Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/189

 dog than wolf and had formed an individual estimate of each man as he met him.

In those days of his impressionable puppyhood only one man had continuously mistreated him. That man had come to typify all that was mean in the human race and upon him was concentrated the hate aroused by the deeds of the many. This had long been passive but it was there and it flamed with the old intensity at this trace of his old enemy. The scent came strong and it was clearly, unmistakably that of Brent.

The two men had separated and there was no continuation of Brent’s trail. The horses had turned down a canyon that was next to the one which sheltered the cabin and Flash knew that Brent had remounted and gone that way; that where he found the horses he would find Brent.

The other man had gone on along the ridge on foot. If Brent had continued on foot the hate would have urged Flash to follow his trail instead of that of the stranger. Animals deal more with actualities than with probabilities. Flash’s brain told him the trail of the horses would lead him to Brent but the other’s trail was actual, warm and fresh under his very nose. Also the strang-