WOLVES AND WOLF-HOUNDS. 



197 



description given me, must have been a boar- 

 hound or Ulm dog. 



As I was very anxious to see a wolf-hunt 

 the Judge volunteered to get one up, and 

 asked old man Prindle to assist, for the sake 

 of his two big fighting dogs ; though the very 

 names of the latter, General Grant and Old 

 Abe, were gall and wormwood to the unrecon- 

 structed soul of the Judge. Still they were 

 the only dogs anywhere around capable of 

 tackling a savage timber wolf, and without 

 their aid the Judge's own high-spirited animals 

 ran a serious risk of injury, for they were al- 

 together too game to let any beast escape 

 without a struggle. 



Luck favored us. Two wolves had killed 

 a calf and dragged it into a long patch of 

 dense brush where there was a little spring, 

 the whole furnishing admirable cover for any 

 wild beast. Early in the morning we started 

 on horseback for this bit of cover, which was 

 some three miles off. The party consisted of 

 the Judge, old man Prindle, a cowboy, myself, 

 and the dogs. The judge and I carried our 

 rifles and the cowboy his revolver, but old 

 man Prindle had nothing but a heavy whip, 

 for he swore, with many oaths, that no one 

 should interfere with his big dogs, for by 

 themselves they would surely " make the wolf 

 feel sicker than a stuck hog." Our shaggy 

 ponies racked along at a five-mile gait over 

 the dewy prairie grass. The two big dogs 

 trotted behind their master, grim and fero- 

 cious. The track-hounds were tied in couples, 

 4 ?B 



