flinging his brush high in the air, shot after like an
arrow!

Both had now disappeared from Lucien's sight. For a moment the surface
of the snow was disturbed above the spot where they had gone down, but
the next moment all was still, and no evidence existed that a living
creature had been there, except the tracks, and the break the two
creatures had made in going down. Lucien ran forward until he was within
a few yards of the place, and stood watching the hole, with his rifle
ready--thinking that the fox, at least, would soon come up again.

He had waited for nearly five minutes, looking steadily at this point,
when his eye was attracted by a movement under the snow, at a
considerable distance, quite fifty paces, from where he stood. The
frozen crust was seen to upheave: and, the next moment, the head of the
fox, and afterwards his whole body, appeared above the surface. Lucien
saw that the ermine lay transversely between his jaws, and was quite
dead! He was about to fire, but the fox, suddenly perceiving him, shot
off like an arrow, carrying his prey along with him.

He was soon out of reach, and Lucien, seeing that he had lost his
chance, was about to return to the fire, when, all at once, the fox was
observed to stop, turn suddenly in his tracks, and run off in a new
direction! Lucien looked beyond to ascertain the cause of this strange
manoeuvre. That was soon ascertained. Coming down from among the rocks
was a large animal--five times the fox's size--but in other respects not
unlike him. It was also of a snow-white colour, with long hair, bushy
tail, and short erect ears, but its aspect was not to be mistaken. It
was the great _white wolf_.

When Lucien first saw this new-comer, the latter had just espied the
fox, and was about stretching out into a gallop towards him. The fox,
_watching backwards_ as he ran, had not seen the wolf, until the latter
was within a few springs of him; and now when he had turned, and both
were in full chase, there was not over twenty yards between them. The
direction in which they ran would bring them near to Lucien; and so they
came, and passed him--neither of them seeming to heed his presence. They
had not got many yards farther, before Lucien perceived that the wolf
was fast closing on the fox, and would soon capture him. Believing he
would then stop, so as to offer him a fairer chance for a shot, Lucien
followed. The wolf, however, had noticed him coming after, and although
th