18 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
floated on was as close as it would get, Fang went 
off into the water, and swam. A few strokes, 
and he was struggling out, and shaking the water 
hastily from his coat before it should freeze. The 
other two followed, and then the three of them 
trotted rapidly over the ice, to the wooded banks, 
warming themselves with brisk motion. 
The St. Lawrence was behind them. 
Still they moved south, through a snow-buried 
world. There was far less cover than they liked. 
Great stretches of open country had to be 
crossed, where there were strange, box-like things 
full of lights and creatures with the odd smell. 
There was little game in the woods. Hunger 
drove them on, southward, after the owls, and the 
goshawks, too. Once, on their tracks, they heard 
a dog, asingledog. They fanned out, Fang and 
his mate swinging back to the left, Swiftfoot to 
the right, galloping rapidly, and reunited behind 
the dog. Now the pursuer was pursued. 'The 
three gray wolves, with a speed greater than his, 
closed in on the cruising hound, so that he became 
aware of it, and ran for his life. But he lacked 
their speed and their wind. Before he reached the 
