when I got back to the door of the hotel. Up
the street in front of the harness shop I saw a jack-rabbit sitting up
and looking at me. Kaiser saw him, too, and started after him, though
the dog ought to have known that it was like chasing a streak of
lightning. I stood with my hand on the door-knob watching the rabbit
leave the dog behind, when suddenly I saw Kaiser stop as another dog
came around Frenchman's Butte. They met, there was a little tussle,
which made the snow fly; then I saw Kaiser coming back on a faster run
than he had gone out on, with the other dog close behind.

"That's a brave dog I've got!" I exclaimed. I saw some other dogs come
around the Butte, but I didn't look at them much, I was so disgusted
at seeing Kaiser making such a cowardly run. On he came like a
whirlwind. I opened the door and stepped in. He bolted in between my
legs and half knocked me over. I slammed the door shut against the
other dog's nose. The other dog, I saw, was a wolf.

CHAPTER VII

I have a Fight and a Fright: after which I make some Plans for the
Future and take up my Bed and move.

I don't know if the door really struck the wolf's nose or not, when I
slammed it shut, but it could not have lacked much of it. Poor Kaiser
rushed around the stove, faced the window, and began to bark so
excitedly that his voice trembled and sounded differently than I had
ever heard it before. I must have been a little excited myself, as I
stopped to bolt the door, just as if the wolf could turn the knob and
walk in. When I stepped back I met the wolf face to face gazing in the
window, with his eyes flaming and mouth a little open. He was gaunt
and hungry-looking. The rest of the pack were just coming up, howling
as loud as they could.

I ran to the desk and got the rifle; then I dropped on one knee and
fired across the room straight at the wolf's throat. He fell back in
the snow dead; and, of course, there was only a little round hole in
the window-pane. Everything would have been all right if it had not
been for a mean spirit of revenge in Kaiser, for no sooner did he see
his enemy fall back lifeless than with one jump he smashed through the
window and fell upon him savagely. He had not seen the rest of the
pack, but the next second half a dozen of them pounced on him. I dared
not fire again for fear of hitting him, so I dropped my gun, seized an
axe which I had used to split kindling-wood, and ran forward. There
was a cloud of