"Tell me," announced Jimmy, rather indignantly, "who's got a better right to be askin' questions about the habits of the animals than me, who's a member of that same Wolf Patrol? How can you expect a feller to give the right kind of a _howl_ when he wants to signal to his mates, unless he finds out all these things." "Oh! if that's the worst you are after, Jimmy, go ahead and find out," Jack was heard to say, condescendingly. "I thought you had a more serious scheme in that head of yours than just accumulating knowledge." Jimmy turned and looked at him suspiciously. "And what did you think I had up me sleeve, if it's a fair question?" he asked. "Why, you see," began Jack, with a twinkle in his eye, "I was afraid that you might want to invest what money you've got saved in starting a wolf ranch of your own, or trying to buy this old man Harkness out. I supposed that was why you wanted to know the exact value of wolf hides, and what the State paid bounty on scalps. But I'm just as glad to find that you're not bothering your head over the business part of the game. Perhaps you'd like to meet up with this Harkness, thinking he might give you a chance to shoot his collection of hungry wolves. That would be a snap for a fellow who hates the beasts like you do, and has made a vow to never let one get past him, when he had a gun handy or a stone to heave." Jimmy only grinned. He did not know whether Jack was joking or not, but there seemed to be something complimentary in his way of talking; and Jimmy was not at all averse to being known as a champion wolf killer. "I only hope I get a chance to see this Harkness and his bunch of slick critters before we quit this neck of the woods," he remarked. "But as I ain't a butcher you needn't think that I'd ask him to let me cut down his list with my new Marlin gun. Out in the open I'm death on the sneakers every time; but it'd go against my grain to knock 'em over, when they hadn't got any show for their money. I never could do the axe business for a chicken at home, even when we were livin' in the country." "Oh! well, you must excuse me for speaking of such a thing, Jimmy," said Jack, with assumed gravity; "I was mistaken, that's all, in sizing you up. Appearances are often deceitful, you know, and things don't always turn out as they seem. Now, few people looking at you would ever dream that they were gazing on a marvelous phenomenon. I guess you caught that trick from association with Ned, here," and Jack might have continued along that vein still further had he not been nudged sharply by the scout master, and heard Ned mutter: "Mum's the word, Jack. Don't tell all you know!" This brought him to his senses, for he remembered that there was a stranger present, and that it had been decided not to expose their full hand to the gaze of Amos, at least for the present. In this fashion the time passed.