But the wolf didn't come at me. It just sat there and when I took another step it keeled over on its back and stayed there, with all four feet sticking in the air, and now its tail beat a wild tattoo upon the stone, the sound of the metal beating on the stone ringing in the morning silence.
'It wants to be friendly,' Cynthia said. 'It is asking you not to hit it.'
I took another step.
'And look,' said that silly Cynthia, 'it has brought a rabbit for us.'
I lowered the rod and kept it low and now the wolf I turned over on its belly and began creeping toward me. I stood and waited for it. When it got close enough, it dropped the rabbit at my feet.
'Pick it up,' said Cynthia.
'Pick it up,' I said, 'and it will take off my arm.'
'Pick it up,' she said. 'It has brought the rabbit to you It has given it to you.'
So I stooped and picked up that crazy rabbit and the moment that I did, the wolf leaped up with a wriggling joy and rubbed against my legs so hard it almost tipped me over
Chapter 16
We sat beside the fire and gnawed the last shreds of meat off the rabbit's bones, while the wolf lay off to one side, its tail beating occasionally on the stony floor, watching us intently.
'What do you suppose happened to him?' Cynthia asked.
'He maybe went insane,' I said. 'Or turned chicken after what happened to the other two. Or he may just be laying for us, lulling us to sleep. When he has the chance he'll finish off the two of us.'
I reached out and pulled the metal rod just a little closer.
'I don't think that at all,' said Cynthia. 'You know what I think. He doesn't want to go back.'
'Back to where?'
'Back to wherever it is that Cemetery keeps him. Think of it. He and the other wolves, however many there may be, may have been kept penned up for years and…'
'They wouldn't keep them penned,' I said. 'More likely they would turn them off until they needed them.'
'Then maybe that is it,' she said. 'Maybe he doesn't want to go back because he knows they'll turn him off.'
I grunted at her. It was all damn foolishness. Maybe the best thing to do, I thought, was to pick up the metal rod and beat the wolf to death. The only thing, I guess, that stopped me was a suspicion that the wolf might take a lot of killing and that in the process I'd come out second best.
'I wonder what happened to the census-taker,' I said.
'The wolf scared him off,' said Cynthia. 'He won't be coming back.'
'He could at least have wakened us. Given us a chance.'
'It turned out all right.'
'But he couldn't know it would.'.
'What do we do now?'
'I don't know,' I said. And that was exactly right. I really didn't know. Never in my life had I felt so unsure of what my next step should be. I had no real idea of where we were; we were lost, as far as I was concerned, in a howling wilderness. We were separated from the two stronger members of our party and our guide had deserted us. A metal wolf had made friends with us and I was far from sure of the sincerity of its friendship.
I caught the motion out of the corner of my eye and leaped to my feet, but there was nothing I could do about it except stand there and stare into the muzzles of the guns. Holding the guns were two men and one of them I recognized as the big brute who had stood in the forefront of the mob that Cynthia and I had faced, futile clubs in hand, back at the campsite of the ghouls just before Elmer had come bursting in to break up the confrontation. I was a bit surprised that I recognized him, for at the time I had been too busy watching all the others that made up the mob who had left off their attack on Bronco to zero in on us. But now I found that I did know him-the leering half-smile pasted on his face, the droopy eye, that ragged scar that ran across one cheek. The other one I did not recognize.
They had crept up to one corner of the cave and now they stood there, with their rifles pointed at us.
I heard Cynthia gasp in surprise and I said sharply to her, 'Stay down: Don't move.'
With a scratch of metal claws on rock, something came up to me and stood beside me, pressing hard against my leg. I didn't look to see what it might be. I knew. It was Wolf, lining up with me against the guns.
The two with the guns apparently had not seen him, lying off to one side of us. And now that he moved into their view, the leering smile came off Big Brute's face and his jaw sagged just a little. A nervous tic ran across the face of the other man. But they stood their ground.
'Gentlemen,' I said, 'it appears to me a stand-off. You could kill us easy, but you wouldn't live to get a hundred feet.'
They kept their guns pointed at us, but finally Big Brute lifted his and let the butt slide to the ground.
'Jed,' he said, 'put up your shooting iron. These folks have outsmarted us.'
Jed lowered his gun.
'It seems to me,' said Big Brute, 'that we have to cipher out a way for all of us to get out of this scrape without losing any hide.'
'Come on in,' I said, 'but be careful of the guns.'
They came up to the fire, walking slowly and somewhat sheepishly.
I took a quick glance at Cynthia. She still was crouched upon the floor, but she wasn't scared. She was hard as nails.
'Fletch,' she said, 'the gentlemen must be hungry, coming all this way. Why don't you ask them to sit down while I open up a can or two. We haven't too much, traveling light, but I put in some stew.'
The two of them looked at me and I nodded rather curtly.
'Please do,' I said.
They sat down and laid their guns beside them.
Wolf didn't stir; he stood and looked at them.
Big Brute made a questioning gesture at him. ,
'He's all right,' I said. 'Just don't make any sudden moves.'
I hoped that I was right. I couldn't quite be sure.
Cynthia, digging into one of the packs, had a stew pan out. I poked the fire together and it blazed up brightly.
'Now,' I said, 'suppose you tell me what this is all about?'
'You stole our horses,' Big Brute said.
Jed said, 'We were hunting them.'
I shook my head. 'You could have followed the trail blindfolded. You should have had no trouble. There were a lot of horses.'
'Well,' said Big Brute, 'we found the place where you hid out and we found the note. Jed here, he was able to get it puzzled out. And we knew about this cave.'
'It's a camping place,' said Jed. 'We camp here ourselves, every now and then.'
It still didn't make too much sense, but I didn't press it. Big Brute, however, went on to explain. 'We figured you weren't alone. Someone must have been with you. Someone who knew the country. People like you wouldn't strike out on your own. And this place here is a hard day's march.'
Jed said, 'What I can't figure is the wolf. We never counted on no wolf. We thought by this time he'd be halfway home.'
'You knew about the wolves?'
'We saw the tracks. Three of them. And we found what was left of the other two.'
'Not you,' I said. 'You came straight from the place where we slept. You had to. You wouldn't have had the time…'
'Not us,' said Jed. 'We didn't see it. Some of the rest of us. They let us know.'
