only smothered, as fresh fuel smothers a flame. Not for nothing had his
fellows known him as "Wolf" Darby; and now the name was true.

The Beast that dwells under every man's skin, in a greater or less
degree, was in the full ascendancy at last. The unnamable ferocity that
marks the death-leap of the wild hunters was in his face. In his eyes
was cunning,--such craft as marks the pack in its hunting. All over him
was written that unearthly rage that is alone the property and trait of
the woods creatures: the fury with which a she-wolf fights for her cubs
or a rattlesnake avenges the death of its mate. Mercy, remorse,
compassion there was none.

And the demon gods of the wilderness rejoiced. For uncounted thousands
of years the tide of battle had flowed against them; and it was long and
long since they had won such a victory as this. Mostly their men
children had forsaken their leafy bowers to live in houses. They tilled
the ground rather than hunt in the forest. The cattle that had once run
wild in the marshes now fed dully in enclosed pastures; the horses--that
mighty breed that once mated and fought and died in freedom on the high
lands--pulled lowly burdens in the cultivated fields. Even some of the
canine people too--first cousins to the wolves themselves--had sold
themselves into slavery for a gnawed bone and a chimney corner. But
to-night the wild had claimed its own again.

Here was one, at least, who had come back into his own. The forest
seemed to whisper and thrill with rapture.

PART TWO

THE WOLF-MAN

XVI

As a wolf might plan a hunt in the forest, Ben planned his war against
Neilson and his subordinates. He knew perfectly that he must not attempt
open warfare. The way of the wolf is the way of cunning and stealth: the
stalk through the thicket and the ferocious attack upon the
unsuspecting; and such example must guide Ben in his operations. He
could not be too careful, too furtive.

His foes were three against one, and they were on their own ground. They
knew the trails and the lay of the country; and as always, in the
science of warfare, this was an advantage hardly to be overcome. Ben
knew that his only hope lay in the finest strategy. First he must make a
surprise attack, and second, he must utilize all natural advantages.

He was well aware that he could lie in ambush, close to the mine, and
probably send one man to a speedy death with a rifle bullet. But he did
not have one enem