e down. These, followed by Marengo, soon
arrived upon the spot. When Lucien saw the tracks, he pronounced them at
once to be those of the little shrew-mouse, the smallest of all the
quadrupeds of America. Several of them had evidently been out upon the
snow--as there were other dotted lines--and the tops of many stalks of
grass were seen above the surface, each of which had formed a little
hole around it, by which the mice were enabled to get up and down.

Norman, who had seen these little animals before, cautioned his
companions to remain quiet awhile, and perhaps some of them might come
to the surface. They all stopped therefore, and stood some time without
moving, or speaking to one another. Presently, a little head not much
bigger than a pea was seen peeping up, and then a body followed, which
in size did not exceed that of a large gooseberry! To this a tail was
suspended, just one inch in length, of a square shape, and tapering from
root to point, like that of any other mouse. The little creature was
covered with a close smooth fur, of a clove-brown colour above, but more
yellowish upon the belly and sides; and was certainly, as it sat upon
the even surface of the snow, the most diminutive and oddest-looking
quadruped that any of the party had ever beheld.

They were just whispering to one another what means they should use to
capture it, when Marengo, whom Basil had been holding quiet, all at once
uttered a loud bay; and, springing out of the hands of his master,
galloped off towards the camp. All of them looked after, wondering what
had started the dog; but his strange behaviour was at once explained,
and to their consternation. Around the tent, and close to its entrance,
several large wolves were seen. They were leaping about hurriedly, and
worrying some objects that lay upon the ground. What these objects were
was too plain. They were _the bags of pemmican_! Part of their contents
was seen strewed over the snow, and part was already in the stomachs of
the wolves.

The boys uttered a simultaneous shout, and ran forward. Marengo was by
this time among the wolves, and had set fiercely upon one of them. Had
his masters not been at hand, the fierce brutes would soon have settled
the account with Marengo. But the former were now close by, and the
wolves, seeing them, ran off; but, to the consternation of the boys,
each of them carried off a bag of the pemmican in his mouth with as much
lightness and speed as if not