The buck, however, showed no intention of passing by; in his abject terror he saw in the man and the dog foes less terrible than those which were yelping on his trail.  He came on in a lame uneven trot, making straight for the tree.  When he reached the tree he crouched, or rather fell, on the ground within a yard of Jonathan and his dog.  He quivered and twitched; his nostrils flared; at every pant drops of blood flecked the snow; his great dark eyes had a strained and awful look, almost human in its agony.

Another yelp from the thicket and Jonathan looked up in time to see five timber wolves, gaunt, hungry looking beasts, burst from the bushes.  With their noses close to the snow they followed the trail.  When they came to the spot where the deer had fallen a chorus of angry, thirsty howls filled the air.

“Well, if this doesn’t beat me!  I thought I knew a little about deer,” said Jonathan.  “Tige, we will save this buck from those gray devils if it costs a leg.  Steady now, old fellow, wait.”

When the wolves were within fifty yards of the tree and coming swiftly Jonathan threw his rifle forward and yelled with all the power of his strong lungs: 

“Hi!  Hi!  Hi!  Take ’em, Tige!”

In trying to stop quickly on the slippery snowcrust the wolves fell all over themselves.  One dropped dead and another fell wounded at the report of Jonathan’s rifle.  The others turned tail and loped swiftly off into the thicket.  Tige made short work of the wounded one.

“Old White Tail, if you were the last buck in the valley, I would not harm you,” said Jonathan, looking at the panting deer.  “You need have no farther fear of that pack of cowards.”

So saying Jonathan called to Tige and wended his way down the hill toward the settlement.

An hour afterward he was sitting in Col.  Zane’s comfortable cabin, where all was warmth and cheerfulness.  Blazing hickory logs roared and crackled in the stone fireplace.

“Hello, Jack, where did you come from?” said Col.  Zane, who had just come in.  “Haven’t seen you since we were snowed up.  Come over to see about the horses?  If I were you I would not undertake that trip to Fort Pitt until the weather breaks.  You could go in the sled, of course, but if you care anything for my advice you will stay home.  This weather will hold on for some time.  Let Lord Dunmore wait.”

“I guess we are in for some stiff weather.”

“Haven’t a doubt of it.  I told Bessie last fall we might expect a hard winter.  Everything indicated it.  Look at the thick corn-husks.  The hulls of the nuts from the shell-bark here in the yard were larger and tougher than I ever saw them.  Last October Tige killed a raccoon that had the wooliest kind of a fur.  I could have given you a dozen signs of a hard winter.  We shall still have a month or six weeks of it.  In a week will be ground-hog day and you had better wait and decide after that.”