ad been closing gradually until at this juncture it had
been condensed to about five miles, or a horseman to every fifty feet.
Wolves had been sighted numerous times running from covert to covert,
but few had shown themselves to the flank line, being contented with
such shelter as the scraggy plum brush afforded. Whenever the beaters
would rout or sight a wolf, the yelling would continue up and down the
line for several minutes. Cave and his well-formed circle of beaters
were making good time; Reese on the left flank was closing and
moving forward, while the line under Lynch was as impatient as it was
hilarious. Miller made the circle every half hour or so; and had only
to mention it to pick any horse he wanted from the entire line for a
change.

By one o'clock the drive had closed to the entrance of the pocket,
and within a mile and a half of the termination. There was yet enough
cover to hide the quarry, though the extreme point of this horseshoe
was a sand bar with no shelter except driftwood trees. Edwards and
his squad were at their post across the river, in plain view of the
advancing line. Suddenly they were seen to dismount and lie down on
the brink of the cut-bank. A few minutes later chaos broke out along
the line, when a band of possibly twenty wolves left their cover and
appeared on the sand bar. A few rifle shots rang out from the opposite
bank, when they skurried back to cover.

Shooting was now becoming dangerous. In the line was a horseman every
ten or twelve feet. All the captains rode up and down begging the
men to cease shooting entirely. This only had a temporary effect,
for shortly the last bit of cover was passed, and there within four
hundred yards on the bar was a snarling, snapping band of gray wolves.

The line was halted. The unlooked-for question now arose how to make
the kill safe and effective. It would be impossible to shoot from the
opposite bank without endangering the line of men and horses. Finally
a small number of rifles were advanced on the extreme left flank to
within two hundred yards of the quarry, where they opened fire at
an angle from the watchers on the opposite bank. They proved poor
marksmen, overshooting, and only succeeded in wounding a few and
forcing several to take to the water, so that it became necessary to
recall the men to the line.

These men were now ordered to dismount and lie down, as the opposite
side would take a hand when the swimming wolves came within