Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/82

 they snarled. Flash had come into his own at last. He imitated these sounds of his kinsfolk and added his snarl to theirs.

There were frequent slashes and snaps but no resulting fights. They had come in pairs, and each one, with true wolf constancy, was contented with his own. The season of selection had passed its height. Among them were grizzled veterans who bore the marks of recent conflict gained during the savage courting period that had raged all through the north. A little earlier and Flash would have been compelled to defend his right to mate with the silver she wolf.

Two hours before dawn the pack left off gnawing on the bones of the steer and trotted slowly away. As he traveled with them, the big lobo was four inches taller at the shoulder than the next, looming up by comparison as a giant of his kind. A wolf loses or picks up weight more rapidly than any other animal and as they moved across the snow they were no longer gaunt. Paunches sagged heavily, low to the ground. After famine they had gorged to repletion. Some of them had not touched food for three days when they came to the kill, yet they had appeared springy and tireless. Now, after feeding, instead