Williams news., 1921-06-17

describe. as the far-off reports Of . rifle Just today Blacktan had seen
 his doe fall bleeding when this same l sound, only louder, spoke from q l covert from which Bert Cranston had | poached her-and he left the lick fin l one bound
 Terrified though he was by the rife shot, still Whisperfoot sprang. But the distance was too far. His out | stretched paw hummed down four feet behind B1acktail's flank. Then
 forgetting everything but his anger
 and disappointment, the great cougar
 opened his mouth and how1ed.
 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 thfcket; but
 they had been wakened 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 his lair without any meal whatever.
 But still he remained, hoping against hope. After a futile fifteen minutes of watching trail, he heard a doe feeding on a hillside. Its foot fall was not so heavy as the sturdy tramp of buck, and besides, the bucks would, be higher on the ridges hi ,F ." tiouS advance toward 1t.
 For the first fifty yards the hunt was in his favor. He came up wind. and the brush made a perfect cover. But the doe unfortunately was stand Ing full twenty yards farther, in an open glade. Under ordinary circum- stances, Whisperfoot would not have l made an attack. A cougar can run | swiftly, but a deer is light itself. The | big cat would have preferred to finger, | B motionless thing in the thickets, | hoping some other member of the deer | herd to which the doe must have be- onged would come into his ambush | But the hunt was late, and Whisper foot was very, very angry. Too many lines this night he had missed his 1ill. In desperation, he leaped from he thicket and charged the deer.
 In spite of the preponderant odds against him, the charge was almost a 'uccess. He went fully half the dis ance between them before the deer perceived him. Then she 1eaped- There seemed to be no interlude of ime between the instant that she be- eld the dim, tawny figure in the air nd that in which her long legs pushed ut in a spring. But she didn't leap fr oh a no nf | he cougars to know that the great at would certainly aim for her head nd neck in the same way that duck unter leads a fast-1ying duck-hop- lg to intercept her leap. Even as her set left the ground she seemed to 'hirl in the air, and the deadly talons hipped down in vain. Then, cutting ack in front, she raced down wind
 It is usually the most unmftigated oily for a cougar to chase a deer yafnst which he has missed his .roke; and it is also quite fatal to his gnity. And whoever doubts for a mute that the larger creatures have } dignity, and that it is not very dear
 them, simply knows nothing about e ways of animals. They cling to
 to the death. But tonight one dis ,pointment after another had crum- cd, HIS lI0 Id1uS CI lC1NSS, OAO st vestige of Whisperfoot's Self-con- o1. Snarling in fury, he bounded ter the doe. She was lost to sight at once in e darkness, but for fully thirty yards raced in her pursuit. If he had opped to think, it would have been e of the really great surprises of 8 life to hear the sudden, unmis- " kable stir and movement of a large, ing creature not fifteen feet distant d
 the thicket. He didn't stop to think at all He Int puzzle on the extreme unlikeH- cd of a doe halting in her flight from z, q cougar. It is doubtful whether, in g thickets, he had any perceptions
 the creature other than its move s ents. He was running down wind, it is certain that he didn't smell it. y he saw it at all, 1t was just as - = adow, sufficiently large to be that U a deer. It was moving, crawling as ul oof the bear sometimes crawled, smingly to get out of his path. And nisperfoot leaped straight at it.. . It was a perfect shot. He landed 7, ,h on its shoulders. His head lashed T. VII, and the white teeth closed. All =, long life of his race he had known e- 1t pungent essence that flowed forth. s senses perceived it. message tt along his nerves to his brain. And