The air was still with the stillness of a dead world. Suddenly Lady Ebony jerked up her head. From the ridge above the mesa came the cry of an old lobo wolf and his bachelor pack. They were racing down from the high barrens seeking prey. The old lobo had not led his sons into the lower country. He was wise and cunning and had kept his pack high above the ranches with their poison sets, their traps, and their guns. He preferred the savage struggle of the snow-locked high country to the sure death lurking in the open valleys. He had ranged above the belt where the deer and the elk wintered and had not led his sons to a kill in more than a week. The slaughter going on lower down the slope had not been shared by these gaunt killers.
Lady Ebony listened intently. The pack was running down the ridge above the mesa. She shook her head restlessly and looked across the meadow toward the castle rocks. Turning she took a few steps toward the lower end of the meadow. The timber-line buck grunted protestingly as he floundered out of her way. Midnight kept on digging in the snow. He was still hungry. The snarling of the pack sounded farther down the ridge and Lady Ebony turned back to where Midnight was pawing. The howling rose in savage crescendo. The pack had swerved and was heading toward the meadow.
The timber-line buck did not wait to listen. He began floundering and plunging across the open toward the woods where he knew the warm sun had not softened the snow so that it crusted. Here he could double and bound; his speed would save him from the gray ones.
Lady Ebony snorted and whirled. She took one long leap, then halted and looked back, nickering loudly, warningly. Midnight stood looking at her. He was chewing a mouthful of grass he had pulled from under the snow. He swallowed the grass and thrust his head back into the hole. He had found a good mat of grass and meant to finish it. The howling pack did not disturb him greatly. He had never been attacked by wolves. All the wolves he had met had loped away when he ran toward them.
Lady Ebony leaped back to his side and crowded against him. She whinnied excitedly and pawed the snow, then whirled and leaped a few yards toward the rocky point. Midnight pulled up a tasty mouthful of grass and munched at it, then dived down for more. Lady Ebony was frantic. She plunged at him and nipped his rump sharply.
Midnight’s hips jerked and he lashed out with his hoofs, striking his mother a smashing blow. She had never bitten him so severely before and his temper flared. Lady Ebony charged at him again. She had to make him follow her.
Up in the spruce the old lobo heard her whinny and the tone of his howls changed from hungry yelping to savage eagerness. Instantly his sons, leaping at his side, took up the cry. After many days of stark hunger the old one had led them to a kill.
The gray killers burst out of the darkness under the spruce, running madly, their fangs gleaming, their red tongues lolling. They flashed into the gleaming moonlight like shadows. Midnight jerked up his head. He saw the glowing, yellow eyes of the killers, the white fangs, and the red tongues as the wolves leaped across the crusted snow. Fear gripped him, and with a wild squeal of fright he plunged away, breaking through the crust, floundering, stumbling.
Lady Ebony did not rush after him. She knew they could not both escape the swift shadows so close upon them. With a toss of her flowing mane she plunged toward the pack. After charging a few yards she halted and her front hoofs rose. A defiant, screaming cry came from her chest. The wolves leaped in on her, dodging her flailing hoofs, their fangs reaching from every side. The old lobo leaped straight at her throat while his sons swarmed around her. One smashing hoof struck the lobo and sent him spinning across the glare of ice. But as she hurled the old one from her, two young wolves ripped her flanks while another tore a gash in her shoulder. They leaped and lashed and ripped, springing in, darting away.
Lady Ebony could not run and the deep snow kept her from pivoting to meet the rear attack. She was doomed and she knew it, but she did not try to plunge away. Her son was floundering to the safety of the ledge and she had to hold the pack where they were until he reached the castle rocks.