rentially slunk beyond reach of it, not yet ready to tempt
the fate of their comrade.

Five minutes more, however, and the wary beasts again drew closer and
Logan found that the strain of guarding himself on all sides at once
was overwhelming. At any moment, as he knew, those hungry eyes might all
close in on him together. A few hundred yards ahead, as he bethought
himself, the trail led under the foot of a high, almost perpendicular
rock; and he made up his mind that he must reach that rock as speedily
as possible. With his back against the steep face of it he could face
the charge of the pack to better advantage. Breaking into a long,
unhurried trot, he pressed on, swinging the axe from side to side in
swift, menacing sweeps, and uttering angry expletives which the wolves
seemed to respect as much as they did the gleaming weapon. Before he
gained the foot of the rock, however, the beasts had grown more
confident and more impatient, making little sudden leaps at him, from
one side or the other, so incessantly that his arm had not a moment's
rest; and he realized that the crisis of the adventure could not be much
longer delayed.

When he reached the foot of the rock and turned at bay, the wolves drew
back once more and formed a half-circle before him, a moving,
interweaving half-circle that drew closer and grew smaller stealthily.
Suddenly the wolf which seemed the leader sprang straight in. But the
woodsman seemed to divine the move even before it began, so sharply did
he meet it with a step forward and a savage axe-stroke; and the wolf
sprang back just in time to save its skull.

And now, in the clutch of the final trial, Logan had an inspiration.
With all the doggedness of the backwoods will he had vowed that he would
not give up the rich booty on his back. But the question had at last, as
he saw, become one of giving up his own life. In this crisis, his
backwoods understanding and sympathy suddenly went out toward the plucky
but helpless captive in the sack on his back. It would be quite too bad
that the splendid lynx, with all his fighting equipment of fangs and
claws, should be torn to pieces in his bonds without a chance to make a
fight for life. Moreover, as he realized with the next thought, here was
perhaps a chance to create an effective diversion in his own favour.

With a shout and a mad whirling of the axe, he once more drew back the
narrowing crescent of the wolves. The next instant he swung the bag fr