"No, speak on. As for myself, I do not think I am in love, as it is called; maybe I am not yet old enough. But I have certainly thought that Vera has long regarded me differently from others. Now say what you were going to say."
"I confess, then, that I have wondered more than once whether our good Thirlstone has not antic.i.p.ated us--I mean you--in the matter of Vera.
She loves us as brothers, no doubt, but Thirlstone--"
"No, you are wrong," interrupted Peter; "for some while ago I accused her of this very thing, which she utterly denied. "How should I have room in my heart for any besides father and you?" she said; and she added, "Please, please, dear Peter, say nothing of what you have suspected either to my father or to the other." She blushed very much, and was quite ashamed, I could see, that I should have connected her name with Thirlstone"s. Well, since that she has been so gentle and so affectionate with me that I have quite made up my mind that she regards me, as I say, with particular favour. One day I shall be in love with her, I suppose."
"I see," said poor Paul. He said little more, and made no mention of the fact that he himself had regarded Vera with boyish admiration ever since he could remember, and had always looked upon her as his future bride, in the foolish, taken-for-granted way of persons of his age.
As a matter of fact, Vera had never looked upon either lad as anything more than familiar friends and playmates, and would have laughed with exquisite merriment had she overheard the conversation of the two boys, as recorded above. But, as small things ape the larger, both Peter and Paul were entirely in earnest, the one in his conviction that he owed special allegiance to this fair lady because, as he imagined, he had been chosen as the object of her special affection, and the other in his determination to sacrifice himself without a murmur in pure devotion to the idol his imagination had set up.
Neither of the brothers said much about the adventure with the bear.
They brought the skin home and presented it to Vera, who thanked them both in her quiet, undemonstrative way, and asked who killed it.
"I speared her," said Peter, "but Paul finished her off with his dagger, so that we both had a hand in avenging you, Vera."
"Oh, I had not much to do with it," said Paul. "Thank Peter, not me, Vera."
"I thank both my knights," said Vera, offering her hand to each in turn to raise to his lips, Russian fashion.
It was but a few days after this adventure with the bear that the two lads were involved together in another and even more dangerous one, if that were possible.
It was the eve of the new year, and both were, of course, invited to see the year in at the Ootin mansion--a function which they had attended every thirty-first of December since they could remember.
Frank Thirlstone, the tutor, had driven over earlier in the day in order to sit with the general, with whom he was a favourite, and who was still more or less an invalid after his late "rough-and-tumble" with the since exterminated bear.
The young counts chose the forest road in preference to a shorter one through the open country, and they did so because the forest is always full of possibilities--such as hares, foxes, tree partridges, and even, on exceptionally lucky days, a stray wolf. They drove in a light sledge drawn by two wiry Finnish ponies, sitting together on the floor of the sledge, which was not only without a box seat, but also without further accommodation for pa.s.sengers than that which was supplied by a bag of straw thrown into the loosely-constructed sh.e.l.l of the vehicle. Peter handled the reins, having his gun loaded with slugs at his feet, while Paul held his own in his hands.
The weather had been exceptionally cold for the last few days, and in view of this fact the brothers were not without hope of seeing a wolf or two. They had, indeed, brought with them what, in their part of the world, was frequently used as a lure for hungry wolves--namely, a young pig securely fastened in a sack, and carried in the bottom of the sledge at their feet. The unusual sensation of being shut up in a sack and of being jolted about as the sledge b.u.mps its way over the uneven road causes the little creature to squeal almost without ceasing, and the noise is certain to attract any empty-stomached wolf within a mile or two.
This is especially the case when the weather has been very severe, and food scarce, under which circ.u.mstances a wolf becomes wondrously courageous and venturesome; and if the occupant of the sledge keeps his eyes open, he will be pretty sure to be rewarded with a sight of one or two of the grey fellows for whom he has prepared a special charge of large shot.
Both Paul and Peter were of the kind who keep their eyes very wide open indeed, especially in the forest. The moon was up, and the pines, covered with rime, like silver wire-work, made a fairyland of the scene as the two drove silently along the narrow road. They were silent of a set purpose, for wolves will not so readily make their appearance if the squealing of the pig is accompanied by the voices of human beings.
"Peter," whispered Paul suddenly, "move your head cautiously and look on your left, just behind the sledge, and forty paces away among the trees."
Peter turned his head round very gradually.
"Yes," he said; "all right; that"s he. Keep quite quiet and he"ll come much nearer."
A few moments later Paul whispered again,--
"There"s another on the right--no, two more."
"Ha!" Peter whispered back, "that"s good. This looks like business.
We"re in luck to-night."
"If one comes within twenty-five paces, I think you might shoot," Peter added presently; "only remember how slugs scatter."
"I see five now," said Paul. "Three on the left, and two on the right."
"And there are three more cantering along ahead of us on the left, and--yes, two nearer in on the right."
"That"s ten then," said Paul. "If there are many more to come, Petka, it will amount to a pack, and that, they say, is dangerous."
Peter whipped up the horses, which had begun to lag, snorting and turning their ears backward and forward. They had become aware of the wolves, and were not altogether comfortable in their minds.
"I never saw a pack yet," said Peter. "I shall be glad if I do now. It is difficult for me to believe that a skulking beast like a wolf can be dangerous."
"Anyway we are all right with our guns and plenty of cartridges."
"I haven"t many slugs though--six, I think; the rest of mine are smaller shot," said the elder brother.
Every moment one brother or the other reported more wolves in sight, and more again. Presently there were over twenty. Several were now much nearer than before, and somewhere in among the pines one wolf bayed.
Instantly there was heard a babel of sounds. A score of wolf throats responded to the call, and there rose a perfect pandemonium in the forest--howls and bayings and snarlings sufficiently alarming to cause even the stoutest heart to beat a little quicker.
Peter laughed. "We are in for it, I verily believe, Paul," he said.
"Shoot a couple of the rascals, and see whether they"ll stop to pull them to pieces."
Paul fired both barrels, and in a moment a pair of gaunt, grey creatures were down and struggling in their death-throes. Two or three of their fellows stopped for a moment to snarl over and worry the flesh of their expiring comrades, but the squealing pig was too tantalizing to be allowed to die away in the distance and be lost, with all its luscious possibilities, and they left the cannibal feast and continued the chase.
Now they grew momentarily bolder. They ran in, baying and howling, and dared to approach quite close to the sledge.
"Shoot again, and keep shooting," said Peter. "This is grand."
Paul shot another, and missed one, and then killed two more; but the slaughter did not seem to thin the ranks. There appeared to be as many as ever when these had been left behind half eaten.
Now one rushed in and leaped up at the off pony, which shied and nearly upset the sledge. Paul promptly shot it. Another took its place, and Paul wounded this one also, its fellows quietly giving it the happy dispatch.
Peter began to look grave, and calculated the distance still to be traversed; it was about three miles.
"We are in danger, Paul; there isn"t a doubt of it," he said.
"Keep shooting and give them no peace, especially any that attack the horses. That"s the chief danger."
A few minutes later this danger had become acute and imperative.
The wolves were now attacking, not the horses only, but also the edges of the sledge, leaping up and evidently trying to get at the pig, whose squeals seemed to madden them with the desire to taste pork.
"Peter," said Paul suddenly. He had been silent for several minutes, and
Peter had concluded with some displeasure and some scorn (for he loved and admired his brother) that he was frightened. Paul"s speech soon disabused him of this erroneous idea. "Peter," he said, "I have just been thinking that it would be a better chance for both of us if one stopped here and kept the brutes at bay, and the other went on. Very likely only a few would follow the sledge. I choose staying here. I shall be all right with my gun. Yours is the more valuable life, you see; you know why--what you told me the other day. So drive on, dear brother, and if G.o.d wills it I shall join you later in the evening."
Before Peter had half taken in the meaning of this rigmarole, Paul, to his brother"s infinite astonishment and horror, deliberately stepped out of the sledge. As Peter whirled away he saw his brother stumble, recover himself, walk to the nearest pine tree, and place his back to it. Nearly all the wolves had meanwhile stopped, and for the moment disappeared, after their own mysterious manner. Seeing that a succulent human being had remained behind for their delight, the great majority remained also, very few resuming the pursuit of the sledge.
In two minutes a second human being came running down the road and joined the first. The wolves were charmed. This was better luck than they had expected. The few which had continued the chase presently pulled up and consumed the two ponies. They also found the pig and ate him, sack and all.
"Paul, how could you?" cried Peter, embracing his brother in spite of all the wolves. "You are more to me than ten Veras. Did you think I should leave you to fight these fellows alone?"