126 
Northern Trails . Book I 
ranging up alongside, as if to keep them in the right 
way. Where the woods were thickest Noel, with no 
trail to guide him, swung uncertainly to left and right, 
peering through the trees for some landmark on the 
distant hills. Twice the big wolf trotted out to one side, 
returned and trotted out again in the same direction; 
and Noel, taking the subtle hint, as an Indian always 
does, bore steadily to the right till the great ridge, 
beyond which the Lodge was hidden, loomed over the 
tree-tops. And to this day he believes — and it is 
impossible, for I have tried, to dissuade him — that the 
wolf knew where they were going and tried in his own 
way to show them. 
So they climbed the long ridge to the summit, and 
from the deep valley beyond the smoke of the Lodge rose 
up to guide them. There the wolf stopped; and though 
Noel whistled and Mooka called cheerily, as they 
would to one of their own huskies that they had learned 
to love, Malsunsis would go no farther. He sat there on 
the ridge, his tail sweeping a circle in the snow behind 
him, his ears cocked to the friendly call and his eyes 
following every step of the little hunters, till they van¬ 
ished in the woods below. Then he turned to follow 
his own way in the wilderness. 
