own
protection, sufficient evidence of the quick adaptability with which
coyotes rise to meet any new emergency.

Mated pairs now ran close when hunting, sometimes traveling in fours.
Flatear soon discovered that the teamwork of a pair of fighting coyotes
was more than a match for even his great prowess and his kills grew
fewer.

Cold fear clutched every coyote that caught a fugitive scent of the gray
killer, but Breed did not share this dread. He was Flatear's match in
size and strength and so was not concerned. Breed could not know that
Flatear's hatred had become almost an obsession; that night after night
the slayer was craftily trailing him and that killing coyotes was but a
side line to lighten the hours of a protracted stalk for Breed himself.
Flatear was a veteran warrior and he waited only for an opportunity to
attack when he should find Breed alone. Nose and ears kept him apprised
of the yellow wolf's whereabouts, but usually there were coyotes running
with him and invariably the tracks of the she-fury were mingled with
those of her mate. Breed was untroubled by any thought that sudden death
lurked in wait for him the first time he should run alone through the
sage.

While Flatear plied his bloody trade and made the nights fearsome for
the coyotes, men found one more method of harrying them by day.

The first Breed knew of this danger was one day when he lay with Shady
on a high point of ground. There were many things about Shady which he
could not fathom. From the first he had found much of mystery in her.
She insisted on traveling in broad daylight whenever the notion seized
her and she seemed not to share his fear of horsemen, often rising
incautiously from her bed for a better view of them, careless of the
risk of their seeing her.

Shady cocked her ears alertly at a distant sound, and the same note,
faint as it was, roused Breed from his nap. Somewhere off across the
foothills several men had raised their voices in a wild outburst of
cheers. This sounded again and again, each time from a point nearer to
where Breed lay. A band of antelope sped past without following their
usual custom of stopping to look back. Breed caught the vibrations of
pounding hoofs, the sound of many hard-running horses blended in one.
Through it all he heard an occasional note that was strange to him, a
shrill, sharp note that had something of the wolf in it, yet which he
knew was not made by any beast he had met before. And