As suddenly as it had begun the cry of the pack ceased.

The dogs had reached the water, and were waiting.

Not until Jean swung his canoe toward shore and the bow of it scraped on a gravelly bar did they give voice again, and then so close and fiercely that involuntarily Philip held his canoe back.

In another moment Josephine had stepped lightly over the side in a foot of water.

He could not see what happened then, except that the bar was filled with a shadowy horde of leaping, crowding, yelping beasts, and that Josephine was the centre of them.