e. This deepened his respect for Shady; the mate who was so
helpless in many respects was surprisingly resourceful in others.

It was not known to Breed that bears had learned to dread the bellowing
of a pack of trail hounds in the hills through knowledge that men
followed close behind, and that the dog note in Shady's voice stirred up
visions of a man with a magazine gun on their trail. But while the
reason was not clear to Breed, the fact that the mightiest grizzly took
flight before his mate was repeatedly proved to him, and after once
learning her power Shady permitted no bear to deprive her family of its
meat.

[Illustration: As the summer advanced the pups learned to pack-hunt with
Breed. _Page 167._]

As the summer advanced the pups learned to pack-hunt with Breed. The
coyote howls at night were now confined to messages between mate and
mate or between mother and pups. The life they led was essentially a
family life and they had no interests outside of the family circle.
Breed's cry to rally a pack was never raised, for his own domestic
duties were many; and if he had sent forth the summons none would have
answered it. He sometimes met Peg and ran with him for a while, but
these visits were infrequent and brief, each having pressing business of
his own.

Breed one day caught the scent of a coyote upwind from him. This in
itself was nothing unusual but there was something vaguely familiar
about it, something that roused old memories, and suddenly he thought of
Cripp. He traced up the scent and as he topped the ridge he stopped
short and bared his teeth, the hair rising along his spine. A horrid
nightmare of a thing rose from its bed and leered at him. The hair had
slipped from its body, leaving the skin shiny and slate-blue. The ears
and head were furred, and the legs; tufts of hair sprouted from the
shoulders and along the spine, but flanks and sides were bare and the
long tail was rat-like, its joints showing through the tight-stretched
skin. The lips were drawn back and revealed the blue gums receding from
loosened teeth. This was the result of poison that had failed to kill.

Breed knew this grisly apparition for Cripp. The scent was there, and
the warped foreleg. Cripp did not recognize his friend. His mind was
clouded and the light of insanity gleamed in his sunken eyes. Breed
whirled and fled, and a weird cry sounded behind him,--the eerie howl of
a maniac.

All through the summer the coyotes shunned