The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wolf Hunters, by James Oliver Curwood

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Title: The Wolf Hunters
A Tale of Adventure in the Wilderness

Author: James Oliver Curwood

Release Date: April 27, 2004 [EBook #12170]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE WOLF HUNTERS

A Tale of Adventure in the Wilderness

BY
JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD

1908

To my comrades of the great northern wilderness, those faithful
companions with whom I have shared the joys and hardships of the "long
silent trail," and especially to Mukoki, my red guide and beloved
friend, does the writer gratefully dedicate this volume

CONTENTS

Chapter

I The Fight in the Forest
II How Wabigoon Became a White Man
III Roderick Sees the Footprint
IV Roderick's First Taste of the Hunter's Life
V Shots in the Wilderness
VI Mukoki Disturbs the Ancient Skeletons
VII Roderick Discovers the Buckskin Bag
VIII How Wolf Became the Companion of Men
IX Wolf Takes Vengeance Upon His People
X Roderick Explores the Chasm
XI Roderick's Dream
XII The Secret of the Skeleton's Hand
XIII Snowed In
XIV The Rescue of Wabigoon
XV Roderick Holds the Woongas at Bay
XVI The Surprise at the Post

Illustrations:

With his rifle ready Rob approached the fissure (Frontispiece)
Knife--fight--heem killed!
The leader stopped in his snow-shoes

THE WOLF HUNTERS

CHAPTER I

THE FIGHT IN THE FOREST

Cold winter lay deep in the Canadian wilderness. Over it the moon was
rising, like a red pulsating ball, lighting up the vast white silence of
the night in a shimmering glow. Not a sound broke the stillness of the
desolation. It was too late for the life of day, too early for the
nocturnal roamings and voices of the creatures of the night. Like the
basin of a great amphitheater the frozen lake lay revealed in the light
of the moon and a billion stars. Beyond it rose the spruce forest, black
and forbidding. Along its nearer edges stood hushed walls of tamarack,
bowed in the smothering clutch of snow and ice, shut in by impenetrable
gl