ng place, a taste of potted
meat from a can he held fiercely between his paws while he licked the
inside, had made his meagre breakfast. There were times that day when,
if the men had looked behind, they must have seen him. There were times
when he would not have cared if they had. Close around the bends, within
sight sometimes where the road straightened, he trotted or loped wearily
along, tongue lolling out, collar loose on his neck. So another day wore
away and mid-afternoon came. Then the car stopped, and from force of
habit, as it were, he turned aside for the last time into the bushes.

Suddenly his panting ceased, he raised his head, and pricked his ears.
From the valley below had come the smell of human habitations mingled
with the faint tinkle of a cowbell and the sound of a hammer. Eyes
bright in an instant, he watched the man climb stiffly out of the car
ahead. The other and bulkier man clambered from between the curtains of
the rear where he had ridden all that day. They talked for a while low
and guardedly. They glanced suspiciously up and down the rough road they
had been following, then down a shaded road that led pleasantly to the
valley below.

"There ain't an inch of gas left," said the man who had driven the car.
"It's the last chance for fifty miles."

"Have you looked in the can?" asked the heavy man, his face worried.

"You saw me empty it last night, didn't you?" sneered the other.

He pulled a big can out of the car, then he parted the curtains.

"See here, kid, you want to keep damn quiet--hear?"

No sound came from within.

"Did you hear me?"

The voice sounded muffled in a sort of sob.

"Yes, sir!"

"All right. Remember! I'm comin' back."

He fastened the curtains together. He muttered directions to his uneasy
companion. "You drive up to them bushes and wait." He put in his hip
pocket something that flashed brilliantly, even pleasantly, in the sun,
he put on his coat, picked up the can, and started down the shaded road.
And old Frank, fierce eyes shrewd, hair risen all the way down his gaunt
back, rose guardedly, crept through the bushes, came out in the road
behind and followed.

Old Frank had been a companion of men all his days. He had hunted with
them, shared their food and fire, looked up with steady, open eyes into
their faces. He had never had a human enemy before. But now he stalked
this man as his ancestors had stalked big game--muscles tense, head low
between gaunt sh