THE WOLF PACK
Meantime throughout the Grants the line between the Whigs and Tories had
become more distinct. Although it had been forbidden for any person to
hold office or issue writs under advice from New York, in certain
sections where the Tory sentiment was strong, New York justices
continued to write papers of ejectment against the Hampshire settlers,
and other Yorkers were found to serve the documents and on occasion to
drive helpless farmers and their families from their homes. These
affairs went on openly in the town of Durham, which was a Tory
stronghold.
Justice Benjamin Spencer was the principal official who dealt out the
New York brand of justice in this town, and he resided in the village of
Clarendon. Early in the fall Ethan Allen and a force of Green Mountain
Boys, appeared at Clarendon and read to the people the resolutions
passed by the Bennington Council to the effect that no person should do
any official act under New York authority, and that all lands should be
held under title from New Hampshire. The Durhamites were threatened
that, if they refused to comply with these orders within a reasonable
time, they would be made to suffer for their temerity. At this visit
Judge Spencer absconded, remaining away from home until he was sure "the
awful Green Mountain outlaws" had decamped.
Enoch and Lot planned their start into the woods in November, and they
were nearly ready when the second raid on Durham was proposed. The boys
knew that the matter had been discussed by Colonel Allen and the other
leaders for some time, for Justice Spencer still continued to disobey
the orders of the Council of Safety, and the matter could not be
ignored. It was past the middle of November when the commander of the
Green Mountain Boys and some of his followers set out in the direction
of Durham, and Lot and Enoch hurried their own going, determined to hide
their canoe when once they reached the Otter and join in the descent
upon Clarendon village.
It was eleven o'clock at night, November 20th, that Colonel Allen,
Captain Baker, and more than a score of their friends, entered the
settlement with all the care and circumlocution of Indians. Nuck and Lot
Breckenridge had joined the party at supper time in a certain rendezvous
of Allen's in the woods, having hidden their canoe and traps on the bank
of the Otter several miles away. The attacking force of Green Mountain
Boys was heavily armed and might have been bound upon an expedition
against Fort Ticonderoga itself, one might imagine. But a show of force
was thought to be necessary to overawe the Yorkers who made up more than
half the population of the village.
The Green Mountain Boys awakened nobody in their approach to the house
of Justice Spencer, until the leader himself thundered at the door and
demanded that the New York official come down. After some parley, and
seeing that there was no help for his case, Spencer descended and, as
the next day was Sunday and nothing could be done then, the prisoner was
hidden in the house of Mr. Green, some mile and a half from the
settlement, until Monday morning. Early on that day, a still larger
force of Grants men having gathered, as well as settlers whose titles
had been derived from New York, Justice Spencer was taken to the door of
his own house and tried.
The inquest, with Allen, Warner, Baker, and Cochran, sitting in
judgment, was carried forward with all due formality, although the
judges were the principal accusers of the prisoners, and the sentence
was finally pronounced that the prisoner's house be burned and he
himself give his bond to not again act as a New York justice. At this
the doughty justice broke down, for he plainly saw that his captors were
quite able, and in the mind, to carry out the sentence. He told the
court that if his house were burned his store of dry goods and all his
property would be destroyed and his wife and children made destitute.
"And have you and your like not made many of our friends destitute?"
cried some of the crowd. But more showed some heart for the justice,
notably Captain Warner. Warner finally suggested that as the dry goods
store was a public benefit and was one of the few stores in the
township, it should be saved if possible; and it would be too hard at
that time of year to turn the man and his family out of their home. He
declared for taking off the roof of the prisoner's house and then
putting it on again, providing that Spencer acknowledged that it was put
on under a New Hampshire title, and that he would purchase the same at
once. Spencer, who might have felt some gratitude by this time, promised
compliance in every particular, and with great shouting and good-nature,
the roof of the house was lifted off and then put on again. And the
lesson to the Durhamites was a salutary one.
Enoch Harding and his chum left immediately after the settlement of the
case and returned to their canoe. They feared the approach of a storm
which threatened, and were desirous of building their winter camp and
getting their traps set before the forest would be full of snow and the
streams completely frozen. Both boys were very good woodsmen by this
time, for Bolderwood had been Enoch's mentor and Lot's uncle was an old
ranger who knew every trick of the forest and trail. They selected a
heavily wooded gulley not far from the Otter and built there a log
lean-to against the rocky side-hill, sheltered from the north and open
to such sunshine as might penetrate the forest. The traps were set along
the bank of the stream, some of them in the water itself, where the
boys' sharp eyes told them that the fur-bearing game of which they were
in search, were wont to pass.
A fortnight after the Durham riot, as the Yorkers were pleased to call
the visit of the Green Mountain Boys, the two friends were very cozily
fixed in the gully. One heavy snow had fallen, and their traps had begun
to repay their attention most generously. Then the Otter froze over
solidly and they had to keep the ice open about their traps with the
axe. They were in a lonely piece of wood and day after day saw nor heard
nobody but themselves. The bears had taken to their long winter sleep;
but the fierce catamount was still abroad, and at night the howling of
the wolf-pack as it followed some hard-pressed doe or decrepit buck,
reached the boys' ears. And at that day the timber-wolf of the Green
Mountains--a long, lean, gray creature as big as a mastiff--was much to
be feared.
The traps stretched so far along the creek that if one went out alone to
examine and bait them, almost the entire day was consumed. The boys did
not possess ice-runners, or skates, with which they might have skimmed
over the frozen creek and visited the traps in a couple of hours. Each
had brought a pair of snow-shoes, but these were of no use on the creek.
So baiting the traps was no easy task. Usually they divided the work
between them and thus got it over and had time to stretch and scrape
their pelts in the afternoon. One day, however, Lot remained at camp to
make some repairs on his clothing, and Enoch set out early to go the
rounds by himself.
It had been a very cold night and the ice was frozen solidly about the
traps. The catch had been good, too, and both of these facts delayed the
young trapper more than common. There were fish lines to examine, also,
for some of the traps were baited with fish which was considered
particularly tempting food for certain of the beasts they wished to
catch. It was long past noon when Enoch got back to the camp for dinner,
and then he had gone over but half the line of traps. When he started in
the other direction after hastily eating the meal, he knew he should be
out until past moonrise, and told Lot so.
"I'll come and meet you," said his campmate.
"No need. Reckon I can find my way back alone," said Enoch. "The moon'll
be up by seven and it's nigh full."
It was so, yet Enoch had no thought when he left the camp that he would
be as long delayed as he was. It was full moonrise, before the boy had
examined the last trap. He had a goodly load on turning his face
campward and was glad of the company of his rifle as he heard the wolves
clamoring in the forest. The bitter cold would make them ravenous by
now, for many of the more easily caught animals had retired for the
winter, while the strong crust on the snow enabled the deer to
outdistance their shaggy enemies. While still three miles or more from
camp he heard the beasts howling so savagely that he really became
alarmed and would have thrown down his pack and run had he not shrunk
from so betraying his fear to Lot.
He knew, too, by the nature of the wolves' cries that they were close on
the track of some quarry, and that it could not be his trail they were
following, for they were approaching the creek through the timber on the
western side of the stream. But the sound of the chase drew rapidly
nearer, and desperately as Enoch hurried he could not distance the pack.
The western bank was high and sloping just here and with anxious eyes
the boy looked up the white incline, where the trees stood rather far
apart, to catch the first glimpse possible of the wolves and their prey.
Suddenly there came into view several dark objects moving swiftly over
the snow. One was ahead, flitting from tree to tree, its identity almost
indistinguishable at first. Then, with almost a shriek of horror, Enoch
recognized the wolves' quarry as a human being!
The pursued was on snow-shoes and coming to a steeper part of the creek
bank, at once slid down to the ice. After him, their red tongues hanging
to their breasts, and baying at every leap, came a round dozen of the
ravenous creatures. Enoch saw that the unfortunate man was armed with a
gun, but that evidently the weapon had been injured in some way, for he
did not make use of it to beat off the wolves. He limped as he ran, too,
and the young trapper saw plainly that the pack would overtake and pull
him down in a very few moments.
Once upon the ice the beasts spread out and almost surrounded him. While
he limped on most awkwardly, the strong, sharp claws of the wolves
helped them over the surface and soon the leader--a gaunt, gray monster
with cropped ears and scarred back--leaped to seize the prey. Enoch,
without a thought of his own danger, had hurried on, re-priming his
rifle as he ran; but he was scarcely within fair gun-shot when the wolf
leaped. The beast caught the fugitive by the shoulder, and its weight
dragged the man down. He tripped upon his snow-shoes and in an instant
was falling face-downward on the ice with the pack of hungry beasts
fighting above him!
Enoch fired his rifle into the midst of the pack as he ran, but although
one of the wolves rolled over, kicking convulsively upon the ice, the
others scarcely noticed the attack. So eager were they to get at the
quarry which they had followed far, that the shot did not frighten them.
But the boy was among them in a moment, his gun clubbed, and a fierce
desire in his heart to slay the horrid beasts.
He really thought the fallen man was killed, and his attack was inspired
wholly by a desire for revenge. He laid about him with the gun-stock in
a most furious fashion, and the wolves were soon cleared from above
their prostrate victim. His attack quelled the courage of the pack for a
little, and even the leader shrank away, howling dolefully. But the
respite was not sufficient to allow Enoch to reload his gun.
When the brutes fell back, the man upon the ice showed that he was by no
means dead, though his exhaustion was plain. He struggled to his knees,
and reaching up seized the hunting-knife from Enoch's belt, and the
small axe with which the latter had cut the ice away from his traps.
With one of these weapons in each hand he crouched in readiness to
defend himself when the wolves should renew their attack.
And he had not long to wait, for both hunger and natural ferocity urged
them on. Suddenly the leader, with a savage snarl which fairly turned
the blood cold in Enoch's veins, cast itself full at him!
Raised upon his hind legs the old timber-wolf, the hero of a thousand
fights with other pack-leaders, or with the young upstarts of his own
tribe, was fully as tall as his antagonist. The sight of its wide red
jaws, from which the froth flew as it does from the lips of a mad dog,
the gleaming yellow teeth, the capacious throat which seemed fairly to
steam with the fetid breath expelled from the beast's lungs, almost
overcame young Harding. For the moment he was enthralled by the
terrifying appearance of the wolf, and his arms lacked the strength
necessary to swing his gun.
[Illustration: THE WOLF SPRANG AT HIS THROAT]
The charge would surely have overborne him had Enoch not slipped upon
the ice as he shrank back, and providentially he fell upon one knee. The
wolf had sprung at his throat and the pioneer lad's sinking to the ice
caused the beast to leap clear over both the human actors in the drama.
But as its lean gray body flashed past, the stranger reached up and with
Enoch's keen hunting-knife slit a great wound in the exposed body. A
wild yell rose above the clamor of the pack and the old wolf rolled over
and over on the ice in the agonies of death, the blood spurting from the
wound at every pump of its heart.
Instantly half the pack sprang upon the dying leader, every male
desiring to be master, and all doubtless bearing upon their own bodies
marks of the wounded beast's displeasure. This change of front enabled
Enoch to recover both his equilibrium and his presence of mind; and when
the other beasts gathered courage to attack him in turn, he was ready to
beat them off with his gun and to ably assist his companion in
continuing the slaughter. The wolf he had first shot was attacked by its
comrades, too, for at the smell and taste of blood the creatures showed
all the characteristics of cannibals.
Nevertheless, Enoch and the man crouching at his feet, had all they
could do to defend themselves from the charges of the remaining wolves.
If the beasts sprang high the boy met them with long-arm swings of his
rifle; if they fell short the axe or the knife flashed and the wolves
limped away with savage howls, their blood dyeing the frozen surface of
the creek. For yards about the besieged the ice soon had the appearance
of a mighty strife and although he had only received a scratch or two
himself, Enoch was well spattered with blood.
Hunger and the issue from their own veins drowned the natural cowardice
of the canines. They charged blindly, and as fast as one went down
beneath the blows of Enoch's gun, or was seriously wounded by his
companion, another wolf sprang to the attack. Three already lay dead on
the ice, torn limb from limb by their comrades, and three others limped
upon the outer edge of the circle, seriously wounded; but still the
fierce brutes sprang at their prey, and sprang again!
Involuntarily Enoch shouted aloud at every blow he struck, but his
companion maintained a desperate silence. The boy did not cry out
because he expected any aid; yet assistance was within call. A figure
came running over the ice from up stream and the sharp crack of a rifle
announced the approach of Lot Breckenridge, who had come out to meet his
friend. Another wolf rolled over in the throes of death, to be seized by
its companions and torn to pieces with horrid cries. Lot came on with
shouts of encouragement and together with Enoch laid about him with
clubbed rifle until the remaining wolves, their cries now turned to
yelps of fear, stampeded from the scene of the battle and sought safety
in the forest, from the edge of which they howled their disappointment
at their antagonists.
It was Lot who first regained his breath and spoke. "Zuckers! but that
was a great fight," he cried, hugging Enoch in his joy at finding him
practically unhurt. "But you look as though you had been killin' beeves,
Nuck. And who's this with you?" The individual in question rose stiffly
to his feet with a significant "Umph!" "Why!" exclaimed Lot, "it's an
Injin--it's Crow Wing! Where'd you pick him up, Nuck?"
Enoch was vastly astonished to see whom he had befriended. "I had no
idea who it was," he said. "How came you in this country, Crow Wing?"
The Indian, now grown to be a tall and magnificent looking warrior, was
breathing heavily and had some difficulty in answering for a moment. He
stood, too, on one foot, holding up his left one like a lamed stork.
"Umph!" he grunted at last, "White boys in good time. Save Injin sure!"
He gravely offered his hand first to Enoch and then to Lot. "Crow Wing
lame. Hurt foot--break gun--wolves come howl, howl, howl! No can scare
'em; no can make fire; no can run good. Umph!"
"You'll have to go to our camp," said Enoch. "You can't travel on that
foot. You've sprained or broken it."
Crow Wing nodded. He made no sign that the foot hurt him, excepting by
holding it off the ice. "Some wolf pelts good," he remarked,
sententiously.
Lot had already turned away to examine the dead beasts. Only two skins
were fit to be stripped from the carcasses and added to the pelts Enoch
had brought from the traps. The two white boys quickly obtained these
and then, with the Indian hobbling between them, and leaning on their
shoulders, the trio made their way to camp through the moonlight, while
the remaining wolves slunk back to the scene of the battle and devoured
their dead comrades.