had--rose in exultation to the cold gray sky, and her breast panted
against Kazan's shoulder as she listened to the crunching of fangs in
the flesh and bone of the foe her lord and master had overthrown.




CHAPTER XVI

THE CALL


Followed days of feasting on the frozen flesh of the old bull. In vain
Gray Wolf tried to lure Kazan off into the forests and the swamps. Day
by day the temperature rose. There was hunting now. And Gray Wolf wanted
to be alone--with Kazan. But with Kazan, as with most men, leadership
and power roused new sensations. And he was the leader of the dog-pack,
as he had once been a leader among the wolves. Not only Gray Wolf
followed at his flank now, but the four huskies trailed behind him. Once
more he was experiencing that triumph and strange thrill that he had
almost forgotten and only Gray Wolf, in that eternal night of her
blindness, felt with dread foreboding the danger into which his newly
achieved czarship might lead him.

For three days and three nights they remained in the neighborhood of the
dead moose, ready to defend it against others, and yet each day and
each night growing less vigilant in their guard. Then came the fourth
night, on which they killed a young doe. Kazan led in that chase and for
the first time, in the excitement of having the pack at his back, he
left his blind mate behind. When they came to the kill he was the first