Roy Norton

“ I saw coming out of the dense forest where I had never surmised there could be any trail a dog team of the great strong beasts that were so carefully bred in this settlement. They were harnessed in doubles, with a huge, gaunt, wolf-crossed leader at their head—nine in all, while on the sled I made out the dark figure of a man at rest while an other ran behind at the handlebars.
They came rapidly, the dogs running in the long wolf trot as if eager to gain a known home. ”

“ The wolf tactics, unless driven to that extremity of hunger where ferocity creates individual courage, are ever the same—to assemble the pack before making an attack upon man kind.
As I ran, panting but steady, a new and disturbing feature of my situation came to mind, which was that, inasmuch as my only chance for life rested in my reaching the village before I could be overwhelmed, I must take the most direct way which must inevitably bring me out near where the gold trail entered the clearing. ”

“ For an instant the wolves milled round in confusion, and then turned and fled back to the forest shadows, leaving two or three that gnashed and twisted in agony on the snow. The natives rushed in and dispatched these before any one addressed me. A larger shape that ran heavily, as if unable to race to my rescue as quickly as his younger companions, reached me and I recognized the shaman.
“You very good luck. Me tell you! No can unnerstan' so many wolves. Many years since him pack thees way so close village. Mus' be caribou scarce. Sorry not know wolves in mountains here. ”

“ I had ventured into the lion's mouth if ever any man had. Here was the explanation of many peculiarities and mysteries that were integral parts of Madame Malitka's domain; the evasiveness regarding hunting, trapping, and trading relations; the extravagant evidences of thrift and wealth in every Indian's domicile as well as her own; the rigid discipline of the inhabitants who were not even permitted to wander into the great barren beyond without special permission and then, doubtless, only when such journeys became imperatively necessary. ”

“ Once, some years before, I had heard that wolf cry in Siberia when going from one village to another in midday. And now I ran! Of what service to me the shotgun now lashed upon my back, when in my pockets were shells loaded with nothing more heavy than light shot!
It was well for me in that afternoon that I was trained as no athlete can be save through trail and stress, that I was physically endowed as but few athletes are, and that I was bodily replenished and fit. The first pack call came from the left ”

“ There are wolves sometimes, I am told, in the depths of the forest behind us, but they seldom venture this far. The villagers have no occasion to go that way, so I suppose that whenever a wandering pack comes it remains unmolested.”
She paused, and then with unwonted volubility said that the great game regions lay in the opposite direction, and discoursed on the reasons therefor.
“The younger men of the village then, I take it, go that way for their hunting and trapping?” ”