The Elk Mountain pilot., 1920-12-30


bing with life about her. At first she
tried very hard to think Of other
things. But the attempt wasn't en-
tirely a success. And before she had
covered the first Of the twelve miles.
the sounds that from the first had
been knocking at the door of her con-
sciousness began to make an entrance.
II person lies still long enough, he
can usually hear his heart beating
and the flow Of his blood In his
arteries. Any sound, no matter how
faint. will make itself heard at last.
It was this way with a very peculiar
noise that crept up through the silence
from the trail behind her. She
wouldn't give 1t any heed ut first. But
In a very little while indeed, 1t grew
SO insistent that she could no longer
disregard 1t.
Some living creature was trotting
along on the trail behind, keeping ap-
proximately the same distance be-
tween them.
Foregoing any attempt to ignore h.
she set her cool young mind to think
ing what manner Of beast It might be.
Its step was not greatly different from
that of large dog-except possibly
dog would have made slightly more
noise. Yet she couldn't even be sure
Of this basic premise. because this
animal, whatever It might be. had at
first seemingly moved with utmost
caution, but now took less care with
Its step than is customary with the
wild denizens of the woods. A wolf,
for instance. can simply drift when 1t
wishes. and the silence of cougar is
a name. Yet unless her pursuer were
dog. which seemed entirely unlikely.
1t was certainly one of these two: She
would have liked very much to believe
the step was that of Old Wolf the
bear. suddenly curious as to what this
dim light of hers might be: but she
couldn't bring herself to accept the
lie. Woof. except when wounded or
cornered. is the most amiable crea-
ture In the Oregon woods. and II
would give her almost sense Of Sc
curity to have him waddling along
behind her. The wolves and cougar.
remembering the arms of woof. would
not be nearly so curious. But unfor-
tunately. the black bear had never
done such 4 thing in the memory Of
man. and II he had. he would have
made six times as much noise. He
can 60 fairly softly when he is stalk
ing. but when he Is obliged to trot-
as he would be obliged to do to keep
up with q swift-walking human figure
-he cracks twigs like q rolling log.
She had the impression that the AMI
mai behinu had been passing like
smoke at 6rst, but wasn't taking the
trouble to do II now.
The sound was soft pat-pat on the
trail-sometines entirely obliterated
but always recurring when she began
to believe that she had only fancied
Its presence. Sometimes a twig. rain
soaked though II was. cracked beneath
heavy foot. and again and again
she heard the brush crushing and
rustling as something passed through.
Sometimes when the trail was COW
cred with soft pine needles, It was
practically indistinguishable.
The animal was approximately one
hundred feet behind. 1t wasn't wolf.
she thought. The wolves ran In packs
this season. and except in winter were
more afraid of human beings than any
other living creature. II wasn't a lynx
one of those curiosity-devoured lit
tie felines that will new all day on a
trail and never dare come near. II
was much too large for a lynx. The
feet fell too solidly. There were no
dogs in the mountains TO follow at
heel; and she had no desire whatever
to meet Shag. the faithful hybrid that
used to be her guardian in the hills.
! For Shag had gone to his well-de-
served rest several seasons before.
Two other possibilities remained. One
was that this follower was human
being. the other that II was cougar.
Ordinarily human being is much
more potentially dangerous to wom-
an in the hills mt night than a cougar.
| A cougar is an ahject coward and
some men are not. But Snowbird felt
herself entirely capable of handling
any human foes. They would have no
| advantage over her; they would have
no purpose In killing from ambush;
and she trusted to her own marks
manship implicitly. While It Is an ex-
tremely difficult thing TO shoot at a
cougar leaping from the thicket. tall
man standing on trail presents an
easy target Besides. she had vague
sense of discomfort that If this animal
were cougar. he wasn't acting true
to form. He was altogether too bold.
The animal on the trail behind her
was taking no care at all to go silent
ly. He was simply pit-patting along,
wholly at his ease. He acted as II the
fear that men have instilled In his
breed was somehow missing. And
that is why she instinctively tried to
hurry on the trail.