupled with stealthy crouchings and
crawlings, and appalling stillness during which you glared at your enemy
with bottled fury in your green eyes. But to observe none of these
niceties of passion, and begin a fight without even a spit, was a thing
utterly abominable to every well-bred cat.

Taken off its guard, the lynx sprang half a second too late. He gave a
savage sweep with wicked claws, which scored Kiopo's flank; but the
force of the wolf's spring, with 150 lbs of sheer weight behind it,
fairly knocked him off his feet; while, at the very instant that he
struck, the merciless steel trap that was Kiopo's jaw closed upon his
neck. It was then that Kiopo showed his wisdom. If he had attempted to
hold his enemy down, as he easily might have done by his weight alone,
the lynx would have been able to bring into play his formidable hind
feet, armed with their fearful claws, and have inflicted an awful
punishment upon the wolf's stomach. It would have been like trying to
subdue a furry mass of springs that spat, tore, slashed and bit in a
humped bundle of madness. So, instead of running such a risk, Kiopo,
exerted all the strength of his powerful neck, shoulders and jaws, and
shook the lynx as the latter might have shaken a raccoon, and then flung
him violently backwards.

The force of the jerk was so tremendous that the big cat was wrenched
from his hold upon the deer, and turned upside down in the air; but he
had barely touched the ground when, using the strong springs of his hind
quarters, he rebounded like a ball. His object was to descend, cat-like,
on the wolfs neck, and to claw out his eyes. But, swift as sight, Kiopo
leaped again. Once more the trap snapped-to, and the lynx felt the
wolf's teeth buried in his neck; while, as before, the skirmish ended in
his being tossed violently backwards into the a