The boys had to skirt some heavy brushwood, and then came out in a small cleared space surrounded by numerous big rocks and pine trees. The strange noises they had heard had come from between two of the large rocks, and now, of a sudden, several forms, snapping and snarling and whirling this way and that in the snow, burst upon their view.
"Wolves!"
"Four of them!"
"They are all fighting over the possession of a dead partridge!"
Four gaunt and hungry-looking wolves had come tumbling out in the snow. One of them was carrying a dead partridge in his mouth, and the other three were doing their best to get the game away from him. As the Rovers came into the opening, the wolves, for an instant, stopped their fighting and glared at the boys. Then the animal having the game made a sudden leap over the rocks and disappeared from view. The three wolves that remained began to snap and snarl and show their teeth.
"Gracious! they are certainly hungry-looking beggars!" was Randy's comment.
"Come on, let's shoot them!" exclaimed Jack.
"They're no good for game," interposed Randy.
"I know that, Randy. But we don't want them on the island, and neither does Uncle Barney."
"I thought he said there weren't very many wolves left. Maybe——"