49 
The Way of the Wolf 
and instantly subject to a wiser head and a stronger 
will than their own, was the explanation of it all. Later, 
in the bitter, hungry winter, when a big caribou was 
afoot and the pack hot on his trail, the cubs would 
remember the lesson, and every free wolf would curb 
his hunger, obeying the silent signal to ease the game 
and follow slowly while the leader raced unseen through 
the woods to head the game and lie in ambush by the 
distant runway. 
From grasshoppers the cubs took to hunting the 
wood-mice that nested in the dry moss and swarmed 
on the edges of every thicket. This was keener hunt¬ 
ing; for the wood-mouse moves like a ray of light, and 
always makes at least one false start to mislead any that 
may be watching for him. The cubs soon learned that 
when Tookhees appeared and dodged back again, as if 
frightened, it was not because he had seen them, but 
just because he always appears that way. So they 
crouched and hid, like a cat, and when a gray streak 
shot over the gray moss and vanished in a tuft of grass 
they leaped for the spot — and always found it vacant. 
For Tookhees always doubles on his trail, or burrows 
for a distance under the moss, and never hides where he 
disappears. It took the cubs a long while to find that 
out; and then they would creep and watch and listen 
till they could locate the game by a stir under the moss, 
and pounce upon it and nose it out from between their 
