the hill.  He had taken advantage of a slight hollow and turned, and now the chase was crossing us half a mile away.  With whip and spur we flew towards them, our two greyhounds stretching out in front and leaving us as if we were standing still, the track-hounds and big dogs running after them just ahead of the horses.  Fortunately the wolf plunged for a moment into a little brushy hollow and again doubled back, and this gave us a chance to see the end of the chase from nearby.  The two greyhounds which had first taken up the pursuit were then but a short distance behind.  Nearer they crept until they were within ten yards, and then with a tremendous race the little bitch ran past him and inflicted a vicious bite in the big beast’s ham.  He whirled around like a top and his jaws clashed like those of a sprung bear-trap, but quick though he was she was quicker and just cleared his savage rush.  In another moment he resumed his flight at full speed, a speed which only that of the greyhounds exceeded; but almost immediately the second greyhound ranged alongside, and though he was not able to bite, because the wolf kept running with its head turned around threatening him, yet by his feints he delayed the beast’s flight so that in a moment or two the remaining couple of swift hounds arrived on the scene.  For a moment the wolf and all four dogs galloped along in a bunch; then one of the greyhounds, watching his chance, pinned the beast cleverly by the hock and threw him completely over.  The others jumped on it in an instant; but rising by main strength the wolf shook himself free, catching one dog by the ear and tearing it half off.  Then he sat down on his haunches and the greyhounds ranged themselves around him some twenty yards off, forming a ring which forbade his retreat, though they themselves did not dare touch him.  However the end was at hand.  In another moment Old Abe and General Grant came running up at headlong speed and smashed into the wolf like a couple of battering-rams.  He rose on his hind-legs like a wrestler as they came at him, the greyhounds also rising and bouncing up and down like rubber balls.  I could just see the wolf and the first big dog locked together, as the second one made good his throat-hold.  In another moment over all three tumbled, while the greyhounds and one or two of the track-hounds jumped in to take part in the killing.  The big dogs more than occupied the wolf’s attention and took all the punishing, while in a trice one of the greyhounds, having seized him by the hind-leg, stretched him out, and the others were biting his undefended belly.  The snarling and yelling of the worry made a noise so fiendish that it was fairly bloodcurdling; then it gradually died down, and the second wolf lay limp on the plains, killed by the dogs, unassisted.  This wolf was rather heavier and decidedly taller than either of the big dogs, with more sinewy feet and longer fangs.