te parents had not been to his liking; some that he had found
cause to shoot a master to whom they apprenticed him at Moscow; but be
that as it might, Wenzel hated the Russians with all his heart, and
never scrupled to say that the gun which had served him so long would
serve the country too if it ever came to a rising. So much for
Wenzel's story, by way of explaining what followed; but as I stood
beside him that night at the hut's single crevice of a window, I could
have given Poland itself for ammunition enough to do service on the
wolves. They had now left nothing but the bones of our horses, which
they had dragged round and round the cottage, with a din of howlings
that almost drowned our voices within. Then they seized on the bodies
of their own slain companions, which were devoured to the very skins;
and still the gathering was going on. We could see them coming in
troops through the open glades of the forest, as if aware that some
human prey was in reserve. The hut was strongly built of great
pine-logs, but it was fearful to hear them tearing at the door and
scratching up the foundations. The bravest among us got terrified at
these sounds. Metski loudly avowed his belief that the wolves were
sent upon us as a punishment for hunting on Christmas-eve, and fell
instantly to his prayers. Wenzel flung a blazing brand among them from
the window, but they did not seem to care for fire; and three of them
were so near leaping in, that he drove to the log-shutter and gave up
that method of defence. None of the party appeared so far overcome
with terror as Count Theodore: his spirit and prudence both seemed to
forsake him. When the wolves began to scratch, he threw himself almost
on his face in the corner, and kept moaning and praying in Russian, of
which none of us understood a syllable but old Wenzel. Emerich and I
would have spoken to him, but the woodman stopped us with a strange
sign. Count Theodore had taken the relic of some saint from a
pocket-book which he carried in his breast,

William Babington Maxwell (18661938) was a British novelist. He was a son of novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Though nearly 50 years old at the outbreak of the First World War, he was accepted as a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers and served in France until 1917.

Cyrus Townsend Brady (December 20, 1861 January 24, 1920) was a journalist, historian and adventure writer. His most well-known work is Indian Fights and Fighters. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1883. He was also a deacon in the Episcopal church. His first wife was Clarissa Guthrie, who died in 1890. His second wife was Mary Barrett.

Rebecca Sophia Clarke (1833-1906), also known as Sophie May, was an American author of childrens fiction. Using her nieces and nephews as inspiration, she wrote realistic stories about children. She wrote 45 books between 1860 and 1903. The most popular being the Little Prudy books. She lived most of her life in her native town of Norridgewock, Maine, where she lived out her life with her sister, who was also a successful author.