*        *        *

By the time that the wolf finally set out, he had given the hunters enough time to grow tired and irritable.   Two of the men had already given up and had returned to the Rodeo ute, however, there were still eight men left, when suddenly, around midnight, Warren Horne again chanted, “Black wolf!   Black wolf!”

“Will you shut that…!” began Sam Hart, before realizing that Warren was pointing toward a grove of grey-brown ghost gums a hundred metres ahead of where they stood.

Standing between two of the gum trees, facing directly away from them, stood a black wolf, feeding of the half-devoured carcase of a large wombat.

‘I don’t believe it!’ thought Sam, starting to swing his Winchester repeater up toward the large wolf.

Because there was a strong headwind blowing past the wolf, toward the hunters, the wolf had not heard Weird Warren’s chant, or Sam’s curse.   However, he heard readily enough when Warren aimed his shotgun toward the wolf, pressed both triggers, letting the hammers click-click onto the empty chambers, then shouted, “Bang!   Bang!” at the top of his lungs.

The black wolf jumped a metre straight into the air from fright, allowing Sam’s Winchester to fire harmlessly into the ground beneath the animal, sending up a spray of dead gum leaves.   Before Hart could fire again, the wolf returned to earth and took off like a rocket into the dark forest.

Two other men in the posse were quick enough to fire off shots before the wolf had disappeared from sight.   However, he was long out of range, so they only managed to take bark off gum trees a few metres behind the fleeing animal.

“You bloody retard!” shouted Sam Hart, rounding on Weird Warren.   In his anger forgetting his fear of Des Hutchinson.

“Leave him alone!” warned Hutchinson, although he was also annoyed by the missed opportunity to bag the black wolf.

Ignoring the warning, Sam continued to storm toward the cringing figure of Warren Horne, until Des fired a warning shot from his pump-action shotgun.   The shot missed Sam by mere centimetres, blasting away a great chunk of bark from a ghost gum nearby.