A REINFORCEMENT. 201 



rascals, he said, astonished even himself. But while he was 

 thus swearing at his enemies, he discovered, as he thought, 

 the reason why they had not attacked him sooner. A troop 

 of a dozen or more wolves broke cover some distance up the 

 lake, and came runnin' down towards where he stood, for 

 whose presence, no doubt, those around him were waiting. 

 Just then he saw WESTCOTT'S huntin' cap above the rocks on 

 the point, and saw his double-barrel poked out in the direc- 

 tion of the leader of the pack, and he knew that that old grey- 

 back's time had come. MARK let off a fresh volley of profanity, 

 and as the wolves seemed preparing for a rush, WESTCOTT'S 

 rifle broke the frozen stillness of the woods, and old grey- 

 back turned a summerset and went down. The astonished 

 wolves clustered together for a nfoment in confusion, and the 

 other barrel spoke out. Another of the pack bounded into 

 the air, and as he came down kicked and thrashed about in 

 a most oncommon way, and then laid still while the way 

 the rest put out for the point, some distance up the lake, 

 was a thing to be astonished at. MARK threw up his hat, 

 and hollered, and shouted, and swore, till the last wolf dis- 

 appeared into the forest, and then shoulderin' one of the 

 dead kritters, and WESTCOTT the other, started on home. 

 The hides, and the bounty on the scalps, made a good day's 

 work of it ; but MARK swears to this day, that if the last 

 dozen of wolves had been a little earlier, or Westcott a little 

 later, he'd a-been driven like a buck to the water, cold as it 

 was ; and if they'd been a little earlier still, he'd have been 

 a goner. He never goes far from home since, without a 



9* 



