with licking
lips and frothing jowls, fighting fiercely among themselves.

Nick stirred at last.

He rose and took his rifle. His cartridge-belt was still about his
waist. Again he passed out into the night. In the shadow of the porch he
stood again, and gazed upon the moonlit scene. Down the hill was the
darkness of the forest, giving the appearance of an unfathomable pit.
Above rose its sides, shimmering in the cold moonlight. Above the forest
line the eternal snows glinted like burnished steel, for the yellow rays
of the rising moon had given place to the silvery gleam of its maturity.
The diamond-studded sky had nothing of darkness in it; a grey light, the
sheen of the star myriads too minute to be visible to the naked eye,
shone down upon the earth, and the still air had the sharp snap of the
spring frost in it. Nick was oblivious to all but the forest cries and
the crowd of stealing forms moving from the woodland shelter, and
circling upward, ever nearer and nearer towards the feast which lay
spread out within sight of their cruel eyes.

Nearer they drew, lean, scraggy, but withal large beasts. And as they
came they often paused to send their dismal song out upon the air. Then
there was a scuffle, a wicked clipping of keen fangs. Instantly the
crowd packed about a fallen comrade. Then later they would scatter and
continue their advance in a sort of rude skirmishing order. The man's
rifle was at his shoulder; a tongue of flame leapt from its muzzle, and
its report rang out bitingly. The foremost wolf fell to the earth, and
the ravenous horde behind leapt to the banquet thus provided.

Again and again the rifle spoke its sharp-voiced command, and death
followed hard upon its word. At every shot a wolf went down, and the
madness rose in the brain behind the eyes that looked out from the
porch. Nick's craving for slaughter increased. He emptied his belt and
obtained a fresh supply of ammunition, and continued to wage his
fiendish warfare. And all the time wolves poured out from the woods
until it seemed as if the whole race had gathered in one vast army to
assail the little stronghold set high upon the hillside. It was as
though Ralph's death had been the signal for the gathering of the forest
creatures to avenge him.

And fierce and long the carnage continued. The fearsome pastime was one
to thrill the most hardened with horror. The still night air was filled
with a nauseating reek, whilst the echoes gave back