ae cp & A, Tal Veihie ea 
VRAIN wen RY 
wh 
Badlands Billy 
the litter, a most surprising one indeed, for it 
consisted not of the usual five or six Wolf-pups, 
but of eleven, and these, strange to say, were 
of two sizes, five of them larger and older than 
the other six. Here were two distinct families 
with one mother, and as he added their scalps 
to his string of trophies the truth dawned on 
the hunter. One lot was surely the family of 
the She-wolf he had killed two weeks before. 
The case was clear: the little ones awaiting the 
mother that was never to come, had whined 
piteously and more loudly as their hunger- 
pangs increased ; the other mother passing had 
heard the Cubs; her heart was tender now, her 
own little ones had so recently come, and she 
cared for the orphans, carried them to her own 
den, and was providing for the double family 
when the rifleman had cut the gentle chapter 
short. 
Many a wolver has dug into a wolf-den to 
find nothing. The old Wolves or possibly the 
Cubs themselves often dig little side pockets 
and off galleries, and when an enemy is break- 
ing in they hide in these. The loose earth 
conceals the small pocket and thus the Cubs 
115 
