who was in front bent down and picked up something with which his had it was dark and he could not see it but he recognized it by the touch he flung it back so that it struck the and along it fetched up on bill s you ll need that in your business henry said bill uttered an exclamation it was all that was left of � the stick with which he had been tied � they ate m hide an all bill announced � the stick s as clean as a whistle they ve ate the leather both ends they re damn hungry henry an they ll have you an me before this trip s over henry laughed i ain t been this way by wolves before but i ve gone through a whole lot worse an kept my health takes more n white a handful of them to do for yours truly bill my son � i don t know i don t know bill n uttered f well you ll know all right when we pull into i ain t special enthusiastic bill persisted you re off color that s what s the matter with you henry what you need is i an i m goin to dose you up stiff as soon j as we make bill his with the and into silence the day was like all the days light came at nine o clock at twelve o clock the southern horizon was warmed by the unseen sun and then began the cold gray of afternoon that would three hours later into night it was just after the sun s futile effort to appear that bill slipped the rifle from under the and said � you keep right on henry i m goin to see what i can see you d better stick by the his partner protested � you ve only got three an there s no what might happen who s now bill demanded triumphantly henry made no reply and on alone though the she wolf i he cast anxious glances back into the gray l where his partner had disappeared an hour later taking advantage of the cut around which the had to go bill arrived re scattered an along wide he said up with us an for game at the same time you see they re sure of us only they know they vo got to wait to get us in the meantime they re to pick up that comes handy � you mean they they re sure of us henry objected but bill ignored him i seen some of them they re pretty thin they ain t had a bite in weeks i reckon outside of an an an there s so many of em that that didn t go far they re remarkable thin their ribs is like an their is right up against their the re pretty desperate i can tell you they ll be goin mad yet an then watch out a few minutes later henry who was now travelling behind the a low warning whistle bill turned and looked then quietly stopped the dogs to the rear from around the last bend and plainly into view on the very trail they had just covered trotted form its nose was to the trail and it trotted with a peculiar sliding gait when they halted it halted throwing up its white head and regarding them steadily with nostrils that as it caught and studied the scent of them it s the she wolf bill whispered the dogs had lain down in the snow and he walked past them to join his partner at the together they watched the strange animal that had for and that had already accomplished the destruction of half their dog team after a searching scrutiny the animal trotted fo ward a few steps this it repeated several times till it was a short hundred yards away it paused head up close by a of trees and with sight and scent studied the of the watching men it looked at them in a strangely wistful way after the manner of a dog but in its there was none of the dog affection it was a bred of as cruel as its own as merciless an the frost itself it was large for a wolf its gaunt frame the lines of an animal that was among the largest of its kind stands pretty close to two feet an a half at shoulders henry commented � an i ll bet it far from five feet long kind of color for a wolf was criticism � i never seen a red wolf before looks almost to me the animal was certainly not colored the she its coat was the true wolf coat the dominant color was gray and yet there was to it int � a hue that was that appeared and disappeared that was more like an illusion of the vision now gray distinctly gray and again giving hints and of a vague of color not in terms of ordinary experience looks for all the world like a big dog bill said � i wouldn t be s to see it wag its tail � you f he called � come here you whatever your name is ain t a bit of you henry laughed bill waved his hand at it and shouted loudly but the animal betrayed no fear the only change in it that they could notice was an accession of it still regarded them with the merciless of they were meat and it was hungry and it would like to go in and eat them if it dared look here henry bill said unconsciously lowering his voice to a whisper because of what he meditated we ve got three but it s a dead shot couldn t miss it it s got away with three of our dogs an we put a stop 