Lone Wolf 



CHAPTER I 



NOT, like his grim ancestors for a thousand 

 generations, in some dark cave of the 

 hills was he whelped, but in a narrow iron 

 cage littered with straw. Two brothers and 

 a sister made at the same time a like inaus- 

 picious entrance upon an alien and fettered 

 existence. And because their silent, untame- 

 able mother loved too savagely the hereditary 

 freedom of her race to endure the thought 

 of bearing her young into a life of bondage, 

 she would have killed them, mercifully, 

 even while their blind baby mouths were 

 groping for her breasts. But the watchful 

 keeper forestalled her. Whelps of the great 

 grey timber wolf, born in captivity and there- 

 fore likely to be docile, were rare and precious. 

 The four little sprawlers, helpless and hungrily 

 whimpering, were given into the care of a 



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