y nodded.

Presently in the darkness they heard the pattering of light feet, and
they saw many gleaming eyes draw near. There must have been at least
thirty of the wolves, and the five figures that they saw reclining,
silent and motionless, against the unburned portion of the house might
well have been those of the dead and scalped, whom they had found in
such numbers everywhere. They drew near in a semicircular group, its
concave front extended toward the fire, the greatest wolves at the
center. Despite many feastings, the wolves were hungry again. Nothing
had opposed them before, but caution was instinctive. The big gray
leaders did not mind the night or the wind or the rain, which they
had known all their lives, and which they counted as nothing, but they
always had involuntary suspicion of human figures, whether living or
not, and they approached slowly, wrinkling back their noses and sniffing
the wind which blew from them instead of the five figures. But their
confidence increased as they advanced. They had found many such burned
houses as this, but they had found nothing among the ruins except what
they wished.

The big leaders advanced more boldly, glaring straight at the human
figures, a slight froth on their lips, the lips themselves curling
back farther from the strong white teeth. The outer ends of the concave
semicircle also drew in. The whole pack was about to spring upon its
unresisting prey, and it is, no doubt, true that many a wolfish pulse
beat a little higher in anticipation. With a suddenness as startling
figures raised themselves, five long, dark tubes leaped to their
shoulders, and with a suddenness that was yet more terrifying, a gush
of flame shot from five muzzles. Five of the wolves-and they were the
biggest and the boldest, the leaders-fell dead upon the ashes of the
charred timbers, and the others, howling their terror to the dark,
skies, fled deep into the forest.

Henry strode over and pushed the body of the largest wolf with his foot.

"I suppose we only gratified a kind of sentiment in shooting those
wolves," he said, "but I for one am glad we did it."

"So am I," said Paul.

"Me, too," said the other three together.

They went back to their positions near the wall, and one by one fell
asleep. No more wolves howled that night anywhere near them.

When the five awakened the next morning the rain had ceased, and a
splendid sun was tinting a blue sky with gold. Jim Hart built a fir