There were spatters and streaks of it all over the ground between the stable and the edge of the forest. But while Ernie should have been encouraged by the sight of all that blood, it left him feeling uneasy. There was just too much of it. If he’d hit one of the wolves, there would have been a few spatters, or maybe even a trail of blood leading into the forest. Instead, there were pools of it. And several angry red slashes seemed to be cut in the snow.

As he reached the line of trees at the edge of his yard, the bloodstains suddenly stopped and the snow leading into the forest was white and pure.

And that’s when he kicked something with one of his boots, something soft, wet, and red.

Ernie shone the flashlight at his feet…and saw Jaeger lying there, dead.

What he’d first thought was a big red pool of blood in the snow was actually his trusted companion, torn up by half a dozen wolves or more, from the looks of it.

Ernie fell to his knees and placed a hand on his best friend’s head. “Don’t worry, boy,” he sobbed. “I’ll make those wolves pay.”

Chapter 2

Noble opened up the textbook and began to read. “Okay… 1. Sketch a coordinate grid and choose any two points on the grid. Call these points A and B. Now, how is the line segment joining A and B different from the line that passes through A and B?”

Argus stared at the book for a while, then said, “What’s a coordinate grid?”

Noble sighed. Argus had always had trouble with mathematics, but sometimes it seemed like he wasn’t even trying. Still, Noble tried to answer his brother’s questions as best he could. “A coordinate grid is a sort of diagram with horizontal and vertical lines on it that allow you to plot points on a plane.”

“A plane? I thought we were studying math?”

“We are.”

“Oh.” Argus shook his head. “Why do I have to know this stuff, anyway?”

“Well, for one, coordinate grids are used by surveyors to plot out land and building sites.” And then Noble was struck with an idea about how to catch Argus’s interest. “I bet forest rangers use coordinate grids all the time.”

“You think so?” Argus asked.

“We could ask the ranger.”

Argus sighed. “I don’t think I’m ever going to understand this stuff.”

“Don’t say things like that. Of course you’ll get it,” Noble said. “It’s just a bit tricky, that’s all.”

Argus smiled at his brother. “Crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope is tricky. Finding gold in the Yukon is tricky. Getting me to understand high school math is impossible.”