By that time the balance of the pack began to awaken to the fact that there was something strange in the actions of their companions. Perhaps they allowed themselves to ignore the wounded stag for a moment, and sniff the air. At any rate, there was a sudden flight on the part of the four animals still able to run; and the stag found himself master of the field.
"Hurrah!" shouted Roger, unable to restrain his feeling of elation as he stepped in sight, waving his foxskin cap in triumph.
"Take care," called out Dick, warningly, "or the stag may turn on you; he doesn't know that you mean to be his friend; and it would be a shame to have to kill him, after the handsome way he stood off that pack!"
But the animal, while half disposed to attack this newcomer, being doubtless flushed with his apparent victory over the wolves, presently deemed discretion the better part of valor; for, turning, he went off at a limping pace.
"Good-by, and good luck!" called Roger after him, as he stepped forward to knock one of the wounded wolves on the head with his hatchet, so as to recover his two arrows.
Under ordinary circumstances the boys would gladly have halted to remove the skins of the wolves that had fallen, where the antlers of the stag had not ruined the pelts; but just now they could not think of such a thing. Their horses had all they could safely carry, and it would be the height of folly to think of increasing the load.
Although these lads had done considerable hunting during the last five or six years this happened to be the first time they had ever been given a chance to witness one of those forest battles which took place so often. True, once they had found the skeletons of two deer in the woods, and from the fact that their antlers were interlocked tightly, so that they could not possibly be pulled apart, it was evident that in a fight the bucks had become so attached to each other in this way that they could not separate, and that consequently they had starved in the midst of plenty, falling victims to their own passions.
On other occasions, when their journey led them through the vast prairies, other matters engaged their attention. Of course they had to make camp where night found them; and often it was far out on the billowy sea of grass, where they built their small fire in a hole dug in the ground, and spent the night in watchfulness and security.