The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1921-04-21

'N' - a"Af D''~h''0 ~ III $500
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 br the rife
shot, still Whisperfoot sprang. But
the distance was too far. HIS out
stretched paw hummed 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 a flock Of grouse exploded with
a roar of wings from a thicket; but
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 moor set.
The larger creatures Of the forest
are almost as helpless In absolute
darkness as human beings. 1t is very
well TO talk o? seeing in the dark. but
from the natur of things, ever VERT.
cal pupils may only respond TO light.
No owl or bat can see in absolute
darkness. 1t became increasingly like.
~ that Whisperfoot would have TO re-
tire to mis- lair without any meal
whatever.
But still he remained, hoping
against hope. After a futile fifteen
minutes of watching a trail, he heard
a doe feeding on a hillside. Its foot
fall was not so heavy as the sturdy
tramp of a buck, and besides, the
this time of morning. He began a eau
tious advance toward it.
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 a full twenty yards farther, in an
open glade. Under ordinary circum-
stances, Whisperfoot would not have
made an attack. A cougar a run
swiftly, but a deer is light itself. The
big cat would have preferred to linger,
a m~otionless 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
XIII. 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 dis
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 a 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 a duck
hunter leads a fast-fying duck-hop,
ing TO intercept her leap. Even as her
feet left the ground she seemed to
whirl in the air. and the deadly talons
whipped down in vain. Then, cutting
back in front, she raced down wind.
1t is usually the most unmitigated
folly for n cougar TO chase a deer
against which he has missed his
stroke; and 1t is also quite fatal to his
dignity. And whoever doubts for u
minute that the larger creatures have
no dignity, and hat it is not very dear
TO them, simply knows nothing about
the ways of animals. They cling TO
1t to the death. But tonight one dis
appointment after another had crum-
bled. as the rains crumble leaves, the
last yestige Of Whisperfoot's self-con.
troll. Snarling in fury, he bounded
after the doe.
She was lost to sight at, nee In
the darkness, but for fully thirty yards
he raced in her pursuit. ~ he had
stopped TO think. it would have been
one of the really great surprises OF
his life to hear the sudden, unmls-
taxable stir and movement of a large,
living creature not fifteen feet distant
in the thlcket.
He didn't stop to think at all. He
didn't puzzle on the extreme unlikeli-
hood Of a doe hating. in her flight from
n cougar, IT Is doubtful whether, in
the thickets, he had any perceptions
of the creature other than its move
ments. He was running down wind,
so 1t is CERTAIN that he didn't smell II.
If he saw ii Nat all, IL was just as a
shadow. sufficiently large TO be that
of q deer. 1t was moving, crawling as
Wool the hear sometimes crawled,
seemingly to get IA of his path. And
Whisperfoot leaped straight at it.
II was a perfect shot. He landed
high on its shoulders. His head lashei
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