iven a sure
account. Further, there is no other such reckless law-breaker as
hunger. Rules and the teaching of experience--even inherited
experience--are as nothing at all to hunger. Also, these two men
beside the dying fire were not erect. But they moved uneasily in
their sleep now and again. The man-life was clearly astir in them
still; and so even the nearest and most venturesome among the
dingoes sat a good hundred yards distant from the camp. And when
daylight came, and one of the men stirred on his elbow, and looked
up at the sky, the pack retreated slowly, backward through the
scrub, till more than double that distance separated them from the
living food at which they had been wistfully glaring. There was no
anger, no savagery, no vestige of cruelty in their minds and
hearts. Finn, it is true, cherished some soreness and resentment
where men were concerned; but even in his case this brought only
the desire to keep out of man's way; while the rest of the pack
felt only instinctive dread and fear of man. But now the feeling
which ruled the whole pack, the light which shone in their eyes,
the eagerness which brought moisture continually to their
half-uncovered fangs while they watched--this was simply physical
desire for food, simply hunger.

The man who had been the first to stir, rose slowly, and stretched
his arms as though his frame ached, as indeed it did, from a
variety of causes. When the first slanting rays of the new-risen
sun reached him, they shed their light upon a man on whom physical
hardship had laid its searing fingers heavily. His face had a ten
days' growth of hair upon it, and was gaunt and haggard, like the
rest of him. His clothes hung about him loosely, and were torn and
soiled and ragged. Under the bronze tan of sunburn on his face and
neck there was the sort of pallor which comes from lack of food; in
his eyes--deep sunk in dark-rimmed hollows--was a curious glitter
which was not at all unlike the glitter in the eyes of the wild
folk who had been watching him during the night. This glitter was
of eagerness and want; the expression was wistful, longing, and
full of a desire which had become a pain. It was the same
expression that shone out from the eyes of the starved Mount
Desolation pack. And the causes behind it were the same.

Presently this man woke his companion, who growled at him, as
though he resented the attention.

"Time we were on the move, old chap," said the first man. "We c