The first stroke caught a big wolf across the eyes, and with howls of pain it immediately endeavoured to extricate itself from the fight.

The lash had blinded it.
With feverish haste Doctor Joe and Jamie undid the axe and rifle from the komatik, and Doctor Joe with the axe and Jamie with the rifle charged the fighting beasts.

A lucky blow from the axe split a wolf's head.

Jamie quickly found that to shoot at a distance he must take the risk of killing one of the dogs, but watching for an opening, with the muzzle of the rifle within an inch of a big wolf's body, he fired and another wolf was disposed of.
In the meantime Andy had been plying the whip with such precision that the foot of one of the wolves had been torn off and another wolf so badly lacerated that as it broke temporarily away Jamie dropped it with the rifle, and then shot the blind wolf which was now roaming aimlessly about.

A stroke from Doctor Joe's axe dispatched the fifth animal, and the remaining wolf, now at the mercy of the dogs, was literally torn into shreds.
Hardly five minutes had elapsed from the moment Jamie discovered the pack trotting out of the woods until the fight was ended.