moving.  And I guess I didn’t see it move either; I only sensed that it moved.  It was an expression—­that’s what it was—­and I got an impression of it.  No; it was different from a mere expression; it was more than that.  I don’t know what it was, but it gave me a feeling of kinship just the same.  Oh, no, not sentimental kinship.  It was, rather, a kinship of equality.  Those eyes never pleaded like a deer’s eyes.  They challenged.  No, it wasn’t defiance.  It was just a calm assumption of equality.  And I don’t think it was deliberate.  My belief is that it was unconscious on his part.  It was there because it was there, and it couldn’t help shining out.  No, I don’t mean shine.  It didn’t shine; it moved.  I know I’m talking rot, but if you’d looked into that animal’s eyes the way I have, you’d understand.  Steve was affected the same way I was.  Why, I tried to kill that Spot once—­he was no good for anything; and I fell down on it.  I led him out into the brush, and he came along slow and unwilling.  He knew what was going on.  I stopped in a likely place, put my foot on the rope, and pulled my big Colt’s.  And that dog sat down and looked at me.  I tell you he didn’t plead.  He just looked.  And I saw all kinds of incomprehensible things moving, yes, moving, in those eyes of his.  I didn’t really see them move; I thought I saw them, for, as I said before, I guess I only sensed them.  And I want to tell you right now that it got beyond me.  It was like killing a man, a conscious, brave man, who looked calmly into your gun as much as to say, “Who’s afraid?”

Then, too, the message seemed so near that, instead of pulling the trigger quick, I stopped to see if I could catch the message.  There it was, right before me, glimmering all around in those eyes of his.  And then it was too late.  I got scared.  I was trembly all over, and my stomach generated a nervous palpitation that made me seasick.  I just sat down and looked at the dog, and he looked at me, till I thought I was going crazy.  Do you want to know what I did?  I threw down the gun and ran back to camp with the fear of God in my heart.  Steve laughed at me.  But I notice that Steve led Spot into the woods, a week later, for the same purpose, and that Steve came back alone, and a little later Spot drifted back, too.

At any rate, Spot wouldn’t work.  We paid a hundred and ten dollars for him from the bottom of our sack, and he wouldn’t work.  He wouldn’t even tighten the traces.  Steve spoke to him the first time we put him in harness, and he sort of shivered, that was all.  Not an ounce on the traces.  He just stood still and wobbled, like so much jelly.  Steve touched him with the whip.  He yelped, but not an ounce.  Steve touched him again, a bit harder, and he howled—­the regular long wolf howl.  Then Steve got mad and gave him half a dozen, and I came on the run from the tent.