had made the
wolves more venturesome and dangerous than they had been for many
years. Mr. Devins had lost several sheep and hogs, and deemed it
unsafe for any of his family to be caught far from the house at night.

Allan armed himself with his light rifle, put some biscuits and cold
meat in a pouch strapped to his waist, mounted one of the strong
farm-horses, and set out on his journey. The road through the forest
was better than he expected to find it, as the snow had been drifted
off, but at the turns, and in the thickest part of the wood, his horse
floundered through drifts more than breast high; and more than once
Allan had to dismount and beat a path ahead. Therefore, he did not
reach Inman's till two o'clock, and, by the time he had helped Esther
about her work, assisted her young brother to get in a good supply of
wood, and made things more comfortable for the invalid, it was almost
sundown. He stoutly refused to wait for supper, declaring that the
luncheon still in his pouch would serve, and started just as the short
twilight came on. He was a brave lad, and, with no thought of peril,
went off, kissing his hand gayly to Esther.

It took him an hour to traverse the first three miles, and then he
came to a stretch of comparatively bare ground leading through his
father's old clearing, and almost to the top of the hill back of Mr.
Devins's house. He was just urging old Bob into a trot, when a long,
clear howl broke upon his ear; then another and another answered
from east and south. He knew what that meant. It was the cry of the
advance-guard of a pack of wolves.

The howling sounded near, and came swiftly nearer, as though the
wolves had found his tracks and scented their prey. Old Bob trembled
in every limb, and seemed powerless to move. Allan realized that he
could not, before dark, reach home through the drifts ahead, and the
increasing cold of the advancing night would render a refuge in a
tree-top probably as deadly as an encounter with the pack.

Presently there came a cry, shriller and sharper than before, and
Allan, looking back, saw a great, lean, hungry gray wolf burst from
the underbrush into the road, followed by dozens more; and in a moment
the road behind him was full of wolves, open-mouthed and in keen
chase. Their yells now seemed notes of exultation, for the leader
of the pack--the strongest, fleetest, hungriest one among them--was
within a dozen yards of Allan, who was now riding faster than