They never forget how they enjoyed that luncheon, devouring everything to the ultimate crumb and the final drop of hot coffee. Although it was bitterly cold, they did not feel the chill. The brisk walk, the warm fire and their hearty meal had quickened their blood, and even Anne, the smallest and most delicate of them all, felt something of Tom's enthusiasm for the deep woods. At last it was time to start again. The boys were trampling down the fire while the girls began stowing the cups and coffee-pot into a basket. The woods seemed suddenly to have grown very quiet. "How still it is," whispered Anne. "I feel as if everything in the world had stopped. There is not a breath stirring." "Perhaps it has," answered Grace. "But we mustn't stop, even if everything else has, now that the fire is out, or we'll freeze to death." She was just about to call the others briskly, for the air was beginning to nip her cheeks, when something in the faces of the four boys made her pause. They were standing together near the remains of the fire, and seemed to be listening intently. Not a sound, not even the crackling of a branch disturbed the stillness for a moment and then, from what appeared to be a great distance, came a long, howling wail, so forlorn, so weird, it might have been the cry of a spirit. "What is it?" whispered the other girls, creeping about Grace. "I think we'd better be hurrying along, now, girls," said David in a natural voice. "It's getting late." "You can't deceive us, David," replied Grace calmly. "We know it's wolves." CHAPTER XIX WOLVES! Wolves! The name was terrifying enough. But their cry, that long-drawn-out, hungry call, gave the picnickers a chill of apprehension. "We must take the nearest way out of the wood, Reddy," exclaimed Tom. "They are still several miles off, and, if we hurry, we may reach the open before they do." All started on a run, David helping Anne to keep up with the others while Reddy looked after Jessica. Nora and Grace were well enough trained in outdoor exercise to run without any assistance from the boys. Indeed, Grace Harlowe could out-run most boys of her own age. "Go straight to your left," called Reddy, consulting his compass as he hurried Jessica over the snow. Again they heard the angry howl of the wolves, and the last time it seemed much nearer. "It's a terrible business, this running after a heavy meal," muttered Hippy, gasping for breath as he stumbled along in the track of his friends. "I'll make a nice meal for 'em if they catch me," he added, "and it looks as if I'd be the first to go." "Reddy, are you sure you're right?" called Tom. "The woods don't seem to be thinning out as they are likely to do toward the edge." "Keep going," called Reddy, confident of the direction. "You see, we had gone pretty far in, but I believe the open country is about a mile this way."