252 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



foster mother, a sorrowing brown spaniel 

 bitch who had just been robbed of her own 

 puppies. 



When old enough to be weaned, the two 

 brothers and the sister, sturdy and sleek as 

 any wolf cubs of the hills, were sold to a 

 dealer in wild animals, who carried them 

 off to Hamburg. But "Lone Wolf" as 

 Toomey, the trainer, had already named him, 

 stayed with the circus. He was the biggest, 

 the most intelligent, and the most teachable 

 cub of the whole litter ; and Toomey, who 

 had an unerring eye for quality in a beast, 

 expected to make of him a star performer 

 among wolves. 



Job Toomey had been a hunter and a 

 trapper in the backwoods of New Brunswick, 

 where his instinctive knowledge of the wild 

 kindreds had won him a success which 

 presently sickened him. His heart revolted 

 against the slaughter of the creatures which 

 he found so interesting, and for a time, his 

 occupation gone, he had drifted aimlessly 

 about the settlements. Then, at the per- 

 formance of a travelling circus, which boasted 

 two trained bears and a little trick elephant, 

 he had got his cue. It was borne in upon 

 him that he was meant to be an animal 

 trainer. Then and there he joined the circus, 



