Lone Wolf was forced to loosen his grip upon his foe and tear himself
away with a yelp of pain. And each time, like a relentless fury, Kiopo
had leaped upon him in a fresh onslaught. Soon, both animals were
streaming with blood; yet their many wounds, far from lessening their
rage, seemed to make them more madly determined to fight on to the
death.

Perched upon his rock, Dusty Star watched the appalling struggle going
on immediately below him, with an excitement and a dread that passed all
bounds. His close intimacy with wild animals, had taught him that a
fight of this sort could only be ended by the death of one or other of
the fighters, and his terror naturally was lest Kiopo should not be able
to hold his own. He had never known him to fail before; but then never
before had he encountered a foe so nearly matched with him in strength.
So far, it would not have been possible to say that either wolf had
gained any decided advantage over the other, but now Dusty Star observed
something which filled him with a new fear. Either by chance or design,
the wolves were very much nearer to the edge of the precipice than at
the beginning of the fight. Surely, he thought, Kiopo, the always wary
one, must have realized _that_? In his frantic anxiety to make sure that
he realized, Dusty Star clapped his hands and shouted.

Whether Kiopo understood the warning or not, the sound of Dusty Star's
voice seemed to goad him to fresh efforts. The Little Brother had cried.
He was fighting for the Little Brother as much as for himself. For a
while it seemed as if the Lone Wolf must succumb to the fresh fury of
his onslaught. In spite of this, Dusty Star saw with horror that the
fight had rolled closer than ever to the edge.

And now it seemed that Kiopo had begun to lose his temporary advantage.
Soon it became all too plain that he was steadily losing ground, and was
being pushed nearer and nearer to the fatal edge. At last he reached it.
In the final struggle for mastery, the wolves, still tearing furiously
at each other, seemed poised on the very brink. In another moment, one
or other, if not both, must surely be dashed to destruction. Again, in a
fever of suspense, Dusty Star held his breath.

And then the thing happened-the amazing thing which, to the latest day
of his life, he would never forget!

Just as Kiopo appeared to be pushed to his last foothold, with his hind
quarters doubled under him beneath the fatal pressure of his al