Page:The Way of the Wild (1923).pdf/282

 such close range, whimpered with joy. It was his time. He would get the death grip, so he lunged straight at the desperate fighter without even recognizing the danger. Like a sledgehammer the buck's hoof descended and Towser rolled upon the ground with a broken back. This put him out of the fight, and he crawled away into the bushes to die a few hours later. This event made the pack more careful, so they sprang and snapped and worried their quarry for another hour, but at last one of the hounds ventured too close and the great deer's hoof descended fairly upon his skull.

It cracked it like a ripe nut and the hound joined Towser behind the firing line among the mortally wounded.

Two hours later the other hound got a fatal antler thrust that passed nearly through his body and put him out of the battle.

The fight now lay between old Bruiser and Shep on the one hand and the King of the Hoosacs on the other. How it would have ended is uncertain, although the dogs would have probably worried their quarry to death,