Mostly
the stricken died snapping and tearing at each other; but ever and
anon one stronger than the rest would overleap the barrier of dead and
dying wolves that grew up in front of the three men, and Sholto would
feel the teeth click clean and hard upon the mail of his arm or thigh
before he could stoop to despatch the brute with the dirk which he
grasped in his left hand.
The rush upon Sholto's side fortunately did not last long, but while
it continued the battle was strange and silent and grim--this notable
fight of man and beast. As the youth at last cleared his front of a
hairy monster that had sprung at his throat, he found himself
sufficiently free to look round the trunk of the blasted pine that he
might see how it fared with his companions.
At first he could see nothing clearly, for the same strange and weird
conditions continued to permeate the earth and air.
For a moment all would be dark and then flash on continuous flash
would follow, the wild-fire running about the tree-tops and glinting
up through the recesses of the woods as if the heavens themselves were
instinct with diabolic light.
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