hem off. I
am sure they were not so hungry as usual or I never could have kept
them back at all. Twice I killed one when I shot, but I dared not go
up and get them, and they were soon devoured by the others. The pack
kept growing larger as others came over from the timber north of the
Butte.

At last I got off the hide and loaded it on the sled. I wanted to take
all of the meat, but it made too big a load, and I had to be satisfied
with two quarters. I even had to give up taking the head, which was a
fine large specimen. A little after four o'clock as the sun began to
sink low the wolves became bolder, and I knew it was not safe to stay
longer. The load was more than Kaiser could pull, so I saw I must take
hold and help him. I fired five or six shots at the wolves as fast as
I could pump them up, seized the rope and off we went. We were not ten
rods away when the whole pack was upon the carcass fighting and
tearing at it. They kept up the hideous battle all night and howled so
much that it seemed as if their throats must be worn raw.

Once back home I set at my regular work tired enough. But the fires
were all low and I expected a day or two more of good weather, and the
ease with which the Indians and buffaloes had got down from the north
made me fear more than ever the coming of the outlaws from the west. I
still had little hope of ever getting out of the place alive, but I
could only work on and do all I could for my safety.

I laid the quarters of meat on some boxes in the shed and bolted the
door. I was so tired I think I must have slept sounder that night than
for a long time. In the morning I found that the shed door had been
forced open, one of the bolts being torn off and the other one
broken. Even the hinges were bent. A big piece of the best part of
each quarter was gone. I could not tell if it had been torn off or
haggled off with a dull knife. It might even have been gnawed off; I
could not tell.

I looked for tracks of the robber with, as the saying is, my heart in
my mouth; but to no purpose. Although it had neither snowed nor blown
during the night, a deep layer of frost, like feathers made out of the
thinnest ice, had settled everywhere toward morning and I could find
nothing.

That this new reminder of my unknown enemy brought on another attack
of terror I need hardly say; but it was daylight and I conquered it
better. The worst feeling I had to fight with was that whatever the
thing was, it mig