wolf for him."

"We are in luck indeed, gentlemen," the marquis said. "We will see
if we can't bring this fellow's career to an end at last. I have
hunted him a score of times myself since my first chase of him,
well-nigh fifteen years ago, but he has always given us the slip."

"And will again," an old forester, who was standing close to Harry,
muttered. "I do not believe the bullet is cast which will bring
that wolf to earth."

"What is this demon wolf?" Harry asked Ernest.

"It is a wolf of extraordinary size and fierceness. For many years
he has been the terror of the mothers of this part of France. He
has been known to go into a village and boldly carry off an infant
in mid-day. Every child who has been killed by wolves for years is
always supposed to have been slain by this wolf. Sometimes he is
seen in one part of the province, and sometimes in another.

"For months he is not heard of. Then there is slaughter among the
young lambs. A child going to school, or an old woman carrying
home a faggot from the forest is found torn and partly devoured,
and the news spreads that the demon wolf has returned to the
neighbourhood. Great hunts have over and over again been got up
specially to slay him, but he seems to lead a charmed life. He has
been shot at over and over again, but he seems to be bullet-proof.

"The peasants regard him not as an ordinary wolf but as a demon,
and mothers quiet their children when they cry by saying that if