Billy Whiskers Out for Fun

by Frances Trego Montgomery

“Now was my chance. While he had his head raised to give the cry, his eyes were turned upward and his chest expanded. So with a mighty spring forward I buried my sharp horns in his chest, piercing clear through to his heart. He dropped dead. I had just finished with him when two more came in sight.

“‘Come on, Nannie! You take the smaller one to the right and I will take the big one to the left. Be sure to spring upon them the minute they reach the spot in the path where that big stone is. It will take them so by surprise that it will give us the advantage, for they expect us to run away instead of fight.’

“And now that there was real danger at hand, Nannie bounded up as she always did and she and I sprang at the wolves at the same instant and knocked them over the steep cliff down into the canyon below. And we could hear them rolling with the stones they loosened, down, down, down into the rocky stream below.

“Now two more wolves came from one direction and three from another, and none of them knew what had happened to their comrades for the killings had taken place out of sight and in such quick time that none of the wolves had let out so much as a peep.

“‘Keep close to me, Nannie, so I can help you a little,’ I said.

“Just then the wolves spied us, and they all gave a howl of pleasure and quickened their pace. ‘Now is where we fight as we never did before, or die,’ I thought.

“With mouth open and tail swinging high in air, the foremost and largest one of the five jumped straight for me. He was so much larger than I that for a second he bore me to the ground with his teeth in my neck, but as luck would have it the collar I always wore kept the wolf from closing his mouth so his sharp teeth only grazed my skin instead of sinking into my throat as the wolf intended they should.

“Nannie, on seeing me down and the wolf on top of me with blood flowing from my wounds, thought of course I was killed. And forgetting herself, she charged on the wolf, and while he was preparing for another bite at my neck, something ran in his side and he knew no more. Nannie’s sharp horns had pierced his heart. She had just time to pull her horns out of his side when the other wolves were upon her.

“Seeing them coming, I squirmed from under the heavy dead wolf that was pinning me down and was on my feet beside Nannie before the wolves reached her. But what was our surprise to see the wolves stop short when within six feet of us, lift their noses in the air, sniff and start past us on a gallop. The wolves had smelled the blood of the first wolf that had been killed and Nannie and I had no charms for them compared to fresh blood, even though it was the blood of one of their own pack. They fell upon the wolves Nannie and I had killed and fought and tore at the carcasses until not a shred of meat was left on any of the bones.

“‘Now is our time to escape, Nannie, while the wolves are gorging themselves with fresh meat,’ I said, and so we started up the side of the mountain in double quick time. By morning we had reached the summit and crossed over and were down the other side beyond the snow line before we stopped traveling. But we had to halt and get our breath and rest very often as one has to in high altitudes.