"Aye, Brother, and he saw you, too."
"Else I had eaten him," added the Dog-Wolf.
"A Coyote?" asked Shag incredulously; "eat a Coyote? Impossible! No animal ever ate a Coyote!"
"No animal was ever so hungry as I was yesterday before Wie-sah-ke led me to the Fat Bacon."
"It's terribly dreary," said Shag, returning again to his first thought; "no Elk, no Antelope, no Buffalo, no Indian Cayuse. Why is it? Has Man killed them all off, as he has done with my people?"
"Yes, Man, and the Man-fire. From the black that is underneath this new grass I know that last year the Man-fire swept over this land faster and straighter than a Wolf Pack gallops——"
Suddenly he broke off and made a fierce rush into the prairie. A brown Cow-Bird flew up and lighted on Shag's horn. The Dog-Wolf rose on his hind legs and snapped viciously at the Bird.
"Steady, Dog-Wolf, steady," admonished Shag, "this is a friend of mine. Do you not know the Cow-Bird, who is always with the Herd?"
"Who is your friend?" asked the Cow-Bird of Shag. "Queer company you keep, Great Bull; a Herd Leader leading a Wolf is new to me."