Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1921-03-04

4
| sound, only louder, spoke from a
/, covert from which Bert Cranston had
poached her--and he left the lick in
one bound
Terrified though he was by the rife
shot. still Whisperfoot sprang. But
| the distance was too far His out
stretched paw hunnmed down four
feet behind Blacktairs flank. Then
forgetting everything but his anger
and disappointment. the great cougar
| opened his mouth and howled.
The long night was almost done
when he got sight of further game.
Once flock of grouse exploded with
a roar of wings from a thicket; hut
| they had been Weakened by the first
whisper of dawn in the wind, and he
really had no chance at them. Soon
after this, the moon set.
The larger creatures of the forest
are almost as helpless in absolute
| darkness as human beings. It is very
well to talk of seeing in the dark. but
| from the nature of things. even verti-
cal pupils may only respond to light.
| No owl or bat can see in absolute
| darkness. It became increasingly like.
| ly that Whisperfoot would have to re-
tire to mis- lair without any meal
whatever.
But still he remained, hoping
against hope. After futile fifteen
minutes of watching a trail, he heard
q 70
fall was not so heavy as the sturdy
tramp of a buck, and besides. the
bucks would be higher on the ridges
this time of morning. He began eau
tious advance toward it.
For the first fifty yards the hunt
and the brush made perfect cover.
But the doe unfortunately was stand
| ing a full twenty yards farther, in an
open glade Under ordinary circuE-
stances, Whisperfoot would not have
made an attack. A cougar can run
swiftly, but a deer is light itself The
big cat would have preferred to linger.
a motiOnless thing in the thickets,
hoping some other member of the deer
herd to which the doe must have be-
longed would come into his ambush.
But the hunt was late, and Whisper
foot was very, very angry Too many
| times this night he had missed his
kill. In desperation, he leaped from
| the thicket and charged the deer.
| In spite of the preponderant odds
| against him, the charge was almost a
success. He went fully half the Ills
| lance between them before the deer
| perceived him. Then she leaped.
| There seemed TO be no interlude of
| time between the instant that she be-
held the dim. tawny figure in the air
and that in which her long legs pushed
| out in spring. But she didn't leap
straight ahead. She knew enough of
the cougars TO know that the great
cat would certainly aim for her head
and neck in the same way that duck
hunter leads fast-fying duck-hop-
ing to intercept her leap. Sven as her
feet left the ground she seemed to
whirl in the air, and the deadly talons
whipped down in vain. Then, cutting
back~ia front. she raced down wind
/ 1t is usually the most unmitigated
folly for cougar to chase deer
against which he has missed his
stroke; and it is also quite fatal to his
dignity. And whoever doubts for
minute that the larger creatures have
no dignity and that it is not very dear
to Them simply knows nothing about
the ways of animals. They cling to
it to the death. But tonight one dis
appointment after another had crum-
bled, as the rains crumble leaves, the
last vestige of Whisperfoot's self-con-
troll. Sharing in fury he bounded
after the doe.
She was lost to sight at once In
| the darkness, but for fully thirty yards
he raced in her pursuit. If he had
stopped TO think. it would have been
| one of the really great surprises OF
| his life TO hear the sudden, unms-
| taxable stir and movement of large,
| living creature not fifteen feet distant
| in the thicket.
He didn't stop to think at all. He
| didn't puzzle on the. extreme unlikeli-
| hood of doe hating in her flight from
| a cougar 1t is doubtful whether, in
| the thickets. he had any perceptions
| of the creature other than its move
ments. He was running down wind
| so il is certain that he didn't smell il.
| If he saw it at all, it was just as
| shadow. sufficiently large to be that
| of a deer. 1t was moving, crawling as
Wool the bear sometimes crawled.
seemingly to get out of his path. And
Whisperfoot leaped straight at it.
1t was a perfect shot. He landed
| high on it's shoulders. His head dashed
| down, and the white teeth closed. All
| the long life of his race he had known
| that pungent essence that flowed forth.
| His senses perceived it, a message
shot along his nerves to his brain. And
| then he opened his mouth in a high,
far-carrying squeal of utter, abject
| terror.
He sprang a full fifteen feet back
| into the thickets; then crouched The
| hair stood still at his shoulders, his
claws were barred; he was prepared
| to fight to the death. He didn't under
stand. He only knew the worst single
| terror of his life. 1t was not a doe