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 cracked and crunched up, gulping down great morsels with the marrow and fresh juice. But, of course, even for them it was comparatively slow work, for a bear's bones are hard and tough. Not till well along in the afternoon had they finished the job; and then, though no longer famished, they were still healthily hungry. One after another they returned to the moose-yard, and began stealthily prowling about it, more deliberate now, but not less murderously determined. The moose, now even more defiant than before, faced them sullenly and watchfully, the bull fronting one way, the cow the other, with the unwarlike two-year-old between them.

To the wolves it was clear that the vulnerable point in the moose-family's defense was this trembling youngster. If they could stampede her off from her formidable protectors they could make an easy kill of her out in the snow. Suddenly they darted down into the yard from three sides at once. Two made a cunning feint at the bull, one at the cow,—while the fourth sprang straight at the youngster's throat. But the cow, quicker than thought, met the latter's charge with a side slash full in the face, which shattered both his jaws; and in the same instant she swung lightly to confront her own more wary assailant.

The stricken wolf, half-stunned, and wounded to the death, picked himself up, scrambled dazedly