steel, and a sound as of the cleaving of soft wood, and the beast
was in a twitching heap at the man's feet. I knew what it was at
last, yet I could say nothing. The wolf was quite dead, with its
head cleft.

Swiftly my friend hewed the great head from the trunk and tore one
of the leather cross garterings from his leg, and so leapt at a
branch which hung above him and pulled it down. Then he bound the
head to its end with the thong and let it go, so that it dangled a
fathom and a half above him, and then he lifted me from my place
and ran as I had not thought any man could run, until he stayed at
the brow of the hill for sheer want of breath.

Behind us at that moment rose the sound as of hungry dogs that
fight over the food in their kennels, and my friend laughed under
his breath strangely.

"That will be a wild dance beneath the tree anon," he said, as if
to himself.

Then he said to me, "Are you frayed, bairn?" as he ran on again.

"No," I answered, "You can smite well, shepherd."

"Needs must, sometime," he said. "Now, little one, have you a
mother waiting you at home?"

"No. Only father and old nurse."

"Nor brother or sister?"