s dogs ran away with him as they
attempted to catch the wild cat.

Fortunately or unfortunately for the boys, there had been a good deal of
wind in this part of the country since the last snowfall, and so now
there was a large drift of perhaps twenty feet that had been blown into
the bottom of the first steep hill. The guides, with some help, had, in
the route through this deep snow, gone backward and forward a few times
on their heavy snowshoes, and had packed down a trail sufficiently hard
for the dogs and sleds. All the heavy sleds with their drivers went on
ahead of the boys. Thus they, coming last, had the advantage of the
packing of the snow.

Sam, jolly and reckless, was the first of the boys to make the descent,
while the others followed closely behind, Frank being next to him, and
Alec bringing up the rear.

For a time Sam succeeded very well in imitating the experienced drivers.
He kept his feet well and firmly planted on the snowy surface, and held
back his sled in fine style. The other boys also succeeded in starting
well on the trail. They had not gone very far, however, before a small
grey wolf, that had been hidden in one of the den-like recesses in the
rocks, now thoroughly alarmed by the dingling of so many bells and the
sounds of so many voices, suddenly sprang from his retreat, which was in
the cliffs on the other side beyond the guide. Plunging into the deep
snow, he made the most desperate efforts to escape by retreating up the
distant hillside in front of the whole party. Fierce fires had raged
through these woods a year so so before, nearly destroying the whole of
the timber. The result was that the country was now here quite open and
objects as large as a wolf could be seen for a long distance. From
their higher position the boys and their dogs could much more distinctly
see the wolf on the opposite hillside than could the rest of the party,
who, having safely made the descent, were now on the beginning of the
rise on the other side, awaiting the coming of the boys. They did not
have long to wait. The sight of that wolf, so clearly seen in the
bright sunshine of that wintry day on the snowy hillside, was too much
for their brief discipline. Spitfire could not stand it. With a howl
he was off, and well seconded were his efforts by the dogs he was
leading. Sam was instantly jerked off his feet, but he pluckily held on
to the tail rope of his sled. Well was it for him that his pants