Jack, glancing back down the road, saw a moving object coming after them. It looked like a dog and the lad called Boris' attention to the form loping along behind them, apparently content to remain at the same relative distance. Boris took one look at the following form and cried out: "A wolf!" "Wolf!" cried Jack. "I thought it was a dog. Oh, well, no matter. We can certainly take care of a lone wolf." "So we can," said Boris dryly. "The trouble is that by an hour after dark it won't be a lone wolf. There will be wolves by the score upon our track." "But can't we outrun them?" asked Jack fearfully. "We might, if our horses were fresh. But you must remember we have traveled all day." "Then we shall have to fight," declared Jack quietly. "Of course," said Boris briefly. "But with our hands we can do little." Jack produced Surgoff's revolvers and passed one of them to Boris. "These will help a little," he said. "A little, but not much," said Boris with a shake of his head. "A few wolves shot down and there will still be more." He glanced over his shoulder again. "Look!" he exclaimed. "There is another!" Jack looked back and his heart beat more fast as he saw that the first loping gray figure had been joined by a second and that they came forward rapidly. "There will be more of them directly," said Boris calmly. "Well, we have wasted time enough," declared Jack at this point. "Before the pack assembles, I believe it would be well for us to whip up and put as much distance between us and the wolves as possible." "We won't be able to put much," said Boris pessimistically. "The faster we go the faster they will go, until the pack has closed in, and then they will come to the attack." "Can you shoot?" asked Jack suddenly. "Like a flash," was the reply. "I can hit anything that can be hit. Why?" "Then you do the shooting and I'll do the driving," said Jack. "Here, you take both these guns. Give me the reins and the whip." The exchange was made, and Jack touched the backs of the horses lightly with the whip. "If we were only near to a human habitation of some kind," he muttered to Boris. "Well, we may and we may not be," was the reply. "But these fellows will follow us right to the edge of the city. It's been a hard winter and they are hungry. Hear them howl?" It was a blood-curdling sound that Jack heard then. It sent a shiver down his spine. "It's the call of the pack," said Boris briefly. "They'll be down on us in a moment. See, in the darkness back there now there are fully a score." For answer Jack got up to his feet and the long whip whistled through the air and over the horses' necks. But the animals, too, had caught the scent of the wolves, and they needed no urging. They dashed forward. And at that moment Boris, glancing back, shouted: "Here they come!" CHAPTER XXII. THE BATTLE WITH THE WOLVES.