62 Recreations of a Sportsman 



seemed to have been left to push on and on 

 by intuition holding to the south. 



He had entered a forest where the trees were 

 some distance apart and was forging slowly 

 along, when a new and familiar sound struck 

 his ear, a barking, whining yelp, quickly an- 

 swered as though by an echo. As it died away, 

 out of the forest that bordered a little clearing 

 appeared three or four animals, one white as 

 snow, the others gray. 



" Timber wolves, by G ! " quivered on his 



palsied tongue. 



They ran to and fro, struck his trail, and came 

 on with a quick side-swing trot, occasionally lift- 

 ing their heads to utter the sound that has been 

 the funeral dirge for many a horse and steer. 



Clancy backed up against a tall fir, kicked off 

 his skees, and stood ready for them. In a mo- 

 ment they saw him, stopped, and separated 

 twenty feet, as though to attack him on the side 

 and rear. Taking careful aim at a gray wolf 

 as it came at him, Clancy fired directly in its 

 face, dropping it; he whirled to fire at the one 

 to his left, when the third sprang upon him. A 

 flash and howl told that the second animal was 

 wounded; with a powerful kick he caught the 

 third between the forelegs and sent it flying 

 backward. For a moment the two beasts were 

 staggered. He tried to fire again, but found 

 that lie had dropped the revolver. In a frenzy, 



