ay from him
and Breed's lips writhed up and cupped away from his ivory fangs. There
was no mistaking the snarl that accompanied this baring of his teeth and
the gray wolf moved back to the opposite side of the steer.

Thereafter both wolves ate sparingly and each watched for the least
hostile move in the other. The coyote pack ringed in close, awaiting the
departure of the timber wolf. He frequently turned his head and favored
the closer ones with a baleful stare, the move always accompanied by a
flattening of his ears, and the ones so fixed by his appraising eye
shrank deeper into the sage. Each time this occurred his head swung
abruptly back toward Breed.

Shady feared and hated the wolf. If she thought of him in human words
she would have given him the name of Flatear, and with good reason. In
coyote, fox and wolf the ears are even more expressive than the eyes. A
wolf's ears work when he sleeps, one of them inclining toward the least
sound that reaches him. When awake his ears seem to work automatically
in conjunction with nose and eyes, tipping sharply forward and turning
in the direction of any strange object or questionable scent that
excites his curiosity. And the flattening of the ears is indicative of
his mood, preceding even the snarl, their backward angle an accurate
gauge of his intent. It seemed to Shady that the big wolf's ears were
chronically laid as he regarded Breed. She was unversed in the ways of
her wild kinsfolk and could not know that the yellow wolf and the gray
were sparring for the advantage of the first blow in the savage fight
that would soon be waged for the right of proprietorship,--herself as
the prize.

Both wolves centered their attention on the main issue and waited only
for an opening. Shady and the restless coyotes out in the sage were
forgotten, each wolf conscious only of his foe. Those others mattered
not at all, for there were certain known laws which all past experience
had proved unalterable. She-wolves showed small concern over the clashes
of rival males; coyotes never fought with their big gray cousins, and
there were no other wolves about. The issue was squarely up to them.

Each time that Breed appeared off guard for a split second the gray wolf
laid his ears, the involuntary betrayal of muscles tensing for the fatal
spring; and Breed's own flattening ears each time evidenced his
readiness to counter. Shady sensed the enmity between them without
knowing the inevitable r