Harold Lamb

“ Eh, it is not easy to part from friends. I would like to have a cross from Nada, that she had kissed. Yet it is in my mind that if I bade her farewell, she would seek to ride a way, to show me the trail. And it is best otherwise, in this night of the wolves and the Tatars. Guard her, Omelko, for—for she is a dove and a brave heart. God knows I owe my life to her. Out in the steppe there is death as well as life. ”

“ They advanced slowly, because the wolves, though circling back restlessly, were too numerous to be driven easily—gaunt beasts high in the shoulder, and by the look of them, more than half starved. Nada pointed to a wolf with only a remnant of a tail, and caught Kirdy's arm.
“See the borzoi!”
Just beyond the circle of light Karai could be made out, moving silently toward the pack. To the Cossack's call the dog paid not the slightest attention, and when Kirdy started toward him Nada held back.
“It is too late. We must go no farther.” ”

“ Omelko sighed and looked at him inquiringly. During the last few days he had wished many times that the dark-browed hero were his son, that the White Falcon would remain at the Wolky Gorlo.
“The wolf pack hunts along the valley,” Kirdy answered the unspoken question of his host. “The Nogais who have been watching will be afraid for their horses. They will build fires in the timber, or seek their yurtas. The way out of the Wolf's Throat will be open this night.” ”