Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/152

 harm. He knows their tricks. Instead of fleeing in a panic from the first taint of man scent he investigates it. Then he knows! Of course Flash wouldn’t attack men indiscriminately—he’d have to be spurred on by some strong dislike of one individual, but if he held a grudge against some man—well I’d hate to be that man and have Flash find me somewhere asleep or traveling through the hills at night.”

“It doesn’t seem possible that he could harm a man with only his teeth to fight with,” she insisted,

“Only his teeth!” Moran exclaimed. “Yes, that’s all. You’ve not the slightest conception of what those teeth of his can do. They cut like knives through the muscles, hide and even the hamstring cords of a bull elk. I’ve known him to kill elk, deer, antelope and mountain sheep. Only a few months ago there was a five hundred dollar bounty posted for the scalp of the worst lobo that ever struck Wind River. Flash was that wolf. I shouldn’t have left him. Ask Kinney. He tracked the Wind River wolf over a hundred miles on a new snow and found Flash at the end of the trail. You and I are the only ones who know he’s alive to-day. What chance