g that knew when to rush in with a snap and when to keep
away. When lions or wildcats were treed Fox lost much of his ferocity
and interest. Then the matter of that particular quarry was ended. His
most valuable characteristic, however, was his ability to stick on the
track upon which he was put. Wade believed if he put Fox on the trail of
a rabbit, and if a bear or lion were to cross that trail ahead of him,
Fox would stick to the rabbit. Even more remarkable was it that Fox
would not steal a piece of meat and that he would fight the other dogs
for being thieves.

Fox and Kane, it seemed to the hunter in his reflective foreshadowing
of events at White Slides, were destined to play most important parts.

* * * * *

Upon a certain morning, several days before October first--which date
rankled in the mind of Wade--he left Moore's cabin, leading a
pack-horse. The hounds he had left behind at the ranch, but Fox
accompanied him.

"Wade, I want some elk steak," old Belllounds had said the day before.
"Nothin' like a good rump steak! I was raised on elk meat. Now hyar,
more'n a week ago I told you I wanted some. There's elk all around. I
heerd a bull whistle at sunup to-day. Made me wish I was young ag'in!...
You go pack in an elk."

"I haven't run across any bulls lately," Wade had replied, but he did
not mention that he had avoided such a circumstance. The fact was Wade
admired and loved the elk above all horned wild animals. So strange was
his attitude toward elk that he had gone meat-hungry many a time with
these great stags bugling near his camp.

As he climbed the yellow, grassy mountain-side, working round above the
valley, his mind was not centered on the task at hand, but on Wilson
Moore, who had come to rely on him with the unconscious tenacity of a
son whose faith in his father was unshakable. The crippled cowboy kept
his hope, kept his cheerful, grateful spirit, obeyed and suffered with a
patience that was fine. There had been no improvement in his injured
foot. Wade worried about that much more than Moore. The thing that
mostly occupied the cowboy was the near approach of October first, with
its terrible possibility for him. He did not talk about it, except when
fever made him irrational, but it was plain to Wade how he prayed and
hoped and waited in silence. Strange how he trusted Wade to avert
catastrophe of Columbine's marriage! Yet such trust seemed familiar to
Wade, as he