"No, ma'am, I don't care anything about wolves; and why should I care for them?" "What are you out for then, pray?" "Oh, I don't know; thought I would like to see you after wolves. I guess that's why I am out," came the simple answer. "Well, to judge by the past few miles I don't think you will see me after them to-day." "I think so myself, Miss Searles. These people ought to go back in the breaks of the land to find wolves; they don't give a wolf credit for having eyes." "Why don't you tell them so, Mr. Ermine?" pleaded the young woman. "The officers think they know where to find them; they would not thank me, and there might not be anywhere I would go to find them. It does not matter whether we get one or none, anyhow," came Ermine's sageness. "Indeed, it does matter. I must have a wolf." "Want him alive or dead?" was the low question. "What! am I to have one?" "You are," replied the scout, simply. "When?" "Well, Miss Searles, I can't order one from the quartermaster exactly, but if you are in a great hurry, I might go now." "Mr. Ermine, you will surely kill me with your generosity. You have offered me your scalp, your body, and now a wolf. Oh, by the way, what did that awful Indian say to you? I suppose you have seen him since." "Didn't say anything." "Well, I hope he has forgiven you; but as I understand them, that is not the usual way among Indians." "No, Miss Searles, he won't forgive me. I'm a-keeping him to remember you by." "How foolish; I might give you something for a keepsake which would leave better memories, do you not think so?" "You might, if you wish to." The girl was visibly agitated at this, coming as it did from her crude admirer. She fumbled about her dress, her hair, and finally drew off her glove and gave it to the scout, with a smile so sweet and a glance of the eye which penetrated Ermine like a charge of buckshot. He took the glove and put it inside of the breast of his shirt, and said, "I'll get the wolf." Shockley was so impressed with the conversation that he was surprised into silence, and to accomplish that phenomenon took a most powerful jolt, as every one in the regiment knew. He could talk the bottom out of a nose-bag, or put a clock to sleep. Ordinary verbal jollity did not seem at all adequate, so he carolled a passing line:-- "One little, two little, three little Injuns, Four little, five little, six little Injuns, Seven little, eight little, nine little Injuns, Ten little Injun boys." This came as an expiring burst which unsettled his horse though it relieved him. Shockley needed this much yeast before he could rise again. "Oh, Mr. Shockley, you must know Mr. Ermine." "I have the pleasure, Miss Searles; haven't I, Ermine?" The scout nodded assent. "We were side by side when we rushed the point of that hill in the Sitting Bull fight last fall; remember that, Ermine?"