disguising the fact that a very large
number of the wild folk, in whom Finn and Warrigal and the rest of
the pack were interested, had recently migrated in quest of homes
that should be better supplied with water than the Tinnaburra or
the Mount Desolation range. It was not that the pack felt the
absence of these folk as companions, but as food. They were also
beginning to feel keenly the burnt-up dryness of that whole
countryside and the extreme heat of the season.

Even Finn's prowess as a hunter and a killer was of no avail in the
absence of game to hunt, and during the few days which he and
Warrigal spent among the scrub at the mountain's foot, after
leaving their den, the Wolfhound sometimes travelled from thirty to
forty miles without a single kill, being reduced then, like the
rest of the pack, to eat rabbit flesh, and mice, and grubs.
Already some of the younger members of the pack had begun to prey
upon the flocks of squatters in the Tinnaburra, and this had
brought speedy retribution in the shape of one young female of
their kindred shot through the head, and two promising males
trapped and slain, so that the pack now consisted of no more than
fourteen adults and six whelps, who were hardly capable as yet of
fending for themselves. Men with guns had actually been seen within
a mile of Mount Desolation itself; and, owing to the attacks upon
their bark of half-starved small fry, the trees of the bush were
dying by hundreds, and thereby opening up in the most uncomfortable
manner ranges which had previously been excellent hunting-grounds.
The report about the men-folk with guns was most disturbing to
Finn, and he was conscious, in sitting down, of a degree of
boniness about his haunches such as he had never known since the
horrible period of his captivity in the circus. A Wolfhound whose
fighting weight is a hundred and fifty pounds requires a good deal
more food than a dingo, whose weight rarely exceeds half that
amount. Grubs and mice were not of much use to Finn; and when he
drank, his long tongue had been wont to scoop up more than twice
the amount of water which had served to satisfy any other member of
the pack.

The growing restlessness and discontent which had been mastering
the Mount Desolation pack for weeks now received an immense
addition, so far as Finn and Warrigal were concerned, in the events
which led them to forsake their den on the first spur. It
culminated, in Finn's eyes, in the actual pa