e leaping at her,
their saber teeth snapping within an inch of her, as she fired into
their faces, and laughed as she saw them roll upon the snow in their
death agony.

Again she heard a faint cry in the forest. Oh, if she should be wrong,
and it was not the dear old Moon Valley yell, she would die.

Now the old king of the pack returned to the attack.

He was bigger and stronger than any of the others, and when he snapped
at them with his terrible teeth they made way for him.

He began a succession of leaps at her, and every time she planted a
bullet in his massive and seemingly invulnerable body.

But each leap brought him closer to her perch.

The next jump might be the one by which he would reach her, she thought,
and that surely would be the end, for, if he ever succeeded in getting
his hooked fangs fastened in her clothes, she would be pulled from the
tree in an eye twinkling, and she shuddered as she thought of the
sequel.

The end seemed very near, and she had about given up hope of holding out
until the boys could reach her, when a well-known yell was wafted to her
on the frozen air. The boys had come.

She felt the fangs of the king of the pack fasten in her skirt, and she
knew that she was being pulled out of her perch when, through the woods
came Ted and Bud and Ben, and the rest of her friends, yelling like mad
and amid a perfect fusillade of rifle shots.

Then she began to slide out of the tree. But she did not reach the
ground, for Ted was there, and she slipped naturally and without harm
into his arms, as the last of the pack that remained alive escaped into
the forest.

CHAPTER XII.

WHO WHIPPLE WAS.

There was great rejoicing when Stella so far recovered from the strain
which she had been undergoing, to learn that Bud was safe, although he
had passed a very uncomfortable as well as perilous night tied to a tree
with the cold numbing him, and wolves sniffing and snarling at him.

These he had been able to keep off for several hours by kicking them
whenever they got close enough.

But he was rapidly becoming exhausted when in the distance he heard
shouts.

Ted and the boys had ridden to the west until they realized that it was
useless to go any farther, for they had not come upon the trail of Bud
and Stella, and Ted came to the conclusion that they had gone in the
opposite direction.

But it was almost night when they turned their faces to the east, and
day was dawning when