"You are in my bed, so stay there, and you will come out all right. You have been making the Big Red Medicine; the devil is pulling your hair, and every time he yanks, he will say, 'John Ermine, don't do that again.' Keep quiet, and you will get well." After saying which Lewis left the room. All day long the young man lay on the bed; he was burning at the stake; he was being torn apart by wild horses; the regimental band played its bangiest music in his head; the big brass drum would nearly blow it apart; and his poor stomach kept trying to crawl out of his body in its desperate strife to escape Wilmore's decoction of high-wine. This lasted all day, but by evening the volcano had blown itself out, when a natural sleep overcame him. Captain Lewis had the knowledge of certain magic, well enough known in the army, to alleviate Ermine's condition somewhat, but he chose not to use it; he wanted 'exhibit A' to wind up in a storm of fireworks. As Ermine started out the next morning Lewis called, "Hey, boy, how did you come to do it?" Ermine turned a half-defiant and half-questioning front to Lewis and tossed his matted hair. "I don't know, Captain; it all seems as though I must have fallen off the earth; but I'm back now and think I can stay here." "Well, no one knows about it except myself, so don't say a word to any one, and don't do it again--sabe?" "You bet I won't. If the soldiers call that drowning their sorrows, I would rather get along with mine." CHAPTER XV BRINGING IN THE WOLF "Going to follow the dogs to-day, Lewis?" said Lieutenant Shockley, poking his head in the half-open door. "Yes, reckon I'll give this chair a vacation; wait a minute," and he mauled the contents of his ditty-box after the manner of men and bears when in search of trifles. A vigorous stirring is bound to upheave what is searched for, so in due course the Captain dug up a snaffle-bit. "I find my horse goes against this better than the government thing--when the idea is to get there and d---- formations." "Well, shake yourself, Lewis; the people are pulling out." "What, ahead of the scouts?" laughed the chief of them. "Yes; and you know the line never retires on the scouts; so smoke up." The orderly having changed the bits, the two mounted and walked away. "'Spose this is for the Englishman. Great people these Englishmen--go trotting all over the earth to chase something; anything will do from rabbits to tigers, and niggers preferred," said Lewis. "Must be a great deprivation to most Englishmen to have to live in England where there is nothing to chase. I suppose they all have this desire to kill something; a great hardship it must be," suggested Shockley.