Chapter Eighteen.
An Odd Adventure before Breakfast.
They had plenty of meat for their breakfast though—such as it was—and came nigh paying dearly enough for it.
The three brothers slept lying along the ground within a few feet of one another. Their tent was gone, and, of course, they were in the open air. They were under a large spreading tree, and, wrapped in their blankets, had been sleeping soundly through the night. Day was just beginning to break, when something touched François on the forehead. It was a cold, clammy object; and, pressing upon his hot skin, woke him at once. He started as if a pin had been thrust into him; and the cry which he uttered awoke also his companions. Was it a snake that had touched him? François thought so at the moment, and continued to think so while he was rubbing his eyes open. When this feat was accomplished, however, he caught a glimpse of some object running off, that could not be a snake.
“What do you think it was?” inquired Basil and Lucien, in the same breath.
“A wolf, I think,” replied François. “It was his cold nose I felt. See! yonder it goes. See—see—there are two of them!”
François pointed in the direction in which the two animals were seen to run. Basil and Lucien looked, and saw them as well. They were about the size of wolves, but appeared to be quite black, and not like wolves at all. What could they be? They had suddenly passed into a darker aisle among the trees, and the boys had only caught a glimpse of them as they went in. They could still distinguish their two bodies in the shade, but nothing more. What could they be? Perhaps javalies? This thought, no doubt, occurred to the brothers, because of their late adventure with these animals.
“They are too large, and run too clumsily, for javalies,” said Lucien.
“Bears?” suggested François.