“If you’re so crazy after asafoetida,” said he, looking down at the fiercely staring animals again, “I’ll give you a taste, just to see what you’ll do.” He took a small portion of the gum which he had retained, and rubbed it over a piece of paper that he found in his pocket. He then dropped the paper in their midst. They sprang upon it simultaneously, and in an instant it vanished, Joe knew not whither. “Hang me, if I couldn’t pepper a half-dozen at a shot when they all rush up together so close, if I wasn’t afraid of being kicked down. I’ll be teetotally smashed if I don’t fix and try it, any how!” said he, pulling out a strong leather string from his pocket, one end of which he attached firmly to a small limb of the tree, and the other he tied as tightly round the wrist of his left arm. He then pulled out his bandanna, and likewise made his musket fast to a bough. “Now, my snapping beauties,” he continued, “I’m mistaken if I don’t give you a dose of blue pills that’ll do your business in short order.” Saying this, he tore off another piece of paper, and rubbing on the gum, dropped it down as near as possible to the spot where he wished the wolves to cluster together. No sooner did it fall than the whole gang sprang upon it, and he fired with precision in their midst. Joe did not look to see what execution was done. He was dangling in the air and whirling round and round at a rapid rate, like a malefactor suspended from the gallows, with the exception that his neck did not suffer, and he cried out most lustily for assistance. When the cloud of smoke that enveloped him cleared away a little, and he became better acquainted with his critical situation, his yells increased in rapidity and violence. His condition was truly perilous. The small bough to which he had attached himself had not sufficient strength to bear him up when his feet slipped from the larger one below, and it was now bent down a considerable distance, and that too in a divergent direction from his recent foothold, and unfortunately there was no limb of the tree of any strength within his reach. His legs hung within six feet of the surface of the snow. The discharge had killed four or five of the wolves, but, undismayed, the remainder assailed him the more furiously. The most active of them could easily spring as far up as his feet! Never was terror more strongly depicted in the human face than it was displayed in Joe’s when he saw the whole pack rushing towards him! They sprang up with fearful snarls and yells. Joe yelled likewise, and doubled his knees up to his chin. They missed his feet by several inches, and were borne out fifteen or twenty feet to one side by the impetus of the leap. It was by a mighty effort that he thus avoided them, and no sooner had they passed under him than his legs again dangled downward. In a moment they whirled round and were again rushing at their victim. Once more Joe screamed, and drew up his legs while they passed under him.