Snatching Millicent from the horse, he put her into the branches of a low pine and ordered her to clamber higher. She obeyed without a word, and he took another tree close at hand. The horses ran toward the camp.
Jan needed no second bidding, but ran away, with a face which betokened his earnest hate of the animal in question. Wolves! He had heard their ominous howl near his house on the borders of the Black Forest many a time. The ferocity of the animal is wonderful. Jan knew that well. He recognized the lolling tongue, the white teeth. He had heard his father tell of peasants taken in the forest, far from home and dragged down, screaming in vain for aid. Next day their friends would find their bones whitening in the sun’s rays.
The pack uttered fierce yells at the sight of the man, and rushed at him. But Jan got to a tree in season, taking his gun with him. Down came the pack, snarling, snapping at each other, and scattering the leaves on either side. In a moment they surrounded the trees in which the trappers had taken shelter, leaping up against them, gnashing their white teeth and clawing at the bark. Millicent uttered a cry of terror.
“I dinks I puilds a ’ouse in a dree,” said Jan, despairingly. “I has peen drove to a dree more ash dree times sence I cooms here. I dinks dat it vas von coonthry vere dey lifs in der drees.”
“Ye oughter be glad ye’ve got a tree so nigh,” said Ben. “The durned animiles would ’a’ tore ye to pieces in half a minnit more. Thar! They’ve found yer b’ar. Don’t holler, gal. They kain’t get at ye.”
A dozen fierce jaws were tearing at the rough hide of the grizzly, and others struggling to get a taste of the coveted flesh. Jan was in a rage. His “pear,” the trophy of his valor, the beast he had killed with his own hand, to be devoured before his eyes by a pack of hungry wolves! He was in a towering passion.
“I dinks dat pymepye I gets down unt kills auvery volf in dat flock. Look! See how dey shpile my pear! I kills dat pear myself.”
“I’m satisfied thet ’tain’t our hide the’r’ a-tearin’,” said Ben. “Thet’s all right. Let ’em eat. Then mebbe they won’t be so hungry for us. I guess we may ez well drop a few of them while we’ve got the light.”
He raised his rifle and was about to fire, but a second thought caused him to lower it. “No, ’twon’t do to make them any madder then they ar’, or the obstinate brutes will stay hyar a week but they’ll hev us. Durn a wolf, anyhow. What do they want to chase us for jest now?”
“Shpose I shoots my cun at dem vunce,” said Jan. “I shoots fiviff or sax mit one dime. Look; I shoots dat vun over dere.”