, across the Rockies, and down the
Porcupine to the Yukon. He revelled in the vengeance he wreaked upon his kind.
They were ordinary, unsuspecting dogs. They were not prepared for his swiftness
and directness, for his attack without warning. They did not know him for what
he was, a lightning-flash of slaughter. They bristled up to him, stiff-legged
and challenging, while he, wasting no time on elaborate preliminaries, snapping
into action like a steel spring, was at their throats and destroying them before
they knew what was happening and while they were yet in the throes of surprise.
    He became an adept at fighting. He economized. He never wasted his strength,
never tussled. He was in too quickly for that, and, if he missed, was out again
too quickly. The dislike of the wolf for close quarters was his to an unusual
degree. He could not endure a prolonged contact with another body. It smacked of
danger. It made him frantic. He must be away, free, on his own legs, touching no
living thing. It was the Wild still clinging to him, asserting itself through
him. This feeling had been accentuated by the Ishmaelite life he had led from
his puppyhood. Danger lurked in contacts. It was the trap, ever the trap, the
fear of it lurking deep in the life of him, woven into the fibre of him.
    In consequence, the strange dogs he encountered had no chance against him.
He eluded their fangs. He got them, or got away, himself untouched in either
event. In the natural course of things there were exceptions to this. There were
times when several dogs, pitching on to him, punished him before he could get
away; and there were times when a single dog scored deeply on him. But these
were accidents. In the main, so efficient a fighter had he become, he went his
way unscathed.
    Another advantage he possessed was that of correctly judging time and
distance. Not that he did this consciously, however. He did not calculate such
things. It was all automatic. His eyes saw correctly, and the nerves carried the
vision correctly to his brain. The parts of him were better adjusted than those
of the average dog. They worked together more smoothly and steadily. His was a
better, far better, nervous, mental, and muscular coördination. When his eyes
conveyed to his brain the moving image of an action, his brain, without
conscious effort, knew the space that limited that action and the time required
for its completion. Thus,