Tito 



defying the agonizing gripe that still kept on 

 inside. 



Had Jake held off then she would yet have 

 laid down and died ; but he followed, and fired 

 and fired, till in another mile she bounded free 

 from pain, saved from her enemy by himself. 

 He had compelled her to take the only cure, so 

 she escaped. 



And these were the ideas that she harvested 

 that day : That curious smell on the meat stands 

 for mortal agony. Let it alone! And she 

 never forgot it ; thenceforth she knew strychnine. 



Fortunately, Dogs, traps, and strychnine do 

 not wage war at once, for the Dogs are as apt 

 to be caught or poisoned as the Coyotes. Had 

 there been a single Dog in the hunt that day 

 Tito's history would have ended. 



IV 



When the weather grew cooler toward the end 

 of autumn Tito had gone far toward repairing 

 the defects in her early training. She was more 

 like an ordinary Coyote in her habits now, and 

 she was more disposed to sing the sundown song. 



291 



