UNWELCOME CALLERS
Within the following fifteen minutes it seemed as if a thousand wolves
had arrived on the plateau, and were fighting, feasting, snarling, and
rending the bodies of the musk oxen to fragments. They were far enough
removed from the cavern for the inmates to hear each other readily,
while discussing the curious occurrence.
The boys could not contemplate a visit from the ravening beasts with
the indifference of their companions. To them it seemed that the
brutes would be rendered ten-fold fiercer by their taste of blood, and
would not stop until they had devoured them.
"Do you think they will visit us?" asked Rob of Docak.
The latter was standing in the middle of the cavern, in the attitude
of listening. He nodded his head, and replied:
"Yes--eat ox--den come here."
"If that is so I think we ought to prepare for them," suggested Fred,
who shared the nervousness of his friend.
"How can we prepare more than we're prepared now?" asked Jack;
"they've got to come in that opening one at a time, and it will be fun
for us to set back here and pick 'em off."
"Provided they don't crowd in so fast that we can't do it."
"With four guns, I reckon we oughter take care of ourselves."
"Dere fire, too," remarked the Esquimau, jerking his head in the
direction of the flames.
"Ah, I forgot that," said Rob, with a sigh of relief, recalling the
dread which all animals have of fire. Indeed, he felt certain at the
moment that the burning wood would prove far more effective than their
weapons in keeping off the wolves.
It would be supposed that the bodies on the plateau were enough to
keep the brutes occupied for a long time, and to afford them a meal
sufficient to satisfy them for the night; but who ever saw a wolf when
not ravenously hungry? They howled, and snarled, and fought, and
pressed around the carcasses in such numbers that, when only the bones
remained, it may be said that their appetites were but fairly whetted,
and they were more eager than ever after additional prey.
Fully a score, in their keenness of scent, had been quick to strike
the trail of the surviving musk oxen that had fled from the hot fire
of the hunters. The scent was the more easily followed since a couple
of the animals had been wounded, and there can be little doubt that
all fell before the ferocity of their assailants, though the musk ox
makes a brave fight ere he succumbs to those cowardly creatures.
Darting hither and yon, with their pointed snouts skimming over the
ground, it was not Long before several struck the footprints of the
party that had taken refuge in the cavern. A dozen or, perhaps, a
score would not have dared attack them had they not been inflamed by
the taste of food already secured. As it was, they were aroused to
that point that they were ready to assail any foe that could help to
satisfy their voracity.
"Here they come!" exclaimed Rob Carrol, springing to his feet, with
rifle ready.
"Yes--dey come--dat so."
While the native was speaking he stood motionless, but with inimitable
dexterity brought his gun to a level, and, apparently without any aim
at all, let drive into the pack crowding toward the entrance to the
cavern.
No aim was necessary, for the wolves pressed so close that no one
person could fail to bring down one at least of them.
Amid the snarling and growling rang out a single sharp yelp, which
proved that some member of the pack was "hit hard." Whether struck
mortally or not made no difference, for the moment blood appeared upon
him his comrades fell upon him with unspeakable ferocity and tore him
limb from limb.
The shot had the effect, too, of driving them away from the entrance
for a brief while, but they speedily returned, crowding so far forward
that their eyes, lank jaws, and noses showed plainly in the reflection
of the firelight.
It was evident that the shot of the Esquimau produced no permanent
effect upon them. It may have been, indeed, that they wished for a
second that it might afford them the pretext for feasting upon another
of their fellow-citizens.
But the fire was burning brightly, and they dreaded that. So long as
it was going and the hunters kept close to the flame, they were safe
against the fangs of the wolves.
"That's too good a chance to be lost," remarked Rob, discharging his
rifle among the animals.
Fred was but a moment behind him, so that two, if not more, of the
brutes were slain and afforded an appetizer for the rest. Docak had
lost no time in ramming another charge into his gun, while Jack
Cosgrove held his fire, as if expecting some emergency, when a quick
shot was likely to be necessary.
"It don't strike me as a good thing for all our guns to be empty at
the same time," was his sensible remark, "so s'pose we take turns in
banging into 'em."
"Dat right--dat good," commented the Esquimau, and the boys promised
to follow the suggestion.
The scene at this time was striking. Looking toward the entrance to
the cavern, nothing could be observed but the fronts of the fierce
animals, all fighting desperately to get at the opening, all eager
beyond expression to reach the serene hunters within, but restrained
by the glowing fire beyond, to which they dared not go.
Quick to note their dread of this element, the boys became more
composed, though both could not help thinking how it would be if there
were no fire. The fuel if judiciously used was sufficient to last
until daylight, by which time the courage of the brutes would ooze
away to that extent that they would be likely to withdraw.
But the party could not spend all their time in the cavern, and, if
attacked on the open plain, it would require the hardest kind of
fighting to beat off their assailants.
"But what is the use of speculating about the future?" Rob asked
himself, as, seeing that it was his turn, he drove another bullet
among the brutes, doubling up one like a jack-knife, while his
comrades proceeded to "undouble" him in the usual style.
"Suppose," said Fred, "we should keep this up until we killed a
hundred, wouldn't the rest have enough to eat by that time?"
"No," replied Jack, who had seen the animals before; "the rest of 'em
would be as hungry as ever after eating 'em. You may keep the thing
going till there is only two left, and then shoot one of 'em; the
other will gulp him down in a dozen mouthfuls, and then lick his chops
and whine for more."
Docak looked at his friend and grinned at this graphic illustration of
the voracity of the lupus species.
However, it was quite clear that our friends were wasting a good deal
of ammunition, which might be needed before their return. So they
seated themselves on the floor of the cavern near the fire, that was
kept going with moderate vigor, and exchanging a few words now and
then as the turmoil permitted, they sent a shot into the pack, when
some of the foremost ventured to thrust their snouts too far into the
cavern.
"If they only had sense enough to combine into one rush," said Fred,
"they could wipe us out in a twinkling."
"That's just what they would do if it wasn't for the fire," was the
reply of his friend; "but it does seem to me that they must get tired
after awhile."
"I can't detect any signs of it yet. Let me try something."
Catching a brand from the fire, Rob whirled it about his head until it
was fanned into a roaring blaze, when he hurled it right among the
howling horde.
The scampering that followed was laughable. In a second or two not a
wolf was visible, and only the smoking torch lay on the ground where
it had fallen just outside the entrance.
It was expected they would soon return, and some of them did sneak
back within a short distance, but the smoldering brand was a terror to
them so long as it held any life, and they waited until it was utterly
extinguished before venturing closer.
Meanwhile, Docak showed such disquiet and concern over something else
that Jack Cosgrove, well knowing it must be serious, determined to
force him to an explanation, for he had racked his brain in vain to
think what grisly dread was looming in front of them.