All of the scouts were in a humor to vote that one of the most delightful camps they had ever been in. Perhaps this partly arose from the great contrast it afforded when compared with recent nights passed under the most trying of conditions, when crossing the desert, and the terrible valley lying to the east of it. Amos had a blanket along with him. Apparently the lad was accustomed to sleeping by himself on the open plain, and always went prepared. Things were not as pleasant as they might be at his cabin home, frequently enough; and besides this, he must be possessed of a wandering nature, feeling perfectly satisfied to take care of himself, and capable of doing it, too. They were still lying around the dying fire, and each waiting for some one else to take the lead in mentioning such a thing as going to sleep, when Amos suddenly sat upright. Ned noticed that he had his head cocked on one side, and appeared to be in the attitude of listening for a repetition of some sound that may have struck his acute hearing. "There it comes again," Amos remarked. "You see, the wind has veered around that way more or less; but say, twelve miles as the crow flies is pretty hefty of a distance to hear that pack give tongue, seems to me." Ned had caught it that time. "You must mean the wolves that Harkness keeps shut up in his pen for breeding purposes, is that it, Amos?" he inquired. "Nothing more nor less than that," came the reply. "There, I caught it as plain as anything then!" acknowledged Jimmy, with a vein of triumph and satisfaction in his voice, as though he did not mean to be left at the post, when the whole bunch was running swiftly. "Whew! they do make a racket, when they're excited, for a fact!" declared Jack. "Is it the wolves you're talking about?" asked Harry. "Don't you be hearing the noise beyond there?" Jimmy asked him. "P'raps now, meat is so scarce that the old man's put his pets on half rations, and the whoopin' we hear is meant for a protest." "Well, what of that?" Jack wanted to know; "I guess you'd raise a bigger howl than that, Jimmy, if we tried to put _you_ on half rations. I can fancy how you'd be trying to lift the roof off, and they'd have to call the fire company out to soak you with their hose so as to make you stop. But don't get alarmed, Jimmy, because none of us have any intention that way." They sat there and listened for several minutes. No doubt, Jimmy was endeavoring to picture in his mind what the den of trapped wolves must look like; and at the same time, he was promising himself once more to try and visit the Harkness place before leaving the country. He would like to be able to say he had set eyes on so strange a thing as a wolf ranch. Harry began to yawn, and stretch tremendously.