It was a dog.

The animal was not more than four or five short paces from him, and was chained to the tree.

David surveyed him with sudden interest, wondering first of all why he was larger than the other dogs.

As he lay crouched there against his tree, his ivory fangs gleaming between half-uplifted lips, he looked like a great wolf.

In the other dogs David had witnessed an avaricious excitement at the approach of men, a hungry demand for food, a straining at leash ends, a whining and snarling comradeship.