No need of wasting any time here, she
thought. Then she swerved aside so suddenly
as almost to jerk her babies out of their cradles.
Two gray wolves, one on each side, approached
her, growling low--their white teeth show-
ing.
Never in her humble life had Nakpa been
in more desperate straits. The larger of the
wolves came fiercely forward to engage her
attention, while his mate was to attack her be-
hind and cut her hamstrings. But for once the
pair had made a miscalculation. The mule used
her front hoofs vigorously on the foremost wolf,
while her hind ones were doing even more
effective work. The larger wolf soon went
limping away with a broken hip, and the one
in the rear received a deep cut on the jaw which
proved an effectual discouragement.
A little further on, an Indian hunter drew
near on horseback, but Nakpa did not pause or
slacken her pace. On she fled through the long
dry grass of the river bottoms, while her babies
slept again from sheer exhaustion. Toward
sunset, she entered the Sioux camp amid great
excitement, for some one had spied her afar
off, and the boys and the dogs announced her
coming.
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