As Ermine started out the next morning Lewis called, "Hey, boy, how did you come to do it?"
Ermine turned a half-defiant and half-questioning front to Lewis and tossed his matted hair. "I don't know, Captain; it all seems as though I must have fallen off the earth; but I'm back now and think I can stay here."
"Well, no one knows about it except myself, so don't say a word to any one, and don't do it again—sabe?"
"You bet I won't. If the soldiers call that drowning their sorrows, I would rather get along with mine."
[CHAPTER XV]
BRINGING IN THE WOLF
"GOING to follow the dogs to-day, Lewis?" said Lieutenant Shockley, poking his head in the half-open door.
"Yes, reckon I'll give this chair a vacation; wait a minute," and he mauled the contents of his ditty-box after the manner of men and bears when in search of trifles. A vigorous stirring is bound to upheave what is searched for, so in due course the Captain dug up a snaffle-bit.