d by the flash of fire,
together with the heavy crash, when possibly they might show themselves
bolder than ever.

And like a true Boy Scout, Thad Brewster believed in always being
prepared. He had really taken that for his motto long before he thought
of joining a troop of the scouts; so that much of what he agreed to do
when signing the muster roll, lay directly in a line with his own ideas
of what a wide-awake boy should be.

"They backed off after that hot reception, Thad," Step Hen went on. "Oh!
I hope I'll get a chance to pop over just one of the sneaky beasts. I'd
like to say I'd shot a real wolf. Think of me, Step Hen Bingham, who up
to a year ago had never gone off camping or hunting, with a bear to my
credit, a buck actually knocked over, even if it was stole away from me;
and now, as the crowning event of all, I want to get a savage wolf, a
real Canada wolf."

"Oh!" said Thad, laughingly; "I don't know that they're different from
any other kind they have out on the plains; though perhaps they may be a
little larger, and ready to attack a man quicker. But perhaps you'd
better take the next good chance then, Step Hen."

"May I, Thad? That's kind of you. Suppose you give me pointers, then,
and tell me just when to blaze away. I want to make a dead sure thing of
it."

"Of the wolf, you mean, I guess," Thad went on, keeping a bright lookout
while he talked. "Well, watch that place where I got my fellow, and I
think you'll soon see something moving."

"You must mean the rest will be wanting to make a supper off the critter
you killed; is that it, Thad? Are they such cannibals as all that?"
asked Step Hen.

"Always said to be," the patrol leader returned, and then quickly added.
"Keep on the lookout, and if you see anything moving, tell me. Above all
don't waste ammunition by firing recklessly. We're not trying to scare
'em off by noise; every shot ought to count for a wolf."

They lapsed into silence for some little time, during which both boys
used their eyes to the best advantage. Several times Step Hen's
eagerness caused him to imagine he had caught a glimpse of a moving
object; but upon calling the attention of his more experienced comrade
to the spot, in every instance Thad had pronounced it a false alarm.

But in the end there came a time when Thad himself saw something move,
and as he watched more closely he made positive that it was another wolf
creeping up in the direction of the spot where his