“Maybe he scented human beings watching him,” suggested Anne.
Tally shook his head, but in another moment the scouts learned what had caused his annoyance. He now sounded a warning to the cows, and they all lifted their heads instantly and sniffed as the buck had done.
“Dear me, I hope they won’t run away,” wished Ruth, and then she saw that they would not run—they would defend themselves.
From out the dark fringe of forest there now crept a number of lean hungry timber-wolves, looking like long grey shadows of the trees. So slowly and noiselessly did they move that only animals trained to defend themselves in the wilderness would have known an enemy was so close at hand.
As they moved, the four men silently lifted their rifles, and waited for the signal from Tally to shoot.
“Are those the wolves we heard last night?” asked Julie.
“Most likely, or some like them,” returned Mr. Gilroy, in a whisper that only those next him could hear.
“Um! t’ree of ’em—get reward fur dem coyotes!” grinned Omney.
The caribou, warned in time by the bull, saw the skulking beasts creeping, creeping like the shadows towards them, and they instantly formed their defence, as they always do in case of extreme danger when it is wiser to fight than to fly.
With their hind legs closed together like the center of a wheel, and their heads presenting antlers pointing towards the enemy like bayonets on the defence line in a battle, the herd stood perfectly still and waited.