He had been absent two hours, and it was quite dusk, when I heard a noise at a distance: it advanced every moment nearer and nearer.

On a sudden, I heard a rustling of the bushes, and hastened under the blanket, which was covered with snow, in hopes that they might not perceive the entrance; but I was hardly there before in dashed after me an enormous wolf.

I cried out, expecting to be torn to pieces every moment, but the creature lay on his belly, his mouth wide open, his eyes glaring, and his long tongue hanging out of his mouth, and although he touched me, he was so exhausted that he did not attack me.

The noise increased, and I immediately perceived that it was the hunters in pursuit of him.

I had crawled in feet first, the wolf ran in head foremost, so that we lay head and tail.