Badlands Billy 
mental conception of them she had acquired a 
wholesome distrust of all things strange, and a 
horror of one or two in particular that proved 
her lasting safeguard. Each year she raised 
her brood successfully and the number of Yel- 
low Wolves increased in the country. Guns, 
traps, men and the new animals they brought 
had been learned, but there was yet another 
lesson before her—a terrible one indeed. 
About the time Duskymane’s brothers were 
a month old his foster-mother returned in a 
strange condition. She was frothing at the 
mouth, her legs trembled, and she fell in a con- 
vulsion near the doorway of the den, but recoy- 
ering, she came in. Her jaws quivered, her 
teeth rattled a little as she tried to lick the 
little ones; she seized her own front leg and 
bit it so as not to bite them, but at length she 
grew quieter and calmer. The Cubs had re- 
treated in fear to a far pocket, but now they 
returned and crowded about her to seek their 
usual food. The mother recovered, but was 
very ill for two or three days, and those days 
with the poison in her system worked disaster 
for the brood. ‘They were terribly sick; only 
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