“Are the wolfers all bad men?” “Oh, no. There are exceptions, of course; but take them as a class, they are a desperate lot. I know of several men, two of whom I have in my mind at this moment, who made their start in life as wolfers. One of them is now a prosperous merchant in an Eastern city, and the other is running an extensive cattle ranch in Texas. But they were careful of their money, while the majority of those who follow that business squander every cent they earn. They brave hunger, cold, and all sorts of hardships for several months in the year, and devote the rest of their time to getting rid of their money. They are held in supreme contempt by all honest plainsmen, and this acquaintance of yours had better break off associating with them before he gets himself into trouble, if he hasn’t done so already. If he is going to be a wolfer, he had better hunt alone than in the company of that miserable fellow he seems to have chosen for a companion. No matter how much money he makes, Lish will find means to obtain possession of the whole of it.” “Do you think he will rob him?” exclaimed the boy. “He is capable of anything,” was the colonel’s reply. And it was accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders that spoke volumes and excited a train of serious reflections in Oscar’s mind. CHAPTER XIII. OSCAR WRITES A NOTE. While the colonel was speaking, Oscar had twisted uneasily about on his chair, waiting with the utmost impatience for him to bring his remarks to a close. At almost any other time he would have plied the officer with questions regarding the class of nomads known as “wolfers,” for he would like to have learned more about them; but he had already found out all he cared to know just then. Tom was suspected of complicity in some crime that rendered him liable to punishment; and, if he escaped and went to the hills with Lish, he would run the risk of being robbed by him. Oscar thought it was his duty to warn him of these dangers. He knew that the lieutenant would carry out his instructions with the utmost promptness and decision—these regulars waste no time when acting under orders—and not a moment was to be lost. The colonel settled back in his chair as though he had nothing more to say just then, and Oscar arose to his feet and went into his bedroom. After slinging on his powder-flask and shot-pouch, and making sure that the little box in the stock of his fowling-piece was filled with caps, he opened his trunk, and, taking from it a sum of money sufficient to pay for the clothes he had promised to purchase for his brother, he went back into the colonel’s room.