Medicine Road Read Online Free PDF Page B

misplaced. It would be next to
impossible for any intruder to enter the new yard.

    Downwind from her, on the far side of the herd, a
single narrowed eye was conveying the same
thought to Loki, the Arctic king wolf. It had required all his vast woodcraft to creep this close to
the sleeping caribou. Now he was still faced with
the problem of crossing 100 paces of open, snowpacked yard to come at his quarry. And every step of
that 100 paces was blocked by a bedded-down member of the herd. Through the magic of his wonderful
nose, the king wolf knew that Neetcha was the doe
he had trailed out of the cedar tangle. In the still of
the night and with the light, fresh wind blowing
toward him, he was able to single out her scent from
that of all the others. And he knew, of course, that
the moose calf would be close by her.
    Yet, providing he was skillful enough to work his
way within striking distance of her and the calf,
how would he get away after the deed was done?
The herd would be instantly on its feet and he
would be caught in the middle of 100 panic-stricken
caribou. Even for a king wolf, these were weighty
questions. And the odds against his getting away
unscathed were impossible.
    Loki uttered another of his soundless snarls, his
decision made. It was typical of his breed that the
difficulty of escape failed to stop him. Attack was
the only problem. Following the old wolf-pack
logic that the truest trail is the straight one, he flat tened himself to the snow, wormed his way into the
sleeping herd and directly toward the look-out
rock. His intention was to cover what ground he
could before discovery, then to race for the rock and
the doe, trusting that the moose calf would be there
beside her.

    It was a daring move and it almost succeeded. The
king wolf was within six paces of the rock when a
thin snow crust broke beneath his great weight and
brought a wild-eyed little figure out from the
shadow at the very base of the rock. For the second
time in his short life, Awklet stood face to face with
Loki and lived to tell of it. And tell of it he did. His
bleat of terror rang out in the night quiet like a trumpet blast. Instantly the entire yard was alive with the
noise and movement of the herd coming to its feet.
    For once Loki could not act fast enough. He had
made his approach on the assumption that the calf
would be with the doe on top of the rock. The blunder of nearly stepping on him and causing the terrified calf to let out such a high-pitched squall
inflamed the king wolf's savage temper. In the confusion of his rage, Loki hesitated.
    It was all the time Awklet required. With a great
clumsy sideways leap, the moose calf bounded out
of striking range. Had he been a moment later, Loki
would have cut his throat from ear to shaggy ear. As
it was, the king wolf would now do well to get the
caribou doe.
    Snarling, he gathered his great haunches for the
leap that would end the life of the new herd queen.
Neetcha, up on the ledge, had at last begun to
drowse just before Loki had started toward her
through the sleeping herd. Her startled eyes opened
to the picture of a huge Arctic wolf hurtling through the air toward her. Awkwardly she lunged up and
forward, her one instinctive thought to get to her
adopted calf. In consequence, Loki's murderous leap
was met in mid-air by the driving weight of a fullgrown caribou doe. The momentum of Neetcha's
300 pounds of bone and sinew carried both her and
Loki over the edge of the rock.

    They fell apart as they struck the hardened snow
ten feet below. When Loki came to his feet, shaking
the snow and ice from his eye, he saw nothing before him but charging hoofs and horns. For once,
the caribou were unafraid. They knew he was alone
and they knew they could kill him. Sensing this,
Loki leaped to the attack, knowing he must escape
at once.
    Neetcha scrambled to her feet in time to see the
maddened herd pour in on him, and in time to see