“We gathered before the den, and lighted straw and pushed it into the den to drive her out. But she did not appear.
“Then we put sulphur on the straw and forced it into the den, so that it might fill the cavern with the fumes. But the three-footed wolf did not come out of the den. The cave might be a large one; it might have an opening out some other way.
“We called a huge dog, and bade him to enter the cave. He dove down through the opening. Presently we heard him cry; he soon backed out of the opening, bleeding. The wolf was in the cave.
“Another dog, and another were forced to enter the cave, both returning whining and bleeding. Neither smoke nor dogs were able to destroy that animal that had made herself a terror of the country round.
“I called my negro herder.
“‘Sam,’ said I, ‘you go into the cave and end that animal.’
“‘Not for a thousand pounds, nor for all the sheep on the hills of the Lord. What would become of Sam? Look at the dogs’ noses. Would you send me where no dog could go?’
“‘Then I shall go myself,’ said I, for nothing can stop me from anything when my resolution has gathered force; there are times when I must lighten.
“I took off my coat and prepared to go down into the cave. My neighbors held me back. I took a torch, and plunged down the entrance to the cave, head first, with the torch blazing.