THE SHADOW OF THE DESERT 91 



At this point the companion of Dr. Hibbard 

 came shouting up and prevented the doe from 

 again attacking the wolf, which, hoping to escape 

 from the man, held his prey and flattened him- 

 self to the sand. But the hunter rushed at him 

 with stones, and the coyote, dropping the kid, ran 

 into the sage. The other two coyotes now joined 

 him, circling about the man, who was without a 

 gun, as they tried to find the little antelope. But 

 he finally drove them off. The poor little kid, 

 however, was dead, its throat torn by the fierce 

 fangs that the mother repeatedly had broken from 

 their fatal hold. 



But the other two kids escaped — only to fall 

 later, perhaps to the same fangs. It was a close 

 call — as it will be the next time, as it always is 

 on the desert and here in my own Eastern wood- 

 lot, and elsewhere, everywhere. I did not see an 

 antelope in these deserts, though I traveled hun- 

 dreds of miles looking for them. I had to content 

 myself with studying a tame one at the Narrows, 

 that had been captured in the sage. Yet a few 

 months after my trip through the plains, the 

 State's wardens counted several hundred antelope 

 where I thought they must have become extinct. 



