Badlands Billy 
Away we went as before, hoping, yet fearing 
that we were not on the right track. The Dogs 
ran well, very fast indeed. This was a bad sign, 
King said, but we could not get sight of the track 
because the Dogs overran it before we came. 
After a two-mile run the chase led upward 
again in snow country; the Wolf was sighted, 
but to our disgust, we were on the track of the 
smallest one. 
“T thought so,” growled young Penroof. 
“ Dogs was altogether too keen for a serious 
proposition. Kind o’ surprised it ain’t turned 
out a Jack-rabbit.” 
Within another mile he had turned to bay in 
a willow thicket. We heard him howl the 
long-drawn howl for help, and before we could 
reach the place King saw the Dogs recoil and 
scatter. A minute later there sped from the 
far side of the thicket a small Gray-wolf and a 
Black One of very much greater size. 
“By golly, if he did n’t yell for help, and 
Billy come back to help him; that ’s great!’ 
exclaimed the wolver. And my heart went out 
to the brave old Wolf that refused to escape by 
abandoning his friend. 
154 
