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 he would not have dreaded such a sound, but now he was a wolf, an outlaw to civilization.

He had proceeded a score of rods when he met the wolf dog puppies scurrying for the burrow and they were closely followed by Gray Wolf. She was blowing blood from her nose at each breath and staggering and almost falling every few rods as she ran.

Silversheene placed himself at her side and they proceeded to the burrow, going side by side just as they had on that first winter day when he had trotted away with her to become her mate.

At the mouth of the burrow she staggered again and fell, and there she lay blowing her life away through her widely distended nostrils in a steady stream of bright blood. The wolf dog pups crowded about her in great excitement, but Silversheene drove them hurriedly into the burrow and himself stood over his dying mate. Frantically he licked the blood from her nostrils, but it was no use, it still flowed steadily. He covered her face with kisses and laid his cheek