no one to accompany
him when in such a mood. He will walk miles and miles to-night. But he
will come back. And when he returns he will be as sane as you and I, and
if you ask him where he has been he will say that he went out to see if
he could get a shot at something."

Rod had listened in rapt attention. To him, as Wabi proceeded with his
story of the tragedy in Mukoki's life, the old Indian was transformed
into another being. No longer was he a mere savage reclaimed a little
from the wilderness. There had sprung up in Rod's breast a great, human,
throbbing sympathy for him, and in the dim candle-glow his eyes
glistened with a dampness which he made no attempt to conceal.

"What does Mukoki mean by 'wolf night'?" he asked.

"Muky is a wizard when it comes to hunting wolves," Wabi went on. "He
has studied them and thought of them every day of his life for nearly
twenty years. He knows more about wolves than all the rest of the
hunters in this country together. He can catch them in every trap he
sets, which no other trapper in the world can do; he can tell you a
hundred different things about a certain wolf simply by its track, and
because of his wonderful knowledge he can tell, by some instinct that is
almost supernatural, when a 'wolf night' comes. Something in the air
to-night, something in the sky--in the moon--in the very way the
wilderness looks, tells him that stray wolves in the plains and hills
are 'packing' or banding together to-night, and that in the morning the
sun will be shining, and they will be on the sunny sides of the
mountains. See if I am not right. To-morrow night, if Mukoki comes back
by then, we shall have some exciting sport with the wolves, and then you
will see how Wolf out there does his work!"

There followed several minutes of silence. The fire roared up the
chimney, the stove glowed red hot and the boys sat and looked and
listened. Rod took out his watch. It lacked only ten minutes of
midnight. Yet neither seemed possessed with a desire to return to their
interrupted sleep.

"Wolf is a curious beast," mused Wabi softly. "You might think he was a
sneaking, traitorous cur of a wolf to turn against his own breed and
lure them to death. But he isn't. Wolf, as well as Mukoki, has good
cause for what he does. You might call it animal vengeance. Did you ever
notice that a half of one of his ears is gone? And if you thrust back
his head you will find a terrible sear in his throat, and from h