THE SHADOW OF THE DESERT 79 



toads and picket-pins," said the man; "you 

 need n't shed any tears over him. But the jacks 

 will have the laugh on him all right." So they 

 will, for they are his food, having been made for 

 the coyote as the shad-scale and the settlers' oats 

 were made for the jack. But they were made for 

 four-legged coyotes, not for those with only three 

 legs. The coyote works for a living, and he goes 

 hungry many a night with plenty of jacks about 

 him in the sage. Head as well as heels are neces- 

 sary to catch the rabbit for a jack-rabbit pie; and 

 if the coyote is a cunning, long-headed wolf, he 

 has the even chance of his hard desert life to 

 thank for it. The pursuer always has an advan- 

 tage over the pursued, a moral handicap granted 

 by Nature to offset the physical one allowed the 

 pace-maker — a narrow margin usually, and so 

 narrow between these two of the desert that, 

 while the coyote might pull down the jack in 

 a straightaway run, life for him at such a pace 

 would hardly be worth living. It is lean enough 

 at best. 



As I watched the wind scoop and pile the sand 

 about the butts of the sagebushes, or saw the 

 white drift scud and curl across the open ; as I 



