s grew paler. One by one they faded from the sky and
after a time there followed the cold gray dawn of the North. In that
dawn the big husky leader rose from the hole he had made in the snow and
returned to the bull. Kazan, alert, was on his feet in an instant and
stood also close to the bull. The two circled ominously, their heads
lowered, their crests bristling. The husky drew away, and Kazan crouched
at the bull's neck and began tearing at the frozen flesh. He was not
hungry. But in this way he showed his right to the flesh, his defiance
of the right of the big husky.

For a few seconds he forgot Gray Wolf. The husky had slipped back like a
shadow and now he stood again over Gray Wolf, sniffing her neck and
body. Then he whined. In that whine were the passion, the invitation,
the demand of the Wild. So quickly that the eye could scarcely follow
her movement faithful Gray Wolf sank her gleaming fangs in the husky's
shoulder.

A gray streak--nothing more tangible than a streak of gray, silent and
terrible, shot through the dawn-gloom. It was Kazan. He came without a
snarl, without a cry, and in a moment he and the husky were in the
throes of terrific battle.

The four other huskies ran in quickly and stood waiting a dozen paces
from the combatants. Gray Wolf lay crouched on her belly. The giant
husky and the quarter-strain wolf-dog were not fighting like sledge-dog
or wolf. For a few moments rage and hatred made them fight like
mongrels. Both had holds. Now one was down, and now the other, and so
swiftly did they change their positions that the four waiting
sledge-dogs were puzzled and stood motionless. Under other conditions
they would have leaped upon the first of the fighters to be thrown upon
his back and torn him to pieces. That was the way of the wolf and the
wolf-dog. But now they stood back, hesitating and fearful.

The big husky had never been beaten in battle. Great Dane ancestors had
given him a huge bulk and a jaw that could crush an ordinary dog's head.
But in Kazan he was meeting not only the dog and the wolf, but all that
was best in the two. And Kazan had the advantage of a few hours of rest
and a full stomach. More than that, he was fighting for Gray Wolf. His
fangs had sunk deep in the husky's shoulder, and the husky's long teeth
met through the hide and flesh of his neck. An inch deeper, and they
would have pierced his jugular. Kazan knew this, as he crunched his
enemy's shoulder-bone, and every