Once she raised her head and licked the caressing hand. And her narrow eyes told plainly she was doing her best to interpret his every spoken word.
At last the boy stood up again and turned away. The dogs would obey him. They would remain just where they were until they received his fresh commands.
The Wolf was carrying his rifle ready for immediate use. What he expected to discover as he moved towards the edge of the clearing he did not know. Speculation, wonder; these things had passed from him. And in their place had come a feeling of profound disquiet.
It was just a little queer, that sense of apprehension. It was quite foreign to him. Young as he was, the Wolf’s nerves were tuned to the worst the mountain wilderness could show him. Never in his life had he known real fear. Not even in his earliest days, when Pideau’s savage hand had fallen heavily upon him.
He moved on, a shadow amongst the leafless trunks, and, like a ghost, he glided over the intervening quarter of a mile which brought him to the tangle of undergrowth in the midst of which lay the clearing.
He paused and considered. Ordinarily he would have thrust his way through it without any hesitation. It would have been the simplest, most direct method of approach to his goal. But the thought of Rene still clung, and its influence refused to be dispelled.
He considered deeply and searched with all his eyes. Then he took his decision. There were two openings into the clearing. The one which Pideau had cut to the eastward, and the other, a natural, obscure pathway, on the westward side, not easy of discovery by the uninformed. He decided upon the latter.
It was at the moment of turning to move on that he became motionless. A terrific hubbub crashed through the silence. Grasping his rifle in both hands ready, he stood with eyes fearfully wide. Then he smiled a boyish grin at his own absurdity. It was only cattle. The sudden lowing of driven beasts. It was not a solitary bellow either. But a booming chorus. And it came from the heart of the bush in front of him.
Then his smile passed. Oh, he understood. Pideau had returned with a full bag from his raid. He was there in his hiding with his spoils. He was resting the beasts, and probably feeding them hay in the corrals from the stack that was kept stored for that purpose. Again he considered. And considering, he remembered his dog.