University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-30

She muzzled his neck and KaZan gave
her a swift dog-like caress of his
tongue, assuring her that all was we'll.
She flattened herself in the snow
when the dogs had finished and came
up in their dog way to sniff at her.
and make closer acquaintance with
kaZan Kazan lowered over her,
guarding her. One huge red-eyed dog
who dragged the bit of babiche trace
muzzled Gray VOLTS soft neck for a
fraction of a second too long, and Ka-
Zan uttered a savage snarl of warn
ing. The dog drew back, and for a
moment their fangs cleaned over
Gray VOLTS blind face. 1t was the
Challenge of the Breed.
The big husky was the leader of
the pack, and if one of the other dogs
had snarled at him, as Kazan snarled
he would have leaped at his throat
But in Kazan, standing fierce and half
wild over Gray Wolf, he recognized
none of the serfdom of the sledge-
dogs 1t was master facing master; in
Kazan it was more than that for he
was Gray VOLTS mate. In an instant
more he would have leaped over her
body to have fought for her, more
than for the right of leadership. But
the big husky turned away sullenly.
growing, still snarling, and vented
his rage by nipping fiercely at the
flank of one of his sledge-mates.
Gray Wolf understood what had
happened. though she could not see.
She shrank closer to Kazan. She knew
that the moon and the stars had
looked down on that thing that always
meant death-the challenge to the
right of mate. With her Turing coy
ness, whining and softly muzzling his
shoulder and neck, she tried to draw
kazan away from the pad-beaten cir
Gle in which the bull lay. Kazan's ans
wer was an ominous rolling of smoth-
cred thunder deep down in his throat.
He lay down beside her. licked her
blind face, and faced the strange dogs.
The moon sank lower and lower and
at last dropped behind the western for
est. The stars grew paler. One by
one they faded from the sky and after
time there followed the cold gray
dawn of the North. In that dawn the
big husky leader rose from the hole he
had made in the snow and returned to
the bull. Kazan, alert, was on his
feet in an instant and stood also close
to the bull. The two circled ominous-
ly, their heads lowered, their trests
bristling. The husky drew away, and
Kazan crouched at the bulls neck and
began tearing at the frozen flesh. He
was not hungry. But in this way he
showed his right to the flesh, his de-
fiance of the right of the big husky.
For a few seconds he forgot Gray
Wolf. The husky had slipped back
like shadow and now he stood again
over Gray Wolf, shifting her neck and
body. Then he whined. In that whine
were the passion. the invitation, the
demand of the Wild So quickly that
the eye could scarcely follow her
movement faithful Gray Wolf sank
her cleaning fangs in the husky's
shoulder.
A gray streak-nothing more tangi-
BILE than a streak of gray, silent and
terrible, shot through the dawn-gloom
1t was Kazan. He came without a
snarl, without cry, and in moment
he and the husky were in tke throes
Of terrific battle.
The four other huskies ran in
quickly and stood waiting a dozen
PAGES from the combatants. Gray
Wolf lay crouched on her belly. The
giant husky and the quarter-strain
wolf-dog were not fighting like sledge-
dog or wolf. For few moments rage
and hatred made them fight like mon
grels. Both had holds. Now one was
down, and now the other, and so swift
ly did they change their positions that
the four waiting sledge-dogs were
puzzled and stood motionless. Under
other conditions they would have
leaped upon the first of the fighters
to be thrown upon his back and torn
him to pieces. That was the way of
the wolf and the wolf-dog. But now
they stood back, hesitating and fear
full.
The big husky had never been in
battle. Great Dane ancestors had CIV
en- him a huge bulk and a jaw that
could crush an ordinary dogs head.
But in Kazan he was meeting not only
the dog and the wolf, but all that was
best in the two And Kazan had the
advantage of few hours of rest and
full stomach. More than that, he
was fighting for Gray Wolf. His fangs
had sunk deep in the husky's shoul- |