Presently, as he still stared closely at it, he saw another form much like it steal through the dead grass toward it.
Then, over the hills on the east, rose the moon in its first quarter, shedding a pale light over the prairie.
Ted was now able to see that there was a pack of wolves, instead of two, as he at first thought.
The boys on the ground could not see the wolves on account of the tufts of grass that scattered over the prairie, and, had they seen them, would not have been able to distinguish one from the other.
It seemed strange to Ted that the wolves had not yet given voice. It was unusual for wolves to come so near a ranch house in numbers without giving warning by howling.
Suddenly the reason why they did not dawned upon him.
They were not wolves, but men in wolves' clothing.
Ted chuckled at the thought.
The "wolves" did not know yet that they were discovered, for they could not see Ted in his cupola watch-house, although they could easily see Bud and Clay as they walked around the house, now in the full light of the moon.
Ted was suddenly startled by hearing a noise to the left, and at the same time he heard Bud stop in his march. Evidently he had been attracted by the sound also.