When Amos gave this as his opinion, the scouts who had been getting their blankets ready for a quiet night's sleep seemed suddenly to lose all interest in the proceedings. Instead Jimmy started reaching around him for that new Marlin repeating rifle, which had already proven its worth on several occasions. "Whew!" they could hear him saying, almost breathlessly to himself; "thirty hungry wolves, all at a pop, hey? That's what I call crowding the mourners. I may be set on knockin' over an occasional critter when I run across the same; but say, I ain't so greedy as all that. Think I'm in the wholesale line, do you? Well, you've got another guess acomin' to you, that's all!" CHAPTER VI. THE WOLF PACK. "What can we do, Ned?" asked Jack. Jimmy was not the only one now who had seized hold of his gun, for the other three scouts could be seen gripping their rifles. Only poor Amos was without his rifle, though he carried a revolver, cowboy fashion, attached to his belt. "It's out of the question for us to get away," replied the scout master; "because we only have three poor burros, and they'd be overtaken before they'd gone a mile." "Yes," added Jimmy, "and don't forget there's four of us, Ned, darlint." "Amos could skip out if he feels like it, because his pony has fleet heels, and might outrun the wolf pack?" Jack suggested. "But all the same Amos is agoin' to hang around, and take pot luck with the rest of the bunch," remarked the kid puncher, quietly. "But how about the animals," asked Harry, nervously; "do we leave them to be pulled down by the savage beasts of prey? All of us could shinny up some of these trees, but burros can't climb." "Huh, I've seen the time when I thought they could do everything but fly," grunted Jimmy; "and I wasn't so sure about that, either." "We might bring them in close and stand guard over the poor things," Ned went on to say. At that they hurried to where the four animals were tethered. Already something seemed to have told the burros and the calico pony that danger hovered in that breeze, for they were beginning to show signs of excitement, and it was not such an easy job after all to lead them in close to the dying camp fire. Hastily they were firmly secured. "Will the ropes hold if they get to cutting up?" Harry asked, after he had tied his as many as five different times, to make sure there would be no slipping of the knot. "They are all good and practically new," Ned informed him, "and I think there's no doubt about their holding. Now to get ourselves fixed. Pick your tree, everybody, but let it be where you can keep watch over the animals, so as to knock over every wolf that makes a jump for them." They caught on to the idea Ned had in mind. This was to occupy, say as many as three trees that chanced to grow in a triangle around the fire and the spot where the burros and pony had been fastened.