little ones, and their number was so many
that he could not count them in the moonlight. Umslopogaas, looking into
their red eyes, felt his heart become as the heart of a wolf, and he,
too, lifted up his head and howled, and the she-wolves howled in answer.

"The pack is gathered; now for the hunt!" cried Galazi. "Make your feet
swift, my brother, for we shall journey far to-night. Ho, Blackfang! ho,
Greysnout! Ho, my people black and grey, away! away!"

He spoke and bounded forward, and with him went Umslopogaas, and after
him streamed the ghost-wolves. They fled down the mountain sides,
leaping from boulder to boulder like bucks. Presently they stood by a
kloof that was thick with trees. Galazi stopped, holding up the Watcher,
and the wolves stopped with him.

"I smell a quarry," he cried; "in, my people, in!"

Then the wolves plunged silently into the great kloof, but Galazi and
Umslopogaas drew to the foot of it and waited. Presently there came a
sound of breaking boughs, and lo! before them stood a buffalo, a bull
who lowed fiercely and sniffed the air.

"This one will give us a good chase, my brother; see, he is gaunt and
thin! Ah! that meat is tender which my people have hunted to the death!"

As Galazi spoke, the first of the wolves drew from the covert and saw
the buffalo; then, giving tongue, they sprang towards it. The bull
saw also, and dashed down the hill, and after him came Galazi and
Umslopogaas, and with them all their company, and the rocks shook with
the music of their hunting. They rushed down the mountain side, and
it came into the heart of Umslopogaas, that he, too, was a wolf. They
rushed madly, yet his feet were swift as the swiftest; no wolf could
outstrip him, and in him was but one desire--the desire of prey. Now
they neared the borders of the forest, and Galazi shouted. He shouted
to Greysnout and to Blackfang, to Blood and to Deathgrip, and these
four leaped forward from the pack, running so swiftly that their bellies
seemed to touch the ground. They passed about the bull, turning him from
the forest and setting his head up the slope of the mountain. Then the
chase wheeled, the bull leaped and bounded up the mountain side, and
on one flank lay Greysnout and Deathgrip and on the other lay Blood
and Blackfang, while behind came the Wolf-Brethren, and after them the
wolves with lolling tongues. Up the hill they sped, but the feet of
Umslopogaas never wearied, his breath did not fail him.