Mr. Madison C. Wilde gave him a whimsical look and proceeded to draw forth from an inside pocket a mammoth wallet while the three boys stared speechless. Could this man be just fooling them? The wallet was formidable enough to stagger any grizzly. It was bulging with money, which to the boys seemed to confirm the stranger’s connection with the movies, where fabulous sums are possessed and handed about. Mr. Wilde was as deliberate with his wallet as any hunter of the woolly west could possibly have been with his gun. He screwed his cigar over to the end of his mouth, tilted it to an almost vertical position, then closing one eye he explored the caves and fastnesses of his wallet with the other. His quest eventually resulted in the capture of a paper which he brought forth out of a veritable jungle of bills and documents. “Here we are,” said he, tenderly unfolding the document. CHAPTER XXXVI AN IMPORTANT PAPER “With the exception of the Declaration of Independence,” said Mr. Wilde, “this is the most valuable paper in the world.” He handed it to Westy and the three boys, reading it together, saw that it was a permit issued by the director of the National Park Service at Washington to Mr. Alexander Creston, President of the Educational Film Company of New York to “dispatch employees of said Educational Film Company into such remote sections of the Yellowstone National Park as should be designated by the local park authorities for the purpose of securing photographs of the wild life, the use of traps and firearms being strictly prohibited. This permit expires——” And so forth and so forth. It concluded with the signature of the director of the National Park Service. “Gee williger!” said Westy. “Talking about stalking!” said Ed. “No wonder you laugh at us,” said Warde. “Did you ever try stalking officials in Washington?” Mr. Wilde asked. “We never stalked anything but robins and—and turtles and things like that,” said Warde with a note of self-disgust in his voice. “Never hit the red tape trail, hey? Well I guess turtles are pretty near as slow as Washington officials. I’ve been just exactly three weeks in Washington stalking this permit. Pretty good specimen, hey? That’s more valuable than any grizzly, that is.” He gazed at it with a look of whimsical affection and tucked it safely away in his wallet. “It makes us feel kind of silly,” said Westy, “to think of the kind of things you’re going to do. I guess it’s no wonder you make fun of us.”