12

wolves in the night!

snowy suddenly bleated loudly and took a flying leap off the rock before philip could stop him.

he disappeared into the bushes below – and then a loud and welcome sound filled the air.

‘ee-ore! ee-ore! ee-ore!’

‘goodness! it’s a donkey!’ cried jack and scrambled down to see. ‘have they come back? isdavid with them?’

they soon found what they were looking for. dapple the donkey was in the bushes, nuzzlingsnowy, evidently full of delight at seeing him again. but there was no sign at all of the otherdonkeys or of david.

‘dapple! you darling!’ said lucy-ann, running up to him in joy. ‘you’ve come back to us.’

‘come back to snowy, you mean!’ said philip. ‘he was always fond of snowy, weren’t you,dapple? so you came back to find him. well, we’re very very glad to see you, because you willsolve a very knotty problem for us – how to get all our goods up to that cave!’

dapple had come back to see snowy, but he was also very pleased to see the children again. hewas a quiet, stout little donkey, hard-working and patient. he kept close to the children, and hadevidently made up his mind he was going to stay with them. snowy was sweet with him, andtrotted by his side all the time.

‘here, dapple!’ called philip. ‘come and help us with these things, there’s a good fellow.’

dapple stood obediently whilst the boys strapped things on to his back. he took all the beddingup to the cave first, scrambling up the steep bits with difficulty, but managing very well indeed.

then he took up the panniers of food.

‘thanks, dapple,’ said jack, giving him a pat. ‘now come and have a drink!’

they all went to the stream and drank and splashed. the sun had come out again andimmediately it was very hot. the children flung off their coats and lay about, basking.

‘we must collect wood for the fire tonight,’ said jack. ‘we shall need a good lot if we’re goingto keep the fire going all night long. we’ll stack it in the big panniers and get dapple to take it upfor us.’

‘good old dapple!’ said dinah.

they collected as much wood as they could, and soon it was all piled up on the rock outside thecave. the boys made a fire but did not light it. there was no need to do that till night.

the day soon went, and the sun sank behind the mountains in a blaze of crimson. as soon asdarkness fell on the mountain-side, the children retired into the cave. the thought of wolves keptcoming into their minds, and david’s scream of terror, when he had seen something in the bushes,‘black, black, black!’ what could he have seen?

the children hadn’t thought much of these things during the bright daylight, but they came backinto their minds now it was dark. they debated whether or not to have dapple in the cave withthem.

but dapple settled that idea by firmly refusing to go under the overhanging rock. he just stoodoutside stubbornly, his four legs set firmly on the ground, and no amount of pushing or pullingmade the slightest difference. he was not going into that cave!

‘all right, dapple,’ said jack crossly. ‘stay outside and be eaten by wolves if you want to!’

‘oh, don’t say things like that,’ said lucy-ann. ‘dapple, do come inside! please!’

dapple lay down firmly outside, and the children gave it up. there would be no difficulty aboutsnowy or kiki. one would want to be with philip, the other with jack.

‘now we’ll light the fire,’ said jack, as stars began to glimmer in the sky. ‘it’s getting very dark.

got the matches, philip?’

the fire soon burnt up, for the twigs and branches were very dry. the cheerful flames leapt andflickered, and the fire crackled merrily.

‘that’s very very nice,’ said lucy-ann, pleased. ‘i feel safe tucked away in this cave with a fireat the entrance. philip, make snowy go the other side of you. he’s sticking his hooves into me. iwish he’d wear bedroom slippers at night!’

everybody laughed. they all felt safe and comfortable, tucked up in their sleeping-bags, withthe fire lighting up the cave, filling it with jumping shadows. snowy was pressed against philip,kiki was on jack’s middle. somewhere outside was dapple. lucy-ann wished he was in withthem, then the whole family would be safe.

they all watched the flames for a while and then fell asleep. the fire flickered down as thewood was burnt up, and soon only the embers glowed.

philip woke up with a start a few hours later. he saw that the fire had died down, and he got outof his sleeping-bag to put on more wood. it would never do to let it go out!

dapple was still outside, lying quietly. philip saw him when the flames leapt up to burn thewood he piled on. the boy went back to his sleeping-bag. he found that snowy had crept inside itwhilst he was piling wood on the fire.

‘you little scamp!’ he whispered. ‘get out. there’s not room for us both.’

there was quite a scuffle as he tried to get snowy out of the bag. fortunately the others were sovery sound asleep that they didn’t wake. philip got snowy out at last and slid in himself. hehastily laced up the neck of the bag before snowy could try to squeeze in again. snowy gave asigh and lay down heavily right on philip’s middle.

philip lay awake, watching the fire. the wind sometimes blew the smoke towards the cave, andfor a moment or two the smell made philip want to cough.

then he heard dapple stir outside, and he got up on one elbow to see why. his heart began tobeat very fast.

silent dark figures were slinking up to the cave! they did not pass beyond the fire, but they didnot seem to be afraid of it. philip felt breathless, and his heart beat even faster, as if he had beenrunning.

what were those figures? were they the wolves? the boy caught sight of two gleaming eyes,shining like the headlights of a distant car – but green as grass! he sat up quietly.

the wolves were back! they had smelt out the little company. what would they do? they hadnot attacked dapple, thank goodness – and the donkey did not seem to be unduly frightened. hewas only moving uneasily.

the slinking figures moved to and fro behind the fire. philip couldn’t think what in the world todo! he could only hope that the fire would frighten them enough to keep them out of the cave.

after a while all the animals disappeared. philip breathed again! gosh, what a horrible fright hehad had! what a blessing they had thought of that fire! philip made up his mind that he wasn’tgoing to sleep again that night, in case the fire went out. at all costs he must keep that up.

so the boy lay wide-eyed, thinking of wolves, rumblings, earthquakes and ‘black, black, black’.

there was something very unusual about all these things. did they fit together, or didn’t they? wasthere something peculiar about this mountain?

the fire was dying down again. philip got up cautiously to put more wood on. the moon wasup now and he could see for miles. he piled wood on the fire and the flames shot up. he slippedout of the cave to dapple.

then the boy heard a sound. he looked up – and to his horror he saw a wolf between him andthe cave! he had gone to pat dapple – and in that moment the wolf had slunk in between fire andcave. would he go in?

the wolf stood still, looking at philip in the moonlight. philip gazed back, wondering what todo if the creature attacked him – and as he looked, a very peculiar thing happened.

the wolf wagged its long tail! to and fro it went, to and fro, like a big dog’s! philip’s heartleapt. the animal wanted to be friendly! all animals were attracted to philip – but a wolf! thatwas extraordinary.

the boy held out his hand, half afraid, but bold and daring. the wolf trotted round the fire andlicked philip’s hand. it gave a little whine.

the moon shone down brightly on the animal’s dark coat, pointed ears and long muzzle. was ita wolf? now that he was close to it philip began to doubt.

and then quite suddenly he knew what this friendly animal was!

‘why, you’re an alsatian dog!’ he cried. ‘aren’t you? why didn’t i think of it before? i knewthere weren’t wolves in this country! where are the others? you’re all alsatians! good dog! finedog! i’d like to be friends with you!’

the big alsatian put his paws up on philip’s shoulders and licked his face. then he lifted hishead and howled. it was a wolf-like noise, but philip no longer minded that!

it was a call to the other dogs, the rest of the pack. there came the sound of feet in the bushesbelow, and a crowd of dogs leapt up on to the rock. they clustered round philip, and, seeing thattheir leader was so friendly with the boy, they pawed him and licked him.

the howl awakened all the three children in the cave, and they sat up in fright. to theirunspeakable horror they saw, outside the cave, what looked like philip being attacked by wolves!

‘look! they’ve got philip! quick!’ yelled jack.

all three children slid out of their sleeping-bags and rushed to philip’s aid. the dogs growled atthe sudden commotion.

‘philip! we’re coming! are you hurt?’ cried valiant little lucy-ann, picking up a stick.

‘it’s all right, it’s all right!’ yelled philip. ‘they’re not attacking me. they’re friendly. they’renot wolves, but alsatians! dogs, you know!’

‘goodness gracious!’ said dinah, and came out into the moonlight, so glad that the dogs werenot wolves that she didn’t even feel afraid of so many big dogs!

‘oh, philip!’ said lucy-ann, almost in tears with the shock of delight at knowing the wolveswere only dogs. ‘oh, philip! i thought you were being attacked.’

‘you were a darling to come to my rescue then,’ said philip, smiling when he saw the little stickthat lucy-ann had meant to attack the wolves with. ‘the leader of the dogs made friends with me– so all the others are doing the same!’

the dogs had apparently made up their minds to stay for the night. philip debated what to do.

‘we can’t possibly go back into the cave,’ he said. ‘the whole pack will come crowding in, and itwould be impossible to breathe.’

‘quite impossible,’ said dinah, filled with horror at the thought of so many dogs sleeping withthem.

‘so we’ll bring our sleeping-bags out here on the rock beside dapple, and sleep there,’ saidphilip. ‘the dogs can stay if they want to – they’ll be good guards! and if they don’t want to, theycan go. there are about ten of them! i wonder how it is they’re wandering about here wild. ten ofthem! it’s extraordinary.’

they dragged out their sleeping-bags, and got into them. the dogs sniffed round in wonder. theleader sat majestically down by philip, as if to say, ‘this boy is my property. keep off!’ theothers lay about among the children. snowy was afraid of the big leader-dog and dared not evengo near his beloved philip. he went to jack instead. kiki stayed up in a tree. there were altogethertoo many dogs for her!

it was a curious sight the moon looked down on: four children, one goat, one parrot, one donkey– and ten dogs!