“A pack!” whispered Skipper Ed, “and a big pack!  See them coming there!  Too many for us to tackle, lads!  Keep quiet, now, lads, and don’t lose your heads and don’t shoot!  We must keep to leeward of them so they won’t get our scent, and we must get back to the cabin.  They’re too many for us to tackle.”

As he spoke the leaders of the pack—­great, fearsome creatures looming big on the glistening white of the moonlit snow—­straggled leisurely around the bend of the frozen stream—­one—­two—­three—­Skipper Ed counted until more than twenty had appeared, and still others were coming.  It was a pack large enough to be fearless of any enemy and to attack boldly any prey that crossed its path.

Leading the way, and keeping under cover of trees, with Bobby and Jimmy close at his heels, Skipper Ed turned and ran down the gulch toward the cabin, which was not above a mile distant.  The gulch ended in an open space, which was a marsh in summer but was now a white expanse of hard-beaten snow.  Between this open space and the bay shore a hedge of thick brush grew.  On its northern and southern sides the open was flanked by the forest, extending from the gulch mouth to the shore of the bay, and on the northern side it continued to Skipper Ed’s cabin and beyond.

Skipper Ed led the way into the forest to the southward of the open, that they might keep well to leeward of the pack, and thus avoid so far as possible danger of the wolves getting their scent.  He hoped that this maneuver might permit them to circuit back to the cabin under the protecting cover of the brush fringe along the shore and the forest to the northward.  To have crossed the open would have been to invite discovery, for it was evident the wolves would follow the bed of the stream through the gulch and into the open.

Whether they would answer the call of the dogs and turn northward, or whether they would range southward in quest of prey, was uncertain.  If to the southward they would be very sure to catch the wind of Skipper Ed and the boys almost immediately, and be upon them before they could reach safety.  If they answered the dogs, there would still be danger, but the three in that case would be enabled to keep on the lee side of the pack with the probability of detection considerably lessened.  Therefore Skipper Ed hoped and trusted that the wolves would answer the challenge of the dogs.

Even then there was still the danger that the trail made by them on their way up the gulch would be discovered, and unless the dogs proved a greater attraction Skipper Ed knew that the moment the wolves came upon the trail they would take up the fresh scent, and might overtake them before they could gain the shelter of the cabin.

As it came about, they were behind the brush hedge, running up the shore, when the wolves wound out of the gulch and into the open.  Through a break in the brush Skipper Ed saw them dimly, in the distance.  The leaders stopped and sniffed.  Suddenly came the howl of pursuit—­the awful, terrifying cry of the wolf pack fresh upon the heels of quarry.  The wolves had turned on the trail and were off up the gulch.