hat disaster.

"Come here, sir! Come here, big wolf!" said he, holding out a
confident hand.

"Wolf"--that was a familiar sound to Lone Wolf's ears! it was at least
a part of his name! And the command was one he well understood.
Wagging his tail gravely, he came at once, and thrust his great head
under Timmins' hand for a caress. He had enjoyed his liberty, to be
sure, but he was beginning to find it lonely.

Timmins understood animals. His voice, as he talked to the redoubtable
brute beside him, was full of kindness, but at the same time vibrant
with authority. His touch was gentle, but very firm and unhesitating.
Both touch and voice conveyed very clearly to Lone Wolf's disciplined
instinct the impression that this man, like Toomey, was a being who
had to be obeyed, whose mastery was inevitable and beyond the reach of
question. When Timmins told him to lie down, he did so at once, and
stayed there obediently while Timmins gathered himself together, shook
the dirt out of his hair and boots, recovered his cap, wiped his
bleeding hand with leaves, and hunted up his scattered traps and
rifle. At last Timmins took two bedraggled but massive pork
sandwiches, wrapped in newspaper, from his pocket, and offered one to
his strange associate. Lone Wolf was not hungry, being full of
perfectly good mutton, but being too polite to refuse, he gulped down
the sandwich. Timmins took out the steel chain, snapped it on to Lone
Wolf's collar, said, "Come on!" and started homeward. And Lone Wolf,
trained to a short leash, followed close at his heels.

Timmins' breast swelled with exultation. What was the loss of one dog
and half a dozen no-account sheep to the possession of this
magnificent captive and the prestige of such a naked-handed capture?
He easily inferred, of course, that his triumph must be due, in part
at least, to some resemblance to the wolf's former master, whose
dominance had plainly been supreme. His only anxiety was as to how the
great wolf might conduct himself toward Settlement Society in general.
Assuredly nothing could be more lamb-like than the animal's present
demeanor, but Timmins remembered the fate of Joe Anderson's powerful
dog, and had his doubts. He examined Lone Wolf's collar, and
congratulated himself that both collar and chain were strong.

It was getting well along in the afternoon when Timmins and Lone Wolf
emerged from the thick woods into the stumpy pastures and rough burnt
lands that spread back