by G. A. Henty
Chapter 12: Treed By Wolves.
Charlie and Stanislas were, that evening, sitting apart from therest, at a short distance from the fire, talking over the future.They agreed that it would be comparatively easy to withdraw fromthe band as they journeyed forward, if, as seemed likely, theytravelled in very small parties. If, indeed, they found themselveswith two others, they could leave openly, for these would scarcelycare to enter upon a desperate struggle, merely for the sake ofretaining two unwilling companions in the band.
The difficulties would only begin when they started alone. As theywere talking, the captain came across to them.
"I can guess," he said, "that you are talking together as to thefuture. I like you, young Englishman, and I like your companion,who seems an honest fellow, but I would not keep you with me byforce. I understand that you are not placed as we are. We have tolive. Most of us would live honestly if we could, but at present itis the choice of doing as we do, or starving. We occasionally takea few crowns, if we come across a fat trader, or may ease a richfarmer of his hoard, but it is but seldom such a chance comes inour way. As a rule, we simply plunder because we must live. It isdifferent with you. Your friends may be far away, but if you canget to them you would have all that you need. Therefore, this life,which is hard and rough, to say nothing of its danger, does notsuit you; but for all that, you must stay with us, for it would bemadness for you to attempt to escape.
"As I told you, the peasants are maddened, and would kill anypassing stranger as they would a wild beast. They would regard himas a spy of some band like ours, or of a company of disbandedsoldiers, sent forward to discover which houses and villages arebest worth plundering. In your case, you have other dangers tofear. You may be sure that news has been sent from Warsaw to allthe different governors, with orders for your arrest for killingBen Soloman, and these orders will be transmitted to every town andvillage. Your hair and eyes would at once betray you as strangers,and your ignorance of the language would be fatal to you. If,therefore, you escaped being killed as a robber by the peasants,you would run the risk of arrest at the first town or village youentered.
"Translate that to him, Stanislas. He is learning our languagefast, but he cannot understand all that."
"That is just what we were talking about," Charlie said, whenStanislas had repeated the captain's speech, "and the danger seemstoo great to be risked. Think you, that when we get farther to theeast, we shall be able to make our way more easily up intoLivonia?"
"Much more easily, because the forest is more extensive there; butnot until the winter is over. The cold will be terrible, and itwould be death to sleep without shelter. Besides, the forests areinfested with wolves, who roam about in packs, and would scent andfollow and devour you. But when spring comes, you can turn yourfaces to the north, and leave us if you think fit, and I promiseyou that no hindrance shall be thrown in your way. I only ask younot to risk your lives by trying now to pass through Poland alone."
"I think you are right, Ladislas, and I promise you that we willnot attempt to leave you during our journey east. As you say, itwould be impossible for us to travel after winter had once set in.It is now the end of September."
"And it will be November before we reach our destination. We shallnot travel fast. We have no motive for doing so. We have to live bythe way, and to gather a little money to help us through thewinter. We may shoot a bear or an elk sometimes, a few deer, andhares, but we shall want two or three sacks of flour, and somespirits. For these we must either get money, or take the goods. Thefirst is the best, for we have no means of dragging heavy weightswith us, and it would not do to infuriate the peasants byplundering any of them within twenty miles of the place where wemean to winter. That would set them all against us."
"I tell you frankly, Ladislas, that we shall not be willing to aidin any acts of robbery. Of course, when one is with an army one hasto plunder on a large scale, and it has often gone terribly againstthe grain, when I have had to join parties sent out to forage. Butit has to be done. I would rather not join men in taking food, yetI understand that it may be necessary. But as to taking money, Iwill have nothing to do with it. At the same time, I understandthat we cannot share your food, and be with you, without doingsomething. Stanislas has brought me a little money from Warsaw, andI shall be ready to pay into the common treasury a sum sufficientto pay for our share of the food. As to money taken, we shall notexpect any share of it. If you are attacked, we shall of coursefight, and shall be ready to do our full share in all work. So, atany rate, you will not be losers by taking us with you."
"That is fair enough," the captain said, when Stanislas hadtranslated what Charlie said, suppressing, however, his remarksabout foraging with the army, as the brigands were ignorant thatCharlie and he had any connection with the Swedes, or that he wasnot, as he had given out, a young Englishman come out to set up asa trader.
The band now journeyed slowly on, keeping near the north bank ofthe Dnieper. They went by twos and threes, uniting sometimes andentering a village or surrounding a farmhouse at night, and takingwhat they wanted. The people were, however, terribly poor, and theywere able to obtain but little beyond scanty supplies of flour, andoccasionally a few gold or silver trinkets. Many other bands ofplunderers had passed along, in the course of the summer, and therobbers themselves were often moved to pity by the misery that theyeverywhere met with.
When in small parties they were obliged to avoid entering anyvillages, for once or twice furious attacks were made upon thosewho did so, the women joining the men in arming themselves with anyweapon that came to hand, and in falling upon the strangers.
Only once did they succeed in obtaining plunder of value. They hadvisited a village, but found it contained nothing worth taking. Oneof the women said:
"Why do you trouble poor people like us? There is the count'schateau three miles away. They have every luxury there, while weare starving."
After leaving the village, the man to whom she had spoken repeatedwhat she had said, and it was agreed to make the attempt. At thefirst cottage they came to they made further inquiries, and foundthat the lord of the soil was very unpopular; for, in spite of thebadness of the times, he insisted on receiving his rents withoutabatement, and where money was not forthcoming, had seized cattleand horses, assessing them at a price far below what they wouldhave fetched at the nearest market.
They therefore marched to the house. It was a very large one. Thecaptain thoughtfully placed Charlie and Stanislas among the six menwho were to remain without, to prevent any of the inmates leavingthe chateau. With the rest, he made a sudden attack on the greatdoor of the house, and beat it down with a heavy sledge hammer.Just as it gave way, some shots were fired from the inside, butthey rushed in, overpowered the servants, and were soon masters ofthe place.
In half an hour they came out again, laden with booty. Each mancarried half a dozen bottles of choice wine, from the count'scellar, slung at his belt. On their shoulders they carried bundlescontaining silver cups and other valuables; while six of them hadbags of silver money, that had been extracted from the count bythreats of setting fire to the chateau, and burning him and hisfamily.
A halt was made two or three miles away, when the silver wasdivided into shares as usual, the men being well satisfied whenthey learned that Charlie and his companion claimed no part of it.Some of the provisions they had also taken were eaten. Each man hada flask of wine, with which the count's health was derisivelydrunk.
"This has been a good night's work," the leader said, "and you haveeach sixty rix dollars in your pockets, which is more than you havehad for months past. That will keep us in provisions and spiritsall through the winter; but mind, although we took it without muchtrouble, we have not heard the last of the business. No doubt, bythis time, the count has sent off a messenger to the nearest townwhere there are troops, and, for a day or two, we shall have tomarch fast and far. It is one thing to plunder villages, andanother to meddle with a rich nobleman."
For th
e next forty-eight hours they marched by night instead of byday, keeping always together, and prepared to resist an attack. Onemorning they saw, from their hiding place among some high reedsnear the river, a body of about sixty horsemen ride past at adistance. They were evidently searching for something, for partiescould be seen to break off several times, and to enter woods andcopses, the rest halting till they came out again.
As the band had with them enough food for another three days, theyremained for thirty-six hours in their hiding place, and then,thinking the search would by that time be discontinued, went onagain. The next day they killed two or three goats from a herd, theboy in charge of them making off with such speed that, though hotlypursued and fired at several times, he made his escape. Theycarried the carcasses to a wood, lit a fire, and feasted upon them.Then, having cooked the rest of the flesh, they divided it amongthe band.
By this time the wine was finished. The next day they again sawhorsemen in the distance, but remained in hiding till they haddisappeared in the afternoon. They then went into a village, butscarcely had they proceeded up the street when the doors wereopened, and from every house men rushed out armed with flails,clubs, and axes, and fell upon them furiously, shouting "Death tothe robbers!"
They had evidently received warning that a band of plunderers wereapproaching, and everything had been prepared for them. The bandfought stoutly, but they were greatly outnumbered, and, as but fewof them carried firearms, they had no great advantage in weapons.Charlie and Stanislas, finding that their lives were at stake, wereforced to take part in the fray, and both were with the survivorsof the band, who at last succeeded in fighting their way out of thevillage, leaving half their number behind them, while some twentyof the peasants had fallen.
Reduced now to twelve men and the captain, they thought only ofpushing forward, avoiding all villages, and only occasionallyvisiting detached houses for the sake of obtaining flour. Thecountry became more thinly populated as they went on, and there wasa deep feeling of satisfaction when, at length, their leaderpointed to a belt of trees in the distance, and said:
"That is the beginning of the forest. A few miles farther, and weshall be well within it."
By nightfall they felt, for the first time since they had set outon their journey, that they could sleep in safety. A huge fire waslit, for the nights were now becoming very cold, and snow hadfallen occasionally for the last four or five days, and in the opencountry was lying some inches deep. The next day they journeyed afew miles farther, and then chose a spot for the erection of a hut.It was close to a stream, and the men at once set to work, withaxes, to fell trees and clear a space.
It was agreed that the captain and two of the men, of the mostpacific demeanour, should go to the nearest town, some forty milesaway, to lay in stores. They were away five days, and then returnedwith the welcome news that a cart, laden with flour and a couple ofbarrels of spirits, was on a country track through the forest amile and a half away.
"How did you manage, captain?" Charlie asked.
"We went to the house of a well-to-do peasant, about a mile fromthe borders of the wood. I told him frankly that we belonged to aband who were going to winter in the forest, that we would do himno harm if he would give us his aid, but that if he refused hewould soon have his place burnt over his head. As we said we wereready to pay a fair sum for the hire of his cart, he did nothesitate a moment about making the choice. The other two remainedat his cottage, so as to keep his family as hostages for his goodfaith, and I went with him to the town, where we bought six sacksof good flour and the two barrels of spirits. We got a few otherthings--cooking pots and horns, and a lot of coarse blankets, and athick sheepskin coat for each man. They are all in the car. I seethat you have got the hut pretty nearly roofed in, so, in a day ortwo, we shall be comfortable."
They went in a body to the place where the cart had been left, butit required two journeys before its contents were all transportedto the hut. Another three days and this was completed. It wasroughly built of logs, the interstices being filled in with moss.There was no attempt at a door, an opening being left four feethigh and eighteen inches wide for the purpose of an entry. The skinof a deer they had shot, since they arrived, was hung up outside;and a folded rug inside. There was no occasion for windows. Acertain amount of light made its way in by an orifice, a footsquare, that had been left in the roof for the escape of smoke. Thehut itself consisted of one room only, about eighteen feet square.
When this was finished, all hands set to work to pile up a greatstack of firewood, close to the door, so as to save them from thenecessity of going far, until snow had ceased falling, and winterhad set in in earnest.
The cart had brought six carcasses of sheep, that had beenpurchased from a peasant; these were hung up outside the hut tofreeze hard, and the meat was eaten only once a day, as it would beimpossible to obtain a fresh supply, until the weather becamesettled enough to admit of their hunting.
The preparations were but just finished when the snow began to fallheavily. For a week it came down without intermission, the windhowled among the trees, and even Charlie, half stifled as he was bythe smoke, felt no inclination to stir out, except for half anhour's work to clear away the snow from the entrance, and to carryin wood from the pile.
The time passed more cheerfully than might have been expected. Hehad by this time begun to talk Polish with some facility, and wasable to understand the stories that the men told, as they sat roundthe fire; sometimes tales of adventures they themselves had gonethrough, sometimes stories of the history of Poland, its frequentinternal wars, and its struggles with the Turks.
Making bread and cooking occupied some portion of the time, andmuch was spent in sleep. At the end of a week the snow ceasedfalling and the sun came out, and all were glad to leave the hutand enjoy the clear sky and the keen air.
While they had been confined to the hut, two of the men had made alarge number of snares for hares, and they at once started into theforest, to set these in spots where they saw traces of the animals'passage over the snow. The rest went off in parties of twos andthrees in search of other game.
With the exception of Charlie, all were accustomed to the woods;but, as Stanislas had much less experience than the others, thecaptain decided to go with them.
"It is easy for anyone to lose his way here," he said. "In fact,except to one accustomed to the woods, it would be dangerous to gofar away from the hut. As long as it is fine, you will find yourway back by following your own tracks, but if the weather changedsuddenly, and it came on to snow, your case would be hopeless. Oneof the advantages of placing our hut on a stream is that it forms agreat aid to finding one's way back. If you strike it above, youfollow it down; if below, upwards, until you reach the hut. Ofcourse you might wander for days and never hit it, still it is muchmore easy to find than a small object like the hut, though evenwhen found, it would be difficult to decide whether it had beenstruck above or below the hut.
"Now, there is one rule if, at any time, you get lost. Don't beginto wander wildly about, for, if you did, you would certainly walkin a circle, and might never be found again. Sit down quietly andthink matters over, eat if you have got any food with you; thenexamine the sky, and try to find out from the position of the sun,or the direction in which the clouds are going, which way the hutought to lie. Always take with you one of your pistols; if you fireit three times, at regular intervals, it will be a signal that youwant help, and any of us who are within hearing will come to aidyou."
With the exception of hares, of which a good many were snared, thehunting was not productive. Tracks of deer were seen notunfrequently, but it was extremely difficult, even when the animalswere sighted, to get across the surface of the snow to within rangeof the clumsy arquebuses that two or three of the men carried. Theydid, however, manage to shoot a few by erecting a shelter, justhigh enough for one man to lie down under, and leaving it until thenext snowstorm so covered it that it seemed but a knoll in theground, or a low shrub bent down
and buried under the weight of thesnow. These shelters were erected close to paths taken by the deer,and, by lying patiently all day in them, the men occasionallymanaged to get a close shot.
Several bears were killed, and two elks. These afforded food for along time, as the frozen flesh would keep until the return ofspring. Holes were made in the ice on the stream, and baited hooksbeing set every night, it was seldom that two or three fish werenot found fast on them in the morning.
Altogether, therefore, there was no lack of food; and as, under theteaching of the captain, Charlie in time learnt to be able to keephis direction through the woods, he was often able to go out,either with Stanislas or alone, thus keeping clear of the closesmoky hut during the hours of daylight. Upon the whole he found thelife by no means an unpleasant one.
Among the articles purchased by the captain were high boots, linedwith sheepskin, coming up to the thigh. With these and the coats,which had hoods to pull over the head, Charlie felt the cold butlittle during the day; while at night he found the hut oftenuncomfortably warm, sleeping, as they all did, in the same attirein which they went out.
In February the weather became excessively severe, more so, thepeasants and charcoal burners they occasionally met with declared,than they ever remembered. The wild animals became tamer, and inthe morning when they went out, they frequently found tracks ofbears that had been prowling round the hut in search of offal, orbones thrown out. They were now obliged to hang their supply ofmeat, by ropes, from boughs at some distance from the ground, bywhich means they were enabled to prevent the bears getting at it.
They no longer dared to venture far from the hut, for large packsof wolves ranged through the forest, and, driven by hunger, evenentered villages, where they attacked and killed many women andchildren, made their entrance into sheds, and tore dogs, horses,and cattle to pieces, and became at last so dangerous that thevillagers were obliged to keep great fires burning in the streetsat night, to frighten them away. Several times the occupants of thehut were awakened by the whining and snarling of wolves outside.But the walls and roof were alike built of solid timber, and aroughly-made door of thick wood was now fastened, every night,against the opening, and so stoutly supported by beams behind it asto defy assault. Beyond, therefore, a passing grumble at beingawakened by the noise, the men gave themselves no trouble as to thesavage animals outside.
"If these brutes grow much bolder," the captain said one day, "weshall be prisoners here altogether. They must have come down fromthe great forest that extends over a large part of Russia. Thevillages are scarce there, and the peasants take good care to keepall their beasts in shelter, so no doubt they are able to pick upmore at the edge of the forest here."
"How far are we from the Russian frontier?"
"I do not think anyone could tell you. For aught I know, we may bein Russia now. These forests are a sort of no man's land, and Idon't suppose any line of frontier has ever been marked. It isRussia to the east of this forest, some thirty miles away, and itis Poland to the west of it. The forest is no good to anyone exceptthe charcoal burners. I have met both Russians and Poles in thewood, and, as there is plenty of room for all--ay, and would bewere there a thousand to every one now working in it--they are onfriendly terms with each other, especially as the two nations are,at present, allied against Sweden."
In spite of the wolves, Charlie continued his walks in the forest,accompanied always by Stanislas. Both carried axes and pistols,and, although Charlie had heard many tales of solitary men, andeven of vehicles, being attacked by the wolves in broad daylight,he believed that most of the stories were exaggerations, and thatthe chances of two men being attacked in daylight were small,indeed.
He had found that the track, by which the cart had brought thestores, was a good deal used, the snow being swept away or levelledby the runners of sledges, either those of peasants who came intothe forest for wood or charcoal, or of travellers journeyingbetween Russia and Poland. He generally selected this road for hiswalk, both because it was less laborious than wading through theuntrodden snow, and because there was here no fear of losing hisway, and he was spared the incessant watchfulness for signs thatwas necessary among the trees. At first he had frequently metpeasants' carts on the road, but, since the cold became more severeand the wolves more numerous and daring, he no longer encounteredthem. He had indeed heard, from some of the last he saw, that theyshould come no more, for that the charcoal burners were allabandoning their huts, and going into the villages.
One afternoon, when they had, on their return, nearly reached thespot where they left the road to strike across the forest to thehut, they heard a noise behind them.
"That is a pack of wolves, in full cry!" Stanislas exclaimed. "Youhad better get up into a tree. They are after something."
They hastily clambered into a tree, whose lower branches were butsix or seven feet from the ground. A moment later two horses, wildwith fright, dashed past, while some twenty yards behind them camea pack of fifty or sixty wolves. They were almost silent now, withtheir red tongues hanging out.
"The brutes have been attacking a sledge," Stanislas said in a lowtone. "You saw the horses were harnessed, and their broken traceswere hanging by their side. It is easy to read the story. Thesledge was attacked; the horses, mad with fear, broke their tracesand rushed off, or perhaps the driver, seeing at the last momentthat escape was impossible, slashed the ropes with his knife, so asto give the horses a chance. I expect they got a start, for thewolves would be detained a little at the sledge."
"Do you think the poor beasts will get safe out of the forest,Stanislas?"
"I don't think so, but they may. The chase has evidently been along one, and the wolves have tired themselves with their firstefforts to come up to them. It did not seem to me that they weregaining when they passed us. It is simply a question of endurance,but I fancy the wolves will last longest.
"See, here is a party of stragglers. I suppose they stopped longerat the sledge."
"It seems to me they are on our scent, Stanislas. Do you see, theyare coming along at the side of the road where we walked, withtheir heads down."
"I am afraid they are. Well, we shall soon see. Yes, they areleaving the road where we did."
A moment later a dozen wolves ran up to the trunk of the tree, andthere gathered snuffing and whining. Presently one caught sight ofthe two figures above them, and with an angry yelp sprang up in theair, and immediately all were growling, snarling, and leaping.Charlie laughed out loud at their impotent efforts.
"It is no laughing matter, sir," Stanislas said gravely.
"They cannot climb up here, Stanislas."
"No, but they can keep us here. It will be dark in an hour, andlikely enough they will watch us all night."
"Then we had better shoot two of them, and jump down with ourhatchets. Keeping back to back, we ought to be able to face tenwolves."
"Yes, if that were all; but see, here come three or four more, andthe dozen will soon swell to a score. No, we shall have to waithere all night, and probably for some time tomorrow, for the menare not likely to find us very early, and they will hardly hear ourpistols unless some of them happen to come in this direction."
"Do you think, if we shoot two or three of them, the rest will go?"
"Certainly not. It will be all the worse. Their comrades would atonce tear them to pieces and devour them, and the scent of bloodwould very soon bring others to the spot."
"Well, if we have got to wait here all night, Stanislas, we hadbetter choose the most comfortable place we can, at once, before itgets dark. We must mind we don't go to sleep and tumble off."
"There will be no fear of our sleeping," Stanislas said. "The coldwill be too great for that. We shall have to keep on swinging ourhands and feet, and rubbing our noses, to prevent ourselves fromgetting frostbitten."
"Well, I have never felt the cold in these clothes," Charlie said.
"No, sir, but you have never been out at night, sitting cramped ona tree."
The cold was intense and, in spite of swinging his legs and arms,Charlie felt that his vital heat was decreasing.
"This is awful, Stanislas. I do not think we can last on tillmorning."
"I begin to have doubts myself, sir. Perhaps it would be better toleap down and make a fight of it."
"We might shoot some of them first," Charlie said. "How manycharges have you?"
"I have only two, besides one in the barrel."
"And I have only three," Charlie said. "Powder has run very short.The captain was saying, yesterday, that we must send to the villageand try to get some more. Still, six shots will help us."
"Not much, sir. There must be thirty or forty of them now. I haveseen some come from the other way. I suppose they were part of thepack that followed the horses."
Charlie sat for some time thinking. Then he exclaimed:
"I think this is a dead tree."
"It is, sir. I noticed it when we climbed up. The head has gone,and I think it must have been struck with lightning last summer."
"Then I think we can manage."
"Manage what, sir?" the man asked in surprise.
"Manage to make a fire, Stanislas. First of all, we will crawl outtowards the ends of the branches as far as we can get, and breakoff twigs and small boughs. If we can't get enough, we can cutchips off, and we will pile them all where these three big boughsbranch off from the trunk. We have both our tinderboxes with us,and I see no reason why we should not be able to light a fire uphere."
"So we might," Stanislas said eagerly. "But if we did, we might setthe whole tree on fire."
"No bad thing, either," Charlie rejoined. "You may be sure the firewill keep the wolves at a respectful distance, and we could getdown and enjoy the heat without fear."
"I believe your idea will save our lives, sir. Ten minutes ago Iwould not have given a crown for our chances."
They at once crawled out upon two of the great branches, and arenewed chorus of snarls from below showed that their foes werewatchful. The snapping of the small branches excited a certainamount of uneasiness among them, and they drew off a shortdistance. In ten minutes Charlie and his companion workedthemselves back to the main trunk, each carrying an armful oftwigs. They first cut off a number of small dry chips, and made apile of these at the junction of one of the branches with thetrunk. They then got out their tinderboxes and bunches of rags,shook a few grains of powder from one of the horns among the chips,and then got the tinder alight. A shred of rag, that had beenrubbed with damp powder, was applied to the spark and then placedamong the shavings. A flash of light sprang up, followed by asteady blaze, as the dried chips caught. One by one at first, andthen, as the fire gained strength, several sticks at a time werelaid over the burning splinters, and in five minutes a large firewas blazing.
Charlie and his companion took their seats where the other two bigbranches shot out from the trunk. These were two or three feethigher than that on which the fire had been lighted, and, ere long,a sensation of genial warmth began to steal over them. Fresh stickswere lighted as the first were consumed, and before long the trunk,where the flames played on it, began to glow. Light tongues offlame rose higher and higher, until the trunk was alight ten ortwelve feet up.
"The wolves are all gone," Charlie said, looking down.
"I don't suppose they have gone very far, sir. But when the treeonce gets fairly alight, you may be sure they won't ventureanywhere near it."
They had already been forced to move some little distance away fromthe trunk, by the heat, and as the flames rose higher and higher,embracing in the course of half an hour the whole of the trunk andupper branches, they felt that it was perfectly safe to drop offinto the snow beneath them.
Blazing brands soon began to fall. They stood a short distanceaway, so as to be beyond the risk of accident, but, at Charlie'ssuggestion, they ran in from time to time, gathered up the brandsand laid them at the foot of the trunk, and in a short time asecond fire was kindled here.
The tree was now a pyramid of fire, lighting up the snow for a longdistance round. Outside this circle the wolves could be heardwhining and whimpering, occasionally uttering a long-drawn howl.
"They know that they are baulked of their prey," Stanislas said."We shall have some of the big branches falling soon, and shall beable to keep up a roaring fire, that will last until daylight. Ishould think by that time the wolves will be tired of it, and willmake off; but if not, the captain will be sure to send men out tosearch for us. He will guess we have been treed by wolves, and wehave only to get into another tree, and fire our pistols, to bringthem in this direction."
"But they may be attacked, too," Charlie remarked.
"There are ten of them, and they are sure to come armed with axesand swords. They ought to be able to fight their way through agood-sized pack. Besides, the wolves will be so cowed by this greatfire, that I don't think they will have the courage to meddle withso strong a party."
One by one the arms of the tree fell, burnt through at the pointwhere they touched the trunk. They would have been far too heavy tobe dragged, but three or four of them fell across the lower fire,and there lay blazing. Not knowing which way the tree itself wouldfall, Charlie and his companion were obliged to remain at somedistance off, but the heat there was amply sufficient for them. Atlast the trunk fell with a crash, and they at once establishedthemselves as near the fire as they could sit, without beingscorched, and there chatted until morning began to break.
They felt sure that some, at least, of the wolves were around them,as they occasionally caught sight of what looked like two sparksamong the undergrowth; these being, as they knew, the reflection ofthe fire in the eyes of a wolf. There was a tree hard by in whichthey could, if necessary, take refuge, and they therefore resolvedto stay near the fire.
Fortunately the night had been perfectly still, and, as the treethey had fired was a detached one, the flames had not spread, asCharlie had at one time been afraid they would do.
Half an hour after daylight had fairly broken, they dischargedthree shots at regular intervals with their pistols, then theywaited half an hour.
"Shall we fire again?"
"No. Not until we hear shots from them," Charlie replied. "We havebut four charges left, and if the wolves made a sudden rush, wemight want to use them."
After a time, both thought they heard the distant report of amusket. Stanislas looked at Charlie inquiringly. The latter shookhis head.
"No, no! Stanislas. That gun would be heard twice as far as one ofthese pistols. Let us wait until we are pretty sure that they arenear. I don't like leaving ourselves without other protection thanour axes."