y."

"Mowbray and his men found you and your brother in the place where you
were hiding, and took your brother after you had succeeded in hiding. Is
that it?"

Itsu San nodded for reply.

"You heard them talking among themselves, and Mowbray planned to attack
this house, and kill us all?"

Again the Japanese girl nodded.

"When they had gone you found this wolfskin, and, thinking that it was
the only way in which to escape, you crawled into it, and crept all the
way here, playing wolf, to warn us?"

"Yes. I crawled to their camp, and heard them talk. I tried to get close
to my blother, to cut him loose, but they saw me and drove me away, and
shot at me."

"Mercy! But I don't see why they didn't see through your disguise. It
wouldn't fool any one."

"It was the half dark."

"Oh, yes. But why didn't you get out of the skin when you came within
sight of the house?"

"I not have the strength. I climb the hill and see the house. Then I
fall down, and not can rise again. All what I can do is to wave my
handkerchief. Then I faint."

"You are a brave and lovely girl, and I already love you like a sister,"
said Stella warmly. "You shall stay here, and need not be afraid. We
will be ready for the Gray Wolves, and they will not kill either us or
you. Your warning comes just in time."

CHAPTER XXIII.

BAGGING THE GRAY WOLVES.

That night Ted Strong went on watch himself in the cupola, while Bud and
Clay Whipple marched around the house in opposite directions.

Until the threatened attack took place Ted determined that he would
watch the house personally, in addition to the regular guard.

About midnight Ted heard a slight noise out on the prairie.

The night was bright and frosty, and the stars shone with a peculiarly
brilliant radiance, seemingly larger, brighter, and nearer the earth
than in more northern climes.

Instantly his acute senses located the place whence the noise had come.

It was merely a slight rustling, but as there was no wind Ted knew
instantly that it had been made by some creature.

His eyes, fixed on the spot, soon became accustomed to the faint light,
and he saw an indistinct form that was so near the color of the earth
that a pair of eyes not so sharp as his would have failed to detect it.

So indistinct was it that it looked almost like a wraith of grayish-blue
smoke by the starlight.

Presently, as he still stared closely at it, he saw another form much
like it steal t