had hardly been a sound, more the ghost of a sound. But as I thought it
she flung up her head.

"What's that?" she said sharply. "Mr. Stretton, what's that?"

"Nothing," I began; and changed it. "Just a wolf or two somewhere."

For behind us, in two, three, four quarters at once rose a long wailing
howl.

CHAPTER VI

MOSTLY WOLVES: AND A GIRL

Oh, what was that drew screaming breath?
"A wolf that slashed at me!"
Oh, who was that cried out in death?
"A man who struck at thee!"

_The Night Ride._

The sound might have come from a country hound or two baying for sheer
melancholy, or after a cat: only there were neither hounds nor cats on
the Caraquet road. I felt Paulette stiffen through all her supple body.
She whispered to herself sharply, as if she were swearing--only
afterwards I knew better, and put the word she used where it belonged:
"The devil! Oh, the devil!"

I made no answer. I had enough business holding in the horses,
remembering that spliced pole. Paulette remembered it too, for she spoke
abruptly. "How fast do you dare go?"

"Oh, not too fast," my thoughts were still on the pole. "They're not
after us, if you're worrying about those wolves."

But she took no notice. "How far are we from Billy Jones's?"

We were a good way. But I said, "Oh, a few miles!"

"Well, we've got to make it!" I could still feel her queerly rigid
against my arm; perhaps it was only because she was listening.
But--quick, like life, or death, or anything else sudden as
lightning--she had no need to listen; nor had I. A burst of ravening
yells, gathering up from all sides of us except in front, came from the
dark bush. And I yelled myself, at Bob and Danny, to keep them off the
dead run.

It was rot, of course, but I had a queer feeling that wolves _were_
after us, and that it was just that Skunk's Misery stuff that had
started them, as it had drawn the wolf that had taken my clothes. I
could hear the yelping of one after another grow into the full-throated
chorus of a pack. The woods were full of them.

"I didn't think he'd dare," Paulette exclaimed, as if she came out of
her secret thoughts.

But it did not bring me out of mine, even to remember that young devil
Collins. I had pulled out my gun to scare the wolves with a shot or
two,--and there were no cartridges in it! I could not honestly visualize
myself filling it up the night before, but I was sure I had filled it,
just as I w