e hounds. Their power of scent was very poor,
but they were sure to be guided aright by the baying of the hounds, and
their presence would give confidence to the latter and make them ready
to rout the wolves out of the thicket, which they would probably have
shrunk from doing alone. There was a moment's pause of expectation after
the Judge entered the thicket with his hounds. We sat motionless on
our horses, eagerly looking through the keen fresh morning air. Then a
clamorous baying from the thicket in which both the horseman and dogs
had disappeared showed that the hounds had struck the trail of their
quarry and were running on a hot scent. For a couple of minutes we could
not be quite certain which way the game was going to break. The hounds
ran zigzag through the brush, as we could tell by their baying, and once
some yelping and a great row showed that they had come rather closer
than they had expected upon at least one of the wolves.

In another minute, however, the latter found it too hot for them and
bolted from the thicket. My first notice of this was seeing the cowboy,
who was standing by the side of his horse, suddenly throw up his rifle
and fire, while the greyhounds who had been springing high in the air,
half maddened by the clamor in the thicket below, for a moment dashed
off the wrong way, confused by the report of the gun. I rode for all I
was worth to where the cowboy stood, and instantly caught a glimpse of
two wolves, grizzled-gray and brown, which having been turned by his
shot had started straight over the hill across the plain toward the
mountains three miles away. As soon as I saw them I saw also that
the rearmost of the couple had been hit somewhere in the body and
was lagging behind, the blood running from its flanks, while the two
greyhounds were racing after it; and at the same moment the track-hounds
and the big dogs burst out of the thicket, yelling savagely as they
struck the bloody trail. The wolf was hard hit, and staggered as he ran.
He did not have a hundred yards' start of the dogs, and in less than a
minute one of the greyhounds ranged up and passed him with a savage snap
that brought him too; and before he could recover the whole pack rushed
at him. Weakened as he was he could make no effective fight against so
many foes, and indeed had a chance for but one or two rapid snaps before
he was thrown down and completely covered by the bodies of his enemies.
Yet with one of these snaps he d