129 



Huntings^ 



zing ! a bowstring twanged its sharp warn- 

 ing in the tense silence. With a yelp the 

 wolf tore the arrow from his shoulder. The '"& r*f?I/€ WOffS 

 warm blood followed the barb, and he lapped 

 it eagerly in his hunger. Then, as the danger 

 swept over him, he gave the trail cry and 

 darted away. Doors banged open here and 

 there ; dogs barked to crack their throats ; 

 seal guns roared out and sent their heavy 

 echoes crashing like thunder among the hills. 

 Silence fell again over the lodge ; and there 

 were left only a few frightened dogs whose 

 noses had already told them everything, a 

 few fishermen who watched and listened, 

 and one Indian boy with a long bow in his 

 hand and an arrow ready on the string, who 

 trailed away with a little girl at his side try- 

 ing to puzzle out the track of one wolf that 

 left a drop of blood here and there on the 

 snow in the scant moonlight. 



Far up on the hillside in a little opening 

 of the woods the scattered pack came together 

 again. At the first uproar, so unbearable to 

 a silence-loving animal, they had vanished in 

 five different directions ; yet so subtle, so 



