l as ever cracked a bone on a fine day.

He was a little puffed, and more than a little puffed up, and it may
have been that he did not keep his eyes all round his head, as a jackal
should always do. Anyway, there, in the gathering shadows of night,
came a waiting, watching shadow, that was presently joined by another,
and the two--their eyes glinted once in a nasty metallic fashion--stood
head to head, watching him.

By the time Mrs. Mesomelas had hobbled out to view the "kill" for
herself, and snarl her appreciation--truly, it was a strange way of
showing it--with thin, wicked ears laid back, and more than wicked
fangs bared, the waiting, watching shadows had crept forward a little,
on their bellies, head up, and--Mrs. Mesomelas, with the quick
suspicion of motherhood awake in her, saw them.

The snarl that she whipped out fetched the jackal round upon himself as
if stung. Then he saw, and understood, and rage flamed into his
intelligent, dog's eyes. It was the side-striped jackals, Mr. and
Mrs., plotting to loot his "kill."

It was the black-back who attacked. Perhaps he knew that one secret of
defense is swift and unexpected offense. Anyway, he attacked, sailing
in with his dancy, chopping, in-and-out skirmishing methods; and Mrs.
Mesomelas, on three legs and with the bill for the other to be settled,
helped him.

It was very difficult, in the tropic dust, to follow what exactly
happened next. For the next few minutes black-back was here, there,
and everywhere, leaping and dodging in and out like a lambent flame.
The human eye could scarcely follow him, but the human ear could hear
plainly the nasty, dog-like snarling and the snap of teeth.

The side-stripe, as I have said, was the weightier beast, but the
black-back never gave him the advantage, which he sought, of the
close-fought fight.

More than once he was chased, but only to lead his foe into the open,
where he could play his own game to his own liking; and at last, when
the moon rose, and his mate had the female black-back driven back to
her last ditch, so to speak, at the entrance to her lair, the
side-stripped jackal, spouting blood at every joint, it seemed,
collapsed suddenly, and apparently gave up the ghost.

Now, our black-backed jackal was not a young beast, and he was up to
most wild-folks' games--which was as well. He approached the corpse
with caution, and as he poised for the last spring the corpse was at
his throat. Black-back,