ligence, this fact had embedded itself like a stone: What the
lord-humans protect, it is dangerous to attack.

CHAPTER IV

KIOPO FINDS AN ENEMY

After this stormy introduction to the camp, the family settled down
quietly enough. Running Wolf's long absence from the tribe had made no
difference to his membership or position in it. Half-an-hour after his
arrival, his tepee was set up in the place appointed for it by the head
chief, and in two days' time the family were living the life of the camp
as if they had never left it. To be quite truthful, Running Wolf,
Nikana, and Blue Wings were living it. With Dusty Star it was different.
The number of people of all ages, from newly-born papooses, up to braves
and old squaws--some of them so wrinkled and bony that it almost seemed
as if they had forgotten to be dead; the constant coming and going, the
pony-racing, the chanting of medicine songs and the beating of
drums;--all these things were so utterly strange and bewildering that,
after the long day's experiences, he was almost too excited to sleep.

As for Kiopo, if an animal could have spent the whole of its puppyhood
in the moon, and then, one slippery night, have all at once fallen off
into the middle of the earth, it could not possibly have felt more an
unwelcome intruder than Kiopo in his new surroundings. The fact of his
arrival was now known to every husky in the camp, and each husky hated
him from the bottom of his husky heart. For the most part they lived on
the worst possible terms with each other. This individual dislike did
not stand in the way of a combined attack upon a common enemy when
opportunity offered. Left to themselves to arrange matters, Kiopo would
not have had the ghost of a grasshopper's chance. There were two great
obstacles to his immediate destruction. One was his owner, Dusty Star,
who kept a pile of stones and a heavy stick, always ready for instant
use; and the other was Kiopo himself.

[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL OF KIOPO WAS NOW KNOWN TO EVERY HUSKY IN THE
CAMP, AND EACH HUSKY HATED HIM FROM THE BOTTOM OF HIS HUSKY HEART]

Kiopo was now three parts grown, and was considerably larger than the
ordinary wolf of his age. For the average full-grown dog, he was more
than a match. The few that had ventured to fight him singly had learnt
that to their cost. But against a combined attack of the whole husky
rabble, he was naturally powerless. And owing to the peculiar make-up of
the gener