must be singing a
kind of song."

"He is," said Henry, "and, as you notice, it is almost a human sound. It
is one of the easiest of the animal cries to imitate. It did not take me
long to learn to do it."

"Can you really repeat that cry?" asked Holderness with incredulity.

Henry laughed lightly.

"I can repeat it so clearly that you cannot tell the difference," he
said. "All the money I have is one silver shilling and I'll wager it
with you that I succeed, you yourself to be the judge."

"Done," said Holderness, "and I must say that you show a spirit of
confidence when you let me, one of the wagerers, decide."

Henry crouched a little on the timbers, almost in the manner of a wolf,
and then there came forth not three feet from Holderness a long whining
cry so fierce and sibilant that, despite his natural bravery, a
convulsive shudder swept over the young lieutenant. The cry, although
the whining note was never lost, rose and swelled until it swept over
the river and penetrated into the great Canadian forest. Then it died
slowly, but that ferocious under note remained in it to the last.

"By Jove!" was all that Holderness could say, but, in an instant, the
cry rose again beside him, and now it had many modulations and
inflections. It expressed hunger, anger and loneliness. It was an almost
human cry, and, for a moment, Holderness felt an awe of the strange
youth beside him. When the last variation of the cry was gone and the
echo had died away, the lieutenant gravely took a shining shilling from
his pocket and handed it to Henry.

"You win with ease," he said. "Listen, you do it so well that the real
wolf himself is fooled."

An answering cry came from the wolf in the Canadian woods, and then the
deep silence fell again over forest and river.

"Yes, I fooled him," said Henry carelessly, as he put the shilling in
his pocket. "I told you it was one of the easiest of the animal cries to
imitate."

But he was compelled to turn his face away again in order that
Holderness might not see his shining eyes. They were there, the faithful
four. Doubtless they had signaled many times before, but they had never
given up hope, they had persisted until the answering cry came.

"Shall we go in?" he said to Holderness.

"I'm willing," replied the lieutenant. "You mustn't think any the less
of me, will you, if I confess that I am still a little bit afraid of the
wilderness at night? I've never been used to it, and to-nig