152 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



ing to a number of Indian camps to collect furs, and had under 

 his command several Indians in charge of his dog-trains. On 

 the way they came upon a small party of Dog-rib Indians, who, 

 after a smoke and a chat, informed him that, being in need of 

 meat, one of their party, named Pot-fighter's-father, had set 

 out three days before to hunt caribou; and as he had not re- 

 turned, they were afraid lest some evil had befallen him. When 

 Mr. King learned that it had been Pot-fighter's-father's inten- 

 tion to return to camp on the evening of the first day, he ad- 

 vised the Indians to set out at once in search of him. 



After following his tracks for half a day they came suddenly 

 upon the footprints of an unusually large wolf which had 

 turned to trail the hunter. For some miles the brute had 

 evidently followed close beside the trail of Pot-fighter's-father, 

 diverging at times as though seeking cover, and then again 

 stalking its prey in the open. One Indian continued to follow 

 the old man's trail, while another followed that of the wolf. 

 They had not gone far before they discovered that Pot-fighter's- 

 father had come upon a herd of caribou, and a httle farther 

 on they found, lying on the snow, a couple of caribou carcasses 

 that he had shot. Strange to say, the animals had not been 

 skinned, nor had their tongues been removed. More re- 

 markable still, the wolf — although passing close to them — 

 had not stopped to feed. Soon they came upon another dead 

 caribou, and this time Pot-fighter's-father had skinned it, 

 and had cut out its tongue; but again the wolf had refused to 

 touch the deer. 



Continuing their pursuit, they discovered a brush wind- 

 break where the hunter had evidently stopped to camp for 

 the night. Now they noticed that the tracks of the wolf took 

 to cover among the scrub. Approaching the shelter, they read 

 in the snow the signs of a terrible struggle between a man and 

 a wolf. The hunter's gun, snowshoes, and sash containing his 

 knife, rested against the windbreak, and his axe stood in the 



