When the smoke cleared away the two boy hunters saw two wolves stretched upon the ground, dead.  The rest of the pack had retreated, yelping and snarling more frightfully than ever.

“That’s the time we did it!” cried Whopper, reloading the rifle, while Giant attended to his shotgun.

“But it hasn’t sent them away,” was the answer of the smaller youth.  “Here they come back!”

Giant was right.  Sniffing suspiciously, the remaining wolves came as close to the tree as before.  Strange to say, they scarcely paid any attention to those that had been killed.

“Let us fire again,” said Whopper, and his companion nodded.  Once more the weapons rang out and again two of the wolves dropped.  This time the remainder of the pack grew scared and vanished into the brushwood as if by magic.

“They have gone!” cried Giant, excitedly.  “I thought that would make ’em skip.”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” was Whopper’s reply.  “They may be watching us from behind the bushes.  If they—–­I see one of them now!”

“Let us give them another shot!”

Again the weapons were discharged, both boys thinking it great sport to lay the wolves low.  This time two more were hit, but merely wounded.  They ran away yelping with pain, and the balance of the pack went after them.  Looking from the tree, the boy hunters saw them cross an open space some distance away and then plunge into the woods of the next hillside.

“That finished them,” said Whopper, drawing a sigh of relief.  “They are now thoroughly scared and I don’t think they’ll dare to come back.”

Nevertheless, the boys remained in the tree for half an hour longer.  But the wolves were really gone, and at last they dropped to the ground.

“This ends hunting for to-day,” remarked Giant.  “It’s too bad!”

“Well, we shot something,” answered Whopper, grimly, and pointed to the wolves.

“What shall we do with them?”

“Leave them here.  But no, let us take the smallest along.  The meat will make good bait for the traps.”

After that there was nothing to do but to start back for the camp, and this they did without further delay.  It was a hard walk and they often stopped to rest.  On the way they were fortunate enough to stir up some partridge and brought down three, and also got two rabbits.

“Well, we’ll not go back empty-handed, after all,” said Whopper.

It was long past dark when they came in sight of the camp-fire, which Snap and Shep were keeping burning brightly on purpose, so that it might light their way.

“Here they come!” cried Snap, and ran forward to meet them.  “What’s this?  A wolf, I declare!  Then you didn’t find the silver deer?”

“We didn’t get a chance,” said Giant, and then he and Whopper told their story.

“You can be thankful that you escaped from those wolves,” said Snap.