The Elk Mountain pilot., 1920-12-30

and the pistol leaped in the lantern
light.
But the eyes had already blInked
out before she could raise the weapon.
She shot twice. The echoes roared
back. unbelievably loud In the silence.
and then abruptly died; and the only
sound was rustling of leaves as the
cougar crouched. She sobbed once.
then hurried on.
She was afraid to listen at first. She
wanted to believe that her pistol fire
would frighten the animal from her
trail. She knew. under ordinary con-
1itions. that II would. If he still fol-
lowed. II could mean but one thing
that some unheard-of incident had oc-
Cured to destroy his fear of men. It
would mean that he had knowingly set
upon her trail and was hunting her
with all the age-old remorselessness
that is the code Of the mountains.
For a little while all was silence.
Then out Of the hush the thickets sud-
henly crashed and shook on the oppo-
site side Of the trail. She fired blind
ly into the thicket. Then she caught
herself with a sob. But two shells
remained in her pistol. and they must
he saved for the test.
. Whisperfoot the cougar. remember
ing the lessons Of his youth. turned
from the trail when he had first heard
Snowbird's step. He had crouched
and let her pass. She was walking
Into the wind; and as she was at the
closest point q message had blown
back to him.
The hair went straight on his shoul-
ders and along his spine. His blood.
running cold an instant before from
fear. made a great leap in his VEINS
A picture came in his dark mind: the
chase for q deer when; the moon had
set, the stir Of a living thing that
broke twigs in the thickets, and the
leap he had made. There had been
blood, that night-the wildness and the
madness and the exultation of the kill.
OF course there had been terror first.
but the terror had soon departed and
left something lying warm and still
In the thickets. II was the same game
that walked his trail in front-game
that died easily and yet, In vague
| way he ulu nOt uuueTSthnu, tne
noblest game of all. II was living
flesh. to tear with talon and fang.
All his training. all the instincts i'm.
0ued In him by a thousand generations
of cougars who knew this greatest
fear. were simply obliterated by the
sudden violence Of his hunting-mad
ness. he had tasted this blood once
and II could never be forgotten. The
flame leaped in his eyes. And then hi
began the stalk.
A cougar. trying to creep silently
on its game. does not move quickly. Il
simply steals. as serpent steal!
through the grass. Whisperfoot stalke'
for a period Of five minutes. to leaU
that the prey was farther away iron
him at every step.
He trotted forward until he cnmt
close. and again'he stalked. Again HI
found. after few minutes Of silen
creeping through the thickets, that HI
had lost distance. Evidently this
game did not feed slowly, like ths
deer. II was to he chase. then
Again he trotted within one hundred
feet Of the girl.
before he finally gave II up altogether
This game was like the porcupine-
simply to be chased down and taken
And in the case Of all animals that
.,unt their game ny overtaking II
there was no longer any occasion f0I
going silently. The thing TO do was ts
come close end spring from 'he trail
behind.
Though the fear was mostly gone.
the cougar retained enough Of that
caution that most wild animals ex-
hibit when hunting a new game SO
that he didn't attempt to strike Snow
bird down at once. But as the chase
went on, his passion grew upon him.
Ever he crept nearer. And at last he
sprang full into the thickets beside
her.
At that instant she had shot for the
nrst time. Because the light had left
his eyes before she could find aim,
both shots had been clean misses. And
terrible as the reports were. he was
too engrossed In the chase to be
frightened away by mere sound. This
was the cry the man-pack always
made-these sudden, startling sounds
In the silence. But he felt no pain.
He crouched moment. shivering.
Then he bounded on again.
The third shot was a miss too: In
fact, there had been no chance for a
hit. A sound in the darkness Is as
unreliable target as can possibly be
Imagined. And 1t didn't frighten him
as much as the others. He waited.
crouching. and the girl started on.
She was making other sounds now
queer, whimpering sounds not greatly
different from the bleat that the fawn
utters when 1t dies. 1t was fear
sound, and If there is one emotion
with which the wild beasts are ac-
quainted, in all its phases, it is fear.