Year: 1871

this hard, smooth snow, his speed is q
match for any wolf wounded like this one
Already he has almost come up with the
game, and is raising his knife for sure
stroke, when the flying grey shadow in
front got him suddenly wheels round,
shoots up from the earth like rocket aud
falls right Oh the breast of It's pursuer.
down 90 man and wolf amid wbirl of ty-
ing snow, while shrill yell rings out on
the silent air, for even IN the sudden shock
OF that death grapple, Vladimir knife has
found time to come home, and the hot
blood pOurs over his face and breast from
the wounded side of his adversary. And
SO, far out on the lonely pain, with the
cold moon looking pitilessly down upon 1t,
begins the tug for life and death. over
and over they roll in the bloody snow, the
wolf Clutching at the throat of the man,
the man burying his knife in the side of
the wolf Crushed to the earth beneath q
sitting weight-spent with his long watch
and headlong run-with certain death
glaring at him from the yellow, murderous
eyes of the savage brute, the stubborn
Russian still fights doggedly on. In
the hot fury of that mortal struggle,
the fierce hunter-Dature awakes, sweep
ing away all memory of his com
rades, his wife, his devotion, he feels
only the longing to tear and kill tingling
to his finger ehds, only the grim enjoy
ment of plunging his knife again and
again into that guant muscular side
wht re the life sesms to lie so deep See
those merciless stabs are at length be
ginning to tell; the fierce yellow eyes are
growing dim, the huge jaws quiver con-
vulsively, and from their edges the froth
o., a IrtvN tv,6 hot Aa,n t.It
mfrs face. But now, with mighty ef
fort, the wolf wrenches his head from the
iron grasp of Vladimir s left arm; and
with one crunch of his strong teeth,
breaks the bone below the elbow The
limb drops powerltss at MS side One
more desperate stab into the Quivering
flesh OF his enemy, and then he feels the
savage teeth fastening upon his throat :
everything swims around him, there is a
rushing rs of water in his ears, thousand
sparks dance before Lis eyes, aid then all
IS blank.


God be praised, brother, that you are
still allvel' said gluff voice in Vladimir S
ear, as he recovered consciousness " i.e
at the same moment, Il sCfl arm was
thrown round his neck, and a ferve Mt
Thank Godr' murmured by a sweet
voice that he knew well


"Where am I?' asked Kovrof, looking
vacantly round, and recognizing first his
wife, and then his host of the evening be-
fore.


Where are your repeated Alexey !;
"why, in my huI, to be sure, where you We
been ever since We brought you in last
night. You know, when you went out,
WI followed at distance; AID as soon as
we saw you start in chase Of the wolf, We
set of after you; but it's not every body
that can run like y0u, SO we didn't catch
up to you till Uncle Greycoat was begin.
ming to get the best of it. Well, when
we'd settled him with our batchets, we
carried you back here; and Sergei Anto-
novitch ran all the way to Sakolniki tor
the German doctor, and he's been and tied
up your arm, and says you're sure to re-
cover if you only keep quiet


And recover he did, sure enough; at
least, when | met him at Bogorodsko last
summer, he was well enough to run amile
shoulder To shoulder with me- aud break u
thick sapling like a stick OF sealing wax.
And after the race | went home to tea
With him, and SAW the VOLTS head Gts
skin he had sold to a Russian officer
nailed up aOOve the door of his hut. And
the old man who had lent him the knife
told Inc the whole story, just as I've given
it you; and he told NE too, that from that
day forward the whole village called
Vladimir nothing but "Mujeek Bogatler,"
or the Peasant Hero.