'Looks as if they preferred humans,' thought David, grimly. 'I begin to see that we shall have to halt and make a stand. Chu,' he called loudly. 'They look as if they were about to make a rush. They have come in a lot closer and are all round us now. If they run in make a dash for the ponies, and take up your posts in the very centre. It's hard luck for our mounts, but we must put them between us and our enemies. Ah! they're moving. That big one out there seems to be a leader.'
Up went his rifle, and the beast he aimed at howled as he pulled the trigger. But he did not fall as had the others. Glaring at David's party for a moment, he suddenly sank his head, and with his limbs bent beneath him came dashing forward over the snow. And as he came his mates followed, howling and yapping.
'Into the centre!' shouted David. 'Put the ponies outside. Begin to fire at once.'
Bunched in a little group, the forlorn little party made the utmost of the situation. The four stood close together with the ponies immediately outside them. And the poor animals seemed to have guessed that they were to act as a bulwark, for they cowered, shivering and stamping their hoofs, and pressing in upon the men who were to defend them. It was just before a volley belched from the rifles of his party that David heard a distant gong, and then a loud report. Looking round in the direction of the village he was overjoyed to see a number of men running towards him, many of whom carried flaming brands, while the weapons they bore were as many and as various as the garments of the strangers.
'Fire as hard as you can!' he shouted. 'The villagers are running out to help us, so that if we can keep the wolves at bay for a couple of minutes we shall be safe.'
Those two minutes were perhaps the most strenuous he had ever spent in all his life. Even Chu-Li admitted that the defence of the legations at Pekin was hardly equal to that last attack. For the wolves had heard the gong and the shout of the villagers, and as if determined that their prey should not escape them, they dashed in madly, their eyes flaming, their teeth parted in a snarl. More than one managed to leap on to the backs of the ponies, only to be at once shot or struck down by the knives the Chinese carried. One even fixed its fangs in the neck of a pony, till the poor beast, driven frantic with pain and fear, dashed away from the circle. Twenty wolves were on it immediately, and would have had it down and torn to pieces in little time had not a crumb of sense returned to the pony. It kicked madly in all directions, and then galloped back to its comrades, where Chu and Jong slashed at the wolves still holding to it. By then the villagers were close at hand, running forward in a compact body, and at once, with many a snarl of rage, the wolves took themselves off.