DISTURBED BY WOLVES. 273 



to the bull, who, as Bayard passed over his body to get 

 to the other side of the stream, as the beast lay right 

 across it, shook his head at him in a dying menace, and 

 then ceased to exist. I was kneeling on the bison's shoul 

 der, and holding up the head for Bayard to get at the 

 root of the tongue, when my companion suddenly drop 

 ped his knife, stood erect, and laying his hand on the pis 

 tol at his belt, stared curiously into the high reeds behind 

 him. To step back to the other bank and pick up my 

 carbine and to rejoin Bayard was but the work of an in 

 stant, when I asked " What it was?" " Something in 

 the reeds," was the rejoinder ; when together we left the 

 body of the bison and inspected the cover. There was 

 nothing there, however ; so, having made quite certain 

 that there were no lurking Indians near us, we returned at 

 our leisure, possessed ourselves of the tongue, loin steak, 

 and tail of the game, and proceeded to tie it to our sad 

 dles. While doing this the rustling in the reeds which had 

 drawn Bayard's attention was explained, for two beauti 

 fully dark wild faces with sharp pricked ears suddenly 

 rose out of the grass, not fifty yards from us, disappeared, 

 and then rose higher still and further off. Two large wolves 

 no doubt had scented the game, which must have fallen al 

 most upon them, and were immensely curious to ascertain 

 if we were going to leave it. I snatched up my carbine 

 and mounted Sylph, to see if they would let me come 

 nearer, for they had again disappeared in the grass. They 

 did show on their hinder legs once more, at about 150 

 yards' distance, and I fired from the saddle, but without 

 effect. We then set off home, and were rather puzzled to 

 find the new position taken up by the waggons, for the 

 smoke did not rise, and our attention was rather drawn 



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