Summary

Narration describes how as he aged, and in spite of the effects of arthritis and rheumatism, Grainier spent summers and falls in his cabin, commenting that he did so because of something that happened one night about ten years after the fire. Narration then describes how one night, shortly after the death of Kootenai Bob (see Chapter 4) and in the aftermath of some bursts of whistling from a passing train, Grainier heard a howling of coyotes and wolves of an intensity that he had never heard before. He stayed awake, waiting to see what was going to happen, and was shocked when wolves and coyotes “flooded into his clearing” (99) and left just as quickly, leaving behind the wolf-girl – who, Grainier immediately and intuitively realized, was Kate.

Grainier went out to see Kate / the wolf-girl, trying to make contact but realizing she was more animal...