i6o 



Wl/sffiat Cross 

 mffteSnoir 





hunters, when Mooka clutched his arm, her 

 eyes snapping with excitement, her finger 

 pointing silently back on their own trail. A 

 vague shadow glided swiftly among the trees. 

 An enormous white wolf appeared, vanished, 

 came near them again, and crouched down 

 under a low spruce branch waiting. 



Again the two trails had crossed in the 

 snow. The big wolf as he appeared had 

 thrust his nose into the snow-shoe tracks, 

 and a sniff or two told him everything, — 

 who had passed, and how long ago, and 

 what they were doing, and how far ahead 

 they were now waiting. But the caribou 

 were coming, coaxed along marvelously by 

 the cubs and the old mother; and the great 

 silent wolf, that had left the pack playing 

 with the game while he circled the barren 

 at top speed, now turned to the business 

 in hand with no thought nor fear of harm 

 from the two children whom he had watched 

 but yesterday. 



Not so Noel. The fire blazed out in his 

 eyes ; the long bow swung to the wolf, bend- 

 ing like a steel spring, and the feathered 



