Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/209

 this dangerous stalk as to exclude all else. The man’s quick ears caught a sound at the instant Flash caught the scent. A second man turned a bend in the game trail and came steadily on. He was of slender build and erect carriage; his gray beard was carefully trimmed, announcing the fact that he had come but recently from the outside world.

This new complication was too much for Flash. The dog in him rose above the wolf and the issue trembled in the balance. Only a saving ray of memory out of the dim past held him back from following the dog impulse to throw himself upon both men and sacrifice himself to warn the girl. This memory was not a distinct recollection of the time he had met this man in the moonlit park on the night he had first found the girl. His memory was not so retentive as that; could not retain for so long a time the identity of one who had made no very strong impression upon his mind. Rather, it was a certain haunting familiarity about his looks and scent that seemed in some vague way to be pleasantly associated with the girl. Without knowing why, he suddenly felt that this man was a reenforcement instead of an added menace.