medicine for old Molly
Budd's rheumatics, Andy and Jamie turned homeward with Doctor Joe.

Near the mouth of Grampus River there was a section of "bad ice" or
ice that was not always safe to be crossed, the result doubtless of
cross currents in the tide. To avoid this bad ice Andy followed the
shore for a considerable distance before turning northward for the
twelve-mile run directly across the Bay to The Jug.

It was a dull, cold, dreary day. The snow ground and squeaked under
the sledge runners. Now and again a confusion of shore ridges rendered
the hauling bad and the dogs lagged.

They were midway between Grampus River and the place where they were
to make the turn northward when Jamie warned:

"Look out, Andy! There's some loose dogs comin' out of the woods!
They'll be fightin' the team!"

Six big beasts, larger even than Thomas Angus's big dogs, were
trotting out of the woods and upon the ice a hundred yards in advance.
The team saw them, and with a howl rushed forward to the attack.

"Wolves!" yelled Andy. "They's wolves!"

The wolves were free. The dogs were bound by harness, and thus
fettered were no match for the big, wild creatures. Andy's rifle was
lashed upon the komatik. It was out of the question to free it in the
moment before the wolves were upon them, and it was to be a
hand-to-hand fight.

CHAPTER XXI

THE ALARM IN THE NIGHT

The clash came instantly. The wolf pack was upon the dogs, and dogs
and wolves were at once a howling, snarling, fighting mass. Great
bared fangs gleamed and snapped. It was a fight to the death, a
primordial fight for the survival of the fittest.

The attack was launched with such indescribable suddenness that Doctor
Joe and Jamie had scarcely time to drop from the komatik before it was
begun. Andy had instinctively seized his whip and began to ply it with
every opening that offered. The first stroke caught a big wolf across
the eyes, and with howls of pain it immediately endeavoured to
extricate itself from the fight. The lash had blinded it.

With feverish haste Doctor Joe and Jamie undid the axe and rifle from
the komatik, and Doctor Joe with the axe and Jamie with the rifle
charged the fighting beasts. A lucky blow from the axe split a wolf's
head. Jamie quickly found that to shoot at a distance he must take the
risk of killing one of the dogs, but watching for an opening, with the
muzzle of the rifle within an inch of a big wolf's body, he fired and