Then I heard a wolf howl on my right, and from the left came answering howls, and these, again, were answered by others in front of and behind me.
Now all the place was filled with groans and choking howls, as the wolves rolled over and over beneath him who sat above, and in the blood-red light of the dying sun the sight and sounds were so horrid that I trembled like a child.
From the heart of it, too, came howlings of ghosts and wolves, that were answered by howls from the rocks above--hearken, Umslopogaas, such howlings as we hear to-night!
So I have sat many and many a year, being dead in the heart of the old stone Witch, watching the moon and the sun and the stars, hearkening to the howls of the ghost-wolves as they ravened beneath me, and learning the wisdom of the old witch who sits above in everlasting stone.
At the first howl the horses began to strain and rear, but the driver spoke to them soothingly, and they quieted down, but shivered and sweated as though after a runaway from sudden fright.
All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had some peculiar effect on them.
That long, lugubrious
howl rose on the night air again
It was a common trick with the boys--particularly if a stranger was present--to pretend a cramp and
howl for help; then when the stranger came tearing hand over hand to the rescue, the howler would go on struggling and howling till he was close at hand, then replace the
howl with a sarcastic smile and swim blandly away, while the town boys assailed the dupe with a volley of jeers and laughter.
For, unlike the other dogs, he would not
howl or whimper his pain.
From the forest came the call (or one note of it, for the call was many noted), distinct and definite as never before,--a long-drawn howl, like, yet unlike, any noise made by husky dog.
It was a mournful howl, and as Buck held steadily on his way he heard it grow faint and fainter until it was lost in the distance.
Once again he took to wandering in the woods, but the wild brother came no more; and though he listened through long vigils, the mournful howl was never raised.
