One of those rare rains of the mountain-desert had recently fallen and the corrals behind the barn were carpeted with a short, thick grass.  In the small corral nearest him he beheld, rolling on that carpet of grass, a great wolf—­or a dog as large and as rough-coated as a wolf, and a man; and they were engaged in a desperate and silent struggle for mastery.  Their movements were so lightning fast that Buck Daniels could not make out distinct forms from the tangle.  But he saw the great white teeth of the wolf flash in the sun one instant, and the next the man had whirled on top.  It was Dan and Bart at play.

No outcry from Dan; no growl from the wolf.  Buck felt the old chill which never left him when he saw the fierce game of the wolf and the wolf-man.  All this passed in the twinkling of an eye, and then Dan, by a prodigious effort, had thrown the great beast away from him, so that Bart fell upon its back.  Dan leaped with outstretched arms upon the fallen animal, and buried his clutching hands in the throat of the beast.

Yet still there was a thrill to add to these, for now a black horse appeared in the picture, a miracle of slender, shimmering grace—­and he rushed with flattened ears upon the two twisting, writhing, prostrate figures.  His teeth were bared—­he was more like a prodigious dog than a horse.  And those teeth closed on the back of the man’s neck—­or did they merely pinch his shirt?—­and then Dan was dragged bodily away from the wolf and thrown through the air by a flirt of the stallion’s head.

Horrible!  Buck Daniels shuddered and then he grinned shamefacedly in apology to himself.

“The three of ’em!” he grunted, and stepped closer to the fence to watch.

The instant the man was torn away by the intercession of the horse, the wolf regained its feet and rushed upon him; but Dan had landed from his fall upon his feet, with catlike agility, and now he dodged the rush of the wolf and the arrowy spring of the creature, and sprang in his turn towards the stallion.

The black met this attack by rearing, his ears flattened, his teeth bared, his eyes terrible to behold.  As the man raced close the stallion struck with lightning hoofs, but the blow failed of its mark—­by the breadth of a hair.  And the assailant, swerving like a will-o’-the-wisp, darted to the side of the animal and leaped upon its back.  At the same instant the wolf left the ground with terribly gaping mouth in a spring for the rider; but Dan flattened himself along the shining back of his mount and the wolf catapulted harmlessly past.