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 His forearm was like whipcord as were all his muscles. When he ran, these same muscles slipped so easily under the hide that it looked as though all of his splendid mechanism was oiled and greased. No human-made machine ever ran so smoothly. His antlers were large and shapely, and his eyes were dark and full of fire.

His face was clean cut and his nostrils wide. Altogether he was a wonderful running machine, one of the best ever designed by nature. So it was a rather remarkable undertaking that the Renegate Pack assayed when it undertook to run Red Buck down. But they were hungry and his three hundred pounds of deer meat looked good to them.

The Renegade Pack were five outlaw dogs. They had gotten in badly with the Berkshire farmers by their deprivations as sheep killers. In fact, that was what had made them outlaws. They were led by a large collie whose name, when he had been a respectable dog, was Shep. The collie is only a generation or two removed from the wolf, so he will slip back into the wolf