402 The Wilderness Hunter. 



cross between a bull mastiff and a Newfoundland, while 

 the father was described as being a big dog that belonged 

 to a " Dutch Count." The " Dutch Count" was an out- 

 cast German noble, who had drifted to the West, and, after 

 failing in the mines and failing in the cattle country, had 

 died in a squalid log shanty while striving to eke out an 

 existence as a hunter among the foot-hills. His dog, I 

 presume, from the 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 unreconstructed 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 altogether 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 



