Page:Weird Tales Volume 10 Number 5 (1927-11).djvu/38

 nearer. It came racing down a long slope, then ran up back of the camp, evidently headed directly toward me.

I piled dry wood on the dying fire. The fresh fuel smoldered a moment and then little tongues of eager flame began licking through. All the time the demoniac bugling of the wolf was becoming louder, fiercer; was drawing ever nearer. Was the animal crazy? What little breeze there was was blowing directly toward him, and surely he must have scented the camp. And where had Victor gone while I napped? And why had he gone? Had he deserted me, as Indian guides not infrequently do?

"These and a hundred other questions flitted through my mind as I fed the fire and fanned it eagerly until it blazed. No wild animal, I knew, would come close to a fire. Carefully I piled the pitchy wood, and in a minute or two the flames were leaping high into the overhanging darkness, spilling red light like blood over the rocky ground, and setting a thousand shadows springing and dancing like ghoulish imps.

"The threatening, savage cry of the foraging wolf stopped suddenly, and a hushed, expectant silence settled down over the woods. Even the lap-lapping of the water on the shore a few yards away seemed to die to an inaudible murmur.

Old boy changed his mind!' I chuckled. 'Fire is the one thing'

"There was soft rustle in the bushes just behind me. I gave a startled exclamation and turned sharply in my tracks. There, not two yards away, a pair of blazing green eyes were watching me narrowly. Even as I turned they came slowly, unwinkingly nearer.

"I jumped for my rifle. It was leaning against a tree on the other side of the fire; I remembered putting it there, where I would be sure to see and clean it before I turned in. I knew just where it was—and yet when I reached for it, it was gone. Frantically, thinking it might have fallen down, I looked around for it. It was not there. And across from me, on the other side of the fire, a huge, tawny timber wolf stalked into the circle of fire and stood with its malevolent green eyes fixed unwinkingly upon me.

"The brute was larger than any timber wolf I had ever seen or heard of, and much darker in color. The lips were curled in a hellish caricature of a smile, and a low snarl came from its slavering mouth. For one long moment I eyed the brute and it eyed me back. And then, suddenly, through the leaping flames and the showering sparks, the monster sprang for me!

"Instinctively I crouched, protecting my throat. The movement was the only thing that saved me, for the long white fangs sank into the fleshy part of my upflung forearm. Desperately I threw myself upon the writhing beast, my hands seeking his throat. Useless, useless! The beast unloosed his hold on my arm and reached for my throat. I leaped backward as quickly as I could, and the shining, cruel teeth clicked savagely together not an inch from their mark.

"Snarling with rage, the animal sprang again, but as he did so a sudden thought struck me, and I cursed explosively. Why hadn't I thought of my revolver before? Hastily I snatched it from its holster under my arm, and as the wolf flung at my throat I fired.

"The result was instantaneous. A look of fear blazed suddenly in the smoky green eyes, and the beast seemed to stop its leap in midair. Before I could fire a second time, the wolf had disappeared into the shadows of the surrounding forest.