dog, our neighbor's collie, circled about watching his chance to
snap.

I fired a couple of long shots, which had the effect only of setting
them off again over the prairie. After another run this matchless
dog closed and seized the wolf by the haunch, but again retreated
to avoid the fierce return chop. Then there was another stand at
bay, and again a race over the snow. Every few hundred yards this
scene was repeated, the dog managing so that each fresh rush
should be toward the settlement, while the wolf vainly tried to
break back toward the dark belt of trees in the east. At 1a~t after a
mile of this fighting and running I overtook them, and the dog,
seeing that he now had good backing, closed in for the finish.

After a few seconds the whirl of struggling animals resolved itself
into a wolf, on his back, with a bleeding collie gripping his throat,
and it was now easy for me to step up and end the fight by putting
a ball through the wolf's head.

Then, when this dog of marvellous wind saw that his foe was dead,
he gave him no second glance, but set out at a lope for a farm four
miles across the snow where he had left his master when first the
wolf was started. He was a wonderful dog, and even if I had not
come he undoubtedly would have killed the wolf alone, as I
learned he had already done with others of the kind, in spite of the
fact that the wolf, though of the smaller or prairie race, was much
large than himself. I was filled with admiration for the dog's
prowess and at once sought to buy him at any price. The scornful
reply of his owner was, "Why don't you try to buy one of the
children?"