Omaha daily bee., 1899-01-15

the wolf legions seemed to be crying with
one voice as they came nearer. All the
wild beasts Of the wood were obeying the
summons Of the witch woman.
The strain Of the situation first told upon
the Lord James Douglas. Great saints"
he Dried, LET us attack them and die sword
in hand. I cannot endure much more OF
this"
STAND still whore you are. It is our
only chance!" commanded Sholto, as alb
ruptly as II James Douglas had been q
doubtful soldier Of his company.
1T was better to find a tree that we could
olimb," growled Malise with a practical
suggestiveness, which, however, came too
late. for they dared not move and the great
trunk Of the blasted pine rose behind them.
bare Of branches to the top.
Your daggers in your left hands, they
are upon us!" cried Sholto, who, standing
with his face to the west, had a lower hori-
zon and more light than the others. The
three men had cast their palmers' cloaks
from their shoulders and now stood leaning
a little forward, breathing hard as they
waited the assault Of foes whom they be-
lieved to be frankly diabolic and instinct
with all the powers Of hell. This required
greater courage than storming many
Notifications.
Almost as he spoke Sholto became aware
that a fierce rush Of shaggy beasts was
crossing the scanty grass toward him. He
saw a vision Of red mouths, cleaning teeth
and hairy breasts. into the leaping chaos
Of which he plunged and replunged his
sword till his arm ached. Mostly the
stricken died swapping and tearing at each
other, but ever and anon one stronger than
the rest would overlap the barrier Of dead
and dying wolves that grew up in front Of
him, and Sholto would feel the teeth click
clean and hard upon the mail of his arm
or thigh before he could stoop to dispatch
the brute with the dirk which he grasped
in his left hand.
The rush upon Sholto's side fortunately
did not last long. but while 1t continued
the battle was strange and silent and grim,
this fight Of man and beast. As the youth
at last cleared his front Of a hairy monster
that had sprang at his throat he found him
self sufficiently free to look around the
trunk of the blasted pine that he might
| see how 1t Jared with his companions.
The same strange and weird conditions
| permeated the earth and air.
For a moment all would be dark, and
then flash on continuous fash would come
the wildhre, running about the tree tops
anu ginning UP irom tuc TeCesSes VI 'uc
woods as II the heavens also were instinct
with dlabolic light.
As he looked Sholto saw his father, a gi-
! gantic figure standing black and militant
against the brightest of 1t. His mighty
hand grasped a huge wolf by the heels, and
he swung the beast about his head as easily
as he was wont to handle the forehammer
at home. With his living weapon Malise
had avept n aDacA about him clear and
the beasts seemed to have fallen back in
terror before such a strange enemy.
But what OF Lord James? Overlapping
the pile OF dead and dying wolves which
| his weapon had made, and from which saw
age heads still bit and snarled at him as
he went, Sholto ran around to seek the
| young lord Of Avondale. At the first fash
after leaving the tree trunk he was no.
where to be seen, but a second revealed
him lying on the ground, with four great
shaggy beasts bending over him and tearing
hercely at his gorget and breast armor.
| With q loud shout Sholto was among them.
He passed his sword through and through
the largest. and In Its fall the wounded
monster turned and bit savagely at the
foreleg Of q companion. The bone cracked
as a rotten branch snaps underfoot, and
In another moment the two animals were
rolling over and over. locked together in
the death grNpple.
] Once. twice. thrice. sholto struck right