Page:Silversheene (1924).djvu/199

 end of his endurance and just before he gave up all hope Dick did a very queer thing. One that he himself wondered about. Why should he have done it? Without any premeditated thought he lifted up his voice in an agonized cry for help. Just as an animal will cry out for mercy when death is about to extinguish it. So Dick cried out to the wilderness where he knew there was no human hand to help.

Then, as though in an answer to his cry, he heard a splash in the stream above and at the same instant saw a great shape spring into the river and begin swimming rapidly towards him. At first he could not make it out because of the blood in his eyes, but as it drew near he recognized with an added pang of horror that it was his enemy, the great gray wolf, the beast who had pursued him. So this was to be hisend! This bar sinister of a beast, who had dogged him for nearly a week, had some premonition of his doom and was following him to be in