Ted Strong in Montana / Or, With Lariat and Spur

by Edward C. Taylor

As Ted looked he saw the cause of the noise. It was a wolf, larger than the others, which had crept closer to the house.

As he was looking at it he was astonished to see it rise up.

Then he caught the glint of a revolver barrel in the moonlight.

In an instant he knew the meaning of it.

With the precision of a machine his own rifle rose to his shoulder, and, without a second's hesitation, a streak of flame belched from it, followed by the roar of the report.

Looking closely through the smoke, Ted saw the "wolf" straighten up to the full stature of a man, then fall to the ground, over which it went writhing and tossing, while at the same time the most human of yells expressing agony came from it.

This was the signal for the other "wolves" to howl, and the most unearthly noise come from all sides of the house.

These were followed by a perfect fusillade of rifle and revolver shots from everywhere, most of them aimed at the cupola.

But as soon as Ted had fired the shot that had brought down the man wolf he had jumped through the scuttle into the attic of the house, and the balls harmlessly riddled the cupola.

From a window on the second floor Ted saw a score or more of forms leap into prominence; the forms of men who cast aside their skins of wolf, and who had turned their wolfish howls into the scarcely less fiendish yells of men.