Krag, the Kootenay Ram 



other and the distance, and, seeking for firm 

 footing, kept on the edge of the great bench ; 

 then, with a whoof! they came on again. 

 Whack! and the splinters flew, for they both 

 were prime. But this time Krag clearly had 

 the best of it. He followed up his advan- 

 tage at once with a second whack! at short 

 range, and twisting around, his left horn hooked 

 under the right of his foe, when, to his utter 

 dismay, he received a terrific blow on his flank 

 from an unknown enemy. He was whirled 

 around, and would have been dashed over the 

 cliff but that his horn was locked in that of his 

 first foe, and so he was saved ; for no Ram 

 has weight enough in his hind quarter to oppose 

 the headlong charge of another. Krag scrambled 

 to his feet again, just in time to see the new 

 enemy irresistibly carried by the violence of his 

 own charge over the ledge and down. 



It was a long time before a far-away crash 

 told to those on the ledc;e that Krinklehorn had 

 found the, very end he plotted for his foster- 

 brother. Ram fights are supposed to be fair 

 duels. Krinklehorn, failing in fair fight, had 

 tried foul, and had worked his own destruction ; 



64 



