ht eyes, but these were much
higher above the ground, and presently he made out the lean forms, the
sharp noses, and the cruel white teeth of wolves. Still he was not
afraid. They did not seem to be above four or five in number, and he
knew that they would not attack him unless they were a large pack, but
he felt the insult of their presence. He hated wolves. He respected a
bear and he admired a buffalo, but a wolf, although in his way cunning
and skillful beyond compare, did not seem to him to be a noble animal.

Such contempt for him, a hunter and a warrior, who could slay at two
hundred yards, given his rifle, must be avenged, and he felt around at
the edge of the hollow until his hand closed upon a stone nearly as
large as his fist. Then he closed his eyes all but a tiny corner of the
right one and lay so still that even a wolf, with all his wolfish
knowledge and caution, might think him asleep. By the faint beam of
light that entered the tiny corner of his right eye he saw the wolves
drawing nearer, and he marked their leader, an inquiring old fellow who
stood three or four inches taller than the others, and who was a foot in
advance.

The wolves approached slowly and with many a little pause or withdrawal,
but the youth was fully as patient. He had learned his lessons from the
forest and its creatures, and on this night nothing was cheaper to him
than time. It was another proof of natural power and of the effect of
long training that he did not move at all for a quarter of an hour. The
old wolf, the leader, who stood high in the wolf tribe, who had won his
position by genuine wolfish wisdom and prowess, could not tell whether
this specimen of man was alive or dead. He inclined to the opinion that
he was dead. Certainly he did not move, he could not see a quiver of the
eyelash, and he noticed no rising and falling of the chest under the
buckskin hunting shirt. A doubled up hand--the one that enclosed the
stone--lay pallid and limp upon the leaves, and it encouraged the wise
old leader to come closer. He had seen a dead warrior in his time, and
that warrior's hand had lain upon the grass in just such a way.

The old leader took a longer and bolder step forward. The dead hand
flashed up from the leaves, flew back, and then shot forward. Something
very hard, that hurt terribly, struck the leader on the head, and,
emitting a sharp yelp of pain and anger, he fled away, followed by the
others. The warrior, whom he in a