Alcatraz

LOBO

The dawn of the next day came cold and grey about Alcatraz, grey because the sheeted clouds that promised a storm were covering the sky, and cold with a wind out of the north.  When he lifted his head, he saw where the first rains had covered the slopes of the Eagle Mountains with tenderest green, and looking higher, the snows were gathering on the summits.  The prophetic thickening of his coat foretold a hard winter.

Now he was on watch with the mares in the hollow behind and himself on the crest rarely turning his head from a wisp of smoke which rose far south.  He knew what that meant.  Red Perris was on his trail again, and this was the morning-fire of the Great Enemy.  He had lain on the ground like a dead man the day before.  Now he was risen to battle again!  Instinctively he swung his head and looked at the place where the saddle had rested the day before, the saddle which he had worked off with so much wild rolling and scraping against rocks.

He nibbled the grass as he watched, or now and again jerked up his head to catch the scents which blow truer in the upper air-currents.

It was on one of these occasions that he caught an odor only vaguely known to him, and known as a danger.  He had never been able to label it but he knew that when the grey mare caught such a scent she was even more perturbed than when man rode into view.  So now he breathed deep, his great eyes shining with excitement.  What could this danger be which was more to be dreaded than the Great Enemy?  Yielding to curiosity, he headed straight up wind to make sure.

No doubt he thereby gave proof that he was unfitted to lead wild horses in the mountains.  The wise black of former days, or the grey mare now, would never have stopped to question, but gathering the herd with the alarm call, they would have busied themselves with unrolling mile after mile behind their flying heels.  Alcatraz increased his walk to a trot, promptly lost the scent altogether, and headed onto the next elevation to see if he could catch it again.  He stood there for a long moment, raising and lowering his head, and then turning a little sidewise so that the wind would cut into his nostrils—­which was a trick the grey had taught him.  The scent was gone and the wind blew to him only the pure coolness of dew, just sharpened to fragrance by a scent of distant sagebrush.  He gave up and turned about to head for the mares.

The step for which he raised his forefoot was not completed for down the hollow behind him he saw a grey skulker slinking with its belly close to the ground.  If it stood erect it would be as tall as a calf new-born.  The tail was fluffy, the coat of fur a veritable mane around the throat, the head long of muzzle and broad across the forehead with dark marks between the eyes and arching like brows above them so that the facial expression was one of almost human wisdom and wistfulness.  It was a beautiful creature to watch, as its smooth trot carried it with incredible speed across the stallion’s line of retreat, but Alcatraz had seen those grey kings of the mountains before and knew everything about them except their scent.  He saw no beauty in the lofer wolf.

The blood which congealed in his veins was released; he reared and wheeled and burst away at full gallop; there was a sobbing whine of eagerness behind him—­the lobo was stretched in pursuit.

Never in his life had the chestnut run as he ran now, and never had he fled so hopelessly.  He knew that one slash of those great white teeth would cut his throat to the vital arteries.  He knew that for all his speed he had neither the foot nor the wind to escape the grey marauder.  It was only a matter of time, and short time at that, before the end came.  The lofer prefers young meat and as a rule will cut down a yearling colt, or dine on warm veal, eschewing cold flesh and feeding only once from every kill—­the lobo being the Lucullus of beasts of prey—­but this prowler had either found scanty fare in a long journey across the mountains or else he wished to kill now for pure deviltry and not from hunger.  At any rate, he slid over the ground like the shadow of a cloud driven in a storm.

Already he gained fast, and yet he had not attained top speed; when he did, he would walk up on the chestnut as the latter could walk up on the mares of his herd.

Over a hill bolted Alcatraz and beneath him he saw a faint hope of escape—­the flash of water where a brook, new-swelled by the rains, was running bankfull, a noisy torrent.  He went down the slope like the wind, struck the level at such speed that the air stung his nostrils, and leaped from the firm gravel at the edge of the stream.

The far bank seemed a mighty distance as he soared high—­the water rushed broad and swift beneath him, no swimming if he struck that bubbling current—­and then, a last pitch forwards in mid-air; a forefoot struck ground, the bank crushed in beneath his weight, and then he was scrambling to the safety beyond and reeling into a new gallop.

Behind him, he saw the shadowy pursuer skim down the slope, fling into the air, and drop out of sight.  Had he reached the shore?  Ten seconds—­no long and ominous head appeared—­certainly he had fallen short and landed in the furious current.  Alcatraz dropped his heart-breaking pace to a moderate gallop, but as he did so he saw a form which dripped with water scramble into view fifty yards down-stream—­the lobo had managed to reach safety after all and now he came like a bullet to end the chase.

There was only half a hope left to Alcatraz and that was to turn and attempt to leave the wolf again at the water-jump; but now his renewed panic paralyzed all power of thinking.  He did not even do the next best thing—­race straight away in a true line, but bearing off first to the left and then to the right, he shot across the hills in a miserably wavering flight.

The lobo came like doom behind him.  The chill of the water had enraged him.  Besides, he did not often have to waste such time and energy to make a kill, and now, bent on a quick ending, the fur which fringed his lean belly cut the dew from the grass as he stretched to his full and matchless speed.  Alcatraz saw and strained forward but he had reached his limit and the wolf gained with the passage of every second.

Another danger appeared.  Off to the side and well ahead, spurring his mount to top effort, came Red Perris, who must have marked the chase with his glass.  Alcatraz gave him not a glance, not a thought.  What was the whisper and burn of a rope, what was even the hum of a bullet compared with the tearing teeth of the lofer wolf?  So he kept to his course, stretched straight from the tip of his nose to the end of his flying tail and marking from the corner of his eye that the lobo still gained vital inches at every leap.

The horseman to his left shot over a hill and disappeared into the hollow beyond—­he would be a scant hundred yards away when Alcatraz raced by, if indeed he could keep beyond reach of the wolf as long as this.  And that was more than doubtful—­impossible!  For the grey streak had shot from behind until it now was at his tail, at his flank, with red tongue lolling and the sound of its panting audible.  Half a minute more and it would be in front and heading him, and when he whirled the creature would spring.

And so it happened.  The killer swept to the front and snapped—­at the flash of the teeth Alcatraz wheeled, saw the monster leave the ground—­and then a limp weight struck his shoulder and rolled heavily back to the ground; but not until he had straightened away on his new course did Alcatraz hear the report of the rifle, so much had the bullet outdistanced the sound.

He looked back.

Red Perris sat in his saddle with the rifle coming slowly down from his shoulder.  The lofer wolf lay with a smear of red across one side of his head.  Then a hill rose behind the stallion and shut off his view.

He brought down his gait to a stumbling canter for now a great weakness was pouring through his legs and his heart fluttered and trembled like the heart of a yearling when it first feels the strain and burn of the rope.  He was saved, but by how small a margin!  He was saved, but in his mind grew another problem.  Why had the Great Enemy chosen to kill the wolf and spare the horse?  And how great was his greatness who could strike down from afar that king of flesh-eaters in the very moment of a kill!  But he knew, very clearly, that he had been in the hollow of the man’s hand and had been spared; and that he had been rescued from certain death; was not the scent of the wolf’s pelt still in his nostrils as the creature had leaped?

He came to the brook and snorted in wonder.  In a sane moment he would never have attempted that leap.  For that matter, perhaps, no other horse between the seas would have ever dreamed of the effort.  Alcatraz headed up the stream for a narrow place, shaking his head at the roar of the current.