CHAPTER VII
I have a Fight and a Fright: after which I make some Plans for theFuture and take up my Bed and move.
I don't know if the door really struck the wolf's nose or not, when Islammed it shut, but it could not have lacked much of it. Poor Kaiserrushed around the stove, faced the window, and began to bark soexcitedly that his voice trembled and sounded differently than I hadever heard it before. I must have been a little excited myself, as Istopped to bolt the door, just as if the wolf could turn the knob andwalk in. When I stepped back I met the wolf face to face gazing in thewindow, with his eyes flaming and mouth a little open. He was gauntand hungry-looking. The rest of the pack were just coming up, howlingas loud as they could.
I ran to the desk and got the rifle; then I dropped on one knee andfired across the room straight at the wolf's throat. He fell back inthe snow dead; and, of course, there was only a little round hole inthe window-pane. Everything would have been all right if it had notbeen for a mean spirit of revenge in Kaiser, for no sooner did he seehis enemy fall back lifeless than with one jump he smashed through thewindow and fell upon him savagely. He had not seen the rest of thepack, but the next second half a dozen of them pounced on him. I darednot fire again for fear of hitting him, so I dropped my gun, seized anaxe which I had used to split kindling-wood, and ran forward. Therewas a cloud of snow outside, and then the dog tumbled back through thewindow with one of the wolves, and they rolled over and over togetheron the floor.
I got to the window just as a second wolf started to come through thebroken pane. I struck him full on the head with the axe, and he sankdown dead, half outside and half inside. The others that pressedbehind stopped as they saw his fate and stood watching the struggle onthe floor through the window.
Kaiser was making a good fight, but the wolf was too much for him, andsoon the dog was on his back with the wolf's jaws at his throat. Thiswas more than I could stand, and I turned and struck at the animalwith my axe. I missed him, but he let go his hold, snapped at the axe,and when I started to strike again he turned and jumped through thewindow over his dead companion and joined the howling pack on thesnow-drift in front of the house.
I seized the gun again and rested it across the dead wolf, firing fullat the impudent rascal who had come in and made Kaiser so muchtrouble. It was a good shot, and the wolf went down in the snow. Ipumped up another cartridge, but the wolves saw that they were beaten,and the whole pack turned tail and ran off as fast as their legs couldcarry them. I took two more shots, but missed both. The wolves wentaround Frenchman's Butte, never once stopping their howling.
As soon as they were out of sight I had a look at Kaiser. I found himall blood from a wound in his neck, and one of his fore legs was sobadly crippled that the poor beast could not bear his weight on it. Igot some warm water and washed him off and bound up his throat. WhenI was done I heard a strange yowl, and, looking about, spied Pawsyclinging on top of the casing of the door which led into thedining-room, with her tail as big as a bed-bolster. I suppose she hadgone up early in the wolf-fight, not liking such proceedings. She wasstill in the greatest state of fright, and spat and scratched at me asI took her down.
I next swept up the dog and wolf fur and cleaned the floor, and afterI had got the place set to rights nailed a board over the brokenwindow and carried the three dead wolves into the kitchen, where,after supper, I skinned them, hoping that some day their hides wouldgo into the making of a fur overcoat for me; something which Ineeded.
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I don't know if it was the excitement of the fight, or the awfulstillness of the night, or what it was, but after I had finished mywork and sat down in the office to rest I fell into the utmost terror.The awful lonesomeness pressed down upon me like a weight. I startedat the least sound; dangers I had never thought of before, such assickness and the like, popped into my mind clear as day, and, inshort, I was half dead from sheer fright. There was not a breath ofwind outside, or a sound, except once in a while a sharp crack of somebuilding as the frost warped a clapboard or sprung out a nail; and ateach crack I started as if I had been struck. The moon was shiningbrightly, but it was much colder; the thermometer already markedtwenty degrees below zero.
Suddenly there came, clear and sharp, the savage howling of a pack ofwolves; it seemed at the very door. I jumped out of my chair, I was sostartled, and stood, I think, a most disgraceful picture of a coward.Kaiser rose up on his three sound legs and began to growl. At last Igot courage to go to the window and peep out, with my teeth fairlychattering. I could see them up the street, all in a bunch, andoffering a fine shot; but I was too frightened to shoot. After a whilethey went off, and it was still again. I wondered which was worse,their savage wailing or the awful stillness which made the ticking ofthe clock seem like the blows of a hammer. I wished that there mightcome another blizzard.
But at last I got so I could walk the floor; and as I went back andforth I managed to look at things a little more calmly. The firstthing I decided on was that I must no longer, in good weather atleast, sleep in the hotel. It was easy to see, if the robbers came inthe night and found nobody in the other houses, that they would comestraight to the hotel. I made up my mind to take my bed to some emptyhouse where they would be little likely to look for any one, or wherethey would not be apt to look until after I had had warning of theircoming.
Another thing which I decided on was that I must keep up two or threemore fires, and get up early every morning to start them. I saw, too,that I ought to distribute the Winchesters more, and board up thewindows of the bank, and perhaps some of the other buildings, leavingloopholes out of which to shoot. Still another point which I thoughtof was this: Suppose the whole town should be burned? I wondered if Icould not find or make some place where I would be safe and would nothave to expose myself to the robbers if they stayed while the fireburned, as they probably would. I thought of the cellars, but it didnot seem that I could make one of them do in any way.
My fright was, after all, a good thing, because it made me think ofall possible dangers, and consequently, as it seemed, ways to meetthem. It was at this time that the idea of a tunnel under the snowacross the street from the hotel to the bank occurred to me; but I wasnot sure about this. Still, some way to cross the street without beingseen kept running in my mind. In short, I walked and thought myselfinto a much better state of mind, and, though I still started at everysound, I was no longer too frightened to control myself.
When it came bedtime I decided to follow out my plan for sleeping awayfrom the hotel without delay. There was an empty store building to thenorth of the hotel. It was new, and had never been occupied. I hadoften noticed that one of the second-story windows on the side wasdirectly opposite one in the hotel, and not over four feet away. Icarried up the ironing-board from the kitchen, opened the hotelwindow, put the board over for a bridge, stepped across and enteredthe vacant building.
I thought I had never seen a place quite so cold before; but I carriedover the mattress from my bed, together with several blankets, andplaced them in a small back room in the second story. The doors andwindows of the first story were all nailed and boarded up, and itseemed about the last place that you would expect to find any onesleeping. I left the dog and cat in the hotel, took one of the rifleswith me, and pulled in my drawbridge. I almost dropped it as I did so,for at that instant the wolves set up another unearthly howling. I gotinto bed as quick as I could. They went the length of the street withtheir horrible noise; and then I heard them scratching at the doorsand windows of the barn. I could have shot them easily in the brightmoonlight; but I remember that I didn't do so.
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