into the woods. But I stopped
him."

"Alone?"

The half-witted lad nodded. Then, coming over to Wilbur, he pointed to
the rude bandages and said questioningly:

"Tumble?"

"No, Ben," replied the other boy, "I got into a mix-up with a bob-cat."

"I fight, too. Wait, I show you something."

He disappeared for a moment and then came back with two wolf pups,
carrying one in each hand as he might a kitten.

"I got five more," he said.

"Where did you get 'em, Ben?" asked the Ranger.

"Way, way over. Deadman Canyon."

"Get the old wolf?"

The half-witted lad nodded his head vigorously several times.

"Yes," he said, "dead, dead, dead."

"Was the den just by the Sentinel Pine?"

"Yes."

"I reckon that's the wolf that's been givin' such a lot of trouble on
the Arroyo," commented Rifle-Eye. "I went out after that wolf one day
this spring, Ben, but I didn't get her. I waited at the den a long time,
too."

"Two holes out of den, two. I wait, too. Long, long time. No come out.
Plug up one hole. Long more time waited. Then wolf go in. I go in, too."

"You went into the wolf's den?" queried Wilbur in amazement.

"Yes, in. Far, far in."

"How far?"

"Don't know. Far."

"Well, I went in about forty feet myself," said the old hunter, "an' I
didn't see any sign o' the pups, so I backed out again. If you went all
the way in, Ben, I reckon it was a pretty long crawl."

"But why did you go in the den when the mother wolf was there?" asked
Wilbur.

"Boy fool," said the half-witted lad, pointing at him. "Why go in if
wolf not there?"

"Well," said Wilbur, on the defensive, "I should think it a whole lot
safer to go in--that is, if I was going in at all--sometime when I'd be
sure the mother wolf wouldn't be there."

But the other, still holding the cubs in his hands, negatived this
reasoning with a vigorous shake of the head.

"Safer, wolf in," he said.

"I don't see that at all," objected Wilbur. "It can't be safer."

"You go in, in far, when wolf out. By and by wolf come, eat up legs, no
can turn round for shoot."

"I hadn't thought of that," the boy said, a little humbled.

"Ben's nearly right," said the Ranger, "an' it ain't really as dangerous
as it sounds. There ain't room in the passage for the wolf to spring,
an' if you shoot you're bound to hit her somewhere, no matter how you
aim. O' course, a wolf ain't goin' to come along an' 'eat up your legs'
the way he puts it, but you might get a nasty