Middletown transcript., 1921-01-29

darkness. It became increasingly like
~ that Whisperfoot would have to re-
tire to mis- lair without an, mes.
whatever. e
But still he remained, hoping
against hope After "a futile fifteen
minutes OF watching a trail, he heard
doe feeding on hillside. Its foot
fall wasa not SO heavy as the sturdy
tramp Of buck, and besides, the
bucks would be higher on the ridges
this time Of morning. He began q eau
ti0us advance toward it.
For the first fifty yards the hunt
was In his favor. He came up wind,
and the brush made 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
made an attack. A cougar can run
swiftly, but q 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-
l0nged 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
success. He went fully half the dis
tance 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 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.
It is usually the most unmitigated
folly for cougar to chase a deer
against which he has missed his
stroke; and it is also quite fatal to his
dignity. And whoever doubts for q
minute that the larger creatures have
no dignity, and that 1t 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. Snarling 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, 1t would have been
one of the really great surprises Of
his life to hear the sudden, unmis-
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 halting in her flight from
a 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 it is certain that he didn't smell it.
If he saw it at all, it was just as
shadow, sufficiently large to be that
of deer. 1t was moving, crawling as
Woof the bear sometimes crawled,
seemingly to get out of his path. And
Whisperfoot leaped straight at it.
It was perfect shot. He landed
high on its shoulders. His head lashed
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 doe
that he had attacked in the darkness
It was not Urson the porcupine, or
even Woof. 1t was that imperial mas
ter of all things, man himself. Fn-
knowing, he had attacked Landy Hill
dreth, lying wounded from Cranston's
bullet beside the trail. Word of the
arson ring would never reach the set
Elements, after all.