Wolves and Wolf-Hounds 237 



between. Posting the cowboy, to whom he 

 gave his rifle, with two greyhounds on one 

 side of the upper end, and old man Prindle 

 with two others on the opposite side, while I 

 was left at the lower end to guard against the 

 possibility of the wolves breaking back, the 

 Judge himself rode into the thicket near me 

 and loosened the track-hounds *to let them 

 find the wolves' trial. The big dogs also were 

 uncoupled and allowed to go in with the 

 hounds. Their power of scent was very poor, 

 but they were sure to be guided aright by the 

 baying of the hounds, and their presence 

 would give confidence to the latter and make 

 them ready to rout the wolvesi out of the 

 thicket, which they would probably have 

 shrunk from doing alone. There was a mo- 

 ment's pause of expectation after the Judge 

 entered the thicket with his hounds. We sat 

 motionless on our horses, eagerly looking 

 through the keen fresh morning air. Then a 

 clamorous baying from the thicket in which 

 both the horseman and dogs had disappeared 

 showed that the hounds had struck the trail 

 of their quarry and were running on a hot 

 scent. For a couple of minutes we could not 

 be quite certain which way the game was go- 

 ing to break. The hounds ran zigzag through 



