26 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
no direction without encountering rocks too steep 
and high for the cubs to take at one spring, and 
in a few moments the dogs were on her. She 
faced the oncoming rush, teeth bared, hair bris- 
tling, the cubs behind her, and as the dogs arrived, 
she went into them. 'The hound slipped past her 
and closed on the he cub, which tore at him as he 
was about to seize Softfur’s hind quarter. But 
the collie and the Airedale went straight at her 
throat, as she at theirs. ‘The Airedale, like all his 
breed, was too reckless, and it was Softfur who 
got him, not he her. With lightning speed and’ 
accuracy, she caught him just under the collar, so 
her teeth could sink into his throat, and his scream 
resounded over the lonely rocks of the mountain 
as she laid him over. But that instant was the 
collie’s chance, and he took it. He went through 
Softfur’s ruff and got the hold he wanted, and as 
she fought frantically to shake his strangling 
grip, the hound, which had finished off the cub, 
closed in on the other side. The three of them 
rolled over and over on the rocks, one mass of 
snarl and blood and foam. 
Swiftfoot had seen it all begin from his perch 
