Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/102

 He sensed her helplessness and some vague undertone of fear. The blood of many fighting forebears who had protected man rose to the surface in a feeling of responsibility for the safety of this girl—a desire to fight off that thing she feared.

Even now he was not assured that she was the woman he had met before. Not until a measure of her former buoyancy and high spirits returned with her joy at his presence was he sure. Then all three senses coordinated and definitely identified her as the same.

It was long before she slept, and Flash curled close beside her, his newly aroused protective instincts fully alert. He growled at each far off sound. When a cow elk sounded her yelping bark close at hand he rushed out and drove her off, returning proudly to the girl. He knew the elk was as harmless as a mouse, and all this was more to assure the girl that nothing could harm her now that he was with her.

“It won’t be so bad if you’ll stay with me, Flash,” she told him. “The loneliness won’t be so heavy that it hurts—like it did before I had you.”

Then she slept, and the wolf stood guard.