"A light just blinds you," he said. "I'd rather trust to the
roans' sense."
The ponies galloped for a long way, it seemed to Nan; then they
came to a hill so steep that they were glad to drop to a walk.
Their bodies steamed in a great cloud as they tugged the sleigh
up the slope. Dark woods shut the road in on either hand. Nan's
eyes had got used to the faint light so that she could see this
at least.
Suddenly she heard a mournful, long-drawn howl, seemingly at a
great distance.
"Must be a farm somewhere near," she said to Rafe, who sat beside
her on the back seat.
"Nope. No farms around here, Nan," he returned.
"But I hear a dog howl," she told him.
Rafe listened, too. Then he turned to her with a grin on his
sharp face that she did not see. "Oh, no, you don't," he
chuckled. "That's no dog."
Again the howl was repeated, and it sounded much nearer. Nan
realized, too, that it was a more savage sound than she had ever
heard emitted by a dog.
"What is it?" she asked, speaking in a low voice to Rafe.
"Wolves!" responded her cousin maliciously. "But you mustn't
mind a little thing like that. You don't have wolves down round
where you live, I s'pose?"
Nan knew that he was attempting to plague her, so she said: "Not
for pets, at least, Rafe.
Pages:
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126