dible above
the thunder of their hoofs, came a moaning, snarling, drawn-out cry,
which was almost instantly repeated, not once, but again and again.

Stanislaus and Anno, who had been rudely awakened from their slumbers by
the unusual behaviour of the horses, were now on the _qui vive_.

"Good heavens! What's that?" they cried in chorus.

"What's that, coachman?" shrieked Anno, digging the shivering driver in
the back.

"Volki, mistress, volki!" was the reply, and on flew the droshky faster,
faster, faster!

To Stanislaus and Anno the word "wolves" came as a stunning shock. All
the tales they had ever heard of these ferocious beasts crowded their
minds at once. Wolves! was it possible that those dreadful bogies of
their childhood--those grim and awful creatures, grotesquely but none
the less vividly portrayed in their imagination by horror-loving
nurses--were actually close at hand! Supposing the brutes caught them,
who would be eaten first? Anno, Stanislaus, or the driver? Would they
devour them with their clothes on? If not, how would they get them off?
Then, filled with morbid curiosity, they strained their ears and
listened. Again--this time nearer, much nearer--came that cry, dismal,
protracted, nerve-racking. Nor was that all, for they could now discern
the pat-pat, pat-pat of footsteps--long, soft, loping footsteps, as of
huge furry paws or naked human feet. However, they could see
nothing--nothing but blackness, intensified by the feeble flickering of
the droshky's lanterns.

"Faster! drive faster!" Anno shouted, turning round and poking the
coachman in the ribs with her umbrella. "Do you want us all to be
eaten?"

"I can't mistress, I can't!" the man expostulated; "the horses are
outstripping the wind as it is. They can't go quicker." And the driver,
consigning Stanislaus and his sister to the innermost recesses of hell,
prayed to the Virgin to save him.

Nearer and nearer drew the steps, and again a cry--a cry close behind
them, perhaps fifty yards--fifty yards at the most. And as they were
trying to locate it there burst into view a gigantic figure--nude and
luminous, a figure that glowed like a glow-worm and bent slightly
forward as it ran. It covered the ground with long, easy, swinging
strides, without any apparent effort. In general form its body was like
that of a man, saving that the limbs were longer and covered with short
hair, and the feet and hands, besides being larger as a whole, had
lo