A SHORT AND EASY WOLF HUNT 317 



range, but I felt greedy and wanted the three, 

 so decided to wait till they either got wind of us 

 and turned, or else came very close to us. The 

 brutes had evidently wind of something or had 

 heard some noise, for they were on the alert. 

 Whatever was the cause of their alarm it did not 

 prevent them from coming on till they were with- 

 in twenty yards of us. Barring a miss-fire a kill 

 was now a sure thing. Getting a sight on one of 

 the big ones, I dropped him stone dead with the 

 left barrel and almost on top of him killed the 

 other one with the right. The small one gave a 

 couple of leaps, stopped and turned round, facing 

 me. By that time I had reloaded, and before he 

 could get away I had doubled him up with my 

 third shot. I gave a hurrah and turned to 

 "Muskrat": he was gone. I shouted to him, 

 meanwhile going down to the bank to have a 

 look at my game and to see if there were any others 

 in sight. That was the whole pack as I soon 

 saw by the tracks. There were a dog, a she 

 wolf and probably one of their pups. They were 

 of the kind known here as the grey timber wolf, 

 Canis lupus. "Muskrat" having returned, I sent 

 him for the canoe. He took time to advise his 

 uncle of our success, and when we landed, the 

 whole family was there. On the way home I 

 asked the little lad why he had deserted me. 

 "Well," he said, "I had no gun, only your empty 

 rifle, and I thought they were getting too close." 



