A cruel, biting swept across the snow; over the earth moved , fantastic clouds, that drifted slowly across the face of a pale troubled moon. Towards night-fall, the wolves could be heard in the valley, howling a summons to their leader from the spot where the pack always assembled.  
The valley sharply to a hollow thickly overgrown with red pines. Thirteen years back an unusually violent storm had swept the vicinity, and an entire pine belt to the ground. Now, under the wide, windy sky, spread a luxuriant growth of young firs, while little oaks, hazels, and here and there dotted the depression.
 
Here the leader of the wolf-pack had his . Here for thirteen years his mate had borne his . He was already old, but huge, strong, greedy, , and fearless, with lean legs, powerful snapping , a short, thick neck on which the hair stood up shaggily like a short mane and terrified his younger companions.
 
This great, gaunt old wolf had been leader for seven years, and with good reason. By day he kept to his lair. At night, terrible and , he prowled the fields and a short summons to his mates. He led the pack on their quests for food, hunting throughout the night, over plains and down ravines, round farms and villages. He not only , horses, bulls, and bears, but also his own wolves if they were or . He lived—as every wolf must live—to hunt, to eat, and to breed.
 
In winter the snow lay over the land like a dead white , and food was scarce. The wolves sat round in a circle, gnashed their teeth, and long and through the night, their noses at the moon.
 
Five days back, on a steep slope of the valley not far from the wolf track to a waterin............