“I felt my friend trembling in my grasp but his voice was firm.
“‘When I say the word,’ he replied, giving me his hunting knife, ‘lean over and cut the rope of the decoy. That will detain them a short time. Soon as you have done so lie down on the left side of the sledge and cling to the cords across the bottom.’
“Then turning to Ivan he ordered him to slacken speed a little, but only a little, at the corner, and keep the horses from running to either side as he turned. This done Kanchin clung to the left side of the sledge prepared to step upon its fender and counteract, if possible, our centrifugal force.
“We approached the main road, and just as I discovered the open space at the crossing Kanchin shouted,—
“‘Strike!’
“I whipped off the rope in an instant and we left our decoy behind us. The wolves stopped, gathered densely about the prize, and began quarreling over it. Only a few remained to tear the cage asunder. The rest, after a brief halt, continued the pursuit, but the little time they lost was of precious value to us.
“We approached the dreaded turning. Kanchin placed his feet upon the fender and fastened his hands into the net-work of the sledge. I lay down in the place assigned me, and never did drowning man cling to a rope more firmly than I clung to the bottom of our vehicle. As we swept around the corner the sledge was whirled in air, turned upon its side and only saved from complete oversetting by the positions of Kanchin and myself.
“Just as the sledge righted, and ran upon both runners, I heard a piercing cry. Ivan, occupied with his horses, was not able to cling like ourselves; he fell from his seat, and hardly struck the snow before the wolves were upon him. That one shriek that filled my ears was all he could utter. The reins were trailing, but fortunately where they were not likely to be entangled. The horses needed no driver; all the whips in the world could not increase their speed. Two of our guns wore lost as we turned from the by-road, but the two that lay under me in the sledge were providentially saved. We fired as fast as possible into the dark mass that filled the road not twenty yards behind us. Every shot told but the pursuit did not lag. To-day I shudder as I think of that surging mass of gray forms with eyes glistening like fireballs, and the serrated jaws that opened as if certain of a feast.
FATAL RESULT.