stand alongside me, and as the wolves came on we cleared a space about us
with the clubbed rifles. We realized we couldn't keep that up long,
though, so we retreated to the cabin. We backed in, but were unable to
shut the door before one big gray brute squeezed inside. He was nothing
dismayed at being separated from his companions, but leaped straight for
us. I fetched him a stunning blow with the butt of my rifle, and before
he could recover we both fell upon him and despatched him with our
hunting knives. That was about as close a shave as I ever had," and as he
finished his story Mr. Melton shook his head.

"I should think it must have been," said Bert, drawing a long breath,
"but what did the rest of the wolves do when they found themselves shut
out?"

"Oh, my partner and I shot at them from the window until we had killed
over a dozen, and the rest, finding that they could not get at us, took
themselves off."

"Did they kill the horses?" asked Tom.

"No," replied Mr. Melton, "for some reason they didn't chase them. The
next morning we found them both outside the shack none the worse for
their adventure. And a mighty lucky thing for us it was, because the loss
of our horses then would have meant the failure of all our plans."

"I suppose you went back and got the sled the next day, didn't you?"
inquired Dick.

"Oh, yes," replied his host, "we recovered it all right, but then we had
to go back to the settlement for more grub, of course. But I was so happy