The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1898-03-23


although they walked more than they
ran. He kept returning to his bottle
with frequency.
We were not yet half way when the
sun was only a little above the Mime
sofa bluffs, with big orange sun dogs
standing on each side of it. Just as it
disappeared below the bluffs the driver
slid out of the seat into drunken sleep
in the bottom of the sleigh. climbed
over to the front seat and took the
reins myself.
"You seem to know how to drive; do
you think we can get there tonight"
asked the other passenger.
II can drive four horses" answered,
very proudly. 'We can get through, |
guess, if it doesn't storm so that we
can't follow the trees"
He drew a long breath at this and
made himself comfortable under the
buffalo robes, leaving me to the full
management of the team, which l was
glad enough to assume, even if my
hands were pretty cold.
In half an hour it was dark. There
was no moon, but the sky was clear and
the stars bright. With the going down
of the sun the wind had died away. leav-
ing a calm, clear night; but before it
had stopped it had filled the track with
drifted snow and left the travelling
heavy. We logged along past the end
less row of little trees at pretty good
rate. The only sounds were the creak
ing of the sleigh-runners in the snow,
for the night was bitter cold, and the
occasional deep rumblings of the ice,
sounding, as it always seems to me, like
distant thunder near at hand. There
was a faint play of northern lights in
the sky ahead of us.
1 had for some time been looking
anXiousiy for the lights of the town, al
though there was no hope of seeing
them yet, when my attention was at
tracted by dark object on the snow
far to the right toward the Wisconsin
shore. At first l took this thing to be
one of the immense ridges in the ice
where it had cracked and heaved up.
several of which were on the lake, some
of them almost as high as house.
Then I saw it was moving along like
shadow at right angles to our course.
The man saw it and said: whats
coming over there-some other teams?"
"They wouldn't be going so fast"
answered, picking up the whip from the
bottom of the sleigh. The shadow was
now directly to the right.
Its some sort of animal" went on
the man. He paused a moment and
then added: "1hey look like big dogs
At that moment there came the cry
had so often heard at home, only much
deeper, harsher and louder.
They're wolves!' said, and
cracked the whip at the horses, although
that was hardly necessary, as they
heard the savage howl as well as we
did and knew it meant danger.
They were indeed a pack of timber
wolves, starved out of the Wisconsin
coulees and crossing the lake in search
of food on the Minnesota side. The
howl which they set up showed they
thought they had found it unexpectedly
on the lake. The horses struck into
fast gallon and the sleigh began to
sway and bound around in an uncom-
Portable .manner. | looked back and
saw that the wolves had struck the road
and were coming behind. The horses
were now running as fast as they could
with so heavy a track. 1t seemed as il
we should be thrown out the next mo-
ment, and it was certain that we should
be overtaken in any case.
The second time looked back saw
that the pack was much nearer could
make out the leaders and see that there
must be 20 or 30 of the animals, all told.
My fellow passenger was clinging to
the seat crying to me to drive faster, al
though the horses were fairly running
away and had practically no control
over them one way or the other.
Cant you throw out the trunk and
back seat ?' shouted to him.
I will give him the credit for doing
very we'll at this. He clambered over
back and pitched out the other seat and
a small trunk which stood behind it. 1t
was good thing to do, as it lightened
the sleigh and delayed the wolves
slightly. They all stopped and surged
around the things a moment; then they
came on.
1 heard the man throwing out the
mail sacks and some other parcels, but
the wolves did not pause much for
these. They were soon closer than ever,
and, the man said afterwards, within
a few rods of us. l kicked the buffalo
robe, which was still over my lap, out
at one side, and sank down on
my knees in the bottom of the sleigh;
the man wrenched loose the seat and
dropped it out with two other robes.
These were the last things which we
had to throw out. The robes seemed to
delay the wolves longer than anything
else. They stopped and tore them to
shreds. We got quarter-mile start.
All of this time the drunken driver
was sleeping like log in the bottom of
the sleigh.
The horses were becoming exhausted,