Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/18



armon was away, and for two days Moran had the forest ranger’s cabin on Spring Creek to himself.

He spent the time trying to wean Flash from his early training and induce him to eat by tempting him with morsels of fresh meat.

The first day the pup shrank away from it; on the next he sniffed it hungrily but still refused to eat. He craved it with every fiber of his being but there was one thing he knew. He must never touch one bite of meat other than that which he himself had freshly killed—and after once leaving that he must return to it no more.

In his few hunts with his parents they had pulled down a fresh beef each trip. At first he had seen no reason why he was not allowed to go near other food, but gradually he had seen many things which explained it all.

One night the wind had borne the scent of stale meat, and with the odor had come a clanking, grinding sound. A coyote leaped at the end of a