As for himself, there was only one person in the world he could lean upon, or to whom he could look for a kind word; and he was so low down in the scale of humanity that, had he presumed to intrude among those with whom Oscar associated on terms of the closest intimacy, he would have been promptly kicked out of doors. When Tom thought his brother had been allowed time enough to ride to the fort, and purchase the blankets and clothing he had promised to give him, he arose to his feet and walked slowly down the ravine. “If there were any way in which I could smash up that expedition of his, and send him back to the States with as heavy a heart as I carry at this moment, I’d do it,” said Tom, who was so envious of Oscar that he would gladly have injured him by every means in his power; and, this being his state of mind, he was quite eager to fall in with a plan that was suggested to him a few days afterward. “It _must_ be broken up, for it would never do to allow him to go back to Eaton and Yarmouth, and earn honors and money there, while I am out here in this deplorable condition. I’ll speak to Lish about it as soon as he comes back.” While Tom was ready to throw all the obstacles he could in the way of his brother’s success, he was equally ready to accept from him a suit of thick clothes and a pair of blankets to keep him warm of nights. He thought Oscar ought to be on his way back by this time, and so he was, as Tom found when he reached the mouth of the ravine. He was coming at a gallop along the path that led through the sage-brush. Tom did not want to meet him again, so he sought a hasty concealment among the bushes on the side of the ravine opposite to that on which stood the rock he had described to his brother. He heard Oscar pronounce his name and say that he had news for him, but he could not be coaxed out of his hiding-place. He saw the bundle that Oscar carried on the horn of his saddle, watched him as he rode up the bank toward the rock behind which the bundle was to be left, and wondered what it was that kept him there so long. He also saw his worthy partner when he went by, and was somewhat surprised that Lish, whose eyes were as sharp as an Indian’s, did not see the trail that Oscar’s pony made when passing through the bushes. Oscar, too, saw the wolfer, as we know, and made all haste to quit the ravine as soon as he had passed out of hearing.