the open country could be seen the poplar bluff,
behind which lay the camp of the Engineer and his travelling
companions. Steadily the gap between the wolf and the pursuing
hounds grew less, till at length, fearing the inevitable, the
hunted beast turned towards the little bluff, and entered it
with the dogs only a few yards behind. Alas! for him, the bluff
afforded no shelter. Right through the little belt of timber dashed
the wolf with the dogs and Kalman hard upon his trail. At the very
instant that the wolf came opposite the door of Aunt Janet's tent,
Captain reached for the extreme point of the beast's extended tail.
Like a flash, the brute doubled upon his pursuer, snapping fiercely
as the hound dashed past. With a howl of rage and pain, Captain
clawed the ground in his effort to recover himself, but before he
could renew his attack, and just as the wolf was setting forth
again, like a cyclone Queen was upon them. So terrific was her
impact, that dogs and wolf rolled under the tent door in one
snarling, fighting, snapping mass of legs and tails and squirming
bodies. Immediately from within rose a wild shriek of terror.

"Mercy sakes alive! What, what is this? Help! Help! Help! Where are
you all? Will some one not come to my help?" Kalman sprang from his
horse, rushed forward, and lifted the tent door. A new outcry
greeted his ear.

"Get out, get out, you man!" He dropped the flap, fled aghast
before the appalling vision of Aunt Janet in night attire, with a
ring of curl-papers round her head, driven back into the corner of
the tent, and crouched upon a box, her gown drawn tight about her,
while she gazed in unspeakable horror at the whirling, fighting mass
upon the tent floor at her feet. Higher and higher rose her shrieks
above the din of the fight. From a neighbouring tent there rushed
forth a portly, middle-aged gentleman in pyjamas, gun in hand.

"What is it, Katharine? Where are you, Katharine?"

"Where am I? Where but here, ye gowk! Oh, Robert! Robert!
I shall be devoured alive."

The stout gentleman ran to the door of the tent, lifted the
flap, and plunged in. With equal celerity he plunged back
again, shouting, "Whatever is all yon?"

"Robert! Robert!" screamed the voice, "come back and save me."

"What is this, sir?" indignantly turning upon Kalman, who stood
in bewildered uncertainty.

"It is a wolf, sir, that my dogs--"

"A wolf!" screamed the portly gentleman, springing back from the door.