shake off its
devastating after effects. Hydrophobia broke out among these and they
ran amuck, striking alike at friends and foes. Sound coyotes were turned
into frothing fiends that helped to spread the wave of madness that
swept across three States. Horses and cows died by hundreds and it was
no unusual thing for one mad coyote to bite fifty head of sheep in a
single night. The five dogs that had harried Breed were themselves
infected when they pulled down a mad coyote, and they drove poisoned
fangs into forty head of stock before the last of the five was run down
and shot.

There was but one ray of hope in the whole dangerous business and men
seized on that. Mad coyotes lost their cunning and ran stupidly on some
chosen course, biting every living thing that crossed their trails, but
refusing to be turned aside even to avoid an approaching man. Riders
poured through the foothills on fleet horses, shooting down the stricken
ones, all other business suspended till this menace had been stamped
out. And through it all the ravages among the wily coyotes were far less
than among domestic stock.

The spreading of coyotes over new territory, which had been only gradual
before, was accelerated by the poison and madness that had blighted the
foothills. Thickly settled districts far to the east, where coyotes had
formerly appeared but infrequently, were now invaded by great numbers.
Poison and traps could not be used effectively against them in
localities where there were dogs on every farm, and the coyotes were
safer there than on the open range. Reports that reached Collins showed
that for eight hundred miles south along the base of the hills the
coyotes were quitting the flats and roaming through the fastnesses of
the Rockies.

Breed noted the steady flow of strange coyotes into the high basins of
his new range. In the late summer his pups dropped one by one from the
family circle, going off on some business of their own. During the
latter part of August Breed was conscious of a vague sense of
loneliness. This grew more pronounced and then suddenly he knew! The
rally call for the pack rolled through the valleys and echoed among the
peaks, and from far and near he heard familiar voices raised in answer.
The parental responsibilities were over for one season, the pups gone
forth on their own, and the members of the pack were free to follow the
yellow wolf.

As Breed ran through the hills the pack gathered, and each coyot