Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School

by Josephine Chase

  CHAPTER XIX

  WOLVES!

  Wolves! The name was terrifying enough. But their cry, thatlong-drawn-out, hungry call, gave the picnickers a chill ofapprehension.

  "We must take the nearest way out of the wood, Reddy," exclaimed Tom."They are still several miles off, and, if we hurry, we may reach theopen before they do."

  All started on a run, David helping Anne to keep up with the otherswhile Reddy looked after Jessica. Nora and Grace were well enoughtrained in outdoor exercise to run without any assistance from the boys.Indeed, Grace Harlowe could out-run most boys of her own age.

  "Go straight to your left," called Reddy, consulting his compass as hehurried Jessica over the snow.

  Again they heard the angry howl of the wolves, and the last time itseemed much nearer.

  "It's a terrible business, this running after a heavy meal," mutteredHippy, gasping for breath as he stumbled along in the track of hisfriends. "I'll make a nice meal for 'em if they catch me," he added,"and it looks as if I'd be the first to go."

  "Reddy, are you sure you're right?" called Tom. "The woods don't seem tobe thinning out as they are likely to do toward the edge."

  "Keep going," called Reddy, confident of the direction. "You see, we hadgone pretty far in, but I believe the open country is about a mile thisway."

  A mile? Good heavens! Jessica and Anne were already stumbling fromexhaustion, while Hippy was quite winded. Another five minutes of thisand at least three of the party would be food for wolves, unlesssomething could be done. So thought David, who, breathless and lightheaded, was now almost carrying Anne.

  "Hurrah!" cried Grace, who had been running ahead of the others. "Here'sJean's hut!"

  There, sure enough, right in front of them, was a little house built oflogs and mud.

  Had it been put in that particular spot years ago just to save theireight lives now? Anne wondered vaguely as she blindly stumbled on.

  As Grace lifted the wooden latch of the door, she looked over hershoulder. Not three hundred yards away loped five gaunt, gray animals.Their tongues hung limply from the sides of their mouths and their eyesglowered with a fierce hunger.

  "Hurry!" she cried, in an agony of fear. "Oh, hurry!"

  Tom and David were carrying Anne now, while Jessica was half staggering,assisted by Nora and Reddy. Hippy, the perspiration pouring from hisface, brought up the rear, and they had scarcely pulled him in andbarred the door before the wolves had reached the hut and were leapingagainst the walls howling and snarling.

  Nobody spoke for some time. Those who were not too tired were busythinking.

  What was to be done? Eight young people, on a bitter cold winterafternoon, shut up in a hut in the middle of a forest while fivehalf-starved wolves besieged the door.

  Presently Tom Gray began to look about him.

  There was a fireplace in the hut, which, by great good luck, containedthe remains of a large backlog. More fuel was stacked in the corner,chiefly brushwood and sticks. He made a fire at once and the othersgathered around the blaze, for they felt the penetrating chill now,after their rapid and exhausting flight through the forest.

  "Here's a rifle," exclaimed Grace, who was also exploring, while Tomkindled the fire.

  "Good!" cried Tom. "Let's see it. It may be our salvation."

  He seized the gun and examined the barrel, but, alas, there was only oneshot left in it. They searched the hut for more cartridges, but not onecould they find.

  In the meantime the wolves, which might have been taken for large colliedogs at a little distance, were trotting around the house, leapingagainst the door and windows and occasionally giving a blood-curdlinghowl.

  "Suppose you feed me to them?" groaned Hippy. "You could get almost toOakdale before they finished me."

  The suggestion seemed to break the apprehensive silence that had settleddown upon them, and they burst out laughing, one and all; even Anne, whowas lying on a bearskin in front of the fire.

  "I suppose the beasts were driven down from the hills by hunger, andwhen they smelled the fat bacon frying, the woods couldn't hold them,"observed David. "I have always heard that a hungry wolf could smellsomething to eat on another planet."

  "Well, what are we going to do?" demanded Nora. "If we leave thischarming abode of Jean's, we shall be eaten alive, and if we stay in itwe shall starve."

  "You won't starve for a while yet, child. You have only just eaten. Youremind me of the story of the people who were locked up in a vault in acemetery. They divided the candle into notches and decided to eat anotch apiece every day. They had just finished the last notch, and wereexpecting to die at any moment of starvation, when somebody unlocked thedoor, and how long do you suppose they had been shut up!"

  "Several days, I suppose," answered Nora, "since they appeared to haveeaten several notches."

  "Not at all," replied David. "Only three hours."

  "I'd rather be in a vault, with the dead, than out here," observedHippy.

  "Are we such poor company as all that, Fatty!" laughed Reddy.

  "I've made a great find," announced Tom Gray in the midst of theirchatter. He was standing on a bench examining something on a shelfsuspended from the ceiling.

  "What?" demanded the others in great excitement.

  "A pair of snowshoes," he answered.

  There was a disappointed silence.

  "Well, don't all speak at once," said Tom at last. "Don't you agree withme that it's a great find?"

  "We are sorry we can't enthuse," answered David, "but we fail to see howsnow shoes can help us out of our present predicament."

  "Nobody here knows how to use them," continued Reddy, "and even if hedid, he couldn't out-run a pack of wolves."

  "I know how to use them," exclaimed Tom. "I learned it in Canada a fewwinters ago, but I will admit I couldn't beat the wolves in a race.However, the shoes may come in handy yet."

  Just then one of the wolves threw his body against the door and thesmall cabin shook with the force of the blow.

  "By Jove!" exclaimed David, "I thought they had us then. Another blowlike that and the old latch might give way."

  They looked about them for something to place against the door, butthere was not a stick of furniture in the room. Even the bed, in onecorner, was made of pine boughs and skins.

  "I wonder how there happens to be only five wolves," said Anne. "Ithought they went about in large packs."

  "They are probably mama and papa and the whole family," replied Hippy."The smallest, friskiest ones, I think, are young ladies, by the waythey switched along behind the others and hung back kind of shy-like."

  "Now, Hippy Wingate, don't tell us such a romance as that," warnedGrace, "when you were so winded you could hardly look in front of you,much less behind you."

  At that moment there was another crash against the door while two graypaws and the tip of a pointed muzzle could be seen on one of the windowsills.

  "It's almost three o'clock," said Tom Gray, looking at his watch. "Ithink we'll have to do something, or we shall be penned here all night.Now, what shall it be? Suppose we have a friendly council and consider."

  "All right," said David; "the meeting is open for suggestions. What doyou advise, Anne?"

  Anne smiled thoughtfully.

  "I have no advice to offer," she said, "unless you shoot one of thewolves and let the others eat him up. Perhaps that would take the edgeoff their appetites."

  "No, that would only serve as an appetizer," answered David. "After theyhad eaten one member of the family they would be still hungrier foranother."

  "And yet that isn't a half bad idea," said Tom, "and for two reasons.Did you notice a path which began at the hut and which was evidentlyJean's trail? I saw it from the corner of my eye as I ran."

  No, the others had not noticed anything of the sort. But who would stopto think of trails with a pack of hungry wolves at his heels?

  Tom's training in the woods had taught him to take in such details, andconsequently he had noti
ced it particularly. Moreover, the trail ledstraight to the left, presumably toward the west.

  "Now, this is what I propose to do," he continued, taking down thesnowshoes and looking over their straps and fastenings carefully."Reddy, who, I hear, is a good shot, must climb up at one of the windowsand shoot the first wolf he sees. Eating the dead wolf would probablyoccupy the attention of his brothers for some ten minutes or so--perhapslonger. While they are busy I shall make off on the snowshoes. With thatmuch of a start, and with plenty of tasty human beings close at hand, Idoubt if they even follow me. If they do, why I'll just shin up a tree.But I believe I can beat them. I'm pretty good on snowshoes."

  "Tom Gray, you shan't do it!" cried Grace. "It may mean sure death. Howdo you know the wolves won't seize you the moment you open the door?Besides, you don't know the way. Suppose you should get lost?"

  "No, no," insisted Tom. "None of these things will happen. I knowpositively that a hungry wolf will stop chasing a human being and eat upa dead wolf, or a shoe, or a rug, or anything that happens to be thrownto him. I never was surer of anything in my life than that I can getaway from here before the beasts know it."

  There was a storm of protestation from the others, but Tom Gray finallyoverruled every objection and they reluctantly consented to let him go.

  It was arranged that Reddy should stand on a bench by one of the smallwindows and attract the attention of the wolves by throwing out a rabbitskin that was nailed to one of the walls. While the beasts were tearingthis to pieces he was to shoot one of them. Furthermore, the instant thelive wolves had finished devouring the dead one, Reddy was to pitch outanother skin, of which there were many about the hut, of foxes, rabbitsand other small animals, which the trapper had collected.

  This, they agreed, would probably keep the wolves occupied for awhile,until Tom had got a good start down the trail.

  Tom slipped his feet in the snowshoes and stood by the door waiting.While the wolves howled and fought over the rabbit skin, bang went therifle.

  "I got him!" cried Reddy.

  In an instant Tom Gray had flung open the door and was off down thetrail.

  As he had expected, the live wolves were hungrily eating the dead oneand had not apparently even noticed his departure.

  The boys and girls in the hut sat breathlessly waiting, while Reddywatched the famished animals gorge themselves with the blood and freshmeat of their comrade.

  Reddy had rolled up a fox skin into a small bundle, and was prepared topitch it out to them the moment they had finished.

  Just as they had lapped the last drop of blood, he cast out the skin.They sniffed at it a moment, gave a long, disapproving howl, that sentthe cold chills down the spines of the prisoners, and then made off downthe trail after Tom Gray.

  Reddy gave a loud exclamation and jumped down from the bench.

  "_They have followed Tom!_" he cried, in a high state of excitement.

  There was a long pause.

  "We'll have to go, then," said David finally. "Girls, you are safe aslong as you stay inside the hut, and some of us at least will be able tobring help before long."

  With that, all three of the boys, for Hippy was no coward, in spite ofhis size and appetite, rushed out of the hut and disappeared in thewood.

  The afternoon shadows were beginning to lengthen when Grace fastened thelatch and returned to the fire where her three friends sat silent,afraid to speak for fear of giving way to tears.