and I knew that it would be late before I reached the camp. I felt myself growing stiff, so I dropped off behind the sled and walked and ran for a while to warm up.
Suddenly, the tired horses pricked up their ears and became nervous. You know that a horse can smell a wild animal at a great distance. Then from the rear, at some distance away, I heard the unmistakable yap of a wolf. Then I heard more yelps and I knew that I was being pursued by a pack of wolves.
My team plunged frantically through the deep snow but the wolves were gaining in spite of the noble effort of my horses. As the pack came nearer it sounded as if there were a hundred wolves. A dozen of the beasts, howling make enough noise for fifty of them. I was certain that there were at least fifteen or twenty in the howling pack. And then the pack came in sight. I could see their great gaunt bodies and it seemed as if they were flying across the snow, so fast were they approaching.
I secured my lines to the dashboard, speaking as soothingly as I could to the horses. God, but it was awfully
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cold! So cold that the sweat hurled from the flanks of the struggling horses froze to the dashboard almost as quickly as it lighted.
Then an idea came to me, I would throw out a quarter of beef. I crawled to the rear of the swaying sled and slid a quarter of beef off into the road. In a few seconds, the pack was on top of the meat, snarling and snapping as the wolves fought each other for the meat. I knew that this would give me a few minutes more before they started the chase again. I made up my mind that when they approached again that I would shoot one of them, because I knew that when a member of such a pack was killed or disabled, the others would instantly tear him to pieces.
I slowed my team down to a walk as the horses were badly spent. It was just a few minutes later the wolves came on. The horses were too tired to trot. There seemed to be twenty wolves in the pack. As they came closer, I aimed at the leader, but missed. My second shot took effect and a wolf went down with a snarl of pain. At once, the rest of the wolves were at him and were tearing him to pieces.
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