So now a new love was born in that cheerless heart, where for so long a lonely inmate, the ghost of old love, had dwelt in chill seclusion.
The feeling of comradeship which Wetzel had for Joe was something altogether new in the hunter's life.

True he had hunted with Jonathan Zane, and accompanied expeditions where he was forced to sleep with another scout; but a companion, not to say friend, he had never known.

Joe was a boy, wilder than an eagle, yet he was a man.
He was happy and enthusiastic, still his good spirits never jarred on the hunter; they were restrained.

He never asked questions, as would seem the case in any eager lad; he waited until he was spoken to.

He was apt; he never forgot anything; he had the eye of a born woodsman, and lastly, perhaps what went far with Wetzel, he was as strong and supple as a young lynx, and absolutely fearless.
On this evening Wetzel and Joe followed their usual custom; they smoked a while before lying down to sleep.