in winter among the wild parts of the country. Of course, near
Carthagena these creatures have been eradicated; but among the
mountains they abound, and the carcass of a dead horse is sure
to attract plenty of them. It is a sport not without danger; and
there are many instances where parties of five or six have gone
out, taking with them a carcass to attract the wolves, and have
never returned; and a search has resulted in the discovery of their
weapons, injured and perhaps broken, of stains of blood and signs
of a desperate struggle, but of them not so much as a bone has
remained behind."

"I thought lion hunting was an exciting sport but the lions, although
they may move and hunt in companies, do not fight in packs, as
these fierce brutes seem to do. I hope some day to try it. I should
like to send back two of their heads to hang on the wall by the
side of that of the lion I killed up in the desert."

"Next winter you may do so," the officer said. "The season is nearly
over now, and you may be sure that Hannibal will give us enough
to do without our thinking of hunting wolves. The Vacaei are fierce
enough. Perhaps two of their heads would do instead of those of
wolves."

"I do not think my mother and sisters would approve of that,"
Malchus laughed; "so I must wait for the winter."

The night did not pass so quietly as that which had preceded it.
The distant howling of the wolves, as they hunted in the forest,
kept the horses in a tremor of terror and excitement, and their
riders were obliged over and over again to rise and go among them,