“Ah! you have turned up at last, have you? I have had an orderly looking for you, thinking that perhaps you would like to take a short ride to try your new horse.”
“I have just returned from a five-mile gallop,” answered Oscar, who hoped that the colonel would not offer to accompany him when he left the fort to carry the clothes to the ravine. “I am going to start right back, and this time I shall take my gun with me. I saw some grouse and a big jack-rabbit down there in the sage-brush.”
“Oh, you can find them any day if you keep your eyes open,” said the colonel carelessly. “But I suppose you might as well begin to form your collection one time as another. How does your pony suit?”
“Very well so far. He showed a disposition to be ugly at first, but I had no trouble to bring him to his senses. By-the-way, I met a couple of wolfers while I was gone.”
“Well, what did they steal from you?”
“Nothing, sir. The only thing I had with me that was worth stealing was my pony. No doubt you will be surprised when I tell you that one of these wolfers is an old acquaintance of mine.”
“You don’t say so!” exclaimed the colonel, who was indeed surprised. “You beat anybody I ever heard of. How many more acquaintances are you going to find while you are out here? Are you going to ship this fellow off to the States, too?”
“No, sir; because he can’t very well—I mean he doesn’t want to go back where he came from,” stammered Oscar, who was not a little confused when he found that he had let out more than he had intended.
“Ah!” said the colonel in a very significant tone of voice. “It is a wonder you met him at all, for these wolfers generally have good reasons for keeping themselves hidden in the thickest part of the woods they can find. If you have cause to dislike this man—whoever he is—you may have the satisfaction of knowing that he can’t get any lower down in the world—not by land, as some humorist remarks.”
“I have no cause to dislike him,” replied Oscar. “On the contrary, I think a good deal of him; but I do not like the company he keeps. I met his partner while I was riding through the sage-brush, and I must say that he was the worst specimen of humanity that I ever looked at. He was tall and raw-boned, with grizzly hair and whiskers, a pair of wild-looking eyes——”