Raymond S. Spears

“ Following up the trail, they located the beast about four miles out of town, and raced in on it.
The poor bossy, who hardly knew a wolf's howl when she heard it, did not start to run till the trailers were within a hundred yards of her. Her frantic, lumbering gallop was the joke of the pack as they darted in from both sides and behind, cutting at her fat sides and clumsy legs. They had run down a young moose, and eating a cow was like licking up scattered pieces of fat, for all the race she could make. ”

“ No trapper had ever raided their homeland in the memory of any of the wolves in Two Toes' pack. Their forays had been from a fastness of their own, where only moose, lynx, fisher, and other wild creatures like themselves were to be seen.
Sometimes, in the summer months, humans would appear along the outskirts of the rocks and the green timber. They would drive along the lake, in vile-smelling craft, and they would run up the rivers to catch fish. ”

“ In fact, the meat which they could kill for themselves was seldom of the best quality, since something usually had to be the matter with a full-grown moose before they could capture it, if nothing more than hunger on account of sleet or crusty snow. Sometimes, however, if they were lucky, they would find a calf whose mother was not there to protect it; and then the wolves had a real feast, the kind that melts in the mouth!
Two Toes took life seriously all the while. He deplored waste of energy. One thing was always borne in upon him—that one of his paws was not as serviceable as the others. ”