lack ears go up. Danger threatened. For
a moment the hunter's blood turned chill, not from fear, for he never
felt fear, but because he thought the Indians were returning to ruin
his work. His eye swept the plain. Only the gray forms of wolves
flitted through the grass, here, there, all about him. Wolves! They
were as fatal to his enterprise as savages. A trooping pack of prairie
wolves had fallen in with the herd and hung close on the trail, trying
to cut a calf away from its mother. The gray brutes boldly trotted to
within a few yards of him, and slyly looked at him, with pale, fiery
eyes. They had already scented his captive. Precious time flew by; the
situation, critical and baffling, had never before been met by him.
There lay his little calf tied fast, and to the north ran many others,
some of which he must--he would have. To think quickly had meant the
solving of many a plainsman's problem. Should he stay with his prize to
save it, or leave it to be devoured?

"Ha! you old gray devils!" he yelled, shaking his fist at the wolves.
"I know a trick or two." Slipping his hat between the legs of the calf,
he fastened it securely. This done, he vaulted on Kentuck, and was off
with never a backward glance. Certain it was that the wolves would not
touch anything, alive or dead, that bore the scent of a human being.

The bison scoured away a long half-mile in the lead, sailing northward
like a cloud-shadow over the plain. Kentuck, mettlesome, over-eager,
would have run himself out in short order, but the wary hunter, strong
to restrain as well as impel, with the long day in his mind, kept the
steed in his easy stride, which, springy and stretching, overhauled the
herd in the course of several miles.

A dash, a swirl, a shock, a leap, horse and hunter working in perfect
accord, and a fine big calf, bellowing lustily, struggled desperately
for freedom under the remorseless knee. The big hands toyed with him;
and then, secure in the double knots, the calf lay still, sticking out
his tongue and rolling his eyes, with the coat of the hunter tucked
under his bonds to keep away the wolves.

The race had but begun; the horse had but warmed to his work; the
hunter had but tasted of sweet triumph. Another hopeful of a buffalo
mother, negligent in danger, truant from his brothers, stumbled and
fell in the enmeshing loop. The hunter's vest, slipped over the calf's
neck, served as danger signal to the wolves. Before the lumbering
b