My hands and lips were bleeding, but utterly unmindful of this, I began work on the rope that still bound my body and feet. I believe that I worked quickly, but to me, at the time, a second seemed an age.
At length I had myself all liberated but my left foot, and was just freeing this when the wolf again appeared. He hardly made a sound, but being on the alert, I felt his presence long before he got ready to make his final attack.
I could not understand why the wolf had been so ferocious at this time of the year. It was midsummer, and there must have been plenty of small game on the island upon which he could feed. Perhaps it was only the smell of human blood that incited him to charge upon me.
Hardly realizing what I was doing, I picked up the rope and whirled it at him. The latter turned and twisted upon the ground like a snake, and as its end reached the wolf, he sprang back several feet.
Seeing this, I threw the rope at him again, just as he was ready to spring forward.
This time the coil twisted about one of his forelegs, and by pulling upon it, I tangled him up in such a fashion that he tumbled on his back.
At this the beast gave such a cry as I had never heard before. It was one of wonder and fear combined, and it was accompanied by a sudden drawing away and vicious snap at the rope.
He did not, however, hold the rope in his mouth long. In an instant he had disengaged himself from the snarl, and this done he broke for cover, and disappeared from sight forever.
It was an odd way to escape, and I considered myself very lucky that fortune had favored me.