WOLVES HUNTING. 429 



present was distributed amongst them, and the 

 horsemen cantered off. 



Their ride was unmarked by any circumstance 

 deserving of note, save one. They had eased their 

 horses in crossing over a stony range of low hills, 

 dotted with clumps and separate bushes of the 

 prickly pear ; and the rearmost riders had closed up 

 from the long distances at which respectively they 

 rode behind the leader, when a couple of gazelles 

 bounded across the road just in front. They were 

 evidently wearied and panting, and so startled as to 

 take no notice of the hunters, who looked around to 

 discover the cause. Soon a wolf appeared shuffling 

 along at that long lobbing gallop which seems to 

 the spectator so slow, but which in reality covers 

 the ground at a wonderful rate. He crossed 

 directly in the track of the deer, and just turned his 

 head towards the horsemen as he swept past, with- 

 out the slightest apparent change in his plodding 

 monotonous gallop. 



Another followed, but not so directly on the line 

 of the deer. Another and another also appeared, 

 until nine were counted, not galloping in a pack, but 

 widely separate from the leader, both in line of 

 running and distance. 



Some of the hindmost appeared so little in a 

 hurry, that they almost pulled up, and made a 



