"My chance of hitting him is not great," Harry said. "I am not a
very good shot even on my feet; but sitting in my saddle I do not
think it likely I should get anywhere near him."

A quarter of an hour passed. The occasional note of a dog and the
shouts of the men encouraging them to work their way through the
dense thicket could be heard, but no sound of a shot met their
ears.

"Either he is not there at all, or he is lying very close," Ernest
said.

"Look, look!" Harry said suddenly, pointing through the trees to
the right.

"That is the wolf, sure enough," Ernest exclaimed. "Come along."

The two lads spurred their horses and rode recklessly through the
trees towards the great gray beast, who seemed to flit like a shadow
past them.

"Mind the boughs, Ernest, or you will be swept from your saddle.
Hurrah! The trees are more open in front."

But although the horses were going at the top of their speed they
scarcely seemed to gain on the wolf, who, as it seemed to them,
kept his distance ahead without any great exertion.

"We shall never catch him," Harry exclaimed after they had ridden
for nearly half an hour, and the laboured panting of the horses