The Black Wolf Pack

presence of the wild hunter, here would be a good place to get a shot at some black-tail deer. In fact we saw signs of those animals all

der and a brace of sage grouse in my hand, when I came upon Big Pete in a swail ab

s some doin's. Sha

are we here for, the mo

g care. Not a twig broke beneath his moccasins as with panther-like step and crouching form he led me through a lot of young trees over a rocky place until we struck a small spring with a soft muddy margin. Here Pete came to a sudden halt. I asked him wh

d over with large and small boulders of radically different formations, an

ng and polishing of an ancient, slow-moving glacier, but s

ha'," whis

ld mountain

d my guide, "

?" I almo

Pete; "what do you thi

said softly, with my ey

that tha' deer, and he hain't been gone

and length of the toe nails. Yes, there was another difference, and that was the size. It was the footprint of a savage Hercules, the track of an e

hot at all big game," I whispered with my best effort at coolnes

pered excitedly as I looked at my gu

keen-edged knife and snatching one of my cartridges he severed the shell neatly between the two wads wh

Big Pete carefully fitted the two parts of the cartridge together exactly as they were before

let at short range, an'll tar a hole in old

e darned kerful not to get excited and put the

rd to acknowledge to Pete that I was frightened. Pete examined his gun, ran his finger over the cartridges in hi

roll a stone down the mountain side and follow it as fast as I kin, so as to be ready to help you if you need it; but you ought to drap

tched the thicket at the end of the ledge. I had not long to wait before I heard a blood-curdling yell and then crash! crash! crash! came a big boulder tearing down the

tion. There was but a momentary silence after the fall of the boulder before I heard the rustling of sticks and leaves, saw the top of the bushes sway as some heavy body moved beneath, then there appeared a head, a

to drop behind the rock, but I only stood there with a dogged stupidity, tr

and dirt on the ledge in front of the mountain of brownish hair t

k right in the path of the grizzly. It all flashed through my mind in a moment. Pete in his haste to reach me had lost

n. I bounded between the branches of some stout saplings, they parted as my body st

blindly to free myself. My gun had been flung from my hand in my fall and was out of my reach. Then to my horror I heard the howl the wolf gives when game is in sight, and even half blind as I wa

ard the sound of a large body rushing swiftly through the air, and an immense eagle struck the bear like a thunderbolt; at the same instant the wolves attacked him from all sides; then there was a whistle keen and clear

r of the pack, only to fall forward, dead,

the Wild Mountain Man had saved our lives. I tried to rise but

down, stranger, while I look to your mate," and I saw the tal

combined with the pain from my ankle was too much for me, and now that th

ghtly, my head was neatly bandaged and so was my foot and ankle. I could hear our horses cropping grass near by. I raised my head and there lay Pete; he was

e dim light of the fire I could trace the outline of another man's fig

of the mountain-possibly my o