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THE FIGHT WITH A WOLF PACK
"Hear un! Hear un coming!" exclaimed Andy in a hushed voice.
"'Tis just back there in th' bush, but I can't see un!" said David,under his breath.
"Take a shot, anyhow," suggested Andy, who had lashed his own rifle onthe load, that he might carry an ax, which was constantly required inthe work about the traps.
"Not till we sees un," David objected. "Pop says never shoot at whatyou don't see."
They hurried a little now, though pausing frequently to peer into theforest gloom behind them. Twilight was thickening. The thing, whateverit was, that followed them was growing bolder and less careful toconceal its movements. With little effort they could quite plainlyhear the tread of soft footfalls on places where the snow was coveredby an icy crust. It was not, however, until the stovepipe of the tilt,standing in black silhouette above a great snowdrift that nearlycovered the little log building, had risen into view, that Andy,looking back, exclaimed:
"There 'tis, now! There 'tis! Wolves!"
David stopped, and turning about beheld five great fearsome graycreatures. It was at least a relief to know what manner of beaststalked them. There is attached to a hidden, skulking enemy a mysterythat accentuates the sense of peril. But now the danger was realenough.
When the boys stopped, the wolves stopped also, and in full view satupon their haunches, with lolling red tongues, greedily observingtheir intended victims. They were not above fifty yards distant, and acold chill ran up the lads' spines as they beheld them.
"Shoot now!" said Andy, tensely, after a moment's silence.
Dropping the hauling rope of the toboggan from his shoulders, Davidwithout a word slipped his rifle from the loose sealskin case in whichhe carried it, took careful aim, and pulled the trigger.
"Snap!" went the hammer, but there was no explosion.
A wolf sprang to his feet, and baring his ugly white fangs emitted asnarl that sent a fresh tingle down the boys' spines.
"The firing pin is froze!" exclaimed David, again cocking the rifleand aiming.
Again there was a snap but no explosion. Again he tried, and again thecartridge failed to explode.
"Pick up th' gun case, Andy, and walk ahead," directed David, in avoice tense with excitement, as he readjusted the hauling ropes uponhis shoulders. "Don't run, now, b'y, and don't hurry. Pop says neverrun from wolves. If you do, they're like t' close in on us."
"We're most to th' tilt," said Andy nervously, as he obeyed David'sinstructions and set forward, with David in the rear, at their usualpace.
When David and Andy moved the wolves followed. With every step theygradually but perceptibly drew a little closer. When the outline ofthe tilt appeared through the thickening twilight the animals were notten yards behind the nervous, frightened boys. David, glancing back,could see the bristling hair above the powerful shoulders, and theugly red lolling muzzles of the beasts.
"Get in quick and light th' candle, Andy!" he directed when at lastthey reached the door. "Hurry, now! They're like t' rush any minute!"
Snow had drifted against the door and clogged it, and it seemed toDavid that Andy would never get it open. The wolves were edgingcloser--closer--closer. They were not twenty feet away when at lastthe doorway was cleared and Andy sprang into the tilt, shouting toDavid to hurry, while he nervously lighted the candle.
In momentary fear of being charged by the pack and torn to bits, Davidhad stood facing the wolves as they edged in, inch by inch. Andy'sshout, and the flare of the candle within the tilt brought assuranceof safety, and with his face still to the wolves he backed into thedoor, drawing the toboggan after him.
"Come, Andy, now, help me pull her! Help me pull her!" David shouted,tugging with frenzied energy at the loaded and unwieldly toboggan.
Lashed upon the toboggan were their sleeping bags and two of thefinest martens they had captured during the winter. If he abandonedit, David was well aware that the wolves would destroy everything itcontained, and with never a thought that the wolves would be so boldas to attempt to follow him and Andy into the tilt, he determined alsoto save their belongings.
Andy sprang to his assistance, and the two boys pulled with all theirstrength, but as they might well have known, the toboggan was quitetoo long for the narrow tilt, and when they had drawn it in as far asthey could, an end still blocked the doorway, and they could not closethe door.
Then it was that the heads of two wolves, ravenous, and grownexceeding bold, fearless even of the candle light, appeared at theentrance, determined, it was apparent, to make an attack, whether orno.
David, in desperation, instinctively seized his rifle, threw it to hisshoulder, with the muzzle almost touching the leading wolf, and pulledthe trigger.
There was an explosion, a snarl, and the wolf fell at David's feet.The frozen firing pin was at last released. With lightning speed hethrew forward and drew back the lever, and fired again, and the otherwolf fell. Stooping low, with the rifle still at his shoulder, hediscovered the three other wolves slinking in the twilight justoutside the door, and again his rifle rang death to a wolf, But thiswas to be his last victim, for the two remaining animals turned, andfaded in the gathering gloom.
"'Twas a narrow escape!" exclaimed Andy, sitting limply down upon theedge of a bunk.
"That it was!" and David, no less excited and relieved, was visiblyshaking.
"They might have got us!" said Andy, weakly.
"They might have, but they didn't, and they didn't get th' martens ortear up our sleeping bags, either," and the trembling but proud Davidseated himself by Andy's side, to recover his composure.
"You kept your grit, and were wonderful brave, Davy," said Andyadmiringly.
"Oh, 'twasn't anything," and David, with a brave show, arose and beganunlashing the toboggan. "You kept your grit just as much, Andy. If youhad run, or hadn't got the door open or the candle lit, we'd sure beenkilled."
"'Twere fine th' gun went off, but 'tis strange she didn't go off whenyou tried her before," suggested Andy.
"If I'd tried un once more out where we first saw th' wolves, she'dhave gone off, but I gives up too soon," said David. "Th' tryin' I didloosed th' ice around th' firin' pin. I just _had_ t' try un when th'wolves started in after us; and she were all right."
And so it is, much too often in life. We give up too soon. We wouldturn many a failure into success if we would but keep on trying, anddoing our best, and not permit ourselves to become discouraged.
When the toboggan was unloaded they took it out, dragged in the deadwolves where they would not freeze, and after they had kindled a fireand eaten their supper, removed the pelts from the three, and fine bigpelts they were.