The Wolf Hunters

The Wolf Hunters

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wolf Hunters, by James Oliver
Curwood This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
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Title: The Wolf Hunters A Tale of Adventure in the Wilderness
Author: James Oliver Curwood
Release Date: April 27, 2004 [EBook #12170]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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THE WOLF HUNTERS
A Tale of Adventure in the Wilderness
BY JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD

1908
To my comrades of the great northern wilderness, those faithful
companions with whom I have shared the joys and hardships of the
"long silent trail," and especially to Mukoki, my red guide and beloved
friend, does the writer gratefully dedicate this volume
CONTENTS
Chapter
I
The Fight in the Forest II How Wabigoon Became a White Man III
Roderick Sees the Footprint IV Roderick's First Taste of the Hunter's
Life V Shots in the Wilderness VI Mukoki Disturbs the Ancient
Skeletons VII Roderick Discovers the Buckskin Bag VIII How Wolf
Became the Companion of Men IX Wolf Takes Vengeance Upon His
People X Roderick Explores the Chasm XI Roderick's Dream XII The
Secret of the Skeleton's Hand XIII Snowed In XIV The Rescue of
Wabigoon XV Roderick Holds the Woongas at Bay XVI The Surprise
at the Post
Illustrations:
With his rifle ready Rob approached the fissure (Frontispiece)
Knife--fight--heem killed! The leader stopped in his snow-shoes
THE WOLF HUNTERS
CHAPTER I
THE FIGHT IN THE FOREST
Cold winter lay deep in the Canadian wilderness. Over it the moon was
rising, like a red pulsating ball, lighting up the vast white silence of the
night in a shimmering glow. Not a sound broke the stillness of the
desolation. It was too late for the life of day, too early for the nocturnal

roamings and voices of the creatures of the night. Like the basin of a
great amphitheater the frozen lake lay revealed in the light of the moon
and a billion stars. Beyond it rose the spruce forest, black and
forbidding. Along its nearer edges stood hushed walls of tamarack,
bowed in the smothering clutch of snow and ice, shut in by
impenetrable gloom.
A huge white owl flitted out of this rim of blackness, then back again,
and its first quavering hoot came softly, as though the mystic hour of
silence had not yet passed for the night-folk. The snow of the day had
ceased, hardly a breath of air stirred the ice-coated twigs of the trees.
Yet it was bitter cold--so cold that a man, remaining motionless, would
have frozen to death within an hour.
Suddenly there was a break in the silence, a weird, thrilling sound, like
a great sigh, but not human--a sound to make one's blood run faster and
fingers twitch on rifle-stock. It came from the gloom of the tamaracks.
After it there fell a deeper silence than before, and the owl, like a
noiseless snowflake, drifted out over the frozen lake. After a few
moments it came again, more faintly than before. One versed in
woodcraft would have slunk deeper into the rim of blackness, and
listened, and wondered, and watched; for in the sound he would have
recognized the wild, half-conquered note of a wounded beast's
suffering and agony.
Slowly, with all the caution born of that day's experience, a huge bull
moose walked out into the glow of the moon. His magnificent head,
drooping under the weight of massive antlers, was turned inquisitively
across the lake to the north. His nostrils were distended, his eyes
glaring, and he left behind a trail of blood. Half a mile away he caught
the edge of the spruce forest. There something told him he would find
safety. A hunter would have known that he was wounded unto death as
he dragged himself out into the foot-deep snow of the lake.
A dozen rods out from the tamaracks he stopped, head thrown high,
long ears pitched forward, and nostrils held half to the sky. It is in this
attitude that a moose listens when he hears a trout splash three-quarters
of a mile away. Now there was only the vast, unending silence, broken

only by the mournful hoot of the snow owl on the other side of the lake.
Still the great beast stood immovable, a little pool of blood growing
upon the snow under his forward legs. What was the mystery that
lurked in the blackness of yonder forest? Was it danger? The keenest of
human hearing would have detected nothing.