tear saw a great yellow wolf rushing down on him and he whirled and
bared his teeth. The gray wolf weighed a hundred pounds, Breed slightly
over ninety. They circled cautiously for an opening, hind parts tensed
and drooping, ears laid flat and lips drawn back to expose the yellow
tusks. Flatear sprang first and Breed met the open mouth with his own.
The clash of teeth sounded far across the barrens and silent shapes
changed their direction and moved toward the sound. Three times Breed
took the force of the drive on his teeth and the jaws of both wolves
dripped blood. A wolf came slipping up to watch, and two breeds of the
yellow wolf's pack stationed themselves ten yards away. Three more
wolves appeared; then Peg and Fluff came to the scene and Peg moved
behind Flatear and crouched.

Breed's snarl warned him off. The three-legged coyote was old and hoary,
in his fifteenth year and with but a short span of life ahead; his teeth
were rounded and worn down but his spirit was stout, and he longed to
mix it with the wolf. His leader's order held him back, but he remained
the nearest of the lot, watching every move of the combat as if
appointed judge of it.

Flatear rushed time and again, using his greater weight to batter down
his antagonist's guard, but Breed gave back each time and Flatear's
driving shoulder never reached its mark and his teeth were met with
teeth. Breed was losing ground and Flatear pressed him hard. The yellow
wolf seemed to have but one style of defense and no heart for attack.
The fight was a mere procession of retreats before Flatear's heavy
drives, and the gray wolf grew accustomed to this monotonous defense,
and his attacks were unconsciously conformed to it, becoming equally
mechanical, his one purpose to wear his enemy down by sheer strength and
weight.

And when Breed, instead of cringing away, struck at him with every ounce
of his ninety pounds, Flatear was unprepared. He had started his spring
and Breed's counter drive was aimed so low that his chest skimmed the
ground. Flatear slashed savagely downward but the yellow wolf's head was
well under him, and even as Flatear's teeth grazed Breed's shoulder his
forward sweep was checked in mid-air as powerful jaws closed on a
foreleg with a sickening crunch of bones. The opposing weights of both
wolves pivoted on that one leg, and in addition to the fracture
Flatear's whole side and shoulder were wrenched clear to his spine.

There was an uneasy m