“Thought I could make way with a cartload of grub,” he said, “judging from the way my empty stomach kept griping me; but seems like I’m stalled already. P’raps it wasn’t _quite_ so bad as I believed; but excuse me from ever going through such a terrible experience again. Just thinking you’re starving to death is mighty near as bad as the real thing!” “You’re right, Billie; and more than one man has just died from the effects of imagination, believe me,” said Adrian. “But ain’t you going to tell us all that happened to you since you lost touch with us yesterday?” demanded Donald, showing how anxious he and Adrian must be to know what their lost chum had been doing all this while; and how he had been able to keep steadily on, headed into the north. “Yes, when we found Jupiter grazing along the border of the desert this morning,” Adrian went on to say, “we thought at first you must be in camp, and we looked everywhere but couldn’t see hide nor hair of you. Then Donald here noticed that while the pony had his saddle and bridle on, you’d roped him; and from that we guessed he must have broken away when you had him staked out, for your pin was at the end of the lariat. Then we _were_ in a stew, because we knew what it meant to be left on foot out on the desert.” “What made the pony break away, Billie?” asked Donald, suspiciously. “When the wolf pack came down on me, the beast got frightened, and just left his poor master in the lurch,” returned the rescued one, calmly, yet watching out of the corner of his eyes to notice the others exchange quick looks, and nod their heads, as if to say: “see, just like I told you, Billie was equal to anything that came along; he’s all right, Billie is!” “Wolves, eh?” remarked Adrian, presently. “So the hungry critters got scent of you last night, did they, Billie?” questioned the other chum, eagerly; “and you must have had a tough time staying awake to chase the pack away. Knock over any?” “Oh! I don’t know how many, because as fast as I bowled one over the rest would jump in, and gobble him up. This morning all I could find there, was a lot of bones scattered about, and some chunks of hair.” Billie said this as coolly as though after all it were a very little matter, and hardly worth mentioning, after a fellow had alone and unaided slain a grizzly bear. “And you’ve really not had any sleep all night, then?” Adrian asked; as though that was the most astonishing part of the whole business in his eyes. “Never a wink I can truthfully say,” the hero of the occasion declared, holding up his right hand in affirmation; “but I’m feeling all right again now. I could stand the wolf part of it, yes, and the keeping on guard a thousand hours, like it seemed to me; but the _starving_ was just awful. I’m mighty glad to be with you both again. And p’raps, when noontime comes, we can cook something warm.”