The Yellow Horde

ated softly down to him, punctuated by the rasping cry of a nighthawk. A coyote raised his voice, a perfect tenor note that swept up to

e swelling volume could be produced by no less than a full thousand mus

ess which is communicated to man in a positive ache for companionship,-and which carries a wealth of companionship in it

amorous outburst of the night. He read in it a note of deep-seated humor, the jeering laught

ellow devils! Men can't wipe 'em out. There'll be a

urvive but increase his range to include the hills and spread over the continent from the Arctic to the Gulf. There were rumors of coyotes turning up in Indiana. Then came the tale that a strange breed of small yellow wolves had appeared in Michigan. Those sheepmen who summered their sheep in the high valleys of the western mountains complained that stray coyotes quit the flats and followed them into the hills to prey upon the flocks. The buffalo wolves that had once inf

wn wolf howl, faint from distance, drifted far out across the range. Collins turned in his blankets and peered through t

l stretch your pelt," the wolfer stated.

en the haunts of the two tribes whose blood flowed in his veins,-all wolf except for the yellow fur that marked him for a breed. The coyote voices lifted to him and Breed read them as the call of kind; for although he had spent the past ten months with the wo

e him small concern. It was still another menace-the poison baits put out by wolfers-which held him back. Not that he feared poison for himself, but coyotes writhing in convulsions and frothing at the mouth had always filled him with a terrible

moved slowly and with many halts occasioned by the wolf suspicion which urged him to turn back. Wh

he range was taking on fall shades, the gray of the sage relieved by brown patches of open grasslands and splotches of color where early frosts had touched the birch and willow thickets that mar

d his glasses toward the spot to see what manner of wolf this was who howled in the broad light of day. The second time he located Bree

. He'll never take on a feed of poison bait or plant his foot on a trap

untry at the base of the hills, skirting the flats and holding to

and torn apart. Breed did not follow but held steadily on in search of more. The urge for companionship was even stronger than hunger, and he sought to satisfy the stronger craving first. Twice more he veered into the wind, and both times the coyotes slipped away as he advanc

he fully expected the steer to break into full flight at the first warning of his presence. He had almost forgotten the stupidity of the cows on the open range and the ease with which he had torn them down when hunting them with his wolf father long before. He made his final rush and drove his teeth deep into one hind leg before his prey had even quickened his gait. The steer lurched into an awkward gallop a

ach unseen. He stretched forth his head and cupped his lips as he sent his tribal call rolling across the range, the mes

creature expected to hear an answering cry and waited for it to come before resuming their own communications. The fact that the coyotes answered the cry assured Coll

g coyote trotted up and down the crest of a slight rise of ground two hundred yards downwind. Another joined him, then a third, and in less than an hour there was a half score of coyotes circling the spot. Breed could see dim shapes moving

to maturity among them and so become known to every coyote on his range; that they had forgotten him as an individual, as he had also forgotten them. If there were any old friends among those who circled round him now he did not know them as

trap, a Newhouse four. This misadventure had occurred in midwinter when the range was gripped by bitter frost. The cold had numbed the pain and congealed the flesh to solid ice. He had cut through the meat with his

t many times and wounded twice. A shattered foreleg had healed with an ugly twist, the foot p

e wolf. The peg-leg coyote stretched forth his nose for one deep sniff, then sprang ten feet away as Breed whirled. Cripp drew up for a similar sniff as Breed faced Peg, then leaped away as Peg had done. Nature has endowed the members of each animal tribe with a different scent, and most animals identify enemies and friends with nose instead of eyes. That one deep inhalation had assured the t

without success. When with the wolves he had longed for the smell of the sage, the scent that spoke of home to him, and the mocking voices of the coyotes. Now that he had all these he missed the muster cry of the pack, hungered to hear the aching wails coming from far across the timbered hills, penetrating to the farthest retreats of the antlered tribes and sounding a w

first call and Peg was coming swiftly from the south, Cripp from the west. Breed had not traveled far before he was aware that other hunters were abroad and running with him, swinging wide on either flank. Here was his pack! At first he was not sure, but whenever he wheeled or veered from hi

ull cry and howled with him. And Collins, the Coyote Prophet, for the first tim

re were the dim shapes circling the kill, padding restlessly through the sage as t

etreat, but always veered away before discovering his presence. His days were untroubled except by the memories of poisoned coyotes which persisted in his mind. When he slept his dreams often reverted to these poisoned horrors, and their death rattles sounded in his ears and his feet twitched in imaginary flight as he sought to put distance between himself and these haunting demons. Breed knew that poison was some evil exercised

r dreams too were beyond his comprehension. They were actual scenes and scents and sounds to him,-then vanished. It was only natural that his greatest waking terror

t the two old coyotes stood before him in reality, their own noses wrinkled in snarls which answered his menacing actions and warned him off. The same old baffling wave which flooded Breed after each of these recurring dreams engulfed him now. Peg and Cripp were as

ression was the stronger he knew that he would find them untouched by madness; yet the vividness of the dream lingered with him and held him back from the low country. He howled once and

winter in the valleys of the lower hills. Breed worked up the slope until he reached the crest of the divide. He prowled along the bald ridge, undecided which course to take, then whirled and faced back in the direction from which he had come. Five miles below him a coyote had rai

h the hunting cry to summon his loyal band. An hour later Cripp and Peg were with him, the three of them swinging west along the divide tow

hours before starting once more on the hunt. They found small game less abundant in the high hills than in the flats and they scoured the surrounding timber without success, returning at last to bed down near Breed o

denly with uplifted nose. The shifting breezes had carried the deer scent to his nostrils,-one brief flash and it was gone. Breed tacked back and forth across the wind, caught it again and held it, following the ribbon of scent upwind as easily as a man would follow

he wind held steadily from the deer to him and Breed drew up to within fifty feet. The buck lifted his head and looked off in all directions, not from present uneasi

ck. The deer turned almost at right angles in his fright, and as he turned Breed's teeth slashed his leg, but not deep enough to cripple, and the chase was on again. Another fifty yards and Cripp leaped from behind a spruce trunk and struck gamely for a leg hold. The flying speed of the buck jerked him clear of the ground, broke the hold of his teeth and threw him end over end. But he had retarded the deer for one half-second and the

t. It was scarcely dark under the trees when he heard the breed-wolf an

long that the coyotes would take to the hills some day. T

am was waning before the fact that Peg and Cripp were with him in reality, sane and normal in every way.

ight the number of shadowy forms that padded through the sage round his kills increased, waiting until the wolf should leave and they could close in and finish it to the last mouthful. They grew bolder from the fact that two of their

at the first hunting cry of the night, spreading out over a quarter-mile front and runn

d a track which the breed-wolf had left the night before he had only to swing out to the right or left to find the trails of many coyotes pointing in the same direction,-a general movement of coyotes over a wide front. Collins had heard many tales of late which accorded with a prophecy he had made long ago; for thre

alleled the tracks of the yellow wolf and made still another prop