“I’ll pay them,” he muttered.
CHAPTER IV
JIMMY SAVES A STRANGER
As Jimmy began to approach his own cabin a long, mournful howl reached him and he threw up his head like an animal, scenting danger.
More howls. He stood motionless, listening. For a moment there was silence, and then the howling began again. It was not growing nearer.
“Timber wolves,” he muttered. “It’s been a hard winter and they’re coming nearer the settlements. I wonder what they’re after. Sounds as if they were near the cabin.”
He went forward briskly. They might have come about the cabin to see if they could find anything in the traps. One of them might even have tumbled into a turkey trap. They did not stop howling, but the howls grew more and more distinct as Jimmy advanced.
“They’re round the cabin, as sure as judgment,” he said, as he hurried along. “Some fool trapper’s gone and jerked some meat up against the wall too high for them to reach it. Well, I’m not going to stay outside to favor all the wolves in Ohio.”
He was within a hundred yards of the cabin. He knew it by the fallen maple that he clambered over, as he had done a hundred times. The wolves were certainly at the cabin. Between their howls he could hear them snarling amongst one another and scratching like dogs against the bark-covered walls of the hut.