ed Jerry, holding up a warning finger. "There goes
another pack of wolves--after a deer or something. Hear them tear
through the forest. I'm glad they're not headed this way."

"So am I," assented Brick. "Hullo! what's up now?"

"The siege," shouted Jerry, and the witticism proved indeed true.

The pack around the cabin gave voice to the fading howls of their
kindred, and then scurried off into the forest at full tear.

For a time the lads could scarcely realize their good fortune. Then,
with thankful hearts, they pulled the sled away from the door, and crept
out.

The fire had burnt low, and they hurriedly stacked it with fresh fuel.
Two dead wolves lay in the ravine, and the one inside the cabin made
three. The bodies were dragged down the hollow, and pitched into a
gully between two rocks.

"Let them lay there for the present," said Jerry. "In the morning I'll
take the scalps off. We'll get bounty for them."

Encouraged by the brightness of the fire, the boys crept up the slope,
and looked at the picked bones of the deer, and at the wolves that the
catamount had killed.

"Pretty clean work," observed Hamp. "I don't care to stay here long,
though. The catamount may pounce on us at any minute. There's the tree
he jumped into."

"But he's not there now," replied Jerry. "I think he's had enough of
this locality, and won't trouble us any more. No danger of the wolves
coming back, either."

"There is, if the severe weather keeps up," said Hamp, as they returned
to the fire. "It wouldn't be a bad idea to cross the lake again, and do
our hunting between Moosehead and Chesumcook. This neighborhood is too
near Canada and the home of the wolves for me."

"For me, too," added Brick, uneasily.

"Well, I don't suppose you fellows want to move to-night," declared
Jerry. "We can talk about it in the morning. I think I could sleep for
twenty-four hours straight ahead now."

"But how about the hole in the roof?" questioned Brick. "It won't do to
go to bed and leave that open. The catamount might jump down on us."

"Or it might rain or snow," added Hamp.

"It won't do either," asserted Jerry, "but I'm not so positive about the
catamount. It will be only prudent to repair the roof to-night. Come,
fellows; it won't take long."

Jerry mounted the rock, and then climbed partly out on the roof. The
others procured hatchets and started toward a copse of young timber that
lay behind the cabin.

"You'll need another prop